Union Budget 2024: What's in it for Sports? FM Nirmala Sitharaman reveals plans at the Lok Sabha

Budget 2024: The Union Budget reveal under the NDA Government has been one of the most anticipated affairs lately, as the people of India were glued to their stars to witness what are the changes and additions made this year. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the speech in today's Lok Sabha session and revealed the major pointers of the moves and where are the cuts and additions made. As people look upon sectors like minerals, employment, tax, and more, let's take a look at what the Union budget over the Modi 3.0 government had for the sector of Sports.

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Union Budget 2024: Does Sports Gets the Boost?

Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget on Tuesday, allocated a ₹26,000 Crore package for various projects for the State of Bihar. The reason, significantly, the JDU Ruled region will receive the package which will help boost the area's tourism, improve health care, connectivity, and more. The government also plans to build medical colleges, and airports and also fund the sports infrastructure of the state.

In the interim budget, FM Sitharaman said that ₹3442.32 Crore will be allotted to the Sports Ministry, which is a significant rise from the previous budget's ₹3,396.96 Crore. It received a ₹45.36 Crore hike, with the focus primarily being on the Sports Ministry's ‘Khelo India’ programme and the Sports Authority of India. Other Federations like the NSFs, NADA, and NDTL received a significant raise in their government-allocated budget when the FM presented the Interim Budget at the beginning of the year. Khelo India was allotted INR 900 crore, which is 20 crore in excess from the previous budget.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) which is responsible for organizing national camps and providing infrastructure and equipment to athletes was allocated INR 26.83 crore more as compared to previous year's INR 795.77 crore. The National Sports Federations (NSFs) are set to receive INR 15 crore more as compared to last year's budget of Rs 325 crore. National Doping Agency (NADA)  too saw a raise in its budget allocation by INR 22.30 crore. In addition to it, the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) will receive Rs 22 crore, INR 2.5 crore in excess to the previous budget.

The Allocated budget for the National Centre of Sports Science and Research has been reduced to Rs 8 crore from Rs 10 crore previously. There is an increased allocation of Rs 91.90 crore from Rs 83.21 crore of 2023-24 budget in the National Sports University budget.

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Team India's Mission Olympics

The central government is keen to bring the Olympics to India and their initiative could begin with the appropriate budget allocation. PM Modi has been an ardent supporter of the Indian athletes and envisions bringing the 2029 Youth Olympics and the 2036 Olympics to India.

The Prime Minister envisions transforming sports and providing Indian athletes with international exposure, and the government has taken efforts to raise talent abroad. The initiative to establish India as a sporting hub and sports tourist destination will be groundbreaking, and the NDA seems to be working diligently towards it.