India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, July 23, announced the budget for the year 2024-25. While it was her seventh budget, she gave a lion’s share of the sports ministry’s budget for the Khelo India, a flagship project of the Government of India.
Khelo India, which aims to promote sports from the grassroot level, was allocated with the highest sum of INR 900 Crore from the total budget of INR 3,442.32 Crore in the annual union budget. The revision follows the previous allocation of INR 880 Crore, which was announced in the 2023-24 financial year.
Speaking in detail of Khelo India, the government has consistently invested in the key project. In 2022-23, Khelo India’s actual allocation was INR 596.39 Crore, which was further increased to INR 1000 Crore in 2023-24 before getting revised to INR 880 Crore.
SAI receive budget increase of INR 26.83 Cr; NADA and NDTL also receive slight increase
Furthermore, with the Olympics now nearing its conclusion in August, and the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games still two years away, the Sports Ministry’s budget saw a slight increase of INR 45.36. Previously, the 2023-24 budget has INR 3396.96 Crore allocation for sports. Moreover, the Government of India has also extended its support for various other sports facilities and organisations.
The National Sports Federations (NSFs) have seen an increase in budget allocation from INR 340 crore to INR 325 Crore in 2024-25. The Sports Authority of India (SAI), which is the key body to manage the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), has also received a substantial increase from INR 795.77 Crore to INR 822.60 Crore, seeing increase of INR 26.83 Cr.
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has also seen a rise from its previous allocation of INR 21.73 Crore to INR 22.30 crore. Meanwhile, the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) has been allocated with INR 22 Crore.