Khelo India Mission: Mayank Srivastava On 30,000 Athletes, Sports Science And Grassroots Focus In New Sporting Roadmap

New Delhi, August 25: The revamped Khelo India Mission is seeking to change the way India identifies, develops and supports sporting talent by significantly expanding the number of athletes covered by government support while strengthening the ecosystem around them.

In an exclusive conversation with myKhel, Mayank Srivastava, IPS, DDG of the Khelo India Division at the Sports Authority of India, spoke about the expanded Khelo India Mission, its grassroots focus, coach development, sports science, district-level centres and the challenge of building a sporting culture in India. Srivastava has also previously spoken to this portal about the Khelo India Tribal Games and the programme's grassroots philosophy.

The Khelo India Mission has been approved with a ₹29,054 crore outlay for 2026-27 to 2030-31, while the Assistance to National Sports Federations scheme has an additional ₹7,387 crore allocation. Together, the two programmes have a total outlay of ₹36,441 crore. The five-year Khelo India Mission is aligned with India's longer-term 2036 Olympic vision.

'Nothing short of a revolution'

Srivastava believes the scale of the new Khelo India Mission represents a fundamental change in India's sporting landscape. He said, "The new Khelo India scheme approved by the Government of India can be understood as nothing short of a revolution in the sporting world. It has eight times more budget support. Apart from that, we can now support 10 times more Khelo India Athletes."

Under the earlier Khelo India structure, up to 3,000 athletes could receive support as Khelo India Athletes. The new framework is designed to take that figure to 30,000, while also introducing a new category of Emerging Khelo India Athletes.

"Earlier, the maximum number of Khelo India Athletes given a stipend was 3,000. Now, we can create up to 30,000 Khelo India Athletes. They will get complete support and won't have to spend even a single penny; the Government of India will bear all their expenses."

The government's own Khelo India Mission documents describe a 10-fold increase in the number of athletes supported, alongside the creation of the E-KIA category and expansion of the number of sports covered. The Talent Identification and Development component has an allocation of ₹2,407 crore.

Srivastava describes the philosophy behind the expansion as a "720-degree support system". He further added, "I call this a '720-degree support system.' Starting right from the grassroots level to reaching elite platforms, every aspect is covered."

The Mission's structure reflects that approach, with dedicated components covering talent development, competitions and leagues, coaching and support staff, training facilities, infrastructure, sports technology and the Fit India movement.

Coaches move to centre stage

One of the major changes under the revamped programme is the greater emphasis on coaches and support staff. "In the new scheme, there is a dedicated provision for coaches. We will not only train and create new coaches, but also have schemes to hire them and support State governments and National Sports Federations (NSFs) so they can hire quality coaches."

The Khelo India Mission has earmarked ₹748 crore for coach and support staff development. The programme proposes the establishment and operationalisation of a National Coach Accreditation Board (NCAB) to standardise certification and accreditation of coaches and support personnel.

The framework is designed to address coaching requirements at different stages of the athlete pathway - from foundational community coaches and grassroots developmental coaches to intermediate performance coaches and high-performance coaches working with national teams and elite athletes.

Srivastava also believes that India's high-performance system needs to go beyond traditional coaching. "Earlier, we didn't give enough emphasis to coaches or sports science staff. Today's sport is such that without modern sports science, you cannot excel."

"Under the new scheme, we are building a full sports science system-training new sports scientists and deploying them across SAI National Centers of Excellence (NCOEs) and sports academies," he added.

The Mission's high-performance infrastructure plans include sports science facilities, while National Centres of Excellence are already designed to provide specialised training, sports science support and other performance services to elite and intermediate athletes.

Building a sporting culture is the bigger challenge

For all the investment in infrastructure and athletes, Srivastava believes India's biggest challenge may be changing the perception of sport itself. "Our biggest challenge in India is building a true sporting culture. Among middle-class families, many still feel that sports isn't a viable career and push children toward academics instead. Building that trust is a massive task-it's full perception management."

The challenge, he says, extends to athletes themselves. "Even among athletes, many only play to secure a job. Building the ecosystem that turns India into a global sports superpower requires immense effort, but the grassroots-to-elite pipeline is now delivering real results."

There are already signs of the reach of Khelo India. Government data shows that more than 63,700 athletes have participated in Khelo India Games, while competitions have been held across more than 400 cities in all 36 States and Union Territories. The programme has also sanctioned 349 sports infrastructure projects and established 1,066 Khelo India Centres.

The revamped Mission seeks to build on that base through a more structured pathway from school and grassroots sport to high-performance centres.

District centres are the first point of contact

A key part of that grassroots strategy is the expansion of Khelo India Centres at the district level. "Earlier, there was a lack of institutional support across regions. Now, out of nearly 750 to 780 districts in India, Khelo India Centers exist in all of them so every young athlete has a dedicated local facility where they can go, play, and receive structured training."

The official Khelo India material currently lists 1,066 Khelo India Centres, describing them as the first large-scale institutional presence of the Government of India in sports at the district level. The centres are intended to strengthen grassroots training, with the standard model providing one centre per district and additional centres in certain regions.

The centres are also designed to address the shortage of qualified coaches at the grassroots. "To solve the shortage of local coaches, we onboard Past Champion Athletes as coaches at these centers, with full financial backing from the central government."

That model is already operating across the country. More than 28,234 athletes are training in over 40 sports under more than 950 Past Champion Athletes at Khelo India Centres, according to the government's current data.

The centres receive financial support for sports fields, equipment and kits, along with recurring support towards remuneration, support staff, equipment and events.

The next step: District-Level Sports Schools

Srivastava says the government is looking to go beyond standalone training centres by bringing education and sporting development together. "Under the new scheme, we are moving beyond just centers-we will establish District-Level Sports Schools. These will be residential facilities so children can study and train under one roof."

The broader Khelo India Mission already envisages Khelo India Utkrishta Vidyalayas (KIUV) and Khelo India Feeder Schools (KIFS) as new initiatives to integrate sports and education.

That integration could be important in addressing the very perception problem Srivastava identifies - the belief among families that pursuing sport comes at the cost of education.

The idea is to create an environment where academic and sporting development can happen together rather than forcing young athletes to choose between the two.

Taking talent identification to the village level

The expansion of the athlete pool also requires a wider and more systematic talent identification mechanism.

"To identify talent from remote areas, Zonal Committees and talent scouts will be deployed down to the village level. They will evaluate young talent using scientific physical assessments and integrate promising athletes directly into the mainstream sports ecosystem."

The Mission's talent identification structure includes Talent Scouts at the grassroots level, Talent Identification Zonal Committees (TIZCs) and Talent Identification and Development Committees (TIDCs) at the national level for individual sports. The TIDCs will oversee athlete induction, exclusion and performance monitoring.

Athletes identified through the scouting process can be brought into the Khelo India system as KIAs or Emerging KIAs and receive support for coaching, boarding and lodging, competitions, sports kits, education and out-of-pocket allowances as part of long-term athlete development.

The emphasis on scientific identification is intended to make the system less dependent on whether a talented youngster happens to live near an established academy or has access to an existing sporting network.

A year-round competitive pathway

The Mission is also looking to address the gap between identifying an athlete and providing enough opportunities for that athlete to develop.

The government has allocated ₹2,358 crore to sports competitions and leagues, with the new framework proposing a stronger domestic competition structure. Alongside the established Khelo India Youth, University, Winter and Para Games, the Mission envisages school championships, university leagues and regional or sport-specific leagues involving clubs, districts and state academies.

This is important because talent identification alone cannot create elite athletes. Young athletes need regular competition, quality opposition and performance benchmarking to progress through the pathway.

The official Mission document describes the objective as a structured ladder from school sport to high-performance centres, supported by year-round leagues and championships aligned with National Sports Federation calendars.

From grassroots access to elite performance

The scale of the new Mission is ultimately aimed at connecting what were previously separate parts of India's sporting ecosystem.

The government has earmarked ₹10,586 crore for Khelo India training facilities, covering a network that includes Khelo India Centres, Khelo India Accredited Academies, National Centres of Excellence, Khelo India Centres of Excellence, SAI Training Centres and other high-performance facilities.

At the infrastructure level, the Mission also has separate allocations for medal-strategy infrastructure, strategic sports assets and state-level sports infrastructure. The medal-strategy component is intended to develop sport-specific facilities for elite, intermediate and grassroots athletes, while prioritising Olympic, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games disciplines with medal potential.

For Srivastava, however, the ultimate objective goes beyond simply building more facilities or funding more athletes.

It is about creating a system in which a child can be identified in a village, access structured training at the district level, receive quality coaching and sports-science support, compete regularly, continue education and, if good enough, progress all the way to an elite training centre.

That is the "grassroots-to-elite" pathway at the centre of the Khelo India Mission - and, according to Srivastava, the scale of the revamped programme is intended to make that pathway available to far more Indian athletes than before.