The third edition of Khelo India Youth Games will be held in Guwahati from January 10 to 22. Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will be present at the opening ceremony, which will be held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Guwahati.

Around 6,800 athletes from 37 states and Union territories will compete in a total of 20 sports events, including new additions - lawn bowls and cycling, in eight venues across Guwahati. The total strength of participation at the games is 10,000 people, including athletes, officials, volunteers and support staff.

This edition of the games has several new initiatives by the government, including  aircrafts dedicated to ferry athletes from Kolkata and New Delhi to Guwahati and a go-green programme that will see electric cars at the venues.

Traditional Mizo sport Insuknawr, also called rod pushing sport, will be demonstrated at a national event for the first time. Insuknawr is one of the most important indigenous sports of Mizoram and a representation of the game is on the emblem of the state sports council. In the sport, two players try to push each other out of a ring by holding a bamboo or wooden staff.

Khelo India

Playing sports inculcates team spirit, develops strategic and analytical thinking, leadership skills, goal setting and risk taking. A fit and healthy individual leads to an equally healthy society and strong nation.

The Khelo India - National Programme for Development of Sports was launched in October 2017 with the goal to strengthen the entire sports ecosystem to promote the twin objectives of mass participation and promotion of excellence in sports across the country.

It also aims to revive the sports culture in India at the grassroot level by building a strong framework for all sports played in our country and establish India as a great sporting nation.

Talented players identified in priority sports disciplines at various levels by the high-powered committee will be provided annual financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh per annum for eight years.

Major achievements

The inaugural Khelo India School Games was held in 2018 in New Delhi with the participation of 3,507 athletes. The second edition was conducted in Pune in 2019 with the participation of 5,925 athletes. Competitions for differently abled athletes were also organised through Special Olympic Bharat in 2018.

As many as 133 new sports infrastructure projects were approved in 27 states / Union territories at a sanctioned cost of Rs 826 crore.

2,741 sporting talents across 20 sports disciplines have been selected under Talent Search & Development.

A total of 99 academies (SAI, state government / central government and private) have been accredited for the training of the Khelo India athletes (KIAs).

Khelo India mobile app was successfully launched to enable the general public to get information and ease of access to the various aspects of the game (how to play), available playfields across India (where to play) or mapping the fitness parameters of the young school going population of the country.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store