The idea behind the Trailblazers Conclave has always been to bring all stakeholders together on the same stage for free-flowing dialogue. One of the key stakeholders will always be the state. Government support for sport is crucial and, to a large extent, defines the direction in which the ecosystem will move over the next decade. One of the more proactive states, which is actually using sport as soft power and truly walking the talk, is Telangana. That is why this partnership with the Government of Telangana is special.
As I have announced, Telangana will be the feature state for Trailblazers 4.0, and it was fascinating to do a deep dive with Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary for Special Projects in Telangana.
“The one key aspect we will focus on is the linkage between sport and education,” said Jayesh. “If you look at countries like Australia, you will see that sport is integral to the academic structure of the country. It is ingrained in the culture and is part of everyday life. If sport is integrated within our education system, things will work well. With this in mind, the vision of the Chief Minister is to focus more on physical literacy in the coming months and years.”
What is especially interesting is the hands-on, yet hands-off, approach of the government. To explain this in some detail, Telangana has set up a committee to advance sport in the state, which includes key industrialists and sportspeople. Sanjiv Goenka, Vita Dani, Kavya Maran, Gagan Narang and Pullela Gopichand are among the members of the committee. There are two government representatives on the committee, one of whom is Jayesh.
In most cases, the government representative is appointed Chairman and endowed with all the powers to keep things under control. In Telangana, things are different.
“Sanjiv Goenka is the Chairman of the committee, and we are clear that, as government representatives, our job is only to facilitate free-flowing ideation and not to interfere in the workings of the committee,” said Mr Ranjan.
This is a refreshing step and could go a long way towards freeing sport from bureaucratic red tape—an issue highlighted by the Abhinav Bindra-led committee in its 170-page report.
“We are focused on the 2036 Olympics, and we believe that, as possible hosts, India could well be fielding a decent-sized contingent,” argued Jayesh. “If that is the case, and we participate in, say, 20 different sports (as hosts, we would be eligible to field teams across disciplines), we would like one member from Telangana to be part of the Indian team in every sporting discipline. We do not think this is an impossible target to achieve and will do all we can in the next few years to bring this idea to fruition.”
In today’s edition of Leadership Lessons from Sport, my guest is a 1992-batch IAS topper and one of India’s most distinguished bureaucrats, Jayesh Ranjan. The full show will air on RevSportz at 10 am.
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