Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and FICCI launch ‘India Sports 2014’ to promote sports amongst youth

NEW DELHI, October 23, 2013: The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) today launched the ‘India Sports 2014’ at the 5th Global Sports Summit, in the presence Dr. G S G Ayyangar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

India Sports 2014 would be organized at the iconic National Stadium and Federation House, FICCI. The event would be an umbrella programme, focusing on all aspects of sports and would bring the entire sports fraternity to one platform.

The first edition would not only serve as a platform for the Indian sports industry to showcase their strength to the Indian and international sports fraternity but would also act as a catalyst in promoting sports amongst the youth.

The event would include India Sports Expo 2014, an international exhibition on sports sector at the national stadium; TURF 2014, an international conference on sports sector; reverse buyer-seller meet by sports goods export promotion council; networking dinner and concurrent sports activities and tournaments.

At the sports summit, Dr. Ayyangar spelt out the details of the ‘Scheme for Identifying and Nurturing Sports Talent in the Country’. Under the scheme, which has been taken up on a pilot basis talents to be scouted and selected from the present Rajeev Gandhi Krida Abhiyan annual competitions; these sportspersons will be called Young Talent (YT) and they will be specially trained by Physical Education Teachers attached to every District Level Sports Center.

A District Sports School (DLSS) will be set up in every District in the Country in the next ten years. These schools will be setup as public private partnership except in remote and disturb areas. In such districts, the existing Navodaya Schools are proposed to be upgraded. Where this in not possible new institutions will be setup. 

He said that the Ministry of Sports will supervise the training in sports and provide the sports scholarships and the recurring expenses. The young talent (YT) will be assigned specific disciplines through a scientific process of determination, through a rigorous training programme and participation YT will be identified for center of excellence and YT who excel will be treated as high performers and given admission to a centre of excellence (COX).

There will be approximately 25 centres for excellence. Twelve existing SAI centres will be upgraded.  Thirteen new centres will be developed and funded by SAI. However land for such centres will be provided by the State Government free of cost.  These centers will be run by SAI.

On the occasion two reports, ‘Best 25 Ideas’ Sports Start up’s Business in India and ‘Vision 2014: Sector Skills Council, Way Forward’ were released.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed and exchanged between FICCI and Southern Institute of Technology (SIT), New Zealand, to launch the Level 3 course in India under the SIT-John Wright Scholarship programme, which is recognized by NZQA to help athletes not only to harness their existing capability but also to provide an opportunity in getting higher qualification courses and good opportunity in New Zealand.

FICCI will help SIT in connecting with premiere institutes as a partner for launching this pilot course. This course will be 100% sponsored by the John Wright - SIT Scholarship programme.  The John Wright - SIT Scholarship programme is founded by John Wright, Former New Zealand Cricketer and India Cricket Team Coach (2000-05).

At the successful completion of this programme, students will have the required competencies to function successfully and effectively at operational levels within the sports training sector. A graduating student could be expected to undertake employment in areas such as coaching/retail sectors, or continue on to further study in Diploma in Sport and Recreation, Diploma in Sport and Exercise (Level 5), Diploma in Sport and Exercise (Level 6) or Bachelor of Sport and Exercise in New Zealand.

Ms. Jan Henderson, High Commissioner, New Zealand High Commission, said that the certificate obtained under the John Wright - SIT Scholarship programme will help students to gain the skills and knowledge for working or further training in the sports training sector. The content gives athletes and coaches the knowledge to allow themselves and others to achieve their potential. The programme has a strong focus on sport psychology, nutrition and exercise prescription and finding out how the body becomes stronger, fitter and faster when stressed by exercise.

New Zealand is passionate about sports and was happy to partner with India in the field of sports. Sports was a key pillar for strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries. She added that early next year New Zealand will host the Indian Cricket Team and will co-host the Cricket World Cup in 2015, she said.

According to Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, President of FICCI, after the chamber represented to the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports (MYAS) on the need to grant industry status to sports, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Director General, Sports Authority of India (SAI) for which FICCI prepared a report on ‘Granting infrastructure Status to Sports Sector’. 

She said, “It is a proud moment for FICCI to note that under new Companies Act 2013, sports infrastructure is part of ‘infrastructure facilities’ and ‘infrastructure projects’. Besides, there is a specific mention of sports related businesses to be registered as a type of ‘limited company’. FICCI is also closely coordinating with National Skills Development Corporation for setting up Sector Skills Council in Sports, Physical Education, Fitness and Leisure sector. According to our latest study, this sector will require more than 43 lakhs support personnel in various roles in sports by 2022.” 

Mr. Sanjiv Paul, Chairman, FICCI Sports Committee and Managing Director, Tata Metaliks, stated that the sports sector is marching ahead as one of the fastest growing sector of the economy. The size of the sports industry is increasing, employment avenues are opening and money is coming in from all quarters. The exchange of ideas TURF 2013 should lead to the flourishing of sports business in India.

He said that this year an SME-Academia-Investors Forum in Sports (SAI-FIS) is planned during TURF 2013 a collaborative effort amongst between FICCI, Indian Venture Capitalists Association (IVCA) and All India Council of Physical Education (AICPE). The objective is to stimulate SME-Academia-Investor partnership as it is critical for growth of sports sector in general and the stakeholders in particular.

Mr. Abhijit Sarkar, Co-chairman, FICCI Sports Committee and Head-Corporate Communications, Sahara India Pariwar, said that the start-ups have added significant value in creating a sports culture across the country. They are the next generation of big corporations, who are supporting the growth of the sports industry in their own unique way. They are not only creating a brilliant ecosystem for budding talent to hone their talent and showcase their skills but are also creating employment opportunities for many others who want to develop career in sports.

Dr. Arbind Prasad, Director General, FICCI, said, “FICCI welcomes The Prevention of Sporting Fraud Bill, 2013 to combat frauds in relation to domestic national and international sporting event developed after extensive consultation between Sports and Law Ministry. To aid the Ministry’s efforts in this direction, FICCI had organized a conference on ‘Regulating Sports Betting and Sports Law’. In this conference, experts suggested that the government should set up an Independent Regulatory Commission to study the various aspects of betting in-depth and come out with solutions to eliminate bookies and make sports betting fair.”

Press release

Goal of Indian football to enter the league of top 100 nations in FIFA ranking

NEW DELHI, October 19, 2012. Indian football is fast emerging out of the shadows of cricket. Yet, if the world’s most loved sport has to come into its own in India and improve its ranking in FIFA from 168 to 100, many of the hurdles such as lack of investment in infrastructure and coaching facilities will have to be crossed.

This is the upshot of the debate on ‘Mission Rank 100 in Soccer: Myth or Reality?’ held here today on Day 2 of ‘TURF 2012, FICCI’s 4th Global Sports Summit’.

While it has long been debated that the FIFA ranking system is complicated; that there is a huge difference in points awarded to teams ranking 1 to 100 and those above it. The panelists, however, today urged the football federation and other associations to find ways to improve India’s FIFA ranking instead of finding flaws with the system.

It was suggested that a Master Plan for Football World Cup 2022 prepared by Mr. Robert Baan, Technical Director, All India Football Federation, should be implemented by all stakeholders. The game needs not just professionals but entrepreneurs as well who can devise innovative methods and expand India’s horizons.

The session moderator Mr. Sukhvinder Singh, Managing Director, Libero Sports India, raised pertinent questions such as: What are the technical and administrative challenges for the football associations and federation?; How can the industry and corporate world support the game to improve its world ranking?; Is the Indian football team playing the right game?; And what is needed today for Indian football to flourish – professionals or entrepreneurs?  

Indian football requires continued foreign investment both technical and financial to come its way if it is to realize its full potential. Player scouting and development, tactical coaching expertise and infrastructure creation (stadiums, training facilities etc.) are all attractive areas that foreign entities can invest in to build their global network, grow their brand in one of the world’s largest countries and eventually generate an economic return on their investment.

The last few years have seen a massive growth in viewership figures for football in India, with over 20 million Indians watching the FIFA World Cup in 2010, an increase of over 35 per cent over the last edition in 2006.

• The number of foreign leagues Indian viewers are exposed to have increased, with the advent of football heavy television channels like TEN Action helping cater to the growing demand for football consumption.

• There is a renewed determination from the Indian government to improve the state of football in the country, with AIFF proposals like hosting the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India getting unprecedented support.

• An astounding 86 per cent of young Indians between the ages of 10 and 15 cited football as their sport of choice in a recent survey.

       

Armed with a new generation exponentially more interested in the sport and brimming with talent, the country is well poised to take advantage of this foreign investment while offering a host of benefits to the investor.

“We should focus on playing quality games and winning matches to move up the ladder in the FIFA ranking. This can be achieved only with quality teams, which will be formed when we will have more clubs and more professional players to choose from. The young players lack organized competition, coaching and techniques. We must work on the players at the grass root level and understand what playing style is better suited for the Indian players,” said Mr. Baan.  

Mr. Alberto Colaco, Secretary General, South Asian Football Federation,opined that “It is not just enough to play friendly matches but essential to play games which will be considered for FIFA ranking and we must aim to win thosematches. For instance, we won the match against Cameroon, a high ranking FIFA team, but could not garner points as the match was never considered for FIFA rankings. Hence, we must know all the parameters that need to be fulfilled in this regard and not lose out on any opportunity.”

“Another challenge for us to generate funds for organizing matches, developing and coaching of footballers. The team must perform well so that the game can attract investments from the industry and corporate sector. Now the eyes are on the upcoming Under 17 World Cup in 2017, if we are able to put a decent performance, then it will open the door for investors,” he added.

Mr. Wasim Basir, Director-IMC, Coca-Cola India, pointed out that the corporate sector only invests in a project or game when it is assured that in future the investment will bring in returns. Coca-Cola and Panasonic have realized the worth of the game but to rope in other investors the teams have to be play much better and instill confidence in the corporate entities.  The need is to groom the talent and create great infrastructure, stadiums and provide quality training to build strong leagues which will result in setting up a strong and competent national team.”

Mr. Sunando Dhar, CEO, I-League, said, “Our infrastructure does not support players well. For instance, if the team needs to play a match in Sikkim, then after taking a flight to Sikkim they have to again travel five hours on the road. This takes a toll on the players. It was seen that players were lacking fitness in the game against Singapore.”

The players now have to adapt themselves to play for I-League on weekends and FIFA on weekdays. Players are also coming from private academies such as TATA football academy. New developments and patterns are emerging in the game and the players have to adjust and adapt to perform better, he stated.

A FICCI Press release

Shooting and boxing are India’s top Olympic sports

New Delhi, October 18, 2012: FICCI, in association with Winning Matters Consulting Private Limited has initiated a first-of-its-kind assessment/ research study towards enabling a stronger and more structured engagement between the Indian Industry and the National Sports Federations (NSFs).

In recognition that despite India’s historic performances at the recent London Olympic Games a lot needs to be done towards enabling India’s true sporting potential, FICCI and Winning Matters Consulting this year focused on assessing and enabling National Sports Federations (NSFs) towards facilitating Industry engagement. Keeping this in mind, a research study titled “Enabling National Sports Federations and Industry Engagement” has been prepared for the FICCI Global Sports Summit.

To start with, the Study looks into the sports performance assessment of 21 Olympic sports (20 Individual sports with Hockey being the only team-sport) based on their medal winning performances at major multi-sport events between 2008 and 2012 using the Sports Performance Index (SPITM) for benchmarking them.  As the medal distribution and domination of a country varies between sports, a normalization coefficient has been introduced to reduce the bias.

The top 5 sports based on their Normalized SPI scores are: shooting, boxing, wrestling, archery and athletics respectively. It is worth noting, that while shooting is the undisputed leader among other sports within India, it has only been able to capture 26.54% of the SPI score when benchmarked with top countries in shooting; the only sport that outshines Shooting in that respect is Boxing which has been able to capture 36.01% of the SPI score when benchmarked with top countries in boxing.

Keeping in mind that in today’s time and age websites are a key communication platform for information assimilation and dissemination toward building the confidence of the key stakeholders – participants, consumers and investors – the study looks at the websites of top NSFs around the world – with a focus on the USA, Great Britain and Australia – to learn what they do to enable greater participation, support top talent and engage / leverage the associations with sponsors and partners. In the Indian context, it was noted that the NSF websites of the Wrestling Federation of India, National Rifle Association of India and Badminton Association of India have the most information amongst the21 NSFs, but still have roughly only 50% of the information when benchmarked with some of the top NSF websites.

In the backdrop of this study, a detailed NSF questionnaire cum self-assessment form looking at Performance; Participation; Events; Funding, Sponsorships and Marketing; Administration/Governance, along with a proprietary software tool has been developed by Winning Matters Consulting incorporating global best practices. The study ends with an abridged version of the questionnaire with a brief summary report which includes a snapshot of the qualitative analysis done on the self-assessment provided by one of the NSFs.

A FICCI Press release

FICCI’s 4th Global Sports Summit 'TURF 2012' gets under way

NEW DELHI, October 18, 2012. Even as the Ministry of Sports in India has identified focus disciplines such as hockey, wrestling, athletics and boxing in which the country can train sportspersons and win medals in international sporting events, FICCI is leading from the front to get ‘Industry’ status to sports. Such a status would lead to flow of funds into sports and lead to innovation in sports technology.

These government and FICCI initiatives were unveiled here today at the inaugural session of the two-day ‘TURF 2012’, 4th Global Sports Summit.

Addressing the summit, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Sports of Punjab, said: “We do not have a plan or target for sports and it is not a priority in our country. There is no sense of security attached to a career in sports. We first need to change the mindset and see sports as a lucrative and successful full-time career option. To encourage students and parents, we must recognise sports as a worthwhile activity.”

“In Punjab, we plan to open sports schools in all districts in the next three years. Also, Punjab Sports Institute is in the pipeline and is expected to be ready in three years. The institute will be armed with world-class facilities and we plan to have joint ventures with international players who will train and coach our children. We believe that for a sportsperson to compete on the world stage, he or she requires minimum 10,000 hours of training. Hence, we need to identify talent at the early age of six or seven years, so that by the time they attain the age of 17 years he or she is competent to face the competition at the world stage,” remarked Mr. Badal.

On the occasion, FICCI-SkillsActive-Tanjun Associate report on ‘Institutional Capacity Building (Sports and Physical Activities), FICCI-Libero Sports India report on ‘Foreign Investments in Indian Football’ and FICCI-Winning Matters report on ‘Enabling National Sports Federation and Industry Engagement’were unveiled by Mr. Badal.

The state of sports in the country can be best adjudged by the astounding figures revealed in the FICCI-SkillsActive-Tanjun Associate report. Among those who pursue sports education in the form of Bachelors and Masters degree in Physical Education as high as 85 per cent of them are unable to pursue a career in sports because of lack of required skills, facilities for higher learning, global exposure and non-availability of options other than teaching physical education at primary or secondary levels.

No less than 39,150 students obtain Bachelors degree and 3030 students a Masters degree in Physical Education from 783 registered institutions in the organized sector in India. Close to 7,000 more colleges at current rates will be needed if we need to meet the goal of 0.3 million sports support personnel by 2017. Alternatively all passing students from existing colleges will need to be shown sustainable careers in sporting fields to hold them from drifting into other professions.

Justice Mukul Mudgal (Retd), Chief Justice, Haryana and Punjab High Court, remarked, “India hosted the Commonwealth Games and it proved that we have the capability to build sports infrastructure. We must aim for best practices, Public-Private Partnerships, legacy planning and ensure that the positives and negatives outcomes are all translated into action. Also, more coordination is must amongst ministries, federation and industry for all to benefit.” 

Mr. Onkar Kedia, Joint Secretary, Sports, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, underlined the fact that at present India’s expenditure on sports is a mere two per cent and the per capita expenditure is 2 paisa per day. “If we want to make our presence felt in the international arena then this percentage must rise to five,” he added.

“We need to change the sporting culture in the country and encourage students to take up sports as a career. The Government is also helping elite sportspersons like P T Usha to set up training academies. It is time that we join hands with the private sector and set up sports institutes,” Mr. Kedia said.

Mr. R V Kanoria, President, FICCI, pointed out that FICCI is India’s only apex chamber of commerce with a dedicated sports division and full time sports experts. “In our constant endeavor to support government in policy reforms, FICCI represented to the government on granting industry status to sports sector,” he said.

“One of the biggest difficulties in sports is non-availability of data and documented knowledge related to sports. Also, there is no budgetary support to provide research and development support in sports. Bridging this knowledge gap is the first and foremost exercise that we should undertake. It is important to collect data related to different sports, athletes, there classification in to different training groups based on their performance, their sport, coaches, and support system. This is in addition to need of mapping sports infrastructure across India which indeed is a challenge considering multiplicity of authorities e.g. states, SAI, Federations, states, ministry of HRD, Defense, railways and so on,” explained Mr. Kanoria.

“Based on our constant interactions with experts from the government, academia, athletes, media, and sports fraternity in India and internationally. The focus areas for TURF 2012 are: Legacy planning of sports infrastructure; institutional capacity building; Soccer development and sustainable investment in sports: creating value for all,” said Mr. Aloke Malik, Chairman, FICCI Sports Committee, and MD, ESPN Star Sports (India). 

He added, “With the already identified need for more meticulously planned development and maintenance of sports infrastructure in the country, the significance of involving private sector is top of the agenda in the TURF. The Government is providing policy support with initiatives like ‘Come and Play scheme’, contributing the land, and inviting private sector to adapt SAI centers. Here we would be deliberating on how industry can partner with the Government for proficiency in design, development, operation and maintenance of sports infrastructure so that it is a win-win situation for all the sides – Government, National Sports Federations and Industry.”

Mr. Sanjiv Paul, Co-chairman, FICCI Sports Committee & Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, said, “At present, due to knowledge gaps, the very absence of institutional capacity building, entrepreneurship, factor of production and finances in sports the multiplier effects due to these inter-linkages has not reached its optimal potential in India and bridging this knowledge gap will help us perform better on all these indicators as they say, ‘when you know better you do better’.”

A FICCI Press release