Media Eye News Bureau: The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that India with the world’s highest youth population, must encourage children and youth to take up sports as a profession and government must support it. He was addressing the gathering after inaugurating the Yonex-Sunrise Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta India Open Badminton World Federation Super Series World Tour.
He also conferred the Life Time Achievement Award to veteran Badminton player Shri Prakash Padukone.
The Vice President said that the “Sacred Fire” of the Yagna of nation-building is the intense combination of aspirations, emotions and excitement of more than a billion souls which unite and throb into a single heart beat called, BHARAT in certain moments of time. He further said that sport is one such field that contributes to these moments and these moments are sacred fire that engulfs this nation when our own sons and daughters represent us in the world championships. Some may call this mass-frenzy but I choose to call it as sacred fire, he added.
"Each son or daughter of this great country in the sports field could be instrumental in lighting the spirit of Indian-ness and be the leader of nation building. "Sports can contribute to nation building in a huge way by not only fostering the spirit of Indian-ness but also in creating facilities and infrastructure", Naidu said.
