CII & MoYAS join hands to organize SCORECARD 2015, India's biggest conference on Sports

Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal

Sports are the pulse of life. Every day, we tune into a sports channel on the television or log in to a website on the World Wide Web to keep our self updated about how our favourite club or the Indian national team have fared. There are millions like us who would do the same and it thus is pretty perplexing to see a disorganized sector and lack of cohesion among various organizations working towards creating India a bigger sporting nation.

Thus in a quest to don the role of a platform to bring everyone concerned together, the Confederation Sports are the pulse of life. Every day, we tune into a sports channel on the television or log in to a website on the World Wide Web to keep our self updated about how our favourite club or the Indian national team have fared.

There are millions like us who would do the same and it thus is pretty perplexing to see a disorganized sector and lack of cohesion among various organizations working towards creating India a bigger sporting nation.

Thus in a quest to don the role of a platform to bring everyone concerned together, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, is set to organise SCORECARD 2015, a National Conference on Business of Sports on September 1, 2015 in the capital.

The conference vies to bring together key stakeholders from the sporting industry; from policy makers, to representatives from the federations, league / franchise owners, goods manufacturers, experts, sportspersons, and eminent figures from sports academies, institutes and media deem to be present at the venue, come next Tuesday.

Adding further credibility to the schedule would be the presence of super stars from different spheres who would interact with other panelists over the event. To be spread over five sessions, we have managed to list down key points from the itinerary of the day

I. Inaugural session: Making India a sporting nation

To initiate the proceedings, the inaugural discussion will focus on how we can transform India into a formidable sporting nation by focusing on the key segments of the sports ecosystem viz. sports governance; talent scouting and training players and trainers; sports infrastructure, sports equipment (industry); sporting leagues and tournaments; and performance incentives for sportspersons and sports policy; the role of India Inc in making India a sporting nation; the role of media in sports by addressing the issues and challenges in making India a sporting nation, and last but not the least the role of leagues in the sports sector – robust uniform legal framework for governance across all leagues, monetization of leagues, franchises to engage with local communities.

While Chandrajit Banerjee, Director CII, Sanjay Gupta, Chairman, SCORECARD and Sumit Mazumder will speak to the gathering during this; chief guest for the day- Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports will deliver a keynote address.

II. Sports: In pursuit of excellence

Former tennis player Vijay Amritraj will deliver the opening speech at this session

Amidst times of prosperity in the sporting sector in our country, CII is bringing together stakeholders of the sector to brainstorm on the pursuit of excellence in the sports and features Indian sportspersons,corporate sector and government which believes that “excellence isn’t a destination, it is a constant pursuit.”

Moderated by Charu Sharma, this session will see the legendary Vijay Amritraj deliver the opening speech. Pankaj Advani and Dilip Shenoy will be among others discussing the continued attempt to scale new heights in sports.

III. Making Football a way of life in India

Kushal Das, General Secretary, AIFF

While we might be languishing at 150 in the FIFA Rankings, it is undeniable that the potential India possesses as a footballing nation is immense.The session thus shall focus on: Status of Football in India; The I-League and Indian Super League; Case Studies on Status of Football in the rest of the world and India’s preparation for the U-17 World Cup in 2017.

The moderator for this session will be Sukhvinder Singh, Managing Director, Libero Sports.

Other panelists will include Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive, Premier League, Kushal Das, General Secretary, All India Football Federation (AIFF), Hicham El Amrani, General Secretary, Confederation of African Football (CAF), Nitin Kukreja, President – Sports, Star India Pvt Ltd, Sameer Manchanda, Owner, Delhi Dynamos, Arup Das, Managing Trustee, India Youth Soccer Association and Rahul Patil, Chief Executive Officer, North East United FC.

IV. Role of sports in creating powerful brands

Sundar Raman, COO, Indian Premier League, Sanjay Gupta, Chairman, CII National Committee on Sports and other panelists will discuss how have brands benefited from association with Sports and how has such association helped in funding the growth of sports over time, among other things.

V. What stands between us and Olympic medals

Former India hockey player and founder, Olympic Gold Quest Viren Rasquinha

In a televised debate, Rahul Kanwal shall moderate a discussion between sports lawyer and activist Rahul Mehra and former India hockey player Viren Rasquinha highlighting issues that hinder India’s performance at the Summer Olympics and shaping a successful innings for Indian Sports Industry: from generating financial support for professional athletes, to building infrastructure from the ground up and Health & Nutrition; as well as promoting global exposure for Indian sportspersons and making “All purpose” sports facilities in India as well as highlight the importance of Foreign coaches.

VI. Women in Indian Sports

Anjum Chopra

Former India cricket captain Anjum Chopra, Ms Rose Thomson, Education Director, Yuwa India and Ms Shiba Maggon, the basketball coach for the junior Indian women’s team will be among others present at the event. They will discuss the current participation level of women in sports in the rest of the world and in India and the barriers to women participation in sports.

The session also asks important questions on - How to transform the world of Women in Indian sports in their pursuit of excellence – the issues, constraints, promotion of women participation in sports and governance in India and stresses the importance of having Women’s league in India – in various sports and the need to sensitize India Inc to be game for women in Indian sports.

The fact that sports can serve as a tool to promote gender equity and empower women shall also highlighted.

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Edited by Staff Editor