OREANDA-NEWS. Tata Steel was conferred with the Best Company Promoting Sports (Private sector) at the FICCI India Sports Awards 2013 for its contribution towards promotion of sports in the country at the FICCI India Sports Awards event held yesterday at Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi.

The award was presented by Ms Indu Puri, Arjuna Awardee, Former Table Tennis player and also a member of FICCI jury.

Organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), FICCI India Sports Awards is a platform to felicitate sports heroes. It provides plethora of investment and growth opportunity in sports sector.

FICCI instituted the Sports Awards in 2009 under various categories which includes sportsperson of the year, coach of the year, exemplary contribution to sports and more. FICCI awards aims to facilitate not only sportspersons who have made the country proud by their sporting achievements but also organisations that support promotion and development of sports.

Tata Steel was commended for doing contribution to infrastructure and providing sports facilities to potential talents. Tata Steel has done some splendid work in terms of fully funded residential academies for football, Athletics and Archery.

M R Bhalla, Senior Manager Sports, Tata Football Academy received the award on behalf of Tata Steel. On receiving the award, Mr Sanjiv Paul, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, said: “It is a great honour to be recognized by FICCI for our efforts in Sports. Tata Steel is committed to promoting sportsmanship and nurturing sporting talent. We strongly believe that India has a huge pool of sports talent and they need to be trained and exposed to national and international competitions to help build up their capacities”.

Tata Steel is the only Indian company to invest in world-class sports facilities, create academies and maintain and manage international level arenas. The cadets of its Tata Football Academy, the nursery for the sport in India, as well as those of the Tata Archery Academy, the only one of its kind for archery, have justified the faith that the Company has in the talent and ability of the youth. A significant part of the Indian Football team, India’s best archers, some of its finest cricketers, athletes, shooters, a Grand Master and several national and international legends have realized their dreams as a result of the support they have received from TATA Steel Sports Academies.

Besides establishing world class sports academies for Football, Archery and Athletics, Tata Steel has created infrastructure for training for 18 other sports disciplines and 4 Feeder Centres in rural areas. A full-fledged Sports Department at Tata Steel is in charge of sports management and administration.

Tata Steel’s effort has paid handsome dividends, resulting in 8 Padmashrees, 35 Arjuna Awardees, 21 Olympians and 32 Asian Championship Medalists.

Tata Steel was also honoured with the 'Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar' from the Government of India for the second consecutive year in 2010.