New Delhi: Indian Olympic Association President (IOA) and Rajya Sabha member P T Usha on Friday urged the central government to promote production of indigenous anti-doping testing kits under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, saying that it will not only reduce cost but also increase transparency.

Usha raised the issue in Rajya Sabha and said that having to import testing kits causes delayed results and dependency on “external agencies”.

Two Swiss companies, Berlinger and LockCon, are the major suppliers of these testing kits to India right now, according to a well-placed source.

“I want to draw the urgent attention of this house to a matter that affects the integrity of our athletes and the global image of our nation. The need to promote indigenous production of anti-doping kits under the Make in India initiative to work towards making India a dope-free sporting nation.

“...the menace of doping continues to threaten fairplay, athlete health and our country’s reputation on the world stage. At present a significant portion of high quality dope testing kits is imported, resulting in high cost, delay in testing cycles and dependency on external agencies,” she said.

India is bidding to become an Olympic host in 2036 and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made it clear that the country will have to considerably improve its current doping record.

India ranks poorly in tackling the menace and regularly features in the global top five of dope offenders.

Her statement comes a week after Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in response to a question in the Upper House, said that the government is committed to expanding the anti-doping measures.

The Minister said NADA has increased its testing capacity considerably and 7751 dope control tests are planned in the current year, a significant increase from the 7474 tests done in 2024 and 5794 tests in 2023.

Usha said having indigenous dope testing kits would be transformative as it would encourage research, manufacturing and technology development, including sample collection devices, and portable detection equipment.