Sports Ministry launches online portal for schemes, rewards, benefits

Revised schemes of Cash Awards-

• The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has brought out several important amendments to Scheme of Cash Award to Medal Winners in International Sports Events and their Coaches, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare for Sportspersons (PDUNWFS) and Pension to Meritorious Sportsperson Scheme of Department of Sports with a vision to make these schemes more user-friendly, easy to access and transparent.
• Now, any individual sportsperson can directly apply for all three schemes as per his/her eligibility. 
• Earlier the proposals were received through Sports Federations/SAI, which used to take considerable time for submission of the proposals. 
• To ensure timely submission and subsequent approval of cash award, applicant now needs to apply online for cash award scheme within six months from the last date of closing of the particular event.
• To ensure that the coach(es) get their cash award in a timely manner, required changes have been made in the scheme. 
• Pension benefits have been extended to the athletes of Deaflympics also. 

Online Portal for Schemes of Department of Sports-

• The Department of Sports has developed web portal dbtyas-sports.gov.in to facilitate sportspersons in applying to seek benefits under the above schemes of Department of Sports.
• This online portal will facilitate real time tracking of applications by the sportspersons and authentication through One Time Password (OTP) sent on their registered mobile number. 
• Physical submission of applications by the applicants to the Ministry would now be no longer required. 
• The portal has also been integrated with Direct Benefit Transfer or DBT which will enable transfer of funds to the sportspersons directly into their bank accounts. 
• The portal will not only help the Department in quick disposal of all applications in time bound manner but will also be used to generate different types of required reports and data management of the sportspersons. 

Website for National Sports Development Fund (NSDF)-

• The Department has also developed a dedicated interactive website nsdf.yas.gov.in for ‘National Sports Development Fund’ (NSDF). 
• This Fund is based on CSR contributions from Central & State Governments, PSUs, private companies, and individuals etc. for promotion and development of sports in the country. 
• With this website, institution and corporate organizations can now directly contribute for players, sports facilities, and sports events through the portal. 
• The NSDF corpus is used for Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme, Infrastructure development by eminent sportspersons and sports organizations etc. 
• This dedicated website will provide easy and transparent access not only to the sportspersons but also to the CSR contributors.