Funds for Training for London Olympic

Operation Excellence for London Olympics 2012 (OPEX) was launched specially for preparing the Indian Team for participating in the Olympic 2012. The funds are being provided under the Scheme “Assistance to NSF” and National Sports Development Fund. This was stated by Shri Ajay Maken, Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs & Sports, in the Rajya Sabha today, in a written reply to a question by Shri Ambeth Rajan. The Minister further stated under “Assistance to National Sports Federations, Rs.100 crore for 2011-2012 and Rs. 110 crore for 2012-2013 have been allocated. In addition, under “National Sports Development Fund (NSDF), Rs. 5.52 crore has been released for customized training of the identified core probables. Under the ‘Operation Excellence for London Olympic (OPEX) 2012, 732 players were initially selected for the purpose and the number of players was later pruned to 509. Around 218 trainers including 129 Indian coaches, 21 foreign coaches/experts and 68 supporting staff have been engaged for training of these players, the Minister added.