Welcome to this conversation which was supposed to be a physical event at the Trailblazers, the Tata Steel Trailblazers Conclave this year. Someone who has actually made it possible in many ways for me and the team at RevSportz to be able to do Trailblazers and grow it every year is the support of Tata Steel, personally and to my organization. As I said, deepest appreciation, respect, and admiration for the man. No one better to kickstart the conclave than Shri T. V. Narendran, Managing Director and Global CEO of Tata Steel. Chief, I will miss you. I'm putting it on record. I had been talking to you for seven, eight months, but I understand occupational hazard. But your thoughts, two questions to start with: the Tata Steel vision for sport, and why you from year one decided to support the Trailblazers Conclave.
Firstly, Boria, thank you for being so generous and as well as for inviting me. I'm really sorry I couldn't be there. As you know, I had planned to be there even three days back. We had discussed and I said I would be there. So something has happened and you know, obviously it's an occupational hazard for me that my schedule is not always in my hands. But firstly, congratulations to you and your team for putting up a show like this. And so I'll answer your second question first, which is to say that we are happy to be associated with you. I think you've been one of the most passionate people on sports that I've known for years, and we are happy to support that passion for a very good cause. So I think that's why we've been happy to be associated with this initiative from the outset. Tata Steel's association with sports goes back a long way. I think we have a rich history of association with sports, as you know, and maybe some of your viewers know. J. R. D. Tata, the chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Steel at that point in time, sponsored the first Indian delegation to the Paris Olympics in 1920. And ever since, our association with sport has been very strong. And I think what we try to do is support sports which normally don't get too much support. You know, there are sports which get a lot of support in India, but there are sports which don't get enough support, so we do that. Secondly, we see sports as a way of connecting with the community. We always look for different platforms to connect with community, and sports is a very important platform for us to use to connect with the community at the grassroots level. We also think that sports is a very important part of anyone's life, and particularly it helps channelize the energies of the youth in a very positive way and helps create habits which give you a very healthy lifestyle. It teaches you a lot for leadership. It teaches you a lot which you can use in leadership in all aspects of life. So in many different ways, I think sports is very useful to society, and Tata Steel finds it an excellent way to add value to society and also to connect with society.
Taking a cue from what Mr. Narendran just said, I want to put two things on record and then ask the next question. One, from the first year, in fact, the Trailblazers Conclave at that point in time wouldn't even have happened, and it was based on a conversation that I had with Mr. Narendran on a Zoom call. And I requested, Chief, can I do this? And that's how it was born in 2022. First edition was in '23. First call, as I said, first call was with this man. Then next year, as is very much with me, I went to him and I said I need more support. He said, what happened? I said I'm doing it two days instead of one. Without even batting an eyelid, again, I'm putting it on record, go ahead. This time around, last September, I went to him and I said, look, Paris, this is what has happened, Olympics, Paralympics. I want to do it two and a half to three days because I want to grow it, shape the narrative in India. We are going to bid for 2036. You have to back me again. And he said, look, don't keep asking every year. I will back you for a long term. Let's get this done for two, three years. And that is the kind of support which gives us the confidence that you know what, there's somebody, a brand that is behind you which has shaped the narrative for Indian sports. So once again, my deepest appreciation and gratitude. Number two, and here's the question: you've just said that sports that do not get that kind of support in India, and I come back to our conversation when you told me don't just focus on cricket, talk about Paralympic sport, talk about sport like that which will make India a better society, a more inclusive, a more sensitive society. Your thoughts on that? Because if you see the schedule which I have already shared with you, huge number of Paralympic medalists, 12, 13 of them, with able-bodied athletes. Can you talk to me about your vision, how this can change India, the Paralympic success, and overall how we can become a better society if we are able to bring this synergy?
Yeah, so Boria, I think, you know, at a very fundamental level, to be successful in whatever sport you pursue, you need to be committed, you need to be disciplined, you need to put in a lot of hard work. If it's a team sport, you need to do a lot of teamwork. You need to work with your coaches, your support teams, everyone else. So there's a lot that you put in to be successful in sports. And for me, like I said, it's a celebration of that. Now when I look at Paralympic sports and things like that, the challenge is even more for the people. You know, as it is, we say in sports we don't support athletes enough, and I think in Paralympics, etc., we support even less. As a society, I think we need to do far more for the differently abled. And I think corporates can do their bit, which we do, as we try to become more inclusive, encourage more diversity, create more facilities so that differently abled people and different people can be part of our workforce. But I think we need to do more and more to celebrate their successes beyond the corporate world, in the sporting world. And I think through this, we are able to celebrate the success, celebrate their perseverance, their resilience, and also hopefully help society celebrate them as well much more than they do today, and also be more sensitive to the challenges that they have to go through to achieve what they've achieved.
Basically continuing from this question, and again from the fact that it is not a celebration of cricket alone but a celebration which is holistic and multi-sport. You know, there are some very important aspects of critical inquiry and dialogue. For example, recently Gopichand has talked about how the Indian sporting ecosystem should shape itself. Education, the role of education, the role of mental health. We have a panel called 'From Menarche to Menopause' which talks about women's health issues that are not generally discussed and debated in society. So these are the kind of things we are able to discuss at the Trailblazers Conclave with athletes, with policy makers, with leading corporates, with federation presidents, and others. This is why I think this platform has become a go-to platform for athletes, and we can shape narrative. We'll present a white paper out of this as well. Your thoughts? Because when you told me to do it, was this the kind of vision that you wanted me to articulate and execute? And how do we take this forward?
So I think these platforms are very important for the reasons that you described. You know, 10 years back, Tata Steel decided that we need to create a platform for tribal voices. You know, we operate in states where the tribal communities are a significant part of the demographic. While we have been doing a lot of good work with the tribal communities, we found that we had not created a platform. So since 2014, we created a platform called Samadhan. Every year, 1,500 to 2,000 members of tribal communities from across India and also across the world come to Jamshedpur to celebrate Birsa Munda's birthday. And three days thereafter, we celebrate the tribal cultural identity, tribal cultures, tribal languages, tribal food, art, music, etc. The reason why I give this example is you have an opportunity to be that kind of a platform for sports, where different people from different sporting disciplines come there. Different, you know, also the Paralympic sports are represented there, athletes are represented there. So there is an opportunity for you to create a platform where issues which are relevant to sports people, sports administrators, aspiring sports people, so on and so forth, have an opportunity to voice their issues. And hopefully, collectively, we sit together and discuss these issues, we'll find some solutions, we'll get some ideas. And I think all this is very important as we want to make India a great sporting nation. You know, we have the potential, we've in flashes shown our ability. So how can we really make it work? And I think the platform allows you that opportunity to be a vehicle for that.
