Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the Government of India has declared the Khelo India Games competition of national importance. The third season of Khelo India Games is scheduled to begin in Guwahati from 10 January.
Rijiju said, “Our Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji has said that the Khelo India Games is not just an event, it is a campaign.”
“Promoting sports and fitness among the youth and sensitizing parents to inspire young players to dream of making a career in sports is the first step towards making India a sports superpower,” Rijiju said.
Rijiju also showed confidence that this step will inspire more youth to join sports seriously.
It is to be noted that the government has made it compulsory for the host the official broadcaster of Khelo India Youth Games Star Sports shares the content of the tournament with Doordarshan.
About 6800 players are expected to participate in the third season of these games.
On the other hand, the first Khelo India University Games will be held from 22 February to 1 March. The announcement was made by the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. These games will be organized at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University in which more than 4000 players from 100 universities across the country will participate. A total of 17 sports have been included in the varsity games. These include archery, athletics, boxing, fencing, judo, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, badminton, basketball, football, hockey, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, rugby, and kabaddi.
The Odisha Chief Minister, Patnaik while making the announcement in the presence of Union Sports Minister Kiran Rijiju said, “I am pleased to announce that the first Khelo India University Games will be held in Bhubaneswar. I am sure that during these games true sportsmanship will be shown.”
