Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik received the ‘Best State for the Promotion of Sports’ Award at an event in Mumbai on Monday. The award was conferred on the state at the 2023 Sportstar Aces 2023 Awards hosted by The Hindu group.
This was the fourth time that Odisha bagged the recognition. According to the group, Odisha got the award due to its “unique sports model, which is built around the pillars of partnership for sporting excellence, competition, coaching, infrastructure and welfare schemes for meritorious athletes”.
The award was handed over to Chief Minister Patnaik by Suresh Nambath, Editor of The Hindu and cricketing great Sunil Gavaskar.
Odisha was shortlisted for the award by a panel headed by Gavaskar. Other members of the panel included Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, former shuttler Aparna Popat, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anjali Bhagwat, football great Bhaichung Bhutia, former Indian hockey captain MM Somaya, and grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.
Chief Minister Patnaik dedicated the award to the people of Odisha.
He said, “This event serves as a wonderful platform to celebrate their (athletes) contributions to the world of sports and to inspire future generations to pursue their passions. Athletes are the true ambassadors of our country, and it is our duty to support and encourage them in every way possible.”
“We are making huge investment in sports, which is investment in youth and therefore investment in our future. We have increased our budget for sports by more than 10 times in last five years. In the coming year, our sports budget is more than Rs 1200 crore. We have successfully hosted many global events, including the recent Hockey World Cup. We are building world-class facilities and nurturing talent through high performance centres and competitions. I invite you to be and be part of Odisha’s sporting journey and together we can bring glory to Indian sports. It’s the collective dream of all Indian to see the national flag fly high at the Olympics. We should all work together and make it a reality,” CM Patnaik added.
