Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Singh Thakur inaugurated the Sports Science Centre in Udupi yesterday. Speaking on the occasion, he said that the government is making efforts to transform India into a sporting soft power. It has increased the sports budget from 854 crores before 2014 to 3,100 crore rupees this year and spent 2700 crore rupees to enhance sporting infrastructure as against 630 crore rupees earlier.

For Khelo India Games, the government is spending 3,136 crore rupees for a period of five years. These initiatives are yielding fruits as India went on to win seven medals in the Olympics, 19 in the Paralympics and the highest of 61 medals in the Commonwealth Games and India also won the Thomas cup. He said that the encouragement to sports in the country has provided confidence today that Indian sportspersons not just compete but compete to win medals.