India will amend its anti-doping law in the next session of Parliament to make doping violations a criminal matter, Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced in New Delhi on Tuesday, saying the new provisions will reach beyond athletes to the coaches and supply chains that feed them banned substances.
Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse
"We will also bring another amendment in the next session of our parliament, which aims to introduce criminal provisions to deal with violations even more effectively, including those by coaches and supply chain stakeholders," Mandaviya told the COP10 Bureau meeting under the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, which he chaired in the capital, IANS reported.
Source: IANS
"India firmly believes that sporting excellence must always be accompanied by integrity," the minister said. "Every athlete deserves a fair opportunity to compete, with success determined by talent, preparation and hard work, and not by prohibited substances or methods." He said the ministry follows a policy of zero tolerance towards doping and noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has regularly emphasised clean sport.
Mandaviya said India has already strengthened its legal and institutional framework through the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 and its 2025 Amendment, both of which came into force in July 2026. He said the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) is focusing on risk-based testing and intelligence-led investigations, and announced a forthcoming memorandum of understanding between the Sports Ministry, the Education Ministry and UNESCO to introduce the Sport Values in Every Classroom Toolkit in India.
The announcement comes as India has topped the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of offenders for three consecutive years, Reuters reported, and ranked among the top two nations for athletics anti-doping rule violations between 2022 and 2025 — a record that prompted the Athletics Integrity Unit to move the Athletics Federation of India from Category B to Category A, the highest-risk category, which carries stricter obligations including minimum testing thresholds for national-team athletes. Reuters said criminalising the supply of banned substances could also support India's bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games in Ahmedabad.
The New Delhi meeting was the third formal meeting of the COP10 Bureau and the fourth formal meeting of the Fund's Approval Committee for 2026-27. It was attended by Azerbaijan's Minister of Youth and Sports Farid Gayibov, who chairs the COP10 Bureau, India's Sports Secretary Hari Ranjan Rao, UNESCO's Director for Social Policies and Inclusion Gustavo Merino, and Fund Approval Committee chair Luke McCann, according to the official release.