Budget for 2024:

The first budget of Modi Government 3.0 has arrived. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget for 2024-25 on Tuesday. During this, the Finance Minister also showered a lot of money from her coffers for sports. She has sanctioned a huge amount for Khelo India.

Khelo India is an important scheme of the government, which has been created to promote sports at the grassroots level. In the Union Budget for 2024 presented by the Finance Minister, Rs 3,442.31 crore has been sanctioned for the Sports Ministry. Out of which Rs 900 crore has been allocated for Khelo India in this budget for 2024.

Slight increase in the budget of Sports Ministry

However, this amount is Rs 20 crore more than the revised allocation of Rs 880 crore during the last financial year. This year, the Paris Olympics will be held from July 26 to August 11, after which there is still two years left for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. In such a situation, only a marginal increase of Rs 45.36 crore has been made in the budget for 2024 of the Sports Ministry.

The Sports Ministry was sanctioned Rs 3,396.96 crore in the last budget. The government has invested heavily in Khelo India in the last few years as the programme seeks to unearth talent from all parts of the country.

The actual allocation for Khelo India in the financial year 2022-23 was Rs 596.39 crore. In the next year’s budget, it was increased by about Rs 400 crore to Rs 1 thousand crore. It was, however, revised to Rs 880 crore.