Sports: An Establishing Growth

A few years back there was a non-sporting culture in India, only cricket being the one major sport in India. But in the last 3-5 years the sports sector has seen a huge drift. The Indian sports scene is making a path towards other sports beyond just the game of cricket resulting in the growth of participation, viewership, and sports-related industries. There are many investment prospects which range from manufacturing and retail of equipment to advertising, training, and management.

Over the years, sports has become a multimillion dollar industry across the globe and is also a reputed career, however it is yet to be considered as a separate industry in India. It is a developing sector and individuals associated with sports and other services are increasingly becoming big business units. The government is making schemes and making plans to create or upgrade sports infrastructure and promote more engagement from youth in sports. The only objective is to achieve excellence at both national and international sports competitions. National Sports federations which are autonomous and receive government funding are responsible for promoting the country's sports sector. 

The formula one racing championship saw an inflow of US $100mn into Indian economy through travel and hospitality industries. The IPL directly indirectly generated employment for more than 15000 people. In India, the investments from big groups and corporates in the sports sector is majorly for sponsorship, advertisement, and company CSR mandate.

Federation Of Indian Chambers Of Commerce And Industry (FICCI )

FICCI is considered the voice of India’s business and industry. FICCI has significantly contributed towards sports sector through various activities such as-

I. Made a National Sports Committee for consensus building and improving dialogue between government and industry.  The committee comprises stakeholders from India Inc, NSFs, sports persons including Olympics and international record holders, media persons, etc.

II. FICCI has been instrumental in initiating policy advocacy for creating an industry-friendly environment and has taken steps to bring about need-based knowledge development and dissemination with inputs for experienced stakeholders, etc...

FICCI provides a platform and advisory services if you are an international or national organization interested in launching business and services in the Indian sports sector. 

Sports And Other Sectors

Sports sector is linked with other sectors as well such as infrastructure, tourism, hospitality, sponsorship, education, entertainment, technological, manufacturing, management, sponsorship, etc. Recently Mizoram declared sports as an industry to provide a healthy direction to this ever-expanding passionate sector. The sports sector, if fully explored, can contribute towards 1-5% of the country's GDP. 

Khelo India

The Khelo India program was created in2018 to revive the sports culture in India at grass root level establishing or setting up a system for all sports played in India and establish it as a great sporting nation. The key focus was on increased participation and competitions, increase awareness about sports in rural areas and strengthen infrastructure on the local and national level.

Challenges

The sports sector lacks the ‘industry’ status in India and also sporting culture. Most of the corporate investments have been limited to nonprofit CSR. many profit-related opportunities, fields, and activities are yet to be explored. Sports can contribute significantly towards generating employment and revenue. This is a booming sector that will benefit many business points in the coming years.

Sports in India have tremendous potential for expansion in the existing market. Strong passion for sports, technological advancement and a revolution in the advertisement industry over the years have resulted in great potential for growth of this sector. Local and international companies can target the market easily, this will result in huge business opportunities and huge revenue for companies.

Formula one racing, hockey, women’s cricket,etc. have huge business prospects which are yet to be explored. The sporting goods and apparel industry have flourished and provided employment. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are the hubs for the production of such products.

Sectors like sports apparel, sports tourism, sports medicine, etc make this industry have tremendous business potential in India for marketing, sponsorship/management, export, etc. It's time to facilitate investment mobility so that corporate houses can upgrade to profitable sporting ventures.