The Government of India announced the annual sports budget for 2025-26 on Saturday, and increased the money allocation to the field by over INR 350 Crore. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports aims to focus on sports infra, athletes and development in the grassroots area.
As per various reports, the Sports Budget 2025 for 2025-26 stands at a staggering ₹3,794.30 crore. Last year, the Sports Budget stood at ₹3,232.85 crore, showing the seriousness of the government, to improve the overall standards.
Key Points of Sports Budget 2025
As per reports, major chunk of Sports Budget — INR 2,191.01 crore, will be allocated to Central Sector Schemes. This is an approximate increase of 1560 cr, from the last year. Apart from that, Khelo India has seen a significant boost in the funding, where it has gone up from 800 cr to 1000 cr this year.
The financial aid to the sports federations has also been increased to 400 cr, from 340 cr in the last year. Whereas, the National Sports Development Fund stands at 18 Cr. Surprisingly, the incentives from the sportspersons has seen a decline, when the cash awards and pensions have now reduced to 37 cr, to that of 42.65 cr in the last year.
SAI Gets More Funding
Another key point of sports budget was the Enhancement of Sports Facilities in Jammu & Kashmir. This has gone up from 6 cr to a massive 20 cr in the Sports Budget 2025-26. Following that, the funding for the Sports Authority of India has gone up to 830 Cr, as compared to 815 cr in 2024.
One area that has seen sharp decline is, the National Sports University — where only 63.72 cr has been proposed this year, as compared to 189 cr the previous year. In addition, 1558 cr has been kept aside for autonomous sports bodies like, SAI, NADA< Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development … and others.
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