Indian-origin players abroad may now represent India under new National Sports Policy
"Wherever feasible, promising and prominent Indian-origin athletes living abroad may be encouraged to come back and play for India at the international level," it states."Together, these efforts can transform sport into a dynamic tool of cultural diplomacy and nation-building, strengthening the global Indian identity."Currently, only Indian passport holders are allowed to compete for the nation.However, the ministry has been mulling revocation of that ban to ensure that 'India's sporting ecosystem can be strengthened'.According to the new policy, India will promote international sports exchange programmes "to allow knowledge sharing, capacity building and collaborative development efforts".advertisement"Sports can serve as a powerful bridge between the Indian diaspora and India, fostering enduring emotional, cultural and social connections. To strengthen this bond, dedicated sporting events and leagues can be organized specifically for and among the Indian diaspora."FOOTBALL KEEN ON OCIsThe All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been particularly keen on allowing OCIs, even though there are no major names who can be considered for India even if the ban is revoked.In tennis, Prakash Amritraj — son of the legendary Vijay Amritraj — was one of several prominent US passport holders affected by the ban on OCI card holders. He had represented India in 10 Davis Cup ties between 2003 and 2008, before the restrictions came into force and barred players like him from continuing.- Ends
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
4 minutes ago
- Indian Express
As Trump's fresh threats loom, India still has a slight tariff edge over China but loses advantage with Vietnam
Despite fresh tariff escalation threats and the prospect of higher duties under the new regime announced by US President Donald Trump that could take effect from August 7, India continues to have a relative advantage on a key metric being tracked by policymakers in New Delhi – the tariff differential with China. As on August 1, China had the highest effective tariff rate (ETR) of the US's major trading partners, with India with a comparative advantage of around 20 percentage points. While tariffs on China remain at 34 per cent, the total ETR inclusive of the tariff rate at the end of 2024 came to around 42 per cent, according to Fitch Ratings' updated ETR Monitor that reflects the July 27 and July 31 announcements of new reciprocal tariff rates for most trading partners of the US. While India is slightly over 21 per cent, according to the latest data, the overall effective tariff rate for the US across all its trading partners is now 17 per cent — about 8 percentage points lower than Fitch's ETR Monitor of April 3, 2025, when higher reciprocal tariffs were originally announced, but around 3 percentage points higher than the estimate at the end of June 2025. The ETR represents total duties as a percentage of total imports and changes, with shifts in import share by country of origin and product mix. With Vietnam, though, India now has lost a slight advantage in ETR terms after additional tariffs kicked in, as against an advantage up to end-2024. This is despite Trump's rhetoric against transhipped goods and his administration's efforts to neutralise China's supply bases in ASEAN. And going forward, given Trump's frustration with India on not agreeing to his terms for a deal, this disadvantage is likely to fester. That is likely to be the case till Delhi gets a deal of some kind with Washington DC, but the situation could, however, change for the worse going forward, with Trump warning Monday that he would raise the tariff on India 'substantially' for buying Russian oil. Amid all the upheaval thrown up by America's tariff action, the assumptions that the Indian policymaker had implicitly factored in include that Washington DC will maintain a differential of 10-20 per cent in tariffs between China and countries such as India; and that a trade deal with the US needs to be clinched precisely for ensuring the gap in tariffs between India and China is maintained, even with a limited early-harvest type of deal. New Delhi did back out at the last minute from signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (a trade deal among Asia-Pacific countries including China) given the sensitivities of agri livelihoods. A higher-than-anticipated US tariff rate, especially on a comparative basis, could dent India's growth prospects, economists said. Though Trump did not specify the rate of penalty for India on account of Russian oil and defence imports, earlier statements made by Trump indicate that it could be to the tune of 100 per cent. This way, India stands to potentially lose the US tariff advantage vis-a-vis China at least till the time a deal is struck, even if Beijing, too, faces the same penalty for importing from Russia. China is the largest buyer of Russian oil, at about 2 million barrels per day, followed by India (just under 2 million a day) and Turkey. China had agreed to cut tariffs on US goods to 10 per cent from 125 per cent in May, while the US had agreed to lower tariffs on Chinese goods to 30 per cent from 145 per cent. But with respect to Russian oil, Trump has been singling out India, while being largely silent on China. Given how talks between Indian and US negotiators have proceeded so far, an interim deal still seems distant and is unlikely to be clinched before September, with October a possible outer deadline. Indications are a sixth round of talks between the two negotiating teams will take discussions forward on August 25. India's government has asked it various ministries to come up with potential giveaways to sweeten the deal for the upcoming negotiations. Once the official level discussions wrap up, there is a sense that a final call on the deal could come down to a conversation between the two leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump. For India, the best-case scenario would be to get a deal of some sort now, and then build on that in the future negotiations that could run into 2026, experts said. The effective duty on Chinese products on a landed basis across US ports in commodity categories where Indian producers are reasonably competitive is being tracked constantly. The net tariff differential with India, and how that curve continues to move, is of particular interest here, given the belief that Washington DC would ensure a reasonable tariff differential between China and India. Officials said a 10-20 per cent differential is expected to tide over some of India's structural downsides — infrastructural bottlenecks, logistics woes, high interest cost, the cost of doing business, corruption, etc. US and Chinese officials wrapped up two days of discussions in Stockholm last week, with no breakthrough announced. After the talks, China's top trade negotiator Li Chenggang declared that the two sides agreed to push for an extension of a 90-day tariff truce struck in mid-May, without specifying when and for how long this extension kicks in. Anil Sasi is National Business Editor with the Indian Express and writes on business and finance issues. He has worked with The Hindu Business Line and Business Standard and is an alumnus of Delhi University. ... Read More
Indian Express
4 minutes ago
- Indian Express
What does Shubman Gill's ‘storm only rattles those not ready for it' merry and mystic Twitter post mean?
It wasn't quite Eric Cantona in Manchester and India had in fact merrily won the last Teat to draw the series 2-2. But captain Shubman Gill dropped an equally mystifying 10 word cryptic post to celebrate one of Test cricket's finest series, a massive W for the new Team India. 'The storm only rattles those who aren't ready for it,' Gill's official Twitter account posted. Four pictures of post match, including one with last day heroes Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna accompanied the line. While there will be several interpretations of what the storm he was referring to, the Indian captain sure did Shiv Kumar Batalvi proud when he or his social media team posted that Cantona-ish line, in the land of Shakespeare. The young Indian captain with a love for museums and deeper appreciation of written word, left sufficient air of mystery around the post and its meaning. The Manchester United legend Cantona it may be recalled once came to a press conference and spoke sardines, trawlers and those who follow them for the nature of footballer-media equations (or so it is presumed) after he was once again in some sort of trouble. The calm Gill's victory post might have been simpler. The Storm could simply mean the fire through which Indians have walked in this England series, the cauldron of emotions. Being ready for it might well mean his and his team's level of preparation which was top notch, even as England tried multiple times to faze the young team's equilibrium. Other Team India members stuck to mushy emotion. Washington Sundar, who must never be dropped given how he's a constant when India pull out these incredible wins against England or Australia, wrote, 'Determination, self belief and resilience. Indebted to all the love, positive energy and support from everyone.' For Yashasvi Jaiswal, it was, 'Dare to dream (heart index thumb emoji) test cricket at it's best'. Across, the cricket World, the last Test match win and the entire series got hailed as a great spectacle of the 5 day format, with many from West Indies to South Africa to Australia to Sri Lanka riveted as the games ebbed and flowed. The final day with the tireless Siraj finding redemption for a boundary catch, with spirited bowling and the final Yorker to send back Gus Atkinson reverberated across the commonwealth globe with its healthy cricketing addiction for Test cricket. 'Long live Test cricket. A format that rewards patience, skill and heart. No shortcuts here,' wrote KL Rahul on Insta, 'just hard earned moments and real character. The whole group gave their everything over the last 2 months and this ending was fitting. Proud of this team' Rishabh Pant took to FB to post, 'A tour that asked a lot and gave even more in return. Proud of how this team stood up adapted and kept fighting. Representing the country means everything to us, it takes a everything out of you but we take pride in that. Big thanks to our incredible support staff and fans who stood by us throughout. This team is hungry, United and here to take Indian cricket forward.'
Hans India
6 minutes ago
- Hans India
‘Every patriotic Indian has sought answers on China'
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday said every patriotic Indian has sought answers on China since the 2020 Galwan incident but the Modi government has chosen to obfuscate and hide the truth with its policy of 'DDLJ -- deny, distract, lie, and justify'. The opposition party also alleged that the Modi government is responsible for the biggest territorial setback India has faced since 1962, and accused it of pursuing 'normalisation' with a hostile China because of its cowardice and misplaced economic priorities. The Congress' attack on the government came on a day the Supreme Court censured Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his alleged derogatory remarks about the Indian Army during his Bharat Jodo Yatra. The apex court, however, stayed the proceedings initiated in the matter against Gandhi before a Lucknow court. The top court told Gandhi, 'How do you get to know that 2,000 sq km of Indian territory has been occupied by Chinese? Were you there? Do you have any credible material?' Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said ever since 20 brave soldiers were martyred in Galwan on June 15, 2020, every patriotic Indian has sought answers. 'Yet instead of providing answers, the Modi government for the past five years has chosen to obfuscate and hide the truth with its policy of 'DDLJ -- deny, distract, lie, and justify',' he said. In a post on X, Ramesh went on to ask a series of questions. 'Why did the Prime Minister give a clean chit to China saying 'Na koi hamari seema mein ghus aaya hai, na hi koi ghusa hua hai' on 19 June 2020, only four days after our soldiers heroically sacrificed their lives for the country in Galwan?' Ramesh said. 'Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi has said: 'We want to go back to the status quo of April 2020'. Does the withdrawal agreement of 21 October, 2024, take us back to the status quo?' he said. Are Indian patrols not required to take Chinese concurrence to access their Patrolling Points in Depsang, Demchok, and Chumar, whereas earlier they were able to freely exercise India's territorial rights, Ramesh added. Are Indian patrols not prevented from accessing their Patrolling Points in Galwan, Hot Spring, and Pangong Tso by 'buffer zones' that lie predominantly within the Indian claim line, he further asked. 'Was it not widely reported in 2020 that 1,000 sq km of eastern Ladakh had come under Chinese control, including 900 sq km in Depsang? Did the SP of Leh not submit a paper at the annual Director General of Police Conference in which he stated that India had lost access to 26 out of 65 Patrolling Points in eastern Ladakh?' Ramesh said.
