Khelo India Scheme
Also called: Khelo India, KIRTI · Topic: Civil Society, Pressure Groups, NGOs and Self-help Groups · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Khelo India is the Government of India's main scheme for finding young sports talent and training it. Children are picked through talent searches. The selected players then train in accredited academies, which are sports centres approved under the scheme. KIRTI (Khelo India Rising Talent Identification) is the talent-search programme inside Khelo India. Together they are India's main government system for spotting and training athletes from a young age. Parliamentary Standing Committees have reviewed the scheme. In 2019, a committee asked for a single-window selection process, meaning one clear trial instead of many repeated tests. In 2025, a committee asked for talent searches at ages 10 to 15 and for residential-cum-educational academies, where children live, study and train in one place.
Example
In 2018-19, Khelo India selected 1,518 players for training. Only 625 joined the accredited academies, and 893 dropped out. The 2019 Standing Committee said the main reason was that the academies did not offer proper schooling alongside training. KIRTI recorded 3,62,683 registrations in its first phase.
Don't confuse with
- A private junior programme (such as a racing team's own academy): the team itself chooses and pays for the athlete. Under Khelo India, the government picks and trains players.