The Government has decided to identify one lakh budding young athletes within 100 days under the KIRTI (Khelo India Rising Talent Identification) programme, Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports and Labour & Employment, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said here on Friday.

Dr Mandaviya, who launched the second phase of the KIRTI programme at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here, mentioned that, under the KIRTI programme, everyone will be given opportunities to develop their sports skills, whether they live in a village or a city, and whether they come from a poor background or otherwise.

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Member of Parliament Manoj Tiwari and Kamaljeet Sehrawat, eminent athletes, senior officials of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Sports Authority of India (SAI) and MCD school children were present on the occasion.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Mandaviya said “India is full of diversity and potential. There has never been a shortage of brainpower, manpower, or talent in India. Not just the cities, but even in our far-flung areas like the North-East, Coastal, Himalayan and tribal areas can have a quality sportsperson there. KIRTI is aimed at spotting these talented athletes and developing their skills.”

“Our PM Narendra Modiji has repeatedly stressed on the importance of sports in our life. With a vision to make India a global sports superpower, the Government has taken active steps to wholeheartedly support the talented athletes. The focused approach of the Government is reflected in our enhanced medals tally in recent years at various global championships including the Olympics. We need to have a steady stream of these high-performing assets and that’s where KIRTI, a stepping stone to sporting excellence, comes into play,” said the Sports Minister.

Speaking to the thousands of young school-going children who attended the launch event, Dr Mandaviya said, “Among you, there will certainly be an Olympic champion. I appreciate the fact that your parents have come and are backing you to play sports.”

“Maybe one day when you will win an Olympic medal, you or your parents will remember this day at the JLN Stadium,” the Union Minister added.

Today’s event marked the start of a nationwide talent hunt which will prove to be a stepping stone to making India one of the top 5 nations in the Olympic Games by 2047. Interestingly, out of the 117 athletes representing India in the Paris Olympics this year, 28 have emerged from the Khelo India ecosystem.

KIRTI’s talent identification model has been scientifically planned using IT tools and global best practices. The KIRTI programme aims to bridge this gap and provide direction to young budding athletes to choose a career path based on their abilities.

Project KIRTI with its decentralised and pocket-based talent identification approach seeks to achieve the twin objectives – mass participation and excellence in sports. The plan for the KIRTI programme is to complete over one lakh assessments within 100 days at 100 locations emphasising its commitment to accelerating talent identification and development and later scaling up operations to conduct 20 lakh assessments within a year.

In Delhi, Sports Authority of India in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will conduct KIRTI assessments of over 25,000 MCD students in a total of 12 zones. These assessments will continue for a total of 27 days and cover 5 major disciplines — Athletics, Football, Volleyball, Kabaddi, and Kho-Kho.

The MCD in their pilot project in 2022-23 has organised various sports camps across Delhi for young MCD students aged 6-10 years covering various sports including football and volleyball.

In the 3rd Phase, the KIRTI programme will include all 20 disciplines of the Khelo India scheme under the umbrella of KIRTI.

The first phase of KIRTI was launched in Chandigarh on March 12 this year.