Abstract

India will be hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games and expressed its ambition to host the 2036 Olympics and Paralympic Games. These goals have brought renewed attention to the country’s sporting landscape. The scholarship highlights challenges within India’s sports infrastructure and governance. Research identifies a bleak sports ecosystem, weak support provided to sportspeople, inadequate trainers, social inequalities, and a lack of effective policies as the most prominent challenges in sports development in India (Aggarwal et al., 2019). This is further compounded by economic barriers, which include affordability and accessibility of sports facilities, particularly for marginalised communities, reinforcing unequal opportunities for participation and advancement (Koranga et al., 2024). With several gaps remaining in India’s sports infrastructure and accessibility, Krida Mitra, our project, aims to bridge the gap between policy, accessibility, and implementation for sports.

We have developed a White Paper which has focused on the implementation gaps of the flagship Khelo India programme. The paper focuses on funding and infrastructure and includes four policy suggestions.

Complementing the policy review, the project includes a multi-functional digital portal which comprises two interlinked components: (1) an athlete scouting portal,(2) a pension information hub providing accessible guidance, eligibility criteria, and application support for existing sports programs. Empirically, the project will draw on interviews and sample data from the football ecosystem in Karnataka, allowing us to situate our project within a specific sporting context.

The project aims to generate recommendations for strengthening talent pathways, improving support and welfare provisions for athletes, and overall contributing to achieving broader sports excellence goals in India.

Solution

Our Multipurpose Digital Portal’s main goal is to provide visibility to footballers. To address the problem of visibility as highlighted in our problem statements and interviews, our portal includes a streamlined video-upload and scouting platform for them to showcase their skills to interested scouts. The scouting profile has the option to create three different kinds of profiles: Scouts, Athletes, and Clubs. Along with this, the portal also aims to help retired athletes by providing them with information about different schemes that can be offered to them.