Consider the following statements about Khelo India University Games (KIUG): 1. The first edition of KIUG was held in Odisha. 2. The name of the mascot of the third edition of KIUG was Jeetu. 3. The first edition of KIUG was postponed due to COVID. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1, 2 and 3
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 and 2 only
- (d)3 only
Correct — C, 1 and 2 only. The first edition of the Khelo India University Games was held in Odisha, at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Bhubaneswar, from 22 February to 1 March 2020, so statement 1 holds. The third edition was hosted by Uttar Pradesh in the closing days of May and the first days of June 2023, and it took the swamp deer, the State animal, as its mascot under the name Jeetu, so statement 2 holds. Statement 3 is the false one and it is false on the dates alone — the first edition had been completed and its medals awarded before the pandemic closed down Indian sport. What the pandemic did postpone was the second edition, which had been intended for 2021 and was eventually held at Jain University in Karnataka in April and May 2022.
- (a)1, 2 and 3 — Includes statement 3, but the inaugural edition finished on 1 March 2020, before the pandemic disrupted the sporting calendar.
- (b)2 and 3 only — Drops statement 1 and keeps statement 3, reversing both facts. Odisha did host the first edition, and that edition was not postponed.
- (d)3 only — Names only the false statement.
The Khelo India programme is the Government of India's school and university sports pipeline, run by the Sports Authority of India with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. It has several strands — the Youth Games for under-seventeen and under-twenty-one athletes, the University Games for college competitors, the Winter Games in Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, and the Para Games — and the strands are rotated among host States, which is exactly what makes edition-and-host questions easy to set.
The pandemic is the trap in this item, because it disrupted so much of the calendar that a candidate will assume it disrupted this too. The dates settle it: the inaugural University Games ran from 22 February to 1 March 2020, and the national lockdown came at the end of that month. The edition that was actually postponed was the second, from 2021 into 2022, and that displacement is why the third edition followed so soon afterwards in 2023 and why the numbering of the games and the year in their title do not always line up. When revising this programme, hold the sequence of hosts rather than the years — Odisha, then Karnataka, then Uttar Pradesh — and the year questions become answerable.
- The first Khelo India University Games were held in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, from 22 February to 1 March 2020.
- The second edition was postponed from 2021 and held at Jain University in Karnataka in April and May 2022.
- The third edition was hosted by Uttar Pradesh in May and June 2023, with venues including Kanpur and Varanasi.
- The mascot of the third edition was Jeetu, a swamp deer, the State animal of Uttar Pradesh.
- The Khelo India programme is run by the Sports Authority of India under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and includes Youth, University, Winter and Para Games.
- Edition I — Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 22 February to 1 March 2020, held as scheduled
- Postponement — the pandemic pushed the SECOND edition out of 2021
- Edition II — Jain University, Karnataka, April and May 2022
- Edition III — Uttar Pradesh, May and June 2023, mascot Jeetu the swamp deer
The edition that slipped was the second, not the first — which is the whole of statement 3's error.
- Attributing a pandemic postponement to the first edition when it was the second that slipped.
- Confusing the University Games with the Youth Games, which have a separate sequence of hosts and mascots.
- Matching an edition to the year printed in its title rather than the year it was actually held.
As a statement item mixing a host State, a mascot name and a disruption date — three details that are easy to hold separately and easy to attach to the wrong edition.
Which one of the following was the official mascot of Khelo India Youth Games, 2020?
- (a) Vijaya
- (b) Yaya
- (c) Rongmon
- (d) Ammu
Answer(a) Vijaya
The mascot question in its purest form, from the Youth Games rather than the University Games. Mascot names are a standing feature of this programme's current affairs and are worth revising edition by edition.
Which one of the following States is planned to host the Khelo India Youth Games (4th Edition)?
- (a) Kerala
- (b) Haryana
- (c) Gujarat
- (d) Manipur
Answer(b) Haryana
The Youth Games strand of the same programme, asked in the same edition-and-host form. Keeping the two sequences of hosts apart is what these items reward.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The first edition of the Khelo India University Games was hosted by
- (a)Odisha
- (b)Karnataka
- (c)Uttar Pradesh
- (d)Assam
Answer(a) Odisha — at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, in February and March 2020.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Khelo India programme is implemented by the Sports Authority of India under which ministry?
- (a)Ministry of Education
- (b)Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
- (c)Ministry of Culture
- (d)Ministry of Home Affairs
Answer(b) Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.