In what can be perceived as a major boost for the 120 strong Indian Olympic contingent, the Indian Embassy at Rio has offered extensive support to the Indian athletes who would be competing for glory in the Rio Olympic Games. The initiative by the Indian Embassy provides a much needed support to the Indian athletes, who for genuine reasons were discontented with the facilities provided by the Games Organising Committee.

It may be reminded here as a backgrounder that the 120 member Indian contingent had requested the Organising Committee to provide more furniture and TV sets, but the Rio Organising Committee had declined the Indian request mentioning that they were only providing TVs for the Chef de Mission office and the TV Lounge on the common spaces. After the regret of the organising committee regarding, their inability to provide more television and furniture, the Indian Chef de mission sought help from the Indian embassy to meet the requirements. The Indian Embassy was quick to take matters in their own hands and offered every bit of assistance in the purchase of television sets and furniture for the Indian contingent. It needs to be applauded how the Indian Embassy under the visionary leadership of Modi and the aegis of Sushma Swaraj, immediately paid heed to the attention of the problems faced by Indian contingent and took action by assisting in procuring the list of items from the market which were demanded by our contingent. In an even greater gesture, some of these items were given from diplomatic homes to ensure that no stone is unturned to help the athletes.

India’s chef de mission Rakesh Gupta promptly gave the television and furniture in his office to the hockey team after the Indian hockey team had made a request for provision of television and furniture in the players’s apartment. “We need proper furniture for all players. Spending too much time in bean-chairs might result in back-injuries to the players,” Oltmans, Indian hockey coach, had written in his letter to the Indian contingent’s Chef-de-Mission. As a result of the help offered by Indian Embassy, now one TV set would be put on each floor along with additional chair. Mr Gupta has assured that all demands made by the Indian athletes would be addressed and said “We are trying to make things as comfortable as possible for our athletes, since they are representing our country”. These developments underline two important aspects. First, under the Narendra Modi government, there has been a landmark change in the governance of Indian sports. Shortly before flagging off the ‘Run for Rio’ to support the largest-ever Indian contingent for the summer games, Modi mentioned how the Indian government has ensured that the Indian contingent would get multifarious facilities at Rio.

The Indian contingent this time is being accompanied by two ITC chefs and they have joined by more, already arranged by the Indian embassy in Brazil, to ensure that Indian food is served. Moreover, it is for the first time in the annals of Indian sporting history that Indian athletes were send about 15 days before the games so that they could get acclimatised to the conditions in Rio. The Olympic budget, which was around Rs 15-20 crore previously has exceeded Rs 125 crore this time. Second, this is a manifestation of how our international presence in effectively used for assisting Indians abroad. Further, it is also high time that the private sector should also join hands towards the promotion of Indian sports other than cricket and foster the development of India as a great sporting power.

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