UGC launches Khelo Bharat Niti 2025; expands access to sports education, career, tourism, volunteering

The Government of India has announced the new National Sports Policy, named ‘Khelo Bharat Niti 2025’. The policy aims at integrating sports with academic education in schools and higher educational institutions (HEI). The policy encourages institutions to implement physical literacy from the grassroots level with accessible sports infrastructure, along with governance and inclusion.

The National Sports Policy 2025 is based on the vision “Sports for Nation Building - Harness the Power of Sports for Nation's Holistic Development". The policy is designed on five key pillars: Achieving global excellence, boosting economic growth, promoting social inclusion and health, making sports a mass movement, and integrating sports with education.

India’s sports policy aims to achieve excellence on the global stage by promoting sports and physical literacy awareness. It aims to host regular sports programmes and competitions to find new talent. Research will focus on making the sports environment more athlete-focussed, with mechanisms for funding and rewards.

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Khelo Bharat Niti 2025: Economic advantages

The government plans to use the Khelo Bharat policy to use sports for economic development. India aims to become a hub for sports tourism during significant events, supplemented by a “robust” equipment manufacturing sector. Under the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ schemes, the government hopes to promote sports entrepreneurship in the country.

Public and private stakeholders can invest in both hard and soft sports assets. The government also aims to create a Sports Business Advisory Group, comprising representatives from various ministries, the private sector, and other stakeholders.

The sports policy of India will be used to promote social development by encouraging students from underrepresented communities to participate in mainstream sports. The indigenous sports and games of India will also be promoted for talent discovery and community development initiatives. The University Grants Commission (UGC) urges colleges and schools to endorse sports as a conventional career through physical education.

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National Sports Policy 2025: International relations

The Khelo Bharat Niti 2025 also aims to aid in peacekeeping and international cooperation efforts by bridging countries with India via sports. Youth volunteering programmes can be implemented, with the students rewarded with course credits, event passes and opportunities to meet athletes.

The sports ministry plans to introduce a fitness ranking and indexing system for schools, HEIs, and workplaces. New training and certification programmes will also be launched to create skilled educators. Social sports hubs will be established at the block and district levels to encourage mass participation from the people.

The Khelo Bharat Niti 2025 will be integrated with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Schools will establish partnerships with local sports organisations. A sports and physical education skill development programme will be made available to teachers, so that students receive an “effective” sports education delivery.