The first phase of KIRTI was launched by the previous then sports minister Anurag Thakur in Chandigarh on March 12. KIRTI aims to conduct 20 lakh assessments across the country throughout the year to identify promising athletes through notified talent assessment centres.

A scouting and assessment programme of this scale is said to be a first in India and comes at a time when the nation aims to be among the top 10 sporting countries in the world by 2036, and in the top five by 2047.

KIRTI’s athlete-centric programme leverages information technology for its selection methodology. Data analytics based on artificial intelligence are being used to predict the sporting acumen of an aspiring athlete.

In its first phase, out of 3,62,683 registrations across 70 centres, close to 51,000 assessments in 28 states and union territories have been made. Maharashtra and Haryana, two states which have always done well in Khelo India meets, have had the maximum number of assessments – 9,168 and 4820 - respectively. Assam is third with 4,703 assessments.

The evaluation of aspiring athletes has happened in 11 disciplines – archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, football, hockey, kabaddi, kho kho, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling. Maximum assessments have happened in athletics (13,804) and football (13,483).

Mandaviya will lay emphasis on the project that aims to achieve 20 lakh assessments in 2024-25 by onboarding all states and treating the district as a unit of assessment. This is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal to take sports to every child in the country through mass participation and achieve excellence through Khelo India’s pyramidal programmes.