Boria Majumdar

About: Boria Majumdar, a Rhodes Scholar, completed his DPhil from St John’s College, Oxford University. Thereafter Dr. Majumdar went on to teach at the Universities of Chicago, Toronto and La Trobe where he was first distinguished Visiting Fellow in 2005. He was also the first Indian to be awarded a fellowship to work at the International Olympic museum archives in Lausanne, Switzerland. Between 2008-2020 he also served as Senior Research Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire and Adjunct Professor, School of Journalism, Australian and Indigenous Studies, Faculty of Arts at Monash University. He was a Visiting Fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge in 2009. As part of his media career, Boria Majumdar has been Consulting Editor Sports, Times Now, and Consulting Editor Sports of the India Today Group between 2013-2021. In December 2021 he launched his dream project, RevSportz, a digital first, content platform for the coverage of Multi sport in India with special focus on Paralympic sport. Within a year and a half, RevSportz has won multiple awards and accolades and is recognised as one of India’s leading sports platforms. His most recent book is Odisha and Sports: A story of hope and glory with Vineel Krishna published just last week from Simon and Schuster.

BOOK

Name: Odisha and Sports: A story of hope and glory

Description:

For decades, Odisha was considered as one of India’s most backward states. But under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik, it has made huge strides in every sphere, from human-development indices and disaster management to becoming the role model for India’s future sporting programme. This book, co-authored by Boria Majumdar, one of India’s best known sports scholars and commentators, and Vineel Krishna, Secretary Sports for the Government of Odisha, is an attempt to make sense of that transformation, especially in the sporting space. It is a tale of what can happen when a wealth of untapped talent is harnessed by proper administration and planning, and the creation of state-of-the-art infrastructure. It is the story of how a state stepped in at the last minute to stage a major event, and how its success turned into a springboard for future endeavours. It documents the sea change that has been witnessed in the past half-decade, with the creation of world-class stadia, high-performance centres and hostels to house the most talented kids from the relatively under-developed regions of the state. It’s also testament to the resilience and determination of the athletes, many of whom have overcome colossal odds to shine on the world stage. Most of all though, it’s a story of hope – of what can happen when a government prioritises its people and recognises the power of sport to bring about lasting and positive social change.