1,000 Khelo India centres to open across India next year: Anurag Thakur

Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said on Friday that 1,000 Khelo India centres will be opened all over the country by August 15 next year.

The minister was speaking in Lok Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session of the Parliament.

"1000 Khelo India centres will be opened by 15th August 2023 across the country. Out of the 1,000 centres, 733 centres have been already sanctioned," said Thakur in Lok Sabha.

Regarding the appointment of coaches, the Sports Minister announced that this year, 398 coaches have been appointed across 21 sports disciplines.

The minister said as compared to 2014, when the budget of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports was Rs 1,219 crore, it had increased to 3,062 crore for the year 2022-23, which is almost three times more.

Thakur highlighted some of India's major sporting triumphs that had taken place since the coming of the Modi government in 2014.

"In Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2020, we won our highest number of medals, seven and 19 respectively. India clinched the Thomas Cup badminton title for the first time ever. Boxer Nikhat Zareen captured a gold medal in IBA Boxing Women's World Championships. Our daughters have made us proud on many occasions," said the minister.

He highlighted some of the initiatives taken by the Centre, such as 'Meet the Champions' initiative to make children aware about sports and nutrition with the help of the country's best sportspersons. The minister talked about the Khelo India Youth Games and Khelo India University Games.

"So far, four editions of Youth Games and two editions of University Games have taken place. In these, 27,000 players have been able to showcase their talent to the country. In the recently concluded Khelo India Youth Games, 12 national records were broken, out of which 11 were broken by our daughters," added Thakur.

The Winter Session of the Parliament began on December 7 and will have 17 working days.