Current Indian Sports Scenario.

Sport is regarded as one of the largest industries globally in terms of employment and revenue. The Business of Sports is a multi-billion dollar global industry propelled by enormous consumer demand. The sports business means many different things to different people. This is a truly global industry, and sports stir up deep passion within spectators and players alike in countries around the world.
The growth and development of the Indian sport industry is creating opportunities for management professionals in a wide variety of settings. Boosted by initiatives such as professional leagues of developed sports, commercialization of underdeveloped sports, professionalization of heritage sports and increased corporate sector investments, sports industry expects a faster growth in shorter time frame.

The establishment of a sports industry in India can reap rich dividends in different segments. Employment and the massive market opportunities which will open up within this industry will be enormous in the years to come. However, new sports initiatives require professional human capital to speed up growth, and the harsh reality is that there are very few quality professional sports managers available in the country. Government initiatives to make India a sporting superpower will not be realized without professional sports managers. Indian sports industry has an impressive growth prospect even though its fundamentals are not solid. This is where professional sports managers can bring a solid foundation to India’s sports industry.
Sports in India have a tremendous potential for expansion in the existing huge market. With a high growth economy and an ever-growing middle class with disposable income and leisure time, together with rapid growth in TV-owning households and a strong passion for sports, there is high potential for growth. These conditions have fostered a rapid rise in advertising, as local and international companies target this lucrative underdeveloped market through sports. Moreover, buying TV and marketing rights for the large sporting events that now regularly take place in India provides ample business opportunities and huge revenue for many companies. Besides cricket, recent years have clearly made it evident that other sports such as Formula One racing and the Hockey India League have some serious business propositions that can be explored. Moreover, with the coming of the Indian Super League, football is starting to achieve real traction with TV audiences, which are tuning in in ever greater numbers for international leagues and competitions.
In recent times, a lot of sporting activity – in the form professional hockey, kabaddi, badminton, tennis, football, and cricket leagues – has come up in India, which requires a proper medical support system. There is also the question of whether Indian sports medicine is prepared to handle such on and off the field incidents. Although the sports medicine segment in India remains in its infancy stage, it took a step forward with the recent development of the Sports Injury Center at Safdarjung Hospital, which not only boasts world-class facilities and doctors, it can even provide treatment to international athletes at a very competitive rate. This in turn is likely to increase and enhance the sports tourism sector of India.

The sporting goods and apparel industry in India has been in existence for more than a century and has managed to flourish due to a skilled workforce. For example, the towels produced every year for the prestigious Wimbledon Grand Slam tennis tournament are produced in a factory in Gujarat, while footballs used in many of the international football tournaments across the globe are manufactured in the city of Jalandhar.  Being labor-intensive in nature, the industry provides employment to more than 500,000 people. The nucleus of this industry in India is in and around the states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh; however there is tremendous potential for developing a sporting goods industry just waiting to be explored in other cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai.