Machettira Poovamma felicitated
Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar felicitated Karnataka’s sportspersons who brought laurels to the state and the country at the 2026 Asian Games at Vidhana Soudha. The government announced a total of Rs 8 crore in cash rewards for eight medal-winning athletes.
In addition to the medal winners, the state government announced several incentives for Karnataka athletes who participated in the Asian Games.
For the first time, 20 athletes from Karnataka who qualified for and competed in the 2026 Asian Games have been sanctioned an cash incentive of Rs 5 lakh each.
Athletes from athletics, badminton, cricket, cycling, equestrian sports, golf, hockey, shooting, swimming, table tennis and sport climbing will benefit from the initiative.
Higher cash rewards for medal winners
Previously, gold medal winners received Rs 35 lakh, silver medal winners Rs 25 lakh and bronze medal winners Rs 15 lakh. The government has now increased the rewards as follows:
Gold medal: Rs 1 crore, Silver medal : Rs 75 lakh and Bronze medal: Rs 50 lakh
Direct recruitment for sportspersons
Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medal winners will be eligible for direct recruitment to Group B posts in the state government. The recruitment process will be conducted through a selection committee headed by the Chief Secretary.
Financial assistance for Olympic preparations
Asian Games medal winners M.R. Poovamma, Sneha S.S. and Shreyanka Patil, along with Commonwealth Games medal winner Shilpa K.S., have been included in the ‘Target Olympics’ scheme for 2026-27.
Each of them will receive an incentive of Rs 10 lakh to support preparations for the Olympics.
 Two per cent reservation in government jobs                        Â
A 2% reservation has been introduced for outstanding sportspersons in direct recruitment to state government jobs. The reservation will apply to Group A, B, C and D posts. A notification to this effect was issued on October 3, 2026.
Twenty athletes receiving cash incentives of Rs 5 lakh each
The 20 athletes listed for the incentive are Yashas Palaksha, Supriya SindigereBasavaraju, Unnati Aiyappa, M.R. Poovamma, Sneha S.S., Ayush Shetty, Shreyanka R. Patil, Keerthi Rangaswamy, Fawad Mirza, Aditi Ashok, Pranavi S. Urs, Mohit H.S., Tilottama Sen, Akash Mani, Srihari Nataraj, Dakshan S., Aneesh Gowda, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Sindhushree and Deepu Mallesh.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara, Karnataka Olympic Association President K. Govindaraju, medal-winning athletes and officials of the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports attended the programme.



