Govt decides to have a National Sports Science Institute

A new Sports Science Institute to train sportspersons and scout talent as per requirements of different sports will be set up from the money allocated for the Commonwealth Games, which the ministry failed to spend.

Updated on: Mar 7, 2011, 20:15:33 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A new Sports Science Institute to train sportspersons and scout talent as per requirements of different sports will be set up from the money allocated for the Commonwealth Games, which the ministry failed to spend.

About Rs 200 crore of the total fund, the ministry got as a special allocation for organizing the Commonwealth Games, could not be spent because the ministry officials were busy with creating sports infrastructure.

Now, Sports Minister Ajay Maken has decided to set up National Sports Sciences Institute similar to the one in China and many European nations to provide scientific input to coaches for producing better results. The institutes have helped China in turning into a major sporting nation in the world in less than a decade.

"We will not be able to compete successfully in international sporting events if we fail to provide training a scientific dimension. The institute will help in drawing scientific criteria on nutrition, type of training for specific sports and prevention of injury to sportsperson," Maken told HT.

To frame the skeleton of the institute, the ministry has set up a committee under Sports secretary Sindhushree Khullar to define its role and scope. "The institute should be a comprehensive centre for evaluation, prevention and treatment for sportspersons," the terms of the reference of the committee says.

Not only training, the new institute will also ensure that the Indian sportspersons get access to best experts from sports universities across the globe. How it will happen, the committee will recommend.

The institute will also provide scientific inputs on nutritional requirement of different sportsperson. It will also create manpower to meet the demand of trainers and supporting staff for different sports.

The committee has been asked to submit its report within two months so that additional funding can be sought from the Planning Commission for the 12th five-year plan starting from financial year, 2012-13.

The decision to set up the institute was taken after a committee headed by University Grants Commission acting chairperson Ved Prakash recommended that sports sciences institute should be set up in an area of 500 acres.

The committee, however, rejected the idea of turning the existing sports training institute in Tamil Nadu into National Sports Science Institute saying it does not have enough land. "We are looking to set up an institute somewhere in Patiala which is a vital training area for sportspersons," a ministry official said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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