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On Wednesday, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore announced a revamped version of the 'Khelo India' Scheme, which is expected to play a key role in the all-round development of India as a sporting nation.
Earlier, it focused only on the development of infrastructure, but now, it has been turned into a bigger and better version after the Union Cabinet approved a sum of Rs 1,756 crore for the Scheme and the merger of three existing ones -- the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan, National Sports Talent Search Programme and Urban Sports Infrastructure Scheme.
The sum mentioned above is for the period of 2017-18 to 2019-20 and is a landmark step in the history of Indian sport. Under the scheme, each athlete selected will receive an annual scholarship of Rs 5 lakh and additionally, it will play an important role in the professionalization of sport in India.
It also a huge social aspect to it as it aims to make sport gender as well and socially inclusive. The scheme aims to cover nearly 200 million children within the age group of 10-18 years for a national physical fitness drive. Additionally, it will aim to cover 20 universities across India, which will be promoted as hubs of sporting excellence.
The scheme was announced by the Sports Minister in a series of tweets:
The move was appreciated by the sporting fraternity across the nation and the received approval from a number of athletes. One of them was India skipper Virat Kohli, who tweeted his support for the initiative.
It read, "'Khelo india' a much awaited initiative by our hon'ble PM & SportsMinister.Surely this will catalyse sports in India. (sic)" and also mentioned the Prime Minister and Sports Minister in the tweet.
Rathore replied to it, thanking the player for his support and also displaying some fine wordplay!
