New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS): The sports ministry Wednesday revised the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar scheme which was introduced in 2009 to encourage the involvement of corporates and sports promotion boards in the development of sports in India.

The award will now be given for four categories -- identification and nurturing of budding talent, encouragement of sports through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), employment of sportspersons and sports welfare measures, and sports for development.

The ministry also mentioned the eligibility criteria for all the categories in a statement.

As 'training to promote rural sports, nationally recognised sports, Paralympic and Olympic sports’ have been included in Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013, firms can now spend on promotion of sports from the funds earmarked for CSR for which a specific category of 'encouragement of sports through CSR’ has been provided in the new scheme.

A separate category -- sports for development -- has also been provided exclusively for NGOs to recognise their contribution.