Vice President to launch Sports Talent Portal on Aug 28

Team Udayavani, Aug 26, 2017, 2:48 PM IST

New Delhi :  Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu will officially launch the Sports Ministry’s much- awaited National Sports Talent Search Portal at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on August 28. Sports Minister Vijay Goel said the Vice President has given his consent to be the chief guest of the ceremony.

“There have always been issues regarding fair selection of talented sports persons in the state, national and international levels for teams in various sporting disciplines in our country,” Goel said. “This has been a serious issue for our government and accordingly we took steps to evolve this portal, where every child who is talented in a particular sport or his teacher or parent can upload the sporting achievements of the child who is eight years of age,” he said.

Goel said the achievements will be considered by the Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India while shortlisting the talented kids, who will then be called for trials at the nearest SAI Centre for final selection. The portal will provide a three step simple process for registration, profile creation and upload of achievements. Goel said around 1000 kids will be selected and they will receive scholarships of Rs 5 lakh per year for eight years.

The portal will be available in English and other regional languages so that it is easier for any boy or girl who is talented in a particular sport to upload his or her achievements from any part of the country. The portal will also be available as App which can be downloaded on smartphones. Besides, the Sports Minister today also announced the first edition of Rural Games or Grameen Khel Mahotsav which will start from the Capital.

The first stage of the Rural Games will be held in Alipur, Mehrauli, Nangloi, Najafgarh and Shahadara from August 28 to September 1.