Khelo India Rising Talent Identification Project to get a fresh boost from Sports Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya

Khel Today Bureau 

New Delhi: With the Paris Olympics upon us, the government’s ambitious Khelo India Rising Talent Identification (KIRTI) programme will shift an extra gear when the Hon’ble Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, will inaugurate phase 2 of the initiative in New Delhi on July 19 (Friday). The first phase of KIRTI was launched by the previous Hon’ble MYAS Shri Anurag Thakur in Chandigarh on March 12 this year.

Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya.

KIRTI aims to conduct 20 lakh assessments across the country throughout the year to identify talent through notified Talent Assessment Centres. A scouting and assessment programme of this scale is a first in India and comes at a time when the nation wants to become a top 10 sports nation in the world by 2036 and among the top five by 2047.

KIRTI’s athlete-centric programme is conspicuous by its transparent selection methodology based on Information Technology. Data analytics based on Artificial Intelligence are being used to predict the sporting acumen of an aspiring athlete.

In its first phase, out of 3,62,683 registrations across 70 centres, close to 51,000 assessments in 28 states and Union Territories have been made. Maharashtra and Haryana, two states which have always done well in Khelo India meets, have had the maximum number of assessments – 9168 and 4820 — respectively. Assam is third with 4703 assessments.

Evaluation of aspiring athletes has happened in 11 disciplines – Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Football, Hockey, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Volleyball, Weightlifting and Wrestling. Maximum assessments have happened in athletics (13804) and football (13483).  

Dr Mandaviya will lay emphasis on the project that aims to achieve 20 Lakh assessment in the FY 2024-25 by onboarding all states and treating the district as a unit of assessment. This is in line with Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision to take sports to every child in the country through mass participation and ultimately achieve excellence through Khelo India’s structured pyramidal programmes.

ABOUT KIRTI

KIRTI” (Khelo India Rising Talent Identification) has been envisioned to develop an integrated talent identification architecture based on modern ICT tools and global best practices. It aims to streamline the whole process of grassroots talent identification on a single platform. The roots of the project KIRTI are based on an athlete-centric approach wherein at every step the process of Talent Identification has been made more broad-based and accessible. Project KIRTI with its decentralized and pocket-based talent identification approach will help in achieving the twin objectives of the Khelo India Scheme i.e. excellence in sports, and mass participation in sports.