The Sports Ministry on Tuesday, decided to recognize ‘Yoga’ as a sports discipline and place it in the ‘Priority’ category. The Ministry also decided to upgrade Fencing from ‘Others’ to ‘General’ category, based on the past performance in major international events. It has also been decided to place ‘University Sports’ in the ‘Priority’ category.
The Ministry on Tuesday, reviewed the categorization of various Sports disciplines and the revised categories of sports disciplines and the scale of financial assistance admissible to each category was conveyed to IOC and all recognized National Sports Federations on 23rd March, 2015.
It was also conveyed that ‘General’ category of sports disciplines shall be retained. Criteria for inclusion in this category and financial assistance to be provided will be separately issued.
It has now been decided by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports that sports disciplines included in the multidiscipline mega events like Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games etc and which have obtained a ranking up to eighth in individual events and up to 10th in team events in Olympics/Asian Games/CWG or their respective Asian and World Championships shall be placed in ‘General’ category.
Financial assistance for this category will be as under: National Championships are to be funded, One international event in India in a year, can be funded and a Maximum of one foreign exposure each in Senior and Junior categories can also be funded during a year.