A billion-living-dream-strong nation, India, has often seen its sports potential being suffocated
due to the lagging behind and sometimes even the untransparent nature of the admin systems.
Now, the story is being changed by the National Sports Governance Act, 2025, a pretty major
legislative shake-up. A single biggest reform since independence is how people refer to this
brand new Act, which is primarily aimed at bringing in transparency, accountability, and
athlete-friendly congeniality into India’s sports federations to make a country with a bright future
of winning more medals and even running for the 2036 Winter Olympics host city bid.
Overhauling the System: The New Institutional Pillars
The reform gets its main power from the invention of watchdogs that see to the normally closed
National Sports Federations (NSFs) functioning correctly. Such institutional reorganization gives
the necessary supervisory mechanisms that were totally absent before.
1. The National Sports Board (NSB)
The NSB is the new highest regulatory body. Its mission is to supervise the issuance and the
observance of the conditions of the recognition of all the sports federations on the national level,
such as the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee, and their
branches. What is more, the NSB operates the dereliction-of-duty protocol in case it implements
unfair elections or the misuse of public funds. Fragmentary ministry control cedes the place to a
concerted, specialist-led monitoring mechanism through this central entity.
2. The National Sports Tribunal (NST)
For many years, sports disputes—be it controversies over selection or infighting in
federations—have been piling up in regular courts, causing suspensions by international bodies.
Besides that, the NST is there as a fully equipped agency endowed with the powers of a civil
court and a mission to, in a short time, settle the conflicts of sports quickly. It provides athletes
and stakeholders a fast and specialized forum for grievance redressal, thus a time-bound
resolution process is ensured.
3. The National Sports Election Panel
In order to ensure democratic functioning, the Act sets up a central Election Panel, which is
expected to oversee the election of the NSFs and be made up of retired Election
Commissioners. Fair and transparent election processes are ensured, and thereby historical
difficulties such as the dominance of non-sporting officials over federation leadership for
decades can be solved.
Focus on Transparency and Accountability
The new act requires that the administration of sports conform to certain standards, which will
take down the opaque power structures that administer the sports sector.
Financial Scrutiny and RTI
In order to put an end to the money secrecy, all national sports bodies recognized by the
government and receiving government funds will be audited annually by the Comptroller
General of India (CAG). In addition to that, these government-funded bodies will be covered by
the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which is a great move towards making publicly accountable
what are the ways in which money is spent by the taxpayers.
Term Limits and Athlete Representation
The reforms set down in formal legal documents the rules for leadership tenure and the makeup
of the leadership. The ruling boards of directors will be limited to 15 members and should have
at least two sportsmen and women who have stood out, and at least four females for gender
parity, plus athlete inclusion in decision-making. Usually, office bearers can only be allowed
three terms in a row, and their age should not exceed 70 years; however, as per international
federation rules, this upper limit can be relaxed to 75.
A Safer and Fairer Playing Field: Related Reforms
While the National Sports Governance Act was enacted, the National Anti-Doping (Amendment)
Bill, 2025, was also passed; thus, a step forward in the sporting ecosystem has been taken.
Anti-Doping Autonomy: The amendment provides the furnishing of operational independence to
the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) as it complies with the World Anti-Doping Agency
(WADA) code and international standards. Independence is necessary for the agency to be able
to maintain integrity and to prevent international sanctioning.
Athlete Welfare: The Governance Act requires all national bodies to adopt a detailed Code of
Ethics and a Safe Sports Policy. These are the policies that are instrumental in setting the
minimum standards of conduct, the prevention of abuse, and the provision of definite protection
for the minors and the vulnerable athletes.
The Road Ahead: Challenges and Opportunities
It is just a big step forward that the National Sports Governance Act, 2025, is, but the next stage
is putting it into practice. The fresh regime ought not only to be able to watch over each other
from mutually different vantage points of government and international Olympic and sports
charters (and so not to be exposed to threats of suspension from the latter) but to also create
conditions for the smooth, dispute-free operation of the new NSB and NST that will in turn help
generate a stable, transparent, athlete-friendly environment which is the prerequisite for India
becoming an Olympic power of global stature.