NEW DELHI: The Union Sports Ministry on Monday announced Star Sports as the broadcast and production partner for its flagship initiative Khelo India School Games (KISG) for the next five years from 2018 until 2022.
Starting from 31st January, these Under-17 annual games will in its first edition have 16 different sports disciplines.
An official release states that in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for India’s youth, the “revamped Khelo India aims to inculcate a nationwide culture of sports through a grassroots sports revolution, and KISG is an important aspect of this strategy”.
The Sports Ministry and Star Sports together intend to realize a shared vision of making 300 million children of India play sports for at least an hour a day, the release further states.
Objectives and vision:
The revamped Khelo India was launched to achieve the twin objectives of broad basing of sports and achieving excellence in sports. Such systematic pursuit of sports offers multiple opportunities, namely, holistic development of children and youth, community development, gender quality, a healthier nation, national pride and economic opportunities related to sport development. Khelo India will also will act as a catalyst to usher in a change in the mindsets of parents and teachers towards sports.
Size and scale of the competition:
Khelo India School Games, 2018 is the marquee event under revamped Khelo India porgramme. Khelo India School Games 2018 are being organized for under-17 group (Boys and Girls) from 31st Jan 2018 in 16 different sports disciplines.
The event is expected to host around 6,000 athletes and officials in its first edition. The best talent selected through the competition will be amongst the 1,000 budding athletes eligible for a scholarship worth 500,000 each per year for a period of eight years. Every year, new athletes will be added under the Khelo India scheme. Thus, over the period of the scheme, the country will have a solid bench-strength for all sports.
The games will be conducted at par with international level competitions so as to give the best experience to players and other stakeholders. The format of the game will provide an opportunity for the state/UTs to compete against each other and provide a platform to showcase their best budding sporting talent.
Khelo India is expected to announce its official partner shortly.
Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore said, “After careful deliberation and following a transparent bidding process, we are delighted to announce that Khelo India School Games 2018 will be partnering with Star Sports for the broadcast of event. It will be the first time that school games will be broadcast live simultaneously on TV and digital platform. Star Sports and Hotstar, with their vision of fostering a comprehensive, multi- sports ecosystem in India, will be our ideal broadcast partners to help us realize the dream of transforming India into a global sporting powerhouse in the coming years.”
Rathore added, “With Khelo India, we seek to bring back active playtime in the lives of our children. Parents and teachers need to embrace sports and ensure that it is as essential a part of the everyday life of children as educational curriculum.”
