Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government, on Monday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with several leading industrialists of the company to develop the state’s sports infrastructure.
The following sports will be sponsored by companies that have their sports foundations: athletics by Reliance Industries Group; football and Swimming by JSW Group; badminton by Dalmia Bharat Group; weightlifting by Ahluwalia Group; shooting by Aditya Birla Group; and hockey by Tata Group.
This move is a significant step in Odisha government’s attempt to brand Bhubaneswar as the country’s sports capital.
“Like Delhi is the capital of India, Bombay the financial capital of the country, Bengaluru IT capital, for me, Bhubaneswar is the sports capital of the country,” the Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra had said in February.
Batra, who’s also the International Hockey Federation (FIH) chief, said this when the Odisha government announced its decision to sponsor the Indian teams – men’s and women’s – for the next five years.
The Men’s Hockey World Cup is scheduled to be held from 28 November to 16 December 2018 in Bhubaneswar’s iconic Kalinga Stadium. And the state government is capitalising on the tournament to brand the state as India’s sports hub.
This was evident when it allocated Rs 341 crore in 2018-19 (increased from Rs 149 crore in 2017-18) for the department of sports.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the signing of MoUs would help the state’s athletes reach world standard. “This partnership is more than just giving grants and funds, it will focus on extending the outreach of every sport in India,” he added.
“This move was long overdue in order to fully develop the quality of sport and sportsmen in the country,” said the State’s Sports & Youth Services Secretary Vishal Kumar Dev. “By signing this MoU’s we have built a framework which will work towards sporting education, talent identification at grass root levels and infrastructural development at a global level.”
Former Indian cricket captain Anil Kumble, former India shooter Gagan Narang and badminton coach, Pullela Gopichand were also present at the event.
Apart from the signing of the MoU’s the conference also saw the unveiling of the Hockey World Cup trophy by Chief Minister Patnaik and FIH President Batra.
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