In a major development, Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia on Tuesday launched the National Air Sport Policy 2022 (NASP 2022).
As per official sources, NASP 2022 aims at making India one of the top sports nations by 2030, by providing a safe, affordable, accessible, enjoyable and sustainable air sports ecosystem
As the name suggests, Air sports encompasses various sports activities involving the medium of air. These include sports like air-racing, aerobatics, aero modeling, hang gliding, paragliding, para motoring and skydiving, among others.
India has the potential to be among the leading nations in the world of air sports. As per a government release, the policy will cover the following air sports in India:
- Aerobatics Aero modeling and model rocketry
Amateur-built and experimental aircraft
Ballooning Drones
Gliding and powered gliding
Hang gliding and powered hang gliding
Parachuting (including skydiving, BASE jumping and wing suits etc.)
Paragliding and para-motoring (including powered parachute trikes etc.)
Powered aircraft (including ultra light, micro light and light sports aircraft etc.)
Rotorcraft (including autogyro)
There will be a four-tier governance structure for air sports in India namely:
Air Sports Federation of India (ASFI) as the apex governing body
National associations for individual air sports or a set of air sports, as appropriate
Regional (e.g. West/ South/ North, East) or State and Union Territory level units of the national air sports associations, as appropriate;
District-level air sports associations, as appropriate.
Speaking on the future of Air Sports in India, the Minister said “From a small market size of around 5,000 odd air sports practitioners creating around Rs 80-Rs100 crore of annual revenue in India, I feel we can target over Rs 8,000 – 10,000 crore annual revenue and generate over 1,00,000 direct jobs. The economic multiplier benefits in terms of travel, tourism, support services and local infrastructure development will be over three times.”