India’s Rio performance highlights its debilitating status as a sporting nation. Being the seventh largest nation in size, with a population of 1.2 Billion people, India should perform much better. However, we lag behind not just the US and China, but also Cuba and Switzerland. India is the only major country of its size that is struggling to win even a single gold at the Olympics. There is a lot of latent talent but that has to be nurtured.
We need a renewed sporting policy and increased monetary and budgetary support. Private sector investment must be roped in for establishing world-class sporting infrastructure.
The politico-bureaucratic nexus must be broken. Sporting clubs and federations must be overhauled and manned by experienced managerial minds.
To kickstart the sporting culture, medal winners can be promoted as ambassadors of their respective sports. Rather than giving crores of tax-payer money to individual medal winners, we can spend the money for developing existing infrastructure.