India will emerge as global hub for air sports, which will help the country generate up to 10,000 crore annual revenue and over 1 lakh jobs for youth, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said.
Scindia launched National Air Sport Policy 2022 (NASP 2022) on Tuesday, which lays out the vision of making India as one of the top sports nations by 2030, by providing a safe, affordable, accessible, enjoyable and sustainable air sports ecosystem in India.
Air sports, as the names suggests, encompasses various sports activities involving the medium of air. These include sports like air-racing, aerobatics, aero modeling, hang gliding, paragliding, para motoring and skydiving etc.
On the future of air sports in India, the minister said, “From a small market size of around 5,000 odd air sports practitioners creating around Rs 80-100 crore of annual revenue in India, I feel we can target over Rs 8,000 – 10,000 crore annual revenue and generate over 1,00,000 direct jobs. The economic multiplier benefits in terms of travel, tourism, support services and local infrastructure development will be over three times.”
It is time for India to take its rightful place and become global capital of air sports, he added.
„We want to create an environment of adventure, thrill and sports in the country. For this, we will leverage the energy of our youth below the age of 35 which accounts for 70 percent of India’s population which is larger than the total population of Europe and three times that of USA,“ Scindia said.
India has a huge geographical expanse, extending from the Himalayas and the mountainous regions to states in the northeast to the plains in central India to the coastal regions on the western-eastern coastline, and therefore there is this ability in this country to have the widest diversity of air sports, he noted.
Key Objectives of NASP 2022:
– Promote an air sports culture in the country
– Enable adoption of international good practices in safety including but not limited to, air sports infrastructure, equipment, operations, maintenance and training
– Develop a simple, stakeholder-friendly and effective governance structure
– Enhance participation and success of Indian sportspersons in global air sports events; and
– Promote design, development and manufacturing of air sports equipment in India in line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
