Meraki, Sports and Society Accelerator team up for equality, empowerment

A collaborative effort between Meraki Sport & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. ('Meraki')– one of India’s leading fully-integrated sport marketing and consulting firms - and the non-profit Sports and Society Accelerator, the initiative aims to seed and grow the universe of sports at both performance and community levels to drive excellence and inclusive participation. The focus will be on enabling access and opening up opportunities to a wide base of participants using sports that are engaging and inclusive.

Ajit Ravindran, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Meraki, said, “To us, ‘sports of the future’ such as Breakdancing, Sport Climbing, Surfing and Skateboarding represent the convergence of facets like experience, aspiration & energy – aspects that drive Gen Z consumption. Additionally, we believe in the potential of these sports to act as catalysts enhancing India’s socio-cultural and sporting fabric, providing organizations and institutions the opportunity to author change and establish deep equity amongst consumers & community alike. The partnership with the Sports and Society Accelerator will enable collaboration across research and policy, awareness, programme design, stakeholder participation and integrated execution.”

Speaking at the launch, Desh Gaurav Sekhri, Co-Founder, Sports and Society Accelerator said “we believe that sport has the power to bind, inspire, heal and elevate us all, by creating social impact and sustainable legacy. A large part of our focus is on building the future of sports in our country to help achieve social goals such as inclusion, equality, and sustainability. If we can equalise access to sports that the youth find engaging, and empower communities and talent alike, we would have made big strides towards achieving our goals of universal participation in sports and active living at population scale. We are excited to partner with Meraki on this journey and are looking forward to collaborating with governments, enterprises and individuals, to make sport work for a Billion Plus of our country's inhabitants.”
 
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the inclusion of multiple new disciplines in the Olympic Programme, in a bid to attract younger audiences. While sports like Surfing, Sport Climbing and Skateboarding, made their debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Breakdancing is scheduled for a Paris 2024 debut.

For meaningful illustrations of the role of sport in society, including through sports of the future, follow the #MakingSportWork series in collaboration with The Better India, available at https://campaign.thebetterindia.com/making-sport-work/

About Meraki Sport & Entertainment Pvt.Ltd.

Established in Sept. 2015, anchored on the pillars of Sport, Sponsorship & Society, we are one of India’s leading sport marketing & consulting firms, enabling Brands, Athletes, Teams & Properties, leverage sport for Social, Cultural & Economic Progress, offering integrated solutions across six business verticals – Consulting, Rights, Talent, Experiences, Digital & Content.

About the Sports and Society Accelerator

The Sports and Society Accelerator is an independent not-for-profit organisation focused on building the Indian sports ecosystem. Its goal is to achieve social outcomes at population scale, using the universality of the sports experience.

Established as a policy-to-action initiative, the Accelerator has a dual-engine approach. It uses independent research and policy interventions to drive institutional and systemic reform, and programmes and projects to enhance inclusion, empowerment and equality using sport.

The Accelerator's theory of change is that 'sports for all' can be achieved when solutions are in the hands of participants. Its Sports Stack approach advocates a whole-of-system and open-source model to achieve universal access to sporting opportunities and universal physical literacy, working with government and civil society.

Co-Founders, Desh Gaurav Sekhri and Nandan Kamath bring over 30 years of professional experience in various aspects of sport and they are joined on the board of directors by experienced lawyers Roshan Gopalakrishna and Abhinav Shrivastava. The Accelerator's board of advisors includes noted sports journalist Sharda Ugra, CEO of Pratham Rukmini Banerji, and veteran sports administrator Joy Bhattacharjya.