The cause of sports promotion and the development of outstanding sportsmen and women was begun at Tata Steel five decades ago in five disciplines. It has now become a way of life. The number of sports disciplines have increased from five to twenty-one. A full-fledged Sports Department in Tata Steel was created to consolidate sports management and administration under a single umbrella.

This has paid handsome dividends -5 Padmashrees, 30 Arjuna Awardees, 21 Olympians and 32 Asian Medalists. However, the time had come to look at sports from a new angle -from the standpoint of producing potential international medal winners for tomorrow's India. It was a challenge for the Sports Department to tune its activities in a professional manner to fulfil this goal. The Sports Department suggested to the Management that accomplished sports persons should be taken in the Steel Company on a contract basis (for a restricted time period). Simultaneously, academies and training centres should be started to encourage and nurture the inherent talent in youngsters under the watchful eyes of expert coaches. It would also be necessary to look at all aspects of life -diet, education, etc. The Department was fully confident that this would produce potential medal winners.

Today, the Sports Department is proud that the cadets from the Tata Archery Academy and the Boxing Training Centre have already started producing results to show the veracity of this approach. Boxers like Diwakar Prasad, A. L. Lakra and Navin Kumar trained in Tata Steel have shown their mettle by winning at the national and international levels.