Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju today chaired the 1st General Council meeting of the Khelo India Scheme.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Rijiju urged the states to organise State-level Khelo India Games annually with an effort to identify a larger number of grassroot-level talents.
He said, the annual competitions being organized at the national level under the Khelo India Scheme, like the Khelo India Youth Games and University Games, have helped to identify sporting talent from all states.
The Minister said, States that already conduct annual sporting competitions can align with the Khelo India Scheme and the Centre will support them in conducting these events.
He said, to make India a sporting superpower, we need to identify talent as young as 5 to 10 years old and groom them to be future champions.
It takes at least eight years to groom an athlete for the Olympics.
Mr Rijiju has asked the states to organise competitions at the district, block and panchayat-level to identify young talent.
The Sports Minister spoke of the 5 zonal talent scouting committees that are being planned for east, west, north, south and north east India.
He asked the states for active participation in assisting these committees in identifying grassroot-level talent in 24 sporting disciplines.
