After the success of the Zinc Football Academy in Zawar, Vedanta is looking to expand the reach of its football programme to Odisha and other parts of the country, Annanya Agarwal, President, Vedanta Sports said.

Speaking at the FICCI Frames-LEAP 2020 on the topic ‘Transforming through sports education’, Annanya highlighted the Group’s vision of positive transformation in sports through quality grassroots training programs across the country and said, “We are extremely happy with the success that our grassroots football development model has seen in Udaipur and Goa, and are looking at Odisha next to run a football excellence programme there.”

Considerable investments focusing firmly on the development of grassroots football and the state-of-the-art academies in Goa and Rajasthan embody Vedanta’s commitment to the cause of Indian football. The Hindustan Zinc-run Zinc Football Academy in Udaipur and Vedanta Sesa Goa Iron Ore’s Sesa Football Academy in Goa are operating successfully and churning out quality footballers.

“We aim to continue this journey towards development of sports and contribute towards the larger goal of transforming sports in the country. Our robust community engagement plan through sports initiatives reaches out to all sections of society”, said Annanya, addressing the digital event.

Speaking on the importance of sports education for children, Annanya said, “I am very happy to see the growing importance of sports in the Indian education system. Sports can indeed be transformative – the values that it helps inculcate and the teachings it can imbibe are unparalleled and is extremely beneficial for the holistic development of an individual.”

“At Vedanta, we provide a holistic mix of education - equal emphasis on traditional textbook learning, modern hands-on learning and football training”, he added.

During his talk, Annanya also emphasized on the focus on women’s football. “One of our biggest focus areas is women's football and empowerment of women in our communities. With initiatives such as the Vedanta Women’s Football League in Goa, we aim to grow women’s football in the country and eventually give every girl child an opportunity to express themselves using football as a medium.”

FICCI FRAMES-LEAP (Learn, Educate, Apply, Progress) is the world’s first & largest online conference on Education and Skilling in Media & Entertainment sector, with a view to anchor discussions around formalising the Media and Entertainment curriculum in the education system & making future ready Media & Entertainment professionals.

Annanya congratulated the government for its steps in encouraging sports education and the focus on promoting sports at the grassroots with programmes like Khelo India. He concluded saying that parents need to be convinced that sports is a career option for their children.