India’s sports economy at inflexion point; could 2036 be the Olympian catalyst?

Achanta Sharath Kamal (Olympian, Vice Chairperson, Athletes Fee, IOA), Hari Ranjan Rao IAS (Secretary, Sports activities, Authorities of India), Devendra Jhajharia (President, Paralympic Committee of India) and Panel Moderator Okay.C. Vijaya Kumar (Sports activities Editor, The Hindu) at SPORTSTAR KPMG PLAYCOM BUSSINESS OF SPORTS SUMMIT 2025 in New Delhi on September 13, 2025
| Photograph Credit score:
SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

“Within the ministry we’re speaking about one company, one sport,” mentioned Sports activities Secretary Hari Ranjan Rao describing the ideation occurring to create the infrastructure and athlete coaching for Olympics 2036, ought to India win the bid to host the Video games. He was talking at a session titled ‘Gameplan 2036’ at Playcom 2025, a Sportstar-KPMG enterprise of sports activities occasion.

Non-public sector play

Rao mentioned that whereas the federal government might simply deal with capital expenditure and infrastructure creation, the personal sector should step in to cowl the gaps in coaching of athletes, getting sports activities science specialists, and good overseas coaches.

The 2-day occasion held in Delhi’s glitzy Bharat Mandapam was an exhaustive exploration of the business viability of sports activities in addition to making sports activities a lifestyle for each Indian. Authorities officers, corporates, sporting league house owners, athletes, start-ups and techies weighed in on the revenue-generating alternatives in sports activities, the sporting profession path, the path to successful extra worldwide medals and the disruptive potential of AI.

And, considerably, a lot of the dialogue centred round sports activities apart from cricket!

New sports activities

A captivating session was on new sports activities which have exploded – from pickleball to the panja (arm wrestling league) – and the way they’ve redefined the topography of sporting enterprise.

From the present $19 billion, a lot of which is dominated by cricket, India’s sports activities business is all set to achieve practically $50 billion, mentioned Prasanth Shanthakumaran, Head of Sports activities Sector, KPMG India, unveiling Sportlight, a report on the enterprise of sports activities, collectively put collectively by the consulting agency with Sportstar. He mentioned if India wins the internet hosting rights of Commonwealth Video games 2030 and Olympics 2036, then it should give an enormous impetus to the enterprise of sports activities.

The buoyant tone was additional set by Union Sports activities Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who mentioned that by 2047, when Unbiased India turns 100, the aim is the nation must be among the many high 5 sporting nations on the earth.

Lifestyle

The 2-day occasion was kickstarted with an inspirational deal with from ‘Payyoli Categorical’ IOA President PT Usha who mentioned that the dream is to make sports activities a lifestyle for each Indian. That dream appeared seemingly when cricket legend Kapil Dev took the stage and talked in regards to the modifications he was seeing in India’s sporting outlook.

In his time, he mentioned, if children took time without work from research to play sports activities, they might be thrashed, however now dad and mom have been urging their wards to play sports activities. However actuality bites intruded through the session titled ‘Goal Play: CSR, Inclusion & Sport for All’, when corporates concerned in sports activities growth talked in regards to the challenges.

Many challenges

“Sport isn’t an space the place you possibly can count on leads to one, three and even 4 years. It’s a must to keep invested for 9 or 10 years to result in actual change and create a sustainable mannequin,” Anupam Nidhi, CSR Head, Vedanta and Hindustan Zinc, mentioned.

Neelam Babardesai, Head of Sports activities at Tata Trusts, nonetheless, talked about how community-driven fashions could be self-sustaining and needn’t rely solely on company backing, citing the instance of an initiative they did in Mizoram wherein the residents took over.

Printed on September 13, 2025