JSW Steel has launched a sports excellence programme through ISW Sports to brighten the prospects of India winning gold medal in the Common Wealth Games to be held in Glasgow, Scotland later this month.

JSW Sports, which will have a separate board of sportsmen, is a subsidiary of JSW Holdings which owns substantial stake in JSW Steel.

The sports initiative will be overseen by Parth Jindal, son of JSW Group Chairman and Managing Director, Sajjan Jindal.

Speaking to media at press conference on Thursday, Parth Jindal said the company stumbled on this idea after the new Companies Act allowed to treat expenses incurred on supporting sports as part of corporate social responsibility.

"In next one year, we would have a most modern sports academy on 40 acres with 15-20 coaches on at our steel plant at Bellary in Karnataka," he said without revealing the total investment in the project.

The excellence programme will focus on athletics, swimming, boxing, wrestling, judo and football.

Working on this project for the last 8 to 12 months, the company has inducted 28 athletes into the programme based on an exhaustive selection processes, which involved monitoring the potential talent over series of tournaments and feedback from the experts of respective disciplines, he said.

Grooming young talent

Assuring that the company will support sports for years to come, Parth said the company would groom young talent from the age group of 12 especially from Haryana, Mizoram and Kerala. The company is working closely with the Sports Authority of India and sports federations to identify the right talent.

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