SAI vacancies a major concern for sports
Given the tall ambitions, severe understaffing at the Sports Authority of India, the nation's premier body in the field, does not bode well. SAI not only facilitates and funds sports organisations, it also takes care of grassroots development through its training centres and the sports ministry's flagship Khelo India schemes. Given this, the government's recent admission in the Rajya Sabha that only 860 of SAI's sanctioned 1,524 coaching positions are filled should worry us. There are shortages of high-performance coaches (15 of the sanctioned 50 appointed), chief coaches (47 of 100), senior coaches (71 of 200), and assistant coaches. The issue, however, is not about SAI's efforts on the front—the tepid response to its advertisements reveals a lack of available or interested talent. With more sports academies mushrooming across the country, coaches have found more remunerative careers elsewhere. To counter this, SAI needs to review its policy of giving contractual and on-deputation positions to coaches, who would prefer more job security.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
LA28 to allow venue naming rights for first time in Olympic history
Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games will, for the first time in Games history, allow venue naming rights, organizers said on Thursday, unveiling Comcast and Honda 7267.T as inaugural partners in a move aimed at boosting commercial pilot program, developed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), will let qualifying LA28 partners retain existing venue names during the Games and buy additional marketing also opens naming rights for up to 19 temporary venues to worldwide Olympic partners and LA28 sponsors, while standard "clean venue" rules continue for non-partner sites. Comcast CMCSA.O will lend its name to the Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios, where squash will make its Olympic debut on the Courthouse Square backlot. Honda Center in Anaheim will become the first arena to keep its name during an Olympic competition, hosting indoor volleyball."Anytime you're the first to do something in the context of the Olympics, it's a big deal," LA28 chair Casey Wasserman told Reuters."It's a big opportunity for us and it's a big statement of support from the IOC. We think it will be a really powerful platform and opportunity in the commercial sector, so we're really excited."Wasserman said the deals introduce a "new commercial model" for the Olympic movement. The IOC traditionally enforces strict branding rules during the Games, masking corporate signage at competition noted money from selling venue naming rights would be in addition to the overall sponsorship revenue target of $2.5 billion, which LA28 calls the largest commercial revenue raise in sports."We've been very conservative, so we have none of this revenue in our budget so any revenue is upside," he said."Having said that, we think it could be significant. It's a really powerful platform for branded partners of ours to engage with us and also with the globe, because it's part of the broadcast. The reach is really stunning."From a practical perspective, the potential for SoFi Stadium and arena to maintain their names during the Games will help fans navigating the city."As a pure matter of wayfinding, it's actually an important piece of the puzzle," he which holds U.S. broadcast rights through NBC and Peacock, said it would support LA28 "across our entire company," including coverage and the squash which in June was named the Games automotive sponsor, said its long-backed Anaheim arena would "step onto the international stage to power Olympic dreams," according to Ed Beadle, a vice president at American Honda Motor said additional naming-rights partners are expected as the three-year countdown continues.- Ends
The Wire
2 hours ago
- The Wire
‘Disenfranchising People While Passing Bills in Parliament': TMC MP Sushmita Dev
New Delhi: Amid the ongoing protests by the opposition during the monsoon session of parliament demanding a discussion on the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, the government has pushed ahead with legislative business and passed crucial Bills, including the new income tax Bills, and two Bills relating to sports governance: the National Sports Governance Bill and the National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill. Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sushmita Dev in an interview to The Wire said that voters from whom legislators derive their mandate are being asked to prove the genuineness of their right to vote even as Bills are being passed in parliament. 'As Abhishek Banerjee [TMC general secretary and Lok Sabha MP] has said, according to the Election Commission (EC)'s own inquiry, 65 lakh voters have been removed [from the draft rolls in Bihar]. So this brings into question the 2024 elections also. How can this Lok Sabha continue?' she said. 'You cannot say that people will spend their time, money and energy proving the genuineness of their right to vote on the one hand, and the rest of us are sitting in parliament elected by these very people [on the other]. We get our mandate from people. You are disenfranchising people and you are passing Bills in parliament?' The government's move to push ahead with the bills comes as the opposition march to the Election Commission on Monday was stopped and MPs were detained. Meanwhile the stalemate between the opposition and treasury benches has continued over a discussion on the SIR. Read edited excerpts of the interview below: 1. The TMC was one of the first parties to allege irregularities in the voter rolls. The EC has cited some of these concerns that the TMC itself raised to conduct the SIR. If voter rolls are to be purified, why the opposition to SIR? There is a dual mischief – on the one hand, they have made the SIR into an exclusionary process. The EC's job is to make democracy stronger so that more and more people participate in this democratic process, but the SIR is turning into an exclusionary process. On the other hand, as Mamata Banerjee pointed out in February, while you are taking out voters because of lack of documents, we are seeing duplicate EPICs [elector photo identity cards]. Who issues the EPIC? It is the EC. You are excluding massive numbers like 65 lakh on the one hand, and on the other hand you are encouraging false voters and the duplication of voters. This is a multipronged process that is making a mockery of the democratic process. 2. Your party has alleged that the SIR is being used to usher in a National Register of Citizens (NRC) through the backdoor. Why do you say so? The EC has every right to remove people who have died or migrated. We accept there should not be foreigners, but deciding who is a foreigner is a mandate that lies with the Union home ministry and not the EC. It is not that the TMC or any opposition party is advocating for foreigners in the electoral rolls. Under the Citizenship Act, 1955, the home ministry is the relevant authority and once the home ministry determines after an inquiry through the NRC or the NPR [National Population Register] that somebody is a foreigner, then the EC will remove that person. The EC cannot make that inquiry on its own. 3. If voter roll purification is to be done, how would the TMC propose that it be done? If an exercise like the SIR is to be done, all political parties should have been brought on board. This exercise should have been spread over months so that awareness is created, and political parties are involved in creating that awareness. The rush with which it is being done, given the profile of our electorate which includes the marginalised, poor and those who live in remote areas, where not everybody is highly educated, this is becoming an oppressive measure. This is not only against the constitutional mandate but also against the spirit of the constitution. 4. The opposition's march to the EC's office on August 11 was stopped and MPs were detained. The EC says they were ready to meet 30 MPs. Why couldn't a decision be taken to send a delegation of 30 MPs? The EC is not ready to listen. We decided we will march to the EC with our demands – a peaceful protest with the demand that the SIR has to stop. They give a letter one day before to say only 30 people can come to meet us. The move to not give machine-readable data, questions over a surge in votes after 5:30 pm – these are questions that have to be asked. You have negated all this and now when we have decided to come to you, you say only 30 people will come. Why will 30 people come? Who will decide the number? If the EC had bonafide concern about what we are saying, it should have been handled differently. Since you are planning to do an SIR across the country, should you have not called all political parties? The NRC in Assam was a Supreme Court-monitored exercise that continued for six years. Till today, have they notified the NRC? A process that took six years, monitored by the Supreme Court and conducted by the home ministry under the registrar general, why hasn't it still been notified? What you could not do in six years that you want to do in six months? 5. The monsoon session has been almost a washout barring the discussion on Operation Sindoor, with the government and the opposition at a stalemate over a discussion on the SIR. The government says that the EC is an independent constitutional body and cannot be discussed in parliament. How do you respond to that? We are saying that the SIR is directly impacting the democratic rights of every citizen; the concept of 'one man, one vote' is under challenge. The question is, why can't the people's concerns be debated in parliament? They are talking about the autonomy of the EC. But every procedure that it embarks upon – whether it is delimitation or anything else – you have to involve all political parties. Autonomy does not mean that you embark on this massive enquiry without any consensus with political parties. 6. With the monsoon session due to end in a few days, will this stalemate continue? The government has already said that they have no option but to continue with legislative business. Amid opposition protests, crucial Bills like the Income Tax Bill, the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, the National Sports Governance Bill and the National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill have been passed. Important Bills like the Sports Governance Bill should have been sent to the standing committee. But they bulldozed these Bills through parliament, just like they did for the three farm Bills, which they paid a price for. It is a bad precedent they are setting because they fear scrutiny and accountability. As Abhishek Banerjee has said, according to the EC's own inquiry, 65 lakh voters have been removed. So this brings into question the 2024 Lok Sabha elections also. How can this Lok Sabha continue? You cannot say that people will spend their time, money and energy proving the genuineness of their right to vote on the one hand, and the rest of us are sitting in parliament elected by these very people [on the other]. We get our mandate from people. You are disenfranchising people and you are passing Bills in parliament?
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
India's road to sporting glory: Landmark moments since 1947
Kapil Dev, Neeraj Chopra and Manu Bhaker From dusty playgrounds to the grandest arenas, India's sporting story since 1947 has been built on sweat, spirit, and relentless dreams. In a nation where sport often carries the hopes of a billion, some victories have transcended scoreboards to become timeless moments of national pride. The Olympics have provided some of India's most iconic breakthroughs. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! In 1952, at Helsinki, wrestler KD Jadhav won bronze in the men's 57kg freestyle — the first individual Olympic medal for independent India. Four years later, in Melbourne, the men's hockey team defeated Pakistan to claim gold, the nation's first Olympic hockey title since independence and their sixth in a row overall. In 1996, tennis star Leander Paes captured bronze in Atlanta, becoming the first Asian to win an Olympic tennis medal and the only Indian to do so. Sydney 2000 brought another historic moment as weightlifter Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal with her bronze. Beijing 2008 was a watershed: shooter Abhinav Bindra clinched India's first-ever individual Olympic gold, while wrestler Sushil Kumar took bronze before upgrading to silver in London 2012, making him the first Indian with two individual Olympic medals. Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021) delivered another golden chapter when javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra won India's first-ever Olympic gold in athletics. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Wildlife Cameras Capture What No One Should See Ohi Blog Undo At Paris 2024, shooter Manu Bhaker became the first Indian to win two medals at the same Olympics, further enriching the nation's sporting legacy. Beyond the Olympics, Indian sport has had its own landmark triumphs. In 1951, the national football team won Asian Games gold in New Delhi. The following year, India secured its maiden Test cricket victory against England in Chennai. Men's hockey reached another peak in 1975, winning their first and only World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. In 1980, badminton great Prakash Padukone claimed the prestigious All England Open title, inspiring generations. Chess saw its breakthrough in 1988 when Viswanathan Anand became India's first Grandmaster. Tennis history was made in 1997 when Mahesh Bhupathi became India's first Grand Slam champion, winning the French Open mixed doubles with Japan's Rika Hiraki. Cricket's golden pages are well-known. In 1983, Kapil Dev's team shocked the mighty West Indies to lift India's first Cricket World Cup at Lord's. Under MS Dhoni, India won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, the ODI World Cup in 2011, and the Champions Trophy in 2013 — making him the only captain to hold all three ICC white-ball titles. Recent years have brought fresh glories. In 2019, PV Sindhu became the first Indian to win the Badminton World Championship. In 2022, the men's badminton team won the Thomas Cup. In 2023, Neeraj Chopra struck gold at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. And at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, India recorded its best-ever medal haul of 29, rewriting the nation's Paralympic history. From the wrestling mat to the cricket pitch, from hockey turf to athletics track, these moments have shaped India's sporting soul — each victory a reminder that the nation's dreams, once forged in dust, now shine on the world's brightest stages. Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
