From the memoir: The policies Mani Shankar Aiyar introduced to make India a ‘sporting nation’

Our pathetic haul of medals, placing us, the most populous nation in the world, at the derisory 70th position of participating nations and teams in the Paris Olympics 2024, has only further proved how right I am in wanting India to become a sporting nation before it takes to being a sports-hosting nation. Having seen a stop being put to wild imaginings of making India, at an obscene cost, a host of dazzling international sports events, I concentrated my energies on what I regarded as a far more important national goal – that of making India a “sporting nation”.

I decided on drawing in the other department of my ministry, the Department of Youth Affairs, as also my other portfolio, the ministry of Panchayati Raj. Between them, they had the required grassroots instruments and infrastructure to help make India a sporting nation.

I launched a new initiative, called the Panchayat Yuva Khel aur Krida Abhiyan [PYKKA] (in English, Panchayat Youth Sports and Games Movement). The Panchayati Raj ministry was to work with state governments to persuade village panchayats to set aside a portion of village land for building modest to elaborate sports complexes to which the village poor would have easy access....

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