Production of cost-effective sports equipment The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal has said that the Sports Goods Export Promotion Council (SGEPC) has informed that most of the manufacturers of sports equipment are in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector and operate with minimum technology. There are no big factories in India for manufacturing of sports equipment. Most of manufacturing process depends on the manual labour. Major sports equipment made in India are inflatable balls, cricket equipment, boxing equipment, track and field equipment, table tennis, badminton, carom board etc. Most of sports equipment, which require technology like composite rackets, golf clubs, hiking equipment, water sports equipment etc. are not made in India. The demand in India for these equipments is met through imports. There is definitely a need to introduce technology to produce cost effective sports equipment especially for above mentioned items. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today the Minister said, as informed by SGEPC, Sports equipment sector is not included in Make in India programme presently.
