UNION BUDGET ’21-22 AND SPORTS

The Union Budget 2021-22 was an industry and infra-centric budget. Budget 2021 provides
every opportunity for the economy to capture the pace and grow sustainably. Budget is expected
to revolve around the philosophy of “growth with a human touch" and focused on raising
farmers’ incomes, generating jobs for the young, improving health care standards and ease of
compliance for citizens and businesses. The budget 2021 rests on six pillars- Health & Well-
being, physical and financial capital & infrastructure, inclusive development for aspirational
India, reinvigorating human capital, innovation & research & development, minimum
government and maximum governance.

The finance minister started off with the impact of health and well being on the nation. As we are
in the middle of a pandemic our first priority shall be our health and well being with this being
said the effect of sports on our health cannot be ignored.

The finance minister laid a great emphasis on the infrastructure program. The government in this
budget has spent big in building of the infrastructure in the country. National Infrastructure
Pipeline has been expanded to 7,400 projects. Further, projects worth ₹1.1 lakh crore have been
completed under the National Infra Pipeline. The government will also introduce bill to set up
DFI providing ₹20,000 crore to launch the National Asset Monetization Pipeline to fund new
infra projects which includes building of sports stadiums across the nation to facilitate sports
events and promote sports and fitness in the country.

The Finance Minister also gave an extension of tax holiday for start-ups by one more year which
can help the sport start-ups to flourish in the country and has also helped in relieving the effects
of COVID on the sport start-ups such as sports management companies that started their
business just before the pandemic begun as they suffered a huge loss due to absence of any
sporting event in the nation. The FM also proposed to incentivize the incorporation of one
person company to enable them to grow without restrictions on paid-up capital and turnover.
The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also made a provision of Rs.15,700 crore for the
Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector in Union Budget 2021-22.
Most of the sports equipment manufacturing companies come under MSMEs and this budget
will help them to recover from the losses caused due to COVID pandemic. The sports equipment
manufacturing industry in India is worth Rs 2000 crore, the industry saw a huge slump during
what otherwise would have been a peak season. Therefore, the financial package would do a
great help to the sports manufacturing companies and other such small-scale businesses.

Further, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has laid out the budget specifically for the
development of sports in India for 2021-22 which estimates to Rs.2596 crores1. The Ministry
seeks to invest in many developmental programs and organizations some of which are:

 Khelo India: It is an umbrella scheme which aims to achieve objective of broad basing of
sports and achieving excellence in sports.

 National Service Scheme: The National Service Scheme (NSS) is a Central Sector
Scheme with the objective to develop character and personality of student/youth in
schools and colleges. The operations of NSS are at the University/College and Higher
Secondary School level. The objective of the NSS is to arouse social conscience of the
students, and to provide them an opportunity to work with the people in the villages and
slum dwellings.

 Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan :.Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, an autonomous body
under the Ministry caters to the needs of more than 45.18 lakh non-student rural youth in
the age group of 15- 29 years enrolled through 2.30 lakh community based youth clubs.
Its functions are towards major quantum of mobilization and development activities in
the sphere of non-student rural youth. Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan has now 29 state
offices working in 623 districts of the country.
1
Indiabudget.gov.in
  Scouting and Guiding: The provision is for financial assistance to Scouts and Guides for
various activities such as training camps, skills development programmes etc.

 Other Autonomous Bodies: These are schemes under Other Autonomous Bodies viz.
National Dope Testing Laboratory, National Anti-Doping Agency, National Centre of
Sports Science and Research, National Centre for Sports Coaching and Sports University
in North East.

 Assistance to National Sports Federations: Financial assistance is given to recognized

National Sports Federations for sending their teams abroad for training and participation
in internationals tournaments, for holding international tournaments in India, for
conducting National Championships and for procuring sports equipment. Financial
assistance is also extended through SAI for organizing coaching camps, for preparing
national teams and for engaging the services of foreign coaches.

 Assistance to Sports persons: Scholarships are grated at National level, State level,
School/College level to sportspersons under this scheme. Several other awards including
Arjuna awards and Dhyanchand awards are catered through this provision.

In conclusion the Union Budget 2021-22 didn’t lay enough emphasis on the importance of sports
in post COVID-19 era and very little efforts have been made to revive the crippled sports
industry of India. Much was expected from the government regarding improvement in the sports
sector. Sports is one critical area which needs much attention as it can be a key to dramatically
improve outcomes in health, education and overall development of children and youth in the
country.