Sportstar Aces Awards 2023: ONGC wins Best PSU for Promotion of Sports

The public sector undertaking dedicated eight crore rupees for its sports budget for the year, in addition to Rs 45 crore towards salaries and approximately Rs 2.3 crore towards allowances.

Athletes supported by ONGC won 56 medals (27 gold, 18 silver, 11 bronze) across international competitions in 2022. | Photo Credit: Team Sportstar

ONGC won the Sportstar Aces award for the Best PSU for Promotion of Sports at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai on Monday.

The public sector undertaking dedicated eight crore rupees for its sports budget for the year, in addition to Rs 45 crore towards salaries and approximately Rs 2.3 crore towards allowances.

Through the year, ONGC supported the development of 11 sports - athletics, badminton, billiards and snooker, boxing, carrom, chess, hockey, kabaddi, lawn tennis, shooting and table tennis.

“Thank you very much to The Hindu Group of Publications and Sportstar, in particular, for the singular honour. From being the energy anchor of India to being the sports anchor today and being recognised for it, is a wonderful achievement for ONGC,” said Pankaj Kumar, Director (Offshore) of ONGC.

Athletes supported by ONGC

Arpinder Singh, M.R Poovamma, Kirpal Singh, Ashwini Ponappa, Sourabh Verma, HS Prannoy, Rituparna Das, B Sai Praneeth, Pankaj Advani, Koneru Humpy, Vidit Gujrathi, Yuki Bhambri, Ankita Raina, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai

Athletes supported by ONGC won 56 medals (27 gold, 18 silver, 11 bronze) across international competitions.

Besides employing sportspersons across a number of disciplines, ONGC offers sports scholarships of Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000 to athletes of merit.

The PSU has also made infrastructure like billiards and snookers tables, badminton courts, basketball, gyms, golf courses, tennis courts, skating rinks and volleyball courts available in a number of its working campuses across the country.

Nearly 800 players benefitted from the training and interaction camps organised in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Assam, Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Karaikal (Tamil Nadu), Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh) & Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), with the organisation providing equipment to over 300 regular and scholarship students.

Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, former India hockey captain M. M. Somaya, chess great Viswanathan Anand, former India football skipper Bhaichung Bhutia, Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and Olympians Anjali Bhagwat and Aparna Popat are the members of the Sportstar Aces 2023 jury.

The event is supported by IDFC First Bank, Indian Oil, India Cements, United India, Ramaiah University, Experimenta Science Center GD Naidu Charity, Finolex Pipes, LIC, BPCL, Samsonite, Big Basket, Nippon Paint, CRICHQ, Wordswork, NewsX and Casagrand.