Games will make delhi a global player

As Delhi races to complete infrastructure projects ahead of the XIXth Commonwealth Games amid reports of escalating costs, many want to know whether such 'mega-events are jackpot or burden?' Are immediate gains such as sports facilities and a spanking new airport all that the Games mean for the city? Or will this Rs 10,000 crore bill lead to emergence of Delhi and India as a brand?

Questions like these and many more came up for discussion on the concluding day of 'Delhi 2010: The Games and the Commonwealth' summit, organised by The Times of India and the South Asia Research Foundation.

That legacy is a multi-faceted word was apparent at the discussion as panelists concurred that it extends way beyond mere infrastructure. Louise Martin, vice-chairperson of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, spoke about the legacy that Scotland was looking forward to gain from the 2014 Games.

"We would like the legacy not to be confined to physical infrastr ture." As a step in this directio community-based programme to search and identify new sporting talent and encourage the culture of sports have been designed. Added Martin, "We're planning to spend over 25 million Pounds on n only infrastructure but also c ing and community program Targetted medal success is a other facet."

It's not just a resurgent sporting culture that a city can expect from the Games. As Guru Malladi of Ernst & Young, another speaker, highlighted, a mega-event like the Commonwealth Games can be a fillip to development. "The legacy of the Asiad in 1982 was the colour TV and city infrastructure. So too, the legacy of Delhi Games 2010 is not just a better transport system and roads but also the emergence of the city on the world sports map," said Malladi. "It's how you leverage the event that matters - like Barcelona, which brought down its employment rate from a two-digit percentage to single digits," he added.

But is Delhi managing to make the leap from the drawing board to the world map? Not really, going by what some of the speakers at the summit had to say. Both Michael Linley of Brand Capital, Melbourne as well as Prof Hans

Westerbeek of Victoria University

About the global perception Delhi Games 2010. "While Melbourne may have had the advantages of being a city that's centred its economics on mega events, the fact is that Delhi still has some way to go. Locations as well as intangible legacies such as ecological impact - especially the carbon footprint of the Games - are factors that would determine if the Delhi Games have been successful," said Westerbeek.

So is Delhi ready for the Games? Martin certainly thinks so, adding, "There's been a huge difference between the status of preparation from October to now." And its legacy, according to Jean-Loop, professor from Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, may well be the goodwill of those coming in from abroad as well as its own perception as a nation ready to host an international event.