Union Government designated 14 Olympians as National Observers

The Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Vijay Goel on 20 March 2017 designated the following 14 Olympians as ‘National Observers’ for 12 sports disciplines.

What are the responsibilities of National Observers?

• The National Observers will assist the Government, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and National Sports Federations (NSFs) and the Indian Olympic Association in their functioning.

• Their functions include all aspects of the sports including selection policy, quality specifications for national camps, long term athlete development plan, coaching development, development of technical officials and monitoring and evaluation of athlete performance.

• Apart from providing inputs for their respective disciplines, the National Observers would also to be consulted as a group on cross cutting issues impacting sports development in the country.

• The National Observers would be playing a key role in the implementation of action plans for Mission Olympics 2020, 2024 and 2028.

Sports Ministry to launch a search portal to spot young sports talent in rural India

Following are some of the recent initiatives of the Union Government to promote sports in the country.

• On 30 January 2017, the government constituted a Task Force to prepare an action plan for 2020, 2024 and 2028 Olympic games.

• On 5 February 2017, the foundation stone of the boundary wall of the first-ever Centre of Excellence for differently-abled sportsmen was laid at Sector-25 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

• On 10 February 2017, the Mission XI Million initiative was launched to promote football among school children.

• On 14 March 2017, Hockey India announced the appointment of four new Scientific Advisors for men and women, both senior and junior teams.