Experts debate India’s sporting future

Metro India News | Hyderabad

Symposium, an emerging platform for ideas and leadership, hosted its second flagship session, “Beyond the Game: The Business of Athletic Excellence,” at Quorum, Madhapur on Thursday, bringing together voices from sport, policy, media, and industry.

Founded by Girish Mallpani and co-founded by Jayesh Ranjan, Symposium aims to create a recurring forum for cross-sector dialogue on issues shaping India’s future.

The panel featured Abhinav Bindra, Nachhatar Singh Johal, Boria Majumdar and Mandira Bedi, with Ranjan moderating the discussion.

The session explored building world-class sporting ecosystems in India, focusing on grassroots development, infrastructure, sports science, athlete welfare, and the growing business of sport.

Ranjan highlighted Telangana’s approach of letting experts lead athlete training while governments focus on infrastructure and long-term support. He said the model helps athletes prepare for careers beyond sport and noted that India’s sporting landscape is evolving with greater gender inclusion and media influence.

He also announced that the proposed Telangana Sports University would confer its first honorary doctorate on Bindra.

Discussing Olympic ambitions, Ranjan pointed to the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), launched in 2014 to support elite athletes. Drawing parallels with the Indian Premier League, he said the league created a vast professional ecosystem and raised the question of replicating such models across sports. Bindra spoke about high-performance systems and the life lessons sport imparts. Emphasising grassroots participation, he said the next decade could belong to sports if investments in infrastructure and youth development continue. Johal stressed structured talent pathways and long-term planning, adding that underperformance in sports often stems from inefficiencies within federations.

Majumdar highlighted the role of storytelling, media visibility, and commercial structures in shaping sporting culture. He noted that while men’s cricket thrives as a spectacle, other sports—and even women’s cricket—need better marketing to achieve similar success. Bedi underlined the growth of women’s sport, attributing rising viewership and participation to improved media coverage and visibility.

In his opening remarks, Mallpani pointed to the rapid growth of India’s sports economy, citing the rise in IPL franchise valuations from a few hundred crores in 2008 to over ₹15,000 crore today, reflecting expanding opportunities across the ecosystem. The discussion underscored that India’s sporting ambitions now extend beyond medals to include policy, economics, and nation-building, with platforms like Symposium fostering the dialogue needed for long-term progress.