Sports Ministry recognises ‘Yoga’ as a sports discipline

On September 1, the Sports Ministry announced that it has decided to recognise ‘Yoga’ as a sports discipline and place it in the ‘Priority’ category. The Ministry also decided to upgrade Fencing from ‘Others’ to ‘General’ category, based on the past performance in major international events. It has also been decided to place ‘University Sports’ in the ‘Priority’ category.

Yesterday, the Ministry reviewed the categorization of various sports disciplines and the revised categories of sports disciplines and the scale of financial assistance admissible to each category was conveyed to IOC and all recognised National Sports Federations on March 23, 2015.

The ‘General’ category of sports disciplines shall also be retained, the Ministry notified. It added that the criteria for inclusion in this category and financial assistance to be provided will be separately issued.

Also, it has now been decided by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports that sports disciplines included in the multidiscipline mega events like Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games etc. and which have obtained a ranking up to 8th in individual events and up to 10th in team events in Olympics, Asian Games, CWG or their respective Asian and World Championships shall be placed in ‘General’ category.

For this category, the Ministry has outlined the financial assistance as under: National Championships are to be funded, One international event in India in a year, can be funded and a Maximum of one foreign exposure each in Senior and Junior categories can also be funded during a year.

[SOURCE-“indiatoday.intoday”]