Speaking at the meeting, the Minister urged the states to organise State-level Khelo India Games annually with an effort to identify a larger number of grassroot-level talents.
The meeting was attended by Sports Secretary Ravi Mital, Director General, Sports Authority of India, Sandip Pradhan and other senior officials of the sports ministry.
Sports Minister spoke of the 5 zonal talent scouting committees that are being planned for east, west, north, south and north east India and asked for active participation of the states in assisting these committees in identifying grassroot-level talent in 24 sporting disciplines.
The Minister also stressed on the need for states to identify their best sporting infrastructure for the Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE), on priority.
State representatives showed keen interest in working closely with the Sports Ministry on the executing the plans discussed by the Sports Minister, with many of them sharing details of already existing state-level annual competitions and grassroot-level talent identification schemes.