Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya has called for an accelerated and comprehensive talent identification roadmap to build India’s athlete pool for the 2036 Olympics. It came following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a nationwide sports talent hunt from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
Chairing the 63rd Governing Body Meeting of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Dr. Mandaviya emphasised that the groundwork for India’s sporting ambitions over the next decade must begin now. He said talent identification should cover the entire sporting pyramid, including schools, districts and colleges.
The Minister underlined that the aim should be to build a comprehensive talent repository that can subsequently feed into sports schools and higher-level training systems. Dr. Mandaviya further emphasised the need to develop a public-private partnership model to expand the training ecosystem so that athletes identified through State and district-level talent hunts could be channelled to suitable academies for specialised training.
He also underlined the important role of the corporate sector in expanding sports development through greater CSR participation and added that such partnerships would help augment the country’s training capacity beyond government-run facilities, creating a wider network of academies for athletes.
The Governing Body approved the establishment of the National Coach Accreditation Board, which will provide a more structured framework for coach accreditation and development. The Ministry noted that the body also approved a proposed amendment to the recruitment rules for appointment to the post of Assistant Coach (Pay Level-6) on deputation basis in SAI.
