India's Sports Goods Sector: A Sleeping Giant in Need of Policy Attention

India has a long and underappreciated history in sports goods manufacturing. The clusters in Jalandhar and Meerut — home to brands like SS and SG that cricketers across the world use — represent deep institutional knowledge, skilled craftsmanship, and genuine export capability. And yet, India accounts for less than 1% of global sports goods trade, a market estimated at over $65 billion annually. We rank 21st among global exporters. China, Vietnam and Taiwan leave us far behind.

With the sporting goods sector now administratively placed under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) following amendments to the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961, there is a genuine structural opportunity to change this. MYAS is now in a position to link sports goods manufacturing directly with India's broader sporting ambitions — the 2036 Olympic Games hosting bid, the Khelo India programme, the Fit India Movement. The question is whether MYAS will seize it.

The Scale of the Opportunity

India currently manufactures over 300 types of sporting goods. The sector employs around 500,000 workers across MSME-led clusters. Between FY2016-17 and FY2021-22, exports grew from $402 million to a peak of $546 million. We supply major international brands including Mitre, Lotto, Umbro and Wilson. In the decade to 2020, India saw a thirty-fold rise in racquet-related exports. These are not the numbers of a marginal industry — they are the numbers of an industry that has been left to grow without serious policy support.

What has constrained the sector is well-documented: quality inconsistencies, limited R&D investment, fragmented certification protocols, and an absence of the kind of state-backed innovation ecosystems that China, Vietnam and Taiwan have built. The Bureau of Indian Standards has no comprehensive framework covering the full range of sports goods. There is no dedicated national scheme for the sector equivalent to what exists in electronics or textiles.

What MYAS Should Do

Three interventions would move the needle most quickly. First, a dedicated sports goods scheme under MYAS — not a subset of a broader manufacturing programme, but a standalone initiative with athlete-centric design requirements, quality certification pathways, and innovation incentives. The sector's placement under MYAS is an opportunity precisely because athlete needs and manufacturing priorities can now be aligned by the same ministry.

Second, procurement reform. Government procurement of sports goods — for Khelo India, for SAI, for national federations — should be tied to quality standards and domestic manufacturing preferences. This demand-side reform would give manufacturers a reliable market to plan around and justify R&D investment.

Third, R&D infrastructure. IITs and NID are already engaged in materials research and sports tech incubation, but on a project-by-project basis. An institutionalised national framework — a dedicated sports goods innovation centre co-managed by MYAS, DPIIT, and academic institutions — would build cumulative capability rather than isolated projects.

Why This Matters Beyond Commerce

There is a reason this matters beyond export statistics. As India pushes to host the 2036 Olympics, the country's sports goods sector will be in the international spotlight. Equipment quality, supply chain integrity, and athlete welfare standards will all be examined. Building a world-class manufacturing sector now is not just economic policy — it is part of the credibility required to host the world's biggest sporting event. MYAS has the mandate. The question is whether it will use it.