New Delhi : The Sports Ministry is all set to establish Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE) under the Khelo India Scheme. In the first leg, the ministry had identified state-owned sports facilities in eight states of India, including, Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Telengana and the north-east states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland which will be upgraded into KISCE. However, one KISCE will be identified in each state and union territory, with an effort to create a robust sporting ecosystem in the entire country.
The process of selection of these sports facilities was started in October 2019. Of the 15 proposals received and examined, the ministry shortlisted eight based on the training facilities available in priority sports, infrastructure facilities and champion produced by the centre.
The support extended will be to Olympic sports, though support can be extended in sports science and allied fields in other sporting disciplines being run in the centre.
Speaking about the initiative, Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “The Khelo India State Centre of Excellence are being established to strengthen India’s pursuit for excellence in Olympics. Our effort is to scale up the best sporting facilities available in each state in India into academies of world-class standard, where athletes from all over the country will want to train in their specific discipline.”
The eight centres will be given a grant based on the actual amount finalised as per the requirement indicated after a comprehensive gap analysis study. The states and UTs will also identify and develop talent in each sport for which funding is received at the centre.
The Sports Authority of India will extend expertise, resources and a monitoring system to ensure that the level of performance of the athletes improves to international standards.
In the first batch, the sporting facilities which will be upgraded to KISCE are Sangey Lhaden Sports Academy, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh; Jaiprakash Narayan National Youth Center, Bangalore, Karanataka; GV Raja Sr. Secondary Sports School, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, Imphal, Manipur; Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Aizawl, Mizoram; State Sports Academy, IG Stadium, Kohima, Nagaland; Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha and Regional Sports School, Hakimpet, Telangana.