Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday, June 13, 2026, pointed to two flagship sports schemes — Khelo India and the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) — as drivers behind India's recent sporting achievements, citing a record medal haul at the Asian Games 2022 and what he described as India's first ICC Women's Cricket World Cup title in 2025.

Context

Rijiju's post, tagged #12YearsOfYuvaShakti, states that 'over 63,000 athletes have benefited through Khelo India, while TOPS has helped more than 300 athletes train at the highest level.' He frames the outcomes as evidence that 'when young talent gets the right support, history is created.' The post coincides with a broader government communication effort around the 'Yuva Shakti' theme, which celebrates youth empowerment milestones.

Policy Backdrop

Khelo India was launched in 2017 to build a national sports culture through grassroots talent identification and annual multi-discipline competitions across states. TOPS, introduced in 2014–15 ahead of the Rio Olympics, provides focused financial, coaching, and logistical support to elite athletes with realistic medal prospects at global competitions. Together, the two schemes represent a shift from ad-hoc patronage to structured, high-performance pathways modelled on successful sporting nations. The Sports Ministry has substantially raised annual budget allocations for athlete training and infrastructure since 2014.

India's tally of 107 medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2022 — the country's highest-ever at the quadrennial event — is cited by Rijiju as a concrete outcome of these investments. The minister also references the 2025 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup triumph as a historic first for Indian women's cricket.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of these schemes are young athletes from across India, many from smaller towns and rural areas, who gain access to competitive exposure, coaching, and financial support that was previously unavailable to them. Women cricketers feature prominently in Rijiju's narrative, with the claimed 2025 World Cup win held up as a landmark for women's sport in the country. The Khelo India framework also feeds state-level sporting ecosystems, creating pipelines for future national and international representation.

Broader stakeholders include state sports academies, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), and national sports federations that coordinate with the central government on athlete selection and training calendars under TOPS.

What's Next

The immediate policy focus is expected to shift toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where India will look to convert the momentum from recent Asian Games performances into Olympic podium finishes. Analysts and sports administrators will watch whether the Union Budget expands allocations for both Khelo India and TOPS in the coming fiscal cycle. Rijiju's post signals that the government intends to keep sporting achievements central to its youth-empowerment narrative as it builds toward Los Angeles 2028.