Odisha: Industrialists to help develop sports academies

Move to give impetus to growth of sports culture

Bhubaneswar, Friday 12.11-2018:  In a landmark initiate taken by the Odisha government a number of MOUs have been signed by Sports and Youth Services Department with as many as seven industrialists for setting up of sports infrastructure in Odisha. In a special event named ‘Sports in Odisha,’ these leading industrialists came forward to display their support to sports culture in the state by signing MOU’s for sponsoring respective sporting disciplines.

This will enable the state to nurture its homegrown talents. Every sport will have the necessary infrastructure and support services matching international standards and every aspiring sportsperson will get the best training facilities.

The following sports were picked up : Athletics by Reliance Industries Group; Football and Swimming by JSW Group; Badminton by Dalmia Bharat Group in collaboration with Pullela Gopichand Acedemy; Weightlifting by Ahluwalia Group; Shooting by Aditya Birla Group; and Hockey by Tata Group.

Speaking about this move, Mr. Vishal Kumar Dev- Commissioner- Cum- Secretary, Sports & Youth Services, said: By signing this MOU’s we have built a framework which will work towards sporting education, talent identification and infrastructural development not only in Odisha but in India also.

Commenting on the signing of the MOU’s Shri Naveen Patnaik, Hon’ble Chief Minister Odisha, said, “The signing of this MOU has created a long-lasting partnership which will result in producing sportspersons of world standards”.

Present at the event last evening were dignitaries like Sh. Naveen Patnaik Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Chandra Sarathi Behera, Hon’ble Minister of Sports & Youth Services Odisha, IOA/ FIH President Dr Narendra Batra, Mr. Puneet Dalmia, CMD, Dalmia Bharat Group, Mr. Pullela Gopichand, PGBF, Mr. Sajjan Jindal, Chairman JSW, Mr. Gagan Narang, GNSPF, Mr. Anil Kumble, the Commissioner -cum -Secretary, DSYS and Director -cum- Additional Secretary, DSYS.