Bengaluru, India – March 31, 2023: Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys, and the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) today announced that they have successfully concluded their debut, sports conclave at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence. This event was focused on creating awareness around sports and providing knowledge through experts, to athletes across all disciplines, their parents, and coaches from across India.
This day-long conclave, which saw participation from over 700 athletes and delegates, was aimed at helping aspiring athletes amplify their talent and dedicated efforts with latest inputs from sports science and related fields. Sporting legends Rahul Dravid and Prakash Padukone, prominent philanthropist, author and former Chairperson of Infosys Foundation, Mrs. Sudha Murty, entrepreneur Mukesh Bansal, former Indian hockey captain Viren Rasquinha, and former national badminton champion Aparna Popat were part of the several panel discussions that took place through the day.
Paddy Upton of South Africa, who is the former mental conditioning and strategic leadership coach of the Indian cricket team, sports physiotherapist Heath Mathews, also from South Africa, sports nutritionist Aradhana Sharma, and sleep evangelist Mathew Chandy also addressed the audience. Some of the key topics that were covered during these sessions included nutrition and hydration, injury prevention and management, strength and conditioning, and sports psychology. Raghavan Subramanian, Associate VP of Infosys, gave an interesting perspective on the advantage of technology in sports, citing examples of Infosys’ tech collaborations in the field of tennis.
Sumit Virmani, Trustee, Infosys Foundation, said, “We are delighted that PPBA and Infosys Foundation could bring together athletes, parents, and coaches from different sporting disciplines to gain knowledge from sporting legends and experts. This has been a long-standing vision of the collaboration, which I am glad we could realize. We hope that believe that this conclave has helped further educate, motivate, and equip our young athletes with the right information relevant insights and tools they need to strive for all round excellence, and realize their dreams.”
Prakash Padukone, Co-founder of PPBA, commented, “This Conclave has been started with a vision to support our athletes with the necessary exposure to the latest know-how and practices that they can use for raising their game to a higher level in a sustained manner. We hope that this will be the harbinger of more such events that can we organize together with Infosys Foundation, for the benefit of all our athletes across different disciplines.”
Infosys Foundation announced a long-term collaboration with PPBA in 2019, to support the Academy’s talented players to compete and excel in various national and international sporting competitions.
