India’s show at  the Asian Games at Hangzhou, China, affirms a story of turnaround that goes back by about a decade. The inglorious tag of India being a sports dud for a population of 1.4 billion is probably just beginning to gradually wear off. At Hangzhou, India bagged 107 medals, 38 more than the 2018 edition. This included 28 gold medals. Athletics topped the list with 29 medals followed by shooting with 22. Neeraj Chopra’s gold in the javelin, Avinash Sable’s gold in the 3000 metres steeplechase, and Parul Chaudhary’s heroic 50-metre dash to win the Gold in the women’s 5,000 metres were some of the standout performances in athletics.

The change in Indian sport can be traced back to the 2008 Beijing Olympics where Abhinav Bindra won a gold medal in shooting, the first individual gold by an Indian in the Olympics. Since the 2012 London Olympics, where India won six medals, there has been a perceptible change in India’s performance on the global stage. Corporate involvement in sport, after its being listed as a CSR activity, has played a stellar role in improving facilities for sports such as hockey, wrestling, judo, athletics and football. This implies providing quality coaches, the requisite diet, organising travel plans and providing other logistics support. The government acts more as a facilitator in this arena than an overbearing partner — which marks a change from a system where sportspersons were forced to petition the State government, Centre or the respective federations for facilities. Reliance, JSW, Tata Steel and sports academies such as those run by Prakash Padukone-Rahul Dravid, among others, represent this change. This has left sportpersons with the time and mental space to pursue their sport. As part of this PPP system, quality private sport facilities are used to hold national tournaments. Meanwhile, Odisha, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh have played a big role in creating infrastructure in hockey, football, athletics and equestrian.

Certain central schemes, such as Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and Khelo India have played a major part in providing overall support to athletes — financial and training. According to Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, for the Asian Games 49 foreign coaches were hired and athletes were given exposure to 275 foreign competitions. The Budgetary allocation of ₹3,397.32 crore in FY24 is three times the 2011-12 allocation, and double that of the 2014-15 allocation.

It takes two to tango. If the corporates have brought in money and replaced a culture of tardiness with professionalism, the government needs to support underprivileged athletes. The lure of a permanent job is important here. But sports federations, dominated by politicians of various colours, remain a law unto themselves, without observing the 2011 ‘sports code’ which spells out governance practices. Though Indian sport is relatively better run now, nepotism and ugly behaviour (as in wrestling) are part of the landscape — even as the Centre is trying hard to turn India into a sporting powerhouse.

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