Sports key to national integration: PM

Sports key to national integration: PM
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Highlights

Noting that sports play a significant role in imbibing nationalism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday stressed that sports must be part of everyone\'s lives.

New Delhi: Noting that sports play a significant role in imbibing nationalism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday stressed that sports must be part of everyone's lives.

"We are a large and diverse nation. Sports can be a great means for national integration," Prime Minister Modi said via video conference during his interaction with the children at the launch of Reliance Youth Sports Foundation initiative pan India, kicking off nations' largest multi-city, multi-sports school and college sports competition. "Sports must be a part of everyone's lives," he added.

Stating that hard-work is one of the tenets of a good sportsperson, the Prime Minister advised the children to follow the same. "If you don't play, you won't shine. And never let defeat affect you so much," he said.

Stating that in order to achieve success in sports, the Prime Minister said the focus should be on skill, perseverance, optimism, resilience, tenacity and stamina which encompass sports as a whole and acts as a guiding principle. "If we speak of the definition of sports, S stands for Skill, P for Perseverance, O for optimism, R for Resilience, T for tenacity and S for stamina.

If we want to play sports or get associated with sports we should focus on the aforementioned things to achieve success," he said.

Reliance Foundation founder chairperson Nita Ambani said, “We are extremely honoured to have our Prime Minister to inaugurate and support the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports.

RFYS aims to create a unified structure of school and college competitions across sports to promote participation of young athletes, she said.

“It has been my dream to see India develop as a multi-sports nation. I truly believe that sports can develop the youth in our country and inculcate values of self-discipline, sportsmanship, team spirit, leadership, integrity as well as promote a healthy lifestyle.

Our vision is to promote and encourage large participation across multi-sports discipline in over 50 plus cities by 2020 and create opportunities for youngsters to take up sports as a professional careers,” she added.

The Reliance Foundation Youth Sports has set up a six member advisory board consisting of educationalists and leading sports personalities to guide the thinking and expansion for this initiative.
The board includes Sachin Tendulkar, Leander Paes, and Saina Nehwal besides Nita Ambani.

The foundation's objective is to reach two million children through 2000 educational institutions to promote and inculcate sports culture among youth. The initiative is one of the most ambitious projects to develop India as a multi-sport nation.

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