MUMBAI: IDBI Federal Life Insurance’s Quest for Excellence programme launched a new initiative today, in association with the Pullela Gopichand Academy to identify and groom under 10 talent in badminton in the country.
The Young Champs campaign initiative aims to promote grassroots badminton and encourage young talent in India to consider the sport as a career. It will focus on young talent under the age of 10 years to showcase thier badminton skills via a two minute video. Winners of the three week contest that closes on December 28, will get to train at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad after going through a 4 to 6 week long selection process.
In December 2016, IDBI Federal Life had announced its grassroots sports development initiative – the ‘Quest for Excellence’ programme, an initiative that aims to support the country’s vision of creating world-class badminton players to represent India at international tournaments and bring back laurels for the country, including the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
As part of the new Young Champs campaign, parents can submit their kids’ entries using the Quest for Excellence Facebook and Twitter pages. The applicants need to share a two minute video shot in daylight with adequate clarity. The winners will be selected by Gopichand himself and will be announced on the Quest for Excellence social media pages.
IDBI Life Insurance CEO Vighnesh Shahane said, “With Gopi at the helm of things, we thought it’s going to be great if we could launch a nationwide initiative that would help identify emerging talent and bring it to Gopi. It would also be great to see those kids grow into rising stars of tomorrow. We want this initiative to be a launch pad for the stars of tomorrow.”
Speaking on the occasion, Pullela Gopichand said, “With #Young Champs campaign we hope to bring to the fore this hidden talent and prepare them for big leagues where they can repreent India globally.”
