'Sports goods exports in need of urgent push'

Newspoint
NEW DELHI: India needs urgent and timely push in its sports goods manufacturing market as South Asian neighbours China and Pakistan have already integrated themselves into global value chains, built scale, specialisation and export competitiveness across a wide range of equipment categories, a NITI Aayog report has said.

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The findings are part of NITI Aayog’s 120-page report, titled ‘realising the export potential of India’s sports equipment manufacturing sector’, released here on Thursday. The report said that with India all set for the Commonwealth Games in 2030 and aggressively pursuing its bid to win the hosting rights of the Summer Olympics in 2036, the country must look to increase its global market share, generate large-scale employment and move up the value chain by targeting an $8.1 billion export opportunity over the next decade, achievable by looking at an 11% export market share in sports equipment.

It said this ambition could generate 54 lakh additional jobs by 2036. The report highlighted India’s growing dependence on importing sports equipment, reflecting gaps in technology adoption.

“While India’s emotional and cultural engagement with sport runs deep, its participation in sports equipment manufacturing has remained relatively modest. The sector has largely remained fragmented and has not fully transitioned to the scale-driven, technology-enabled manufacturing that defines today’s global sports equipment industry. While China continues to play a dominant role, several other countries, including Pakistan and Vietnam, have successfully integrated themselves into global value chains, building scale, specialisation, and export competitiveness across categories,” the report noted.