As many as 10 sports persons employed with central public sector enterprises such as and have been recommended for the prestigious national sports awards including Dronacharya Award for hockey coach Sandeep Sangwan. The sportsperson recommended include tennis star Ankita Raina, athlete Arpinder Singh and chess player Abhijit Kunte, according to the All India Public Sector Sports Promotion Board (AIPSSPB) executive vice president Subhash Kumar.

Others recommended are hockey players Gurjant Singh, Sumit, Mandeep Singh (all employed with Oil and Natural Gas Corp), Dilpreet Singh, Simranjit Singh and Hardik Singh (all employed with Indian Oil Corp).

All hockey players have been recommended for the Arjuna Award. Same is the case with ONGC-employee Arpinder and tennis player Ankita (also with ONGC). Abhijit, who is employed with IOC, has been recommended for Dhyanchand Award.

Sandeep Sangwan is employed with ONGC.

Kumar, who is also the chairman and managing director ONGC and a passionate sports person himself, said the hard work of AIPSSPB has been rewarded by these ten recommended awards from ONGC and IOC.

“At AIPSSPB, we are committed to promote sports as a key tool to leverage the energy of our youth for building a self-reliant nation,” he said.

The sports activities of public sector companies come under the AIPSSPB. The phenomenal contribution of this board for promotion of sports in the country is very clearly illustrated by the number of sportspersons from the member public sector enterprises, featuring this year in the national sports awards recommendations.

AIPSSPB, established in 1987, is the apex body for sporting activities among Public Sector Undertakings. Several Public Sector Undertakings (including Banks) namely ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation, Airports Authority of India,

, Reserve Bank, etc are members of the body.