CHENNAI: It is that time of the year again when some part of the Union budget would be allocated to sports. On paper, the sports budget does look promising but if one delves deep and compare with the last year’s budget allocation and revised figures, there was hardly much deviation from last year in terms of budgetary allocation.
The sports budget has seen a marginal change and most of it has been allocated to Promotion of Sports Goods Manufacturing, the ministry new target. Overall for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the budget allocation for 2026-27 is Rs 4461.51 crore which is Rs 1114.97 crore more if compared with the revised budget of Rs 3346.54 crore.
However, If the budget allocation is seen for sports alone then the hike is not as much. Under all major sports heads, the budget allocation for 2026-27 reads Rs 3113.35 crore while the last budget allocation was Rs 2520.52 crore (2025-26) which was revised to Rs 2347.14 crore. In this case, the 2026-26 budget allocation has increased to Rs 766.21 crore if the revised budget is concerned and just about Rs 600 crore if compared to the allocated budget of the previous year. Out of this Rs 500 has been given for promotion of sports good manufacturing while Rs 50 crore has been earmarked for Commonwealth Games (to be hosted in Ahmedabad in 2030) and Rs 31.85 crore for sports secretariat which could be utilized for forming the National Sports Board and the Sports Tribunal as per the National Sports Governance Act.
Khelo India programme is sports ministry’s flagship grassroots development programme. Hosting of Khelo India Youth and University Games are under this scheme but a chunk of its budget goes to developing sports infrastructure across India. Naranpura Sports Complex in Gujarat is one such example. About 21 indoor halls were built in Arunachal Pradesh as well.
The Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the launch of Khelo India Mission on Sunday.
The Khelo India budget has seen a decrease against the allocation figures of Rs 1000 crore in 2025-26. The revised budget was Rs 700 crore, which indicates that the 30 per cent of the budget was not used or under-utilised. This time it is Rs 924.34 crore.
The assistance to National Sports Federations has seen an increase of just Rs 25 crore from Rs 400 in 2025-26. Most of the funds is part of the assistance to NSFs goes into training, competition (India and abroad) and exposure abroad. All national camps and support to coaches are through these funds.
The most interesting part of the budget is that Rs 500 has been earmarked for “Promotion of Sports Goods Manufacturing”. This newspaper first highlighted sports ministry’s initiative to encourage and promote indigenous sports goods manufacturing.
The sports ministry had written to the National Sports Federations (NSFs) to form a committee to look into various options in areas like indigenous equipment, infrastructure and sports services. The NSFs were given 60 days to form that committee. “Identifying areas in the respective sport where indigenous equipment, technology, apparel and support services can be adopted or scaled up, in conformity with international standards, to advance the objectives of "Make in India" and Atmanirbhar Bharat,” said the ministry in a January letter. It needs to be seen how manufacturing will help grassroots sports development.
The National Dope Testing Laboratory's share of budget has decreased marginally from revised Rs 28.55 crore but remained the same as previous budget allocation. But National Anti-Doping Agency's budget has decreased from Rs 24.30 crore to Rs 20.30 crore.
Sports Authority of India budget has increased from Rs 880 crore to Rs 917.38 crore. This includes maintenance of stadiums like the IG Stadium where the India Open was held. It came under severe criticism because of bird-droppings and unhygenic playing conditions. National sports science centre has been allocated R 50 crore more that last allocation of Rs 10 crore. However, if the Rs 78.64 crore revised figures are considered then it is considerably less.
