The Sports Ministry is all set to establish Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCE) under the ministry’s flagship, Khelo India Scheme. One KISCE will be identified in each state and union territory, with an effort to create a robust sporting ecosystem in the entire country.
- the Ministry has identified state-owned sports facilities in eight states of India, including, Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Telengana and the northeast states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland which will be upgraded into Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE).
- The Khelo India State Centre of Excellence is being established to strengthen India’s pursuit of excellence in Olympics. the effort is to scale up the best sporting facilities available in each state in India into academies of world-class standard, where athletes from all over the country will want to train in their specific discipline.
- The process of selection of these sports facilities was started in October 2019, when each state and UT was asked to identify the best sports infrastructure available with them, their agencies or any eligible agencies, which could be developed into a world-class sporting facility.
- To upgrade the existing centre to the KISCE, the government will extend a ‘Viability Gap Funding’ in sports science and technology support for sports disciplines practised at the centre and also bridge the gaps in requirement of sports equipment, expert coaches and high-performance managers.
The eight centres will be given a grant based on the actual amount finalised as per the requirement indicated after a comprehensive gap analysis study, the Sports Authority of India will extend expertise, resources and a monitoring system to ensure that the level of performance of the athletes improves to international standards.