Government of India has decided to establish 1000 Khelo India Centers (KIC) at the district level across the country to groom local talents. The centres will have former sports champions as coaches or themselves running the centre. This step has been taken to utilize the expertise of past sports champions in training talents at the grass-root level and also to ensure a continuous flow of income to the champions.
Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the government wishes to make India a superpower in sports, for which steps need to be taken so that more youngsters will opt for sports as their career.
He also said that Centre wants everyone, who has played at the national level to be identified and have a life of dignity and financial stability. The mechanism of shortlisting of the past champions has been put into place. This will help in knowing the ability of the past champions who can either run their own academy or work as a coach in a KIC. Existing SAI extension centres will be given the option of converting into a KIC and recruit past champion to avail a financial grant under the scheme, to build a country wide network of Khelo India Centres.