By As the Interim Budget 2024 unfolds, Nirmala Sitharaman praises Indian chess prodigy R. Praggnanandhaa in her sixth budget speech.
Indian Chess Master R. Praggnanandhaa earned a special mention in Nirmala Sitharaman’s Interim Budget Speech presented in Parliament. During her speech, she praised Indian athletes and sportspersons for their exceptional performance. She said, “The country is proud of our youth scaling new heights in sports. The highest-ever medal tally in Asian Games and Asian Para Games in 2023 reflects a high confidence level”.
She praised R. Praggnanandhaa by mentioning him as the Number 1 Chess Player who gave a tough fight to reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen in 2023. Today, India has over 80 Chess Grandmasters compared to a little over 20 in 2010,” she further added.
2023 was a historic year for Indian Chess as the 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa became the youngest FIDE World Cup finalist. Although he didn’t win the title, he was crowned as the GrandMaster, 5th youngest person to achieve this feat after Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D and Javokhir Sindarov. Moreover, the 18-year-old Chennai boy became only the second Indian to earn a place in the Candidates Tournament after winning the silver medal at the FIDE World Cup.
Indian athletes earned the limelight after winning 111 medals at the Asian Para Games. With this, India ended their Asian Games campaign at Hangzhou in China with 107 medals in the bag (28 Gold Medals, 38 Silver medals, 41 Bronze Medals) India also surpassed its previous best of winning 72 medals at the Para multi-sport, which was held in Indonesia in 2018.
In the Union Budget 2024, the Ministry of Sports in India received Rs 3442 Cr, which is Rs. 45.36 Cr more compared to the previous year’s allocation, which was Rs. 3396.96 Cr.
