Soft power, the new race every country wants to win

Source: The post is based on an article “Soft power, the new race every country wants to win” published in The Hindu on 26^th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 –

Relevance: India’s performance in sports and challenges associated with it.

News:

Soft power is defined as power of attraction between the countries through culture, political ideas, and policies rather than military powers.

India is heading towards soft power and it can be seen from the gold medal won by Neeraj Chopra in the Olympics. Further, Indian athletes have also won 61 medals including 22 golds at Common Wealth Games (CWG), 2022.

This can encourage India to become a great geopolitical actor also. However, there is still more to be done by India to improve its status in sports.

How sports have helped in improving soft power of China?

China uses its superiority in sports to build people-to-people relations with other countries.  For example, athletes from African countries such as Madagascar are trained in swimming, badminton, table tennis, etc. in China.

This helps China to create a positive impact on a wider population which also result in better formal relations between the countries.

However, India has inadequately performed in sports when compared to China.

How has India performed in Olympics and what are the reasons associated with that performance?

Performance: India won seven medals in Tokyo Olympic games which was the highest number of medals won in the history of Olympic games in India.

India has one of the world’s poorest population-to-medal ratios in the Olympics. India has won only 35 medals at the Olympics till now.

Reasons: One of the reasons for the poor performance of India is that there is relatively low and little exposure of Indians to sports at the elementary school level.

Competent coach, adequate funding and sports academics are another major issue faced by sports in India.

A Parliamentary report provided that India spends only three paise per day per capita on sports while China spends ₹6.1 per day per capita.

What steps have been taken by the government?

The Ministry of Sports launched the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) to improve India’s performance at the Olympics and Paralympics in 2014.

This scheme helps in extra monetary assistance and training from the best national and international coaches.

However, there are other highlights of the report which shows that India needs to improve its sports in becoming a soft power.

What does different report highlight?

NITI Aayog report came up with a 20-point plan to improve India’s Olympics performance in 2016.

• The report highlighted that India lacks a favorable atmosphere for sports to enhance the skills of early-stage athletes.
• It recommended that efforts should be made at the family, community to school, regional academies, State and national levels to improve things.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has claimed that the digital viewers of Tokyo Olympic Games increased by 74 per cent from the viewers of Rio 2016.

• This shows that there is a great opportunity for India to use such events as a platform to enhance its soft power.

What steps can be further taken by India to increase the country’s sporting performance and soft power?

First, India should concentrate on forming MoUs with nations that excel in specific sports. The aim should be to train Indian players overseas.

• For example, Australia and the United Kingdom can assist us in swimming while African countries can assist in running.

Second, TOPS has showed that focusing on a few sports is beneficial for India to enhance its sporting abilities and standing.

• India should increase the number of athletes under TOPS and at least 500 athletes should be trained to promote a competitive climate.

Third, private investment needs to be used to develop infrastructure.

• The Government should also work on a public-private partnership (PPP) model to create basic sporting infrastructure at the district level which is recommended by NITI Aayog,

Fourth, the Government must also separate politics from sports. Former players rather than politicians should be chosen to lead sports organisations.