Sudhanshu Fadnis is the founder-director of Delhi-based KSR Sportseed (KSRS) Pvt. Ltd, a company he promoted in 2012 to offer sports education, training and assessment to schools. A mechanical engineering graduate of MS University, Vadodara and the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai, Fadnis acquired plenty of work experience in blue-chip engineering corporates Larsen & Toubro, Atlas Copco and global consultancies KPMG and E&Y, before going solo and promoting KSRS three years ago.

Newspeg. Last November, KSR Sportseed inked an agreement with the Gun for Glory Academy of the Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation, Pune ” promoted in 2011 by Olympics 2012 shooting bronze medalist Gagan Narang ” to provide training in rifle and pistol shooting in schools. Earlier in October, Sportseed was appointed a partner for sports talent identification by the Gujarat government under its scheme of promoting a dedicated sports school in each district of the state. Thus far, the company has placed 750 talented sportspersons in 16 sports schools in 12 districts statewide. Moreover, in 2013 KSRS signed a consultancy contract with the Rajasthan government for establishing what could be the first exclusive sports education university in India.

History. Established to promote the Olympic ideals in children and youth through sports education, Sportseed, which offers sports syllabuses/curriculums, consultancy, assessment and talent identification services, has signed contracts with 40 schools in ten states. Backed by a team of 60 professionally qualified coaches and trainers including top-ranked players, the company offers education in multiple sports and skills development programmes for children in classes III-VIII. Thereafter, it offers structured courseware for individual as well as team sports in addition to training sports teachers.

Direct talk. The impact of sports education programmes in education institutions has been negligible and there are glaring performance gaps between school/college, state-level, national and international players. Our sports and fitness programmes are designed to close these gaps. Management of sports clubs, associations and tournaments is another area in which we believe we can make an important contribution, says Fadnis, an accomplished badminton player who donned Gujarat state colours in the early noughties (1990-95).

Future plans. Buoyed by enthusiastic response to the company’s service offerings, Fadnis has set a target to sign up 500 schools within the next five years. œCurrently we are designing new programmes based on the UK and Australian models of sports education and leadership development. This also means we will be using new digital technologies in our operations, he says.

Keep trucking!

Autar Nehru (Delhi)