India has already bagged 82 medals so far in the ongoing Asian Games at Hangzhou. The number of medals is likely to increase. 

Pradip Dutta, the associate professor and High Performance Director (HPD) of the Khelo India scheme believes the country will have more medals in the next edition of Asian Games after four years and also other international competitions. 

The reason is Dutta believes in the nourishment of promising players in around 22 disciplines across the country through the Khelo India scheme. 

Khelo India scheme was introduced by the then Union sports minister and the silver medallist in 2008 Olympics Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in 2017-18. The budget to nurture the scheme was also increased by the 15th Finance Commission to Rs 3165.50 crore. 

Dutta speaking over the phone from Thiruvananthapuram said, “Director General of SAI, Sandeep Pradhan took the leadership of carrying out the Khelo India scheme in a brilliant manner. Under his leadership, the players across the country from around 22 sports disciplines are scouted.”

Dutta added, “The scouting is not only made from Khelo India Games but also other national-level competitions. In each discipline, a Talent Identity Development Committee (TIDC) has been formed where people from the respective federations are included. TIDC makes the evaluation of players' merit, physical ability, and mental condition at the National Centre of Excellence centers. We have 23 such centers. Under this scheme, each sports discipline has High-Performance Directors (HPD) and High-Performance Managers (HPM)."

"The respective coaches are linked to the HPDs who ultimately guide the training module according to the players’ ability and adaptability. Nearly Rs 5 lakh is spent for one player yearly where the player’s education, lodging, food is taken care. Even the players’ exposure trips to participate in the competitions abroad is looked after in this scheme.” 

Presently, nearly three thousand players are being nurtured under the Khelo India scheme and Dutta revealed that 99 percent of them have already been shortlisted as medal contenders in the future.