PM Modi to address opening ceremony of first-ever Khelo India Games

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address the opening ceremony of the first-ever Khelo India Games, which will be held from February 22 to March 1 at Bhubaneswar in Odisha.

The Prime Minister will inaugurate the Games tomorrow via video conferencing, said an official statement on Friday.

The Khelo India University Games are being launched by the Government of India in association with the Government of Odisha.

"The Khelo India Programme, a brainchild of the Prime Minister was introduced to revive the sports culture in India at the grass-root level by building a strong framework for all sports played in the country and establish India as a great sporting nation," the statement said.

This is the largest ever competition held at the university level in India and will have about 3,500 athletes from over 150 universities across the country taking part in it.

There will be a total of 17 sports namely archery, athletics, boxing, fencing, judo, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, badminton, basketball, football, hockey, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, rugby and kabaddi at the event.