Sahara felicitate India’s Leading Archers

Kolkata, April 20, 2010: Sahara India Pariwar, a major business conglomerate and the prime promoter & patron of sports in India, today as a part of its emotional commitment towards the betterment of sports in India, signed a historic deal with Archery Association of India (AAI) to sponsor the National Archery Team. Further, to motivate the sportsmen of this skill based sport, Sahara has also announced to give incentives to at least 14 promising Archers each year, starting from 2009-10 onwards. The sponsor of Indian Cricket and Hockey, Sahara India Pariwar, had earlier last year, adopted Indian Boxing, Wrestling and Archery and Indian Shooting in addition to covering support of a total of 56 sportsmen in these four games until after London Olympics 2012.
Archers Selected for Sahara’s Cash Awards for year 2009 - 2010.


Recurve Men
Jayant Talukdar
Tarundeep Rai
Rahul Banerjee
Mangal Singh Champia

Recurve Women
Dola Banerjee
Rimil Buriuly
L. Bombayala Devi
V. Pranitha

Compound Men
I. R. Sanam
Chungda Sherpa
C. Srither
KH. Ratan Singh

Compound Women
Manjudha Soy
Jhano Hansda
Namita Yadav
Bheigyabati Chanu

Promising
Recurve Boys
Atanu Das
Sanjay Boro

Recurve Girls
Deepika Kumari
Seema

Compound Boys
CH Jignas
Ritul Chatterjee

Compound Girls
S. Jayalakshmi
Gagandeep Kaur


Exercising the opportunity very passionately provided by Sahara in the tie-up agreement AAI, through a three member panel of experts, reviewed the performance of Archers from across the country for the year 2009-10 and consequently selected and nominated 24 archers under the Achievers and Promisers categories for receiving Cash Awards by Sahara India Pariwar.
Mr. Abhijit Sarkar, Head Corporate Communication, Sahara India Pariwar said “We are proud to be associated with the game of Archery and hope the cash award provided to the Achieving and Promising Archers would encourage them to perform better and bring glory and laurels to the country. Sahara, under the able leadership of our Chairman and Managing Worker Saharasri Subrata Roy, has once again set an example in the promotion of sports in India.”

“Acknowledgement by Sahara India Pariwar at this juncture would inspire the up coming archers to perform even better and bring more medals to the country” said Mr. Paresh Nath Mukherjee, Secretary General of AAI. “It’s a historic moment of sports in India as this is the first time that a sports promoting corporate has come forward to give cash awards to any sportsperson. I thank Sahara for this meaningful gesture” Mr. Mukherjee said.
“We are happy to be the catalyst of such an exemplary and praiseworthy gesture by Sahara Group. This would, no doubt, set a new beginning of promotion of sports in India.” said Mr. S.S.Dasgupta, Managing Director, Leisure Sports Management.
Sahara India Pariwar as a prime patron of sports in India has undertaken various steps to promote sports at all levels. In order to uplift sports at domestic and grass root level, supports the legendary Calcutta Football League, Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament and many other sports at the national, state and district levels. The group has extended its sponsorship to the Uttar Pradesh senior cricket team which represents the state in Ranji and all other domestic tournaments.
Earlier, in the year 2009, with an intention to bring together all sports, including those which are very popular and also those which are not so popular, together on a common platform to recognize and honour the achievements of Indian sportspersons who have taken the pride of the nation to the highest level Sahara had initiated ‘The Sahara Indian Sports Awards’. The awards are aimed to provide a forum of encouragement to young sporting talents and motivate them to bring laurels to the nation and sports.
Recently, the Sahara Group, under its company Sahara Adventure Sports Limited, has bagged the franchise for Pune IPL team by making the highest bid ever in IPL. Sahara has also partnered with IPL to organize Sahara IPL Awards for next three years.