Bihar government’s sustained efforts to nurture, promote and incentivise sporting activities and sporting culture have started paying off rich dividends as the state has significantly upped its ranking from 28th position to 14th winning a record 36 medals at Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) 2025, Bihar.

The games concluded on Thursday with Bihar making its presence felt emphatically at national level, first by successfully organising the 7th edition of mega sporting event and subsequently improving its ranking and medals tally.

Bihar government has not only built a massive sports infrastructure in the state to create a favourable sporting environment but has also made superb management of serving 10,000 athletes and supports staff during 12 day Khelo India Youth Games 2025.

Prime Minister had inaugurated the mega event on May 4 at Patliputra Sports Complex at Patna in the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and union minister of youth affairs and sports Masukh Mandaviya and other dignitaries.

Set a new benchmark in serving 10,000 athletes & support staff

Setting a new benchmark, the state government entirely managed the facilities of providing accommodation, catering and transportation to 10,000 athletes and support staff on its own. It carried out the mammoth task of serving such a huge number of players with its own system, instead of relying on large external agencies.

It provided fresh and hygienic food to sportspersons on time. For early morning and late-night matches, pre-packed meals were distributed with utmost care to the sportspersons.

As a result of these proactive measures, not a single case of food poisoning was reported throughout the duration of the Games. This is a significant achievement given the scale, climate conditions, and logistical complexity of the games.

Around 10,000 athletes and support staff from 36 states and union territories participated in 28 different sporting disciplines. The games were held at Rajgir, Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Begusarai and New Delhi.

State built massive state-wide sports infrastructure & schemes

The state- which is known for its rich historical and cultural prosperity with educational background- has done a lot in recent years to improve the state of sports affairs in Bihar with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar government taking umpteen measures to build infrastructure to create favourable environment to providing for sporting success right from panchayat level to block to district to state level that included developing top-notch facilities in the state.

The government has provided other facilities such as national and international coaches, training, and support staff. It built a modern world class sports complex at Rajgir, modern sports complex at Patna, International cricket stadium at Rajgir, sports city coming up near Punpun in Patna.

Sports scholarships

It has also come out with sports scholarship scheme giving scholarship ranging between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 20 lakh for different categories of players.

Medal Lao, Naukri Pao

Besides, it has also come out a scheme ‘Medal Lao, Naukri Pao’ as per which players winning medals at national and international level get government jobs.

On the inaugural day of the KIYG, 2025, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that 367 sportspersons have been given government jobs, so far.

Mashaal scheme

The government also came out with another scheme titled “Mashaal” which is a talent hunt competition to identify, train and hone children’s talent at school level to make them compete at national and international level.

Bihar hosted major world championships

The state government build a major infrastructure facilities at Rajgir and Patna and other places of the major towns of the state that helped the state in hosting “Sepak Takraw World Cup 2025”, “Women’s Asian Hockey Champions Trophy and the 7th edition of Khelo India Youth Games at five places of the state – Patna, Rajgir, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Begusarai.

To host major championship in coming months

Besides, the state is all set to organise mega events of Women’s Kabaddi World Cup, Asian Rugby Championship and Men’s Hockey Hero Championship because of the massive sports infrastructure that it has built over the years.

The overall improved sporting scenario in Bihar received a praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for state government’s efforts to improve infrastructure besides inculcating sporting culture in the state.