With India thriving in sports, hosting the Olympics in 2036 may be a realistic dream.
Secretary of the Union Sports Ministry, Sujata Chaturvedi, launched a research report, titled Think Sports, on Thursday in which Deloitte & Google have projected the Indian sports sector to grow to $130 billion by 2030.
The growth of the sports sector is expected to be 14%, double the GDP, with an estimated 10 million jobs by 2030, leading to a vibrant sporting atmosphere.
Putting things in perspective, the Sports Secretary said that sports was primarily a people’s movement, and it was the duty of the government to lend support.
“To make the country excel in sports, all need to work together”, she said, pointing out that all the data and all the forces have to be put together to help in “winning all the medals, a country of our size ought to”.
Reeling off interesting facts and figures, the Managing Director of Google India, Roma Datta Chobey, said that 90% of the fan base of 655 million was digital consumer of sports with 36 per cent of them being women. She stressed that investing in athletes at an early age would ensure a healthy growth of the Indian sports sector.
The CEO of Deloitte South Asia, Romal Shetty said that the all-round commercial growth of Indian sports would largely depend on designing a clear pathway from grassroots to elite level for the athletes.
He stressed that all the children in schools should get exposure to sports without exception, and that the corporate sector could get into adopting stadiums for better maintenance and utility, apart from supporting elite athletes.
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In a panel discussion, Joy Bhattacharjya pointed out that tweaking of the points-system in volleyball had made it lively in the league format.
He explained that the growth of a game largely depended on “how well it works on screen”.
Double Olympic medallist, Manu Bhaker, and the former president of the Paralympic Committee of India, Deepa Malik, narrated their experience of the growing Indian sports industry, and how technology had propelled the growth significantly.
Explaining why she took to shooting after trying karate and boxing early on in school, Manu said, “shooting is a transparent sport. Everything is visible on screen. There is no partiality and there is no age limit. A 14-year-old can compete along side a 40-year-old and that is the beauty of shooting”.
Deepa Malik said that sports was initially for her rehabilitation, and that it eventually helped her realise her “abilities beyond disabilities”, when she became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal.
Summing up, Subhashini Gupta, Google’s Strategy and Insights Head, said that the launch of the report was the start of a dialogue, and that a sporting India would need all “the collaboration, dedication and innovation” from all the stakeholders, to achieve the estimated growth.
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