The scholarship will provide ₹40,000 per month, sports-science assessment and nutrition support to young national-level athletes across seven disciplines.
MUMBAI (India CSR): SBI Foundation, in partnership with Acrophase-IIT Madras, has launched the Potential Athlete Sports Scholarship for aspiring national-level athletes aged 15 to 19 years. The programme, with scholarships worth more than Rs. 4 crore, will support 90 young athletes from across India for one year. The initiative covers 45 boys and 45 girls, seeking to provide equal representation for male and female athletes. It is intended to help emerging athletes meet the demands of training and competition at a formative stage of their sporting journeys. The scholarship programme has been positioned as a step towards supporting India’s next generation of athletes as they prepare for future national and international sporting events. Applications are open to eligible young athletes across the country through the dedicated scholarship portal.
Seven Sports Covered
The scholarship will support athletes across seven disciplines: athletics, swimming, boxing, wrestling, shooting, archery and badminton. Each selected scholar athlete will receive a monthly stipend of Rs. 40,000 to assist with training, equipment, sport-specific gear, nutrition and dietary requirements. The financial support is designed to address some of the recurring costs faced by young athletes and their families while pursuing competitive sport. In addition to the monthly scholarship, the selected athletes will receive sports-science-based performance assessments and ongoing nutrition support during the programme period. SBI Foundation and Acrophase-IIT Madras said the programme would combine financial assistance with specialised guidance, enabling young athletes to access a more structured support system as they work towards higher levels of sporting performance.
“This scholarship will help these athletic prodigies to represent India at the global stages like the Los Angeles Olympics, Brisbane Olympics, and 2030 Commonwealth Games.” – Swapan Dhar, Managing Director, SBI Foundation
SBI Expands Footprint
Swapan Dhar, Managing Director, SBI Foundation, said, “SBI Foundation is expanding its sports footprint across India. This is to build a robust, interlinked ecosystem, where we are training and empowering athletes of the next generation, for the next generation. Through the Potential Athlete Sports Scholarship, SBI Foundation is nurturing and supporting athletes at a young age, when it is crucial for motivating them to pursue their sporting aspirations. This scholarship will help these athletic prodigies to represent India at the global stages like the Los Angeles Olympics, Brisbane Olympics, and 2030 Commonwealth Games.” He added that SBI Foundation was also supporting para-athletes through another sports scholarship and pursuing an integrated development model through sports infrastructure, strategic partnerships, and support for underserved athletes and medal prospects.
Science Guides Performance
The scholars will receive personalised nutritional guidance and support through the training and competition phases. This will include the preparation of individual dietary plans and continuous consultation during the scholarship period. Prof. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, Acrophase-IIT Madras, said the partnership would take sports science and performance assessment to young athletes at a significant stage of their development. “The years between 15 and 19 are when an athlete’s body, technique and habits take shape, and the right scientific inputs at this point can define an entire career,” he said. The programme will provide physiological, biomechanical and physical profiling along with sports nutrition guidance. According to Acrophase-IIT Madras, such support can help athletes train smarter, recover better, reduce injury risk and prepare more effectively for competition.
Grassroots Talent Focus
Prof. Sivaprakasam said the programme aimed to make elite-level sports science more accessible to athletes beyond established high-performance systems. “Our vision is to make elite-level sports science, which has so far reached only a select few at the very top, accessible to athletes at the grassroots, so that talent in even the remotest parts of the country is identified, nurtured and supported with the same rigour as our best,” he said. He referred to the first cohort of SBIF ACE para-athlete scholars, which won 70 medals at national and international competitions in a single year. The partnership is now extending this support model to junior athletes, with the objective of building a pipeline of young sportspersons who can compete at future Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
National Applications Open
The Potential Athlete Sports Scholarship will support 90 athletes for one year, with applications open to eligible young athletes from across India. The initiative adds to SBI Foundation’s wider sports and social-development interventions across the country. SBI Foundation, the CSR arm of the State Bank Group, works across rural development, healthcare, empowerment of persons with disabilities, sports, education, sustainability, livelihoods and skill development. It operates across 28 states and eight Union Territories through partnerships with social-sector organisations. Acrophase-IIT Madras draws on more than eight years of applied research and development in sports science, human performance and athlete monitoring. The scholarship combines these institutional capabilities to offer financial assistance, performance assessment and nutritional support to promising under-19 athletes.
Apply here: SBIF ACE Junior Athlete Scholarship
