Eminent Hockey Olympian Jagbir Singh joins Corporate Games

Very keen interest has been shown by public sector undertakings for the Corporate Games scheduled from 22^nd-25^th November in Delhi. On directions of Mr.O.P. Rawat, IAS, Secretary Department Of Public Enterprises, Mr.U.D. Choubey, Chairman of SCOPE, addressed all the 250 public sector undertakings in India to encourage their employees to participate in Corporate Games in order to ensure fitness among their employees at a conference at the Bhabha chamber of the SCOPE Building on September 25^th 2012.

A large number of representatives from leading public sectors such as Air India, SAIL , ONGC, BWEL, PEC Ltd., NTPC , GRSE, the Shipping Corporation of India and many more attended the conference. Mr. OP Bhatia, CEO, Corporate Games, addressed nodal officers sports of all the PSUs, explaining the importance of Participation in Corporate Games. He highlighted the benefits, saying that it creates culture of lifelong fitness, in addition to building team spirit and a will to win. Similarly far too many benefits accrue to the PSUs such as:

- social interaction among different Corporates through the medium of sports.

- improving their brand image.

- enhancing loyalty towards the organization.

- reducing absenteeism as well as reducing attrition.

One of the representatives of PSU mentioned that their employees are generally desk bound & are above the age of 35 years, and not very fit to compete in competitive games. To that, Mr.Bhatia said: “It is not that people stop playing because they are old. They become old ,because they stop playing.”

Mr.Jagbir Singh, Olympian & Arjuna Awardee, reiterated this point and said that he used to train the hockey team of Germany till 1997. Recently, while interacting with some of his ex-trainees, he learnt that even parents and grand parents play hockey with their children and that is what keeps the nation young and fit.

More than 17 public sector undertakings have confirmed their participation in the forthcoming Corporate Games including Air India, ONGC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation of India, BWEL, and ONGC Videsh. Public Sector Enterprises are keen on participating in Corporate Games as middle aged people can participate in these games, which have been modified to suit people of a higher age group. Cricket is played among the team of eight persons and each inning is only of 10 overs with rolling substitution. Soccer & hockey are 30 minutes per half with a rolling substitution option.

Organizers of Corporate games are expecting more than 60 companies to participate in these games.