Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 2026-27 budget has little for sports.
While overall budget allocation for the sports is ₹4479.88 crore, an increase of ₹1133.34 crore from the 2025-26 revised allocation of ₹3346.54 crore, in reality, it is a lift of ₹685.58 crore since the proposed budget for the previous year was ₹3794.30 crore.
Sunday's budget gave a thrust of ₹500 crore to the sports goods manufacturing sector — it's a first-time allocation — but how that will help sportspersons in general is the question.
"I propose a dedicated initiative for sports goods that will promote manufacturing, research and innovation in equipment design as well as material sciences," Sitharaman said during her budget speech.
Sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya had chaired the 1st-ever Sports Goods Manufacturing Conclave in New Delhi on August 30. The minister on Sunday welcomed the allocation.
Last month, the sports ministry, to boost the Make in India initiative, had told the national sports federations (NSFs) to form a committee within 60 days to look into options vis-à-vis indigenous equipment, sports services and infrastructure.
Khelo India got a budget of ₹924.35 crore. In the proposed budget for 2025-26, it was ₹1000 crore and then revised to ₹700 crore. That means the fund for Khelo India has also been reduced.
In another first, Sitharaman spoke about the launch of a Khelo India mission to focus on systemic development of training centres and coaches over the next decade.
The sports budget has earmarked ₹31.85 crore under the first-ever 'secretariat sports' head. This fund will be used for the formation of the National Sports Board, the central authority established under the National Sports Governance Act 2025 to regulate and oversee NSFs.
The assistance to the NSFs for 2026-27 will be ₹425 crore as against ₹400 crore in the previous year. The allocation for Sports Authority of India is ₹917.38 crore. It was ₹800 crore last year.
Surprisingly, the National Dope Testing Laboratory and National Anti-Doping Agency's budget got reduced from ₹28.55 crore in 2025-26 to ₹23 crore and from ₹24.30 crore to ₹20.30 crore, respectively.
The World Anti-Doping Agency's report in December said India has the highest number of doping cases globally for the third consecutive year. The dubious hat-trick had warranted more funds.