As the Paris Olympics draws near, the government’s ambitious Khelo India Rising Talent Identification (KIRTI) programme is set to get a fresh boost under the leadership of Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

He will inaugurate the Phase 2 of the initiative here on Friday. Earlier, the first phase of KIRTI was launched in Chandigarh on March 12 this year.

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Dr Mandaviya will lay emphasis on the project that aims to achieve 20 Lakh assessment in the FY 2024-25 by onboarding all states and treating the district as a unit of assessment.

This is also in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to give sports to every child in the country through mass participation and ultimately achieve excellence through Khelo India’s structured pyramidal programmes.

In the first phase of KIRTI, out of 3,62,683 registrations across 70 centres, close to 51,000 assessments in 28 states and Union Territories have been made.

Maharashtra and Haryana, two states which have always done well in Khelo India meets, have had the maximum number of assessments – 9168 and 4820 — respectively. Assam is third with 4703 assessments.

Evaluation of aspiring athletes has happened in 11 disciplines – Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Football, Hockey, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Volleyball, Weightlifting and Wrestling. Maximum assessments have happened in athletics (13804) and football (13483).

KIRTI aims to conduct 20 lakh assessments across the country throughout the year to identify talent through notified Talent Assessment Centres. A scouting and assessment programme of this scale is a first in India and comes at a time when the nation wants to become a top 10 sports nation in the world by 2036 and among the top five by 2047.

KIRTI’s athlete-centric programme is conspicuous by its transparent selection methodology based on Information Technology. Data analytics based on Artificial Intelligence are being used to predict the sporting acumen of an aspiring athlete.

KIRTI (Khelo India Rising Talent Identification) has been envisioned to develop an integrated talent identification architecture based on modern ICT tools and global best practices. It aims to streamline the whole process of grassroots talent identification on a single platform.

The roots of the project KIRTI are based on an athlete-centric approach wherein at every step the process of Talent Identification has been made more broad-based and accessible.

Project KIRTI with its decentralized and pocket-based talent identification approach will help in achieving the twin objectives of the Khelo India Scheme i.e. excellence in sports, and mass participation in sports.