Sports can become great medium for national integration: PM Modi

Noting that sports play a significant role in imbibing nationalism in the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday stressed that sports must be part of everyone's lives.

"We are a large and diverse nation. Sports can be a great means for national integration," Prime Minister Modi said via video conference during his interaction with the children at the launch of Reliance Youth Sports Foundation initiative pan India, kicking off nations' largest multi-city, multi-sports school and college sports competition.

"Sports must be a part of everyone's lives," he added.

Stating that hard-work is one of the tenets of a good sportsperson, Prime Minister Modi advised the children to follow the same.

"If you don't play, you won't shine. And never let defeat affect you so much," he said.

Stating that in order to achieve success in sports, the Prime Minister said that the focus should be on skill, perseverance, optimism, resilience, tenacity and stamina which encompass sports as a whole and acts as a guiding principle.

"If we speak of the definition of sports, S stands for Skill, P for Perseverance, O for optimism, R for Resilience, T for tenacity and S for stamina. If we want to play sports or get associated with sports we should focus on the aforementioned things to achieve success," he said.

The foundation's objective is to reach two million children through 2000 educational institutions to promote and inculcate sports culture among youth.

The initiative is one of the most ambitious projects to develop India as a multi-sport nation.