Sports Ministry Holds Meeting with NSFs through Video Conferencing

On Thursday, the Sports Ministry spoke to 11 National Sports Federations via video conference and discussed their future plans keeping in mind the Tokyo Olympics. The ministry is holding video conferences with various national sports federations amid a nationwide lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry has already talked to several NSFs through video conferences including Hockey India, National Rifle Association of India and Wrestling Federation of India.

A ministry official said that these are every day meetings between the ministry and the NSF which are now being conducted through video conferences due to the epidemic. We have already started the first series of meetings with some federations last week and this continued today.

During Thursday's meeting, Sports Secretary Radhey Shyam Julania spoke to two representatives of federations of handball, basketball, volleyball, wushu, tennis, squash, Special Olympics India, rowing, kayaking and canoeing, kabaddi and All India University.

Julania said that we have already discussed with 15 NSFs and today we continued this process and discussed with 11 more NSFs. He said that we had a general discussion on the future plans of NSF and the ACTC (Annual Calendar of Training and Competitions). A representative of the NSF said that the ministry inquired about future plans, including the 2024 and 2028 Olympics.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Thursday launched an online program with the NSF to increase the knowledge of coaches across the country. Over 4700 coaches took part in the opening day. Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister and Archery Association of India Arjun Munda addressed the coaches.