India is currently under going a major revolution with noteworthy developments happening through out the sports ecosystem which broadly comprises sports events, manufacturing and retail of sports goods, education and training ,infrastructure development and sports technology. Bringing a significant change are the nearly 30 active or planned sports leagues in the country. These include leagues for mainstream sports such as cricket, kabaddi ,badminton, hockey and football, as well as for rathe run conventional sports such as futsal, eSports, droneracing, boat racing and poker. While cricket continues to be the biggest sport in India, attracting maximum interest from viewers, broadcasters and sponsors other sports are also gradually rising in ranks across these parameters. Thus, India is on a path to become a multi-sport nation a key characteristic of any leading sporting country.

There are multiple forces driving this change, including the success of the Indian Premier League (which paved the way for other sports leagues) and improving performance of Indian sports persons at the national and international level (which is the primary interest-generating factor amongst viewers) in other fields, such as badminton, tennis, wrestling and boxing.

Additionally, in the backdrop of these developments, the private sector that is, in addition to companies involved in forming teams and building sports leagues has also been contributing its fair share to the country’s over all sporting progress. This includes multiple start-ups across a wide range of areas such as sports education and training, infrastructure development, online retail, and technology - which are contributing a great deal towards building an enabling ecosystem for a world class sporting nation.

Education and Training
Sports education and training in India, traditionally, has laid insufficient focus on grassroots development. Many schools have in adequately structured programmes to develop in-house sporting talent. However, this is gradually changing with the advent of companies working towards integrating physical education and sports training with school curriculum. These companies primarily offer a structured curriculum for sports education and training in schools across different age groups-allowing institutions to outsource their sports activities entirely. Some of these companies

also provide training to sports coaches and run programmes for corporates as well as parents to encourage them to let their kids pursue sports as a profession. With the sports ministry also pushing towards inclusion of sports in school education, this segment is likely to gain a fillip.

Increasing involvement of the private sector, in addition to a push from the government, it is expected to boost the process of building a world-class sports ecosystem that enables greater participation and better performance of Indian athletes on international platforms

Infrastructure Development
India has often faced criticism over in sufficiency of sports infrastructure. While the validity of this criticism is debatable, considering that the existing infrastructure remains largely under utilised, there are efforts being made by the government as well as the private sector to build good quality sports facilities and make them accessible for all. Being a highly capital-intensive business, sports infrastructure does not receive as much participation from start-ups as other fields of sports. However, with the adoption of some favourable policies by the government such as including sports infrastructure under the list of infrastructure sub sectors eligible to obtain long-term financial support from banks and financial institutions it is likely that more players start investing.

Online retail
Following the online shopping boom in India over the past few years, the sports sector has also witnessed a rise of several new players in the online sports retail space. A simple search engine query results in over 15 niche players operating in this category in India most of which are not globally renowned sports retailers. This development has provided Indians with access to quality sports good sat their doorsteps, unlike the case previously, when one was restricted to whatever a handful of near by sports retailers had to sell.

Technology
The field of sports technology has witnessed high volume of activity in areas such as sports analytics, wearable devices and facility aggregation services globally as well as in India. Sports analytics companies utilise tools and technologies that can collect and analyse large volumes of data to provide insights which can help improve an athlete’s performance ,as well as provide interesting statistics for sports presenters and commentators. However, the applications of sports analytics are not limited to that; others include talents couting, fan engagement (including social media analytics), betting and informative sports broadcasting. Wearable devices such as smart wristbands, watches and apparel, sleep headphones and visual reality (VR) devices are also increasingly gaining acceptance amongst professional sports persons and fitness enthusiasts a like. Some devices can not only record data on basic health parameters such as pulse rate, sleep and physical activity, but also on skin conductance response (used to assess stress levels) and technique of usage of sports equipment during play. Several start-ups are also involved in simplifying the search and booking process for sports facilities across the country. These companies are bringing together the providers of stadia and fitness centres, and customers including individuals ,teams, as well as corporates looking to organise a sports tournament on a single platform.

All in all, it is evident that India is progressing towards becoming a powerful sporting nation, even if it is in its own time zone at the moment. Increasing involvement of the private sector, in addition to a push from the government, is expected to boost the process of building a world class sports ecosystem that enables greater participation and better performance of Indian athletes on international platforms.