CHENNAI: Hosting international competitions, annual grants to National Sports Federations (NSFs) and launching a National Olympic Academy are some of the key takeaways from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Annual General Meeting held in Ahmedabad on Friday. The AGM, supposed to be held in December last year, finally took place where almost all NSF officials and athletes' representatives were present.
The AGM thrived to work closely with all stakeholders as India gets ready to host the Commonwealth Games and continue with the bidding process for the Olympics in 2036. IOA president PT Usha also highlighted the importance of collaborative work among all stakeholders. “This AGM reflects our collective commitment to reform, transparency, and above all, to our athletes," she said in a statement. "Over the last period, we have taken decisive steps to modernise the IOA place athlete welfare at the heart of every initiative."
In a major development for the NSFs and the State Olympic Associations, the IOA is set to increase its annual grants which will be quite higher this year on. According to the IOA's Chief Executive Office, Raghuram Iyer, also the spokesperson, one of the major points that were discussed was revenue sharing among NSFs and the state units. "We discussed enhancing the annual grants to the NSFs and the state associations," he told this daily on Friday. The grant for NSFs has been increased to Rs 20 lakh from Rs 10 and the state associations will get Rs 10 lakh which will be higher that their earlier Rs 7 lakh.
However, the IOA has also said that the grants to state associations will be released if they follow certain guidelines stipulated by the IOA. "Obviously, they have to utilise the funds in sports development, professionally run the organisation," said Iyer. The guidelines will be for good governance and sports development.
Not just enhancing the grants, the IOA has also discussed hosting more international events in the country, just like sports ministry had been advocating for some time. interestingly, most of the international events are being hosted in Ahmedabad. The 2030 Commonwealth Games is one such event and would help India's chances in hosting the Olympic in 2036.
Just like sports ministry have guidelines to give grants to the NSFs for hosting international events, the IOA is planning such a move. The amount too would be substantial. According to the CEO, it should be in the range of Rs 50 lakh for world event, Rs 30 lakh for Asian and Rs 20 lakh for commonwealth level competition. "It is again subject to maintaining some kind of a standard," he said, adding. "It has to have certain number of teams, good players and should be a sound competition."
What seems interesting is that the IOA is looking at making the organisation more player-centric as well. The IOA has already initiated monetary incentives for players who win medals at Olympic, Asian and Commonwealth Games and would want to continue with higher remunerations. Not just that, the IOA is planning to launch a NOA that would support programmes for the benefit of athletes, for example, for retired athletes. The CEO explained transition is very important at that time and one of the thrust areas would be to educate and guide them after retirement. The academy would help them.
Not just in transition, the IOA is looking at something in the lines of International Olympic Committee's grassroots outreach programme Olympic Value Education Programme (OVEP). "We want to establish something like OVEP in the national level," he said.
According to the IOC, OVEP is based on the Olympic philosophy that learning takes place through the balanced development of body and mind. It envisages in "adopting the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship means striving for these in all fields of life."
After quite a long wait due to acrimony between its own executive committee members, the IOA has started having fruitful discussions. Hopefully, it will last for a better tomorrow for Indian Olympic sports.
