Sports Authority of India
Also called: SAI · Topic: Statutory, Regulatory and Quasi-judicial Bodies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is the main national body for sport. It works under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. It promotes sport, finds young talent and trains athletes. It runs the National Centres of Excellence (NCOEs), its top training centres, and carries out government talent schemes such as Khelo India and KIRTI (Khelo India Rising Talent Identification). SAI was not set up by an Act of Parliament, so it is not a statutory body. This matters because a body without a founding law depends more on the government's own decisions.
Example
In August 2025, a Parliamentary Standing Committee reviewed how SAI and Khelo India were working. It said the NCOEs do not combine sport with schooling. It asked for talent searches at ages 10 to 15 and for residential-cum-educational academies, meaning schools where children live, study and train in one place. It also asked for a study on whether SAI should become a statutory body.
Don't confuse with
- Statutory body (such as the NHRC or SEBI): set up by an Act of Parliament, so only a change to that law can change its powers. SAI has no such founding Act.
- Khelo India: a government scheme to find and train young athletes. It is not a body. SAI is one of the bodies that carries it out.