March 18, 2002

    Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Sushree Uma Bharti called upon Sports Persons, Coaches and the scientific community associated with sports to put in their best efforts so that India can achieve its goal of winning medals at the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, Asian Games as well as the next Olympics. Good performance in major international events boosts national morale and bad performance effects our national pride resulting in wide spread criticism in the country. It is imperative that we formulate our policies and design our strategy and approaches in such a way that we achieve the much-eluded success in the field of sports, she added. She was speaking on the occasion of the distribution of Special Awards to Medal Winners in International Sports Events and their Coaches, here today. At the function held in Vigyan Bhawan, the Minister gave away awards to 211 sports persons and their coaches who won medals during the year 2001 in International Sports Events. Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri Pon. Radhakrishna and senior officials of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Sports Authority of India were present on the occasion.

    Sushree Uma Bharti said that the Government is determined to give a fillip and new direction to Indian sports so that a new beginning is made. In order to overcome the problem of lack of adequate resources for sports activities which is a major stumbling block in the promotion of sports in the country, attempts are being made to mobilize resources from the corporate sector. A suitable package of incentives to attract private investment in the creation of sports infrastructure is being worked out, the Minister added. The Sports Persons and Coaches awarded this year were from a variety of disciplines – Athletics, Billiards and Snooker, Boxing, Chess, Hockey, Rowing, Shooting, Table Tennis, Weightlifting, Wrestling and Yachting. Among the award winners were Shri Geet Sethi (Billiards), Ms. Koneru Humpy and Ms. Bhagyashree Thipsay (Chess), Shri Abhinav Bindra, Shri Jaspal Rana and Ms. Anjali Vedpathak (Shooting), members of the Indian Junior Hockey Team which won the 7^th Junior World Cup held at Hobart, Australia in 2001.

    The award money under the Special Awards scheme ranges from Rs. 15,000/- to Rs. 15 lakh. A total amount of Rs. 199 lakh will be given as Special Awards this year, with Rs. 10 lakh as the highest individual award. Since the inception of the scheme, 1380 sports persons and their coaches have been given awards under it. With this year’s awards, the total number of such recipients go up to 1591.

    The Special Awards to the winners in International sports events and their coaches, scheme was introduced in 1986 to motivate outstanding sports persons for even higher achievements and to attract the younger generations to take to sports as a career. The purpose is also to help the medal winners of international sports events for the expenses incurred on diet, training, preparations and for the deprivations suffered by them due to their devotion and service to sports.