India, July 7 -- Sports journalists aware of the reality of Indian sport usually have two responses to its policy documents - either a sigh or a snicker. But, given the National Sports Policy (NSP) 2025 aka Khelo Bharat Niti 2025 has arrived almost a quarter of a century after its last version - during which our elite sport has transformed itself - NSP 2025 must be understood in its context as well as essence: what it is and what it is not.

The NSP is not an action plan; rather, it is a framework of guiding principles, a mission statement meant to give direction to our sporting stakeholders to devise and execute programmes. It has evolved significantly from its 2001 avatar. Its fundamental breakaway is the broad-basing of the very identi...