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State-owned power firms may start hiring athletes

The PSUs plan to adopt a sport other than cricket and set up an academy to help the country achieve excellence in that discipline

There are plans to create an umbrella organization that would be an ‘institutional mechanism for promotion of sports’. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/MintPremium
There are plans to create an umbrella organization that would be an ‘institutional mechanism for promotion of sports’. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint

New Delhi: In a surprise push for sports, the nine state-owned power companies under the Union power ministry may start hiring athletes and help promote a sport other than cricket.

An initial meeting to discuss the initiative was held in the power ministry last week and attended by representatives of the nine public sector undertakings (PSUs)—NTPC Ltd, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), NHPC Ltd, THDC Ltd, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), SJVN Ltd, Power Finance Corp. Ltd, Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd and North Eastern Electric Power Corp. Ltd.

“The ministry wants to support sports in a big way in the country," said a senior PSU executive who attended the meeting but did not want to be identified, since the plan is in its initial stages.

According to a senior power ministry official, the PSUs plan to adopt a sport other than cricket and set up an academy to help the country achieve excellence in that discipline.

There are also plans to create an umbrella organization that would be an “institutional mechanism for promotion of sports".

“We plan to encourage sports in the country. The number of PSUs that we have can play a very important role in it, given their size and expanse," said the power ministry official.

“We plan to do it on the lines of what the petroleum ministry has done with Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB). Also, inter-PSU sports events should be organized."

Power sector PSUs currently don’t have a special focus on recruiting sportspersons. An NTPC executive said board approval would be required for a recruitment drive targeting sportspersons.

Petroleum sector PSUs such as Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) and Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC) have long been promoting sports in the country and have many sportspersons, mainly cricketers, on their rolls.

ONGC recruits include billiards and snooker player Pankaj Advani, tennis player Somdev Devvarman, boxer Shiva Thapa and badminton player Ashwini Ponnappa besides cricketers Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Unmukt Chand.

IOC has recruited cricketers Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara besides badminton player Aparna Balan and snooker player Aditya Mehta.

PSPB, set up in 1979, aims to “develop, promote, encourage, co-ordinate and organize various sports and games in the petroleum sector and the country at large", according to its website.

“The rationale for setting up PSPB was to provide a platform for talented sports persons of the country through employment (by its member organizations) and financial support, to enable them to excel in their chosen sporting discipline in the national and international arena, in particular, to bring sporting glory and honour to the country," it says.

Interest in boxing, wrestling, badminton, shooting and archery has mounted in India in recent years, after athletes including boxer M.C. Mary Kom, wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt, badminton player Saina Nehwal and shooters Vijay Kumar and Gagan Narang won laurels for the country at international events.

Experts welcomed the power ministry move but were sceptical about how effective it would be.

“Anybody doing anything for the promotion of sports is good. Employing sports persons is a great move as we need our athletes to have employment after their sports career is over," said Adille Sumariwalla, president, Athletics Association of India (AFI).

But there is a question mark over how the initiative is to be funded—it is expected to be financed by staff contributions at the nine PSUs.

“One can’t expect to get world champions with such minimal contribution," said Sumariwalla, who represented India at the 1980 Olympic Games.

“Regarding setting up an academy, what sort of expertise do they have? On their own they may fail and such a model may not work. There are 25 Olympic sports. If each of these PSUs contribute 30 crore for one sport and work together with the concerned (sports) federation, there will be ownership. These are very complex issues," added Sumariwalla,

“Britain spent 2,500 crore for training its athletes at the last Olympics. In addition, £3 billion (around 30,000 crore) was spent to train support staff. That’s the kind of money we are talking about. One needs to know what it takes to produce an Olympian," said the head of the Indian athletic body.

Some other pressing issues facing Indian sports are lack of foreign coaches, recovery experts, trainers, world class competition, sports science, sports medicine and nutrition, and quality accommodation, food and travel.

“The idea is to promote sports such as archery, boxing or wrestling and set up an academy for whichever sport has been decided upon so that talent can be groomed," added a second power ministry official who too did not want to be identified.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Utpal Bhaskar
"Utpal Bhaskar leads Mint's policy and economy coverage. He is part of Mint’s launch team, which he joined as a staff writer in 2006. Widely cited by authors and think-tanks, he has reported extensively on the intersection of India’s policy, polity and corporate space.
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Published: 09 Jan 2014, 12:16 AM IST
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