KIS on the Check for Sportspersons

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Sports Authority of India deputy director S. Integrating a complete grassroots-to-elite pathway; aligning infrastructure, competitions and training with medal potential; professionalising coaching, sports science and athlete support; and enabling data-driven governance and performance tracking are some of.

The scheme aims to strengthen domestic competition structure, expanding it to districts while integrating with schools and universities as well. As part of this, Khelo India competitions would be conducted throughout the sporting calendar.

What Happened

The Talent Identification set-up starts at the grassroot level before graduating to the zonal and development committees before the high performance directors and managers take over. Efforts are also on to strengthen the coaching ecosystem.

• Hima Bindu informed the 2026-31 scheme provides for an eight-fold increase in the previous outlay at `29,054 crore and aims to increase the number of athletes supported by 10 times through long term development.

• “Currently, there are 3,000 Khelo India athletes across 22 sports — efforts are on to expand them to all major sports,” she said.

• Under the Sports for Women vertical, 127 ASMITA leagues have been organised in Telangana, with participation of 20,921 female athletes.

Key Details

As part of Coach & Support Staff Development the National Coach Accreditation Board (NCAB) would be set up and coaches identified at foundational, grassroots, intermediate and elite levels. Olympian shuttler and World Championships medallist Jwala Gutta was pleased with the project.

• The Khelo India Scheme has provision for a collaborative model with a Centre-State, with funding linked to talent progression, athlete retention, grassroots-to-elite transition and reform-based milestones.

• As part of this vision, the Khelo India Youth Games will be hosted by Telangana later this year.

• Strengthening the relationship between the Union sports ministry and states is also a focus area of the KIS.

Why It Matters

“That’s a huge budget, the scheme excites me as an athlete,” she told reporters. Had there been no facilities provided by the government, I wouldn’t have made it so far in my career.

• The framework envisages Khelo India Athletes (KIA) and Emerging Khelo India Athletes (E-KIA).

• One of the major highlights of the KIS is that it aims to establish a standardised, scientific and technology-enabled talent identification system, with Khelo India Utkrishta Vidyalayas, Feeder Schools and Khelo India Centres.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• Continued reporting by Deccan Chronicle as more details emerge