While giving a major boost to Esports in the country, the Government of India integrated it with mainline sports disciplines on Tuesday.
Report Inclusion In Mainline Sports
Further, the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, in exercise of the powers “conferred by clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution” amended the rules governing Esports.
She has asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Sports Ministry to include “e-Sports as part of multi-sports events”.
It appears that there had been a growing demand for Esports to be included in the curriculum of multi-discipline events after it was included in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games as a demonstration sport.
Notably, the medals won in the sport were not counted in the official overall medals tally.
But now this has changed following the President’s notification, issued on December 23.
How Did This Happen?
According to this, the IT Ministry will be the nodal agency for online gaming-related matters and the sports ministry will have to include it in its curriculum.
The move has come as a shot in the arm for Esports enthusiasts.
Not only this, the International Olympic Association (IOC) too is going big on popularizing e-Sport as now Singapore is being confirmed to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Week in June next year.
Big Step For Virtual Sports
All these happenings mark the next big step in supporting the development and integration of virtual sports with the Olympic movement and engaging further with competitive gamers.
Commenting on this development, Mr. Anirudh Pandita, Founder, Loco’s said,
“We welcome the Government of India’s decision to recognise esports as a component of multi-sport events and bring online gaming under the remit of MeitY. With this legislation, the government has underlined the importance of building a vibrant gaming ecosystem and we believe that if the industry works in resonance with the government, then India will become a global gaming superpower soon. In the past two years, Loco has been the largest investor in India’s game streaming and esports ecosystem and in 2023, we look forward to continuing our investment in domestic gaming technology and content initiatives.”
During November this year, the IOC had said that the Olympic Esports Week would showcase the best of virtual sports — hybrid physical and simulated sports — in the four-day festival from June 22 to 25.
The event will also exhibit the latest technologies, panel discussions, education sessions and show matches.
The inaugural Olympic Esports Week would mark an important milestone “in our ambition to support the growth of virtual sports within the Olympic Movement,” said Thomas Bach, IOC President last month.
In August, the Indian DOTA 2 team clinched bronze at the first Commonwealth Esports Championship held in Birmingham defeating New Zealand.
Next year will witness the sport make its debut at the Asian Games which is to be held in Hangzhou, China.
On its inclusion as a mainline sport, the director, Esports Federation of India and vice-president of Asian Esports Federation, Lokesh Suji said the efforts of the fraternity had finally borne fruit.
Adding, “We have been constantly working on establishing the difference between esports and iGaming, and finally, our efforts have been fulfilled. We welcome this announcement by our government, which will open new avenues to pour in more investment opportunities in this booming industry. From now onwards, we will have to build proper infrastructure, training facilities and coaching for our young esports athletes. Only a short time until we see esports being placed in the same league as cricket, football, basketball, etc. and having similar fan power, scale and craze.”
