Abhinav Bindra to head NRAI committee to review India's shooting performance at Rio

Abhinav Bindra, the country's lone individual Olympic gold medallist, has been appointed as the chairman of a review committee formulated by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) to "examine and identify in a cold and ruthless manner" the causes behind shooting not securing any medals at the recently-concluded Rio Olympic Games.

The NRAI, governing body of the shooting sport, on Thursday announced the formulation of the committee, which is also mandated to recommend concrete steps that NRAI must immediately undertake to ensure that this is not repeated in future Olympics.

The committee has been formed as per powers bestowed on the President of the NRAI, Raninder Singh, through the constitution of the NRAI and conveyed through an office order issued by the President's office.

The order also states that only in "matters specifically pertaining to the interview or findings/conclusions if any against or in favour of any Olympic team athlete that maybe examined by the committee, the chairman of the committee shall be exempt participation in to from such tasks by recusal, however upon his own request he too shall make himself available for interview by the remainder of the panel."

The order further states that, "for this specific issue only, the remaining members of the commission shall officiate jointly, where majority view shall prevail."

Other members of the committee include Manisha Malhotra, eminent sports administrator who has also been appointed Convenor of the committee; Digvijay Singh Deo, Sports Editor- CNN News 18, Kamesh Srinivasan, Senior Sports Jounalist- The Hindu and Rajiv Bhatia, Secretary, NRAI.

The order empowers the committee to go into a wide range of factors affecting the performance of the athletes. Also, as per the order, the NRAI Review Committee has been asked to submit its report to the office of the NRAI President within a maximum period of four weeks from the issuance of the order.

The committee is expected to hold its first meeting on the 30th or 31st of this month and it has also been allowed the use of all available technology to help conduct its work smoothly.