The Tokyo Olympics 2020 ended on 8th August, 2021 with India bagging seven medals in total. Athletes from all across the country made India proud with their achievements: be it Neeraj Chopra, Ravi Kumar, Bajrang Punia from Haryana or Mirabai Chanu Saikhom from Manipur, Borgohain Lovlina from Assam or PV Sindhu from Telangana or the Men’s hockey team spanning the North, South, East, West of the country.
The map below shows the share of total expenditure of the state governments to be spent on Sports and Youth Services in 2021-22 (Budget Estimates).
Tip: Hover over the map to see the budget of all states spent on Sports and Youth Affairs (in Rs. Crores). Best viewed on desktop and tablet.
The share of total budget on sports ranged from 0.04 percent to 1.16 percent across all states in India. Goa, the highest at 1.16 percent, is an outlier. For the remaining states, the share ranged from 0.04 percent to 0.45 percent. Goa had increased its budget in 2019 in order to successfully organise the National Games which was to be held in 2020. Goa’s current budget for 2021-22 is around Rs. 290 crores.
Other top states include Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura among the others. The table below shows the top 15 states with respect to their share of spending on Sports and Youth Affairs in their total budget.
As seen in the table above, the top 15 states include all the states from the north east, except Assam which is at rank 16. The push for sports by the governments in these states is well known and reflected in the performance of athletes from these states in national as well as international sport competitions. Some of the other states in the top 15 include Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Haryana and Delhi among others.
While undoubtedly the Indian athletes have made the country proud of their achievements, India is quite behind globally, in terms of the total number of medals won by the country. The top five countries in Tokyo Olympics 2020, ranked as per the total number of medals received by them, were the USA, China, ROC, Great Britain and Japan. All of these five countries received more than 50 medals each including all gold, silver and bronze medals, with the USA in fact receiving more than 100 medals.
Several economic factors play an important role in the achievements of the country in the global arena. India was the world’s fifth largest economy in the world in 2020 and with a population similar to that of China, the central government’s estimated budget for Sports and Youth Affairs in 2020-21 was only Rs. 2827 crores. The budgeted amount when looked at as a share of total expenditure of the central government was close to negligible. The budget allocation for 2021-22 was reduced further by the central government by around 8 percent to Rs. 2,596 crores. The total budget of all the state governments for 2021-22 was over Rs. 5800 crores, based on the data collected.
While the central government has launched various schemes, such as Khelo India, Target Olympic Podium Scheme and has established institutions such as Sports Authority of India, National Centres of Excellence, a greater push from the central government may help India achieve more on the sports front. Around 27 percent of India’s population fell in the range of 0-14 years in 2019, and a push even at the school level in the field of physical education will not only make India stronger in sports activities but also physically nurture the young population of the country.
In addition to a budgetary push, the central government can incentivise the state governments to increase their focus on physical education and sports through various schemes and policies. Funding support for sports can also come through CSR funds and as a part of their CSR spending, industry can also choose to spend more on sports and related activities, especially in states which have a higher potential for growth in this field.
Methodology notes: The budget estimates (2021-22) for all the states were taken as per the Revenue and Capital Expenditure accounts for Sports and Youth Services (namely, headers 2204 and 4402). Wherever available, the capital expenditure was added from the Demand for Grants or the departmental budget estimates. In case of any queries or feedback, kindly write to dipti.factogram@gmail.com
Sources:
- Various State Government budget documents, accessed on 08.08.2021
- CBGA India, available at https://www.cbgaindia.org/in-the-media/policy-updates/, accessed on 08.08.2021
- OpenBudgetsIndia, available at https://openbudgetsindia.org/, accessed on 08.08.2021
- World Economic Forum. “India is now the world’s 5th largest economy.” 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/india-gdp-economy-growth-uk-france/. Accessed on 08.08.2021
- Business Standard. “Budget 2021: Govt cuts sports budget by Rs 230.78 crore in an Olympic year.” Business Standard, 02.02.2021, https://www.business-standard.com/budget/article/budget-2021-govt-cuts-sports-budget-by-rs-230-78-crore-in-an-olympic-year-121020101713_1.html. Accessed on 08.08.2021
- Bhattacharyya, Ranajit, et al. “As Tokyo Olympics Approach, a Look at India’s Sporting Potential.” The Wire, 25.06.2021, https://thewire.in/sport/as-tokyo-olympics-approach-a-look-at-indias-sporting-potential. Accessed on 08.08.2021