Huge gap in sports funds helps India outshine Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) surrendered a huge amount back to Finance Division at the end of the 2023-24 financial year, India enhanced its sports budget for the training of athletes and to strengthen their medal-winning chances at Olympics and other major international events.

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has given the lion’s share of the total sports ministry budget to the Khelo India project. The project, to promote sports at the grassroots level, has been allocated Rs900 crores from the overall allocation of Rs3,442.32 crores.

The News has gathered the relevant information according to which the Indian Sports Ministry has invested double the amount of Pakistan’s annual sports budget on preparing athletes for the Paris Olympics alone.

The Indian government has heavily invested in Khelo India, which has consistently unearthed talent nationwide. The allocation for Khelo India in 2022-23 was Rs596.39 crores, which increased by over Rs 400 crore to Rs1,000 crores in the 2023-24 budget before being revised to Rs880 crores.

The entire amount goes into the training of athletes and unearthing talent from across the country. The practice is unlike the Pakistan sports budget where administrative expenses eat up the bulk of the sanctioned sports budget.

Besides salaries and renovation amount, the PSB officials used the budget for their daily expenses. The ever-increasing gap between the Olympic sports standards between Pakistan and India is more due to the investment made in the athletes.

While the Ministry of Sports is very much alive in India, the 18th amendment resulted in handing over all the sports powers to provinces which have done nothing to promote sports in the country.

The Ministers of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) hardly take any real interest in sports and the only interest they have shown in the recent past is to have a Director General PSB of their liking. The Ministry tries to act as a boss without realising that its job is to facilitate rather than to dictate.

The peanuts the Ministry gives to federations usually is seen as a favour rather than a duty. The IPC has yet to evolve a system where athletes, including the elite ones, get the support of the government around the year.