Former All England Badminton champion Prakash Padukone and billiards ace Geet Sethi have joined hands to launch the Olympic Gold Quest Sports Foundation and help India break its long gold medal drought in the Games.
The foundation has been set up to "identify and support Indian sportspersons with Olympic medal winning potential in their quest for this coveted achievement", said Sethi at a media conference to announce the foundation's launch on Friday.
Sethi described the endeavour, launched with active support from sports lovers like stock market specialist Shitin Desai and R Ramraj, ex-MD of a leading software solutions firm, "as a fulfilment of a three-year dream Padukone and I were nourishing".
The foundation has lofty ideals of helping the country gain at least five gold medals in the 2012 London Games and it has decided to raise funds from corporates, including individuals who have sufficient means to donate, and NRIs.
"We have already started giving financial help to the shooting federation (National Rifle Association of India) and are to provide help to the Athletics Federation of India too with the 2008 Beijing Olmpics in sight," Sethi announced in the presence of the secretary-generals of the respective federations - G S Sethi and Lalit Bhanot.
"We have also identified boxing, archery and badminton as the other three sports for focusing our attention on before the 2012 Olympics," Sethi said.
Former hockey international winger and sports administrator M P Ganesh is on the executive advisory committee of the foundation which has also roped in five sports scribes in advisory capacity.