The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) was founded in 1951 with a view to promote and popularize the shooting sports in India. The first speaker of Lok Sabha, Sh. G.V. Mavlankar was the founder and the first president of NRAI followed by Sh. Govind Vallabh Pant, Sh. Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sh. Y. B. Chauhan, Sh. G.S. Dhillon and Sh. Joginder Singh. Sh.
Raninder Singh
Raninder Singh (born 2 August 1967) is an Indian politician from Punjab, India, and son of the former Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh. He is the titular heir to the Phulkian royal dynasty of Patiala.
Early life and education
He belong ...
Asian Shooting Confederation The Asian Shooting Confederation (ASC) is an association of the International Shooting Sport Federation's member federations from Asia.
Competitions administered by the ASC
* Asian Shooting Championships
*Shooting at the Asian Games
Shooting spo ...
and other international bodies. NRAI holds five national competitions annually with a view to promote and popularize the Sports of shooting in India:
*National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC)
*All India G.V. Mavlankar Shooting Championship (AIGVMSC)
*Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Memorial Masters Shooting Championship
*Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting Championship
*All India Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Inter School Shooting Championship
International Performance
Shooting in India gained visibility when
Abhinav Bindra
Abhinav Apjit Bindra is an Indian Olympic gold medallist, retired sport shooter, and businessman.Men's 10Metre Air Rifle at the
2008 Olympic Games
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
. This was India's first ever Olympic Gold medal in an individual sport.
Shooting at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
In 2017, the Commonwealth Games Federation announced that the 2022 Commonwealth Games would no longer be held in Durban. The Games were awarded to Birmingham who chose not to include Shooting in the programme for the first time since 1970.
Following unsuccessful representations by the ISSF and British Shooting to have Shooting reinstated, the NRAI and IOA started plans to host a parallel Shooting competition in India and entered discussions with the CGF to have the medals included in Birmingham's medal table. The NRAI and IOA proposed to fully fund both the event as well as travel and accommodation expenses for several hundred athletes. Proposals were also made to include Archery, which had not been included since the
2010 Commonwealth Games
The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...
in Delhi. Initial plans were to host the event in Chandigarh, which would have required the construction of a new 1000yard fullbore range for the Queens shoot. The planned event - named the ''Commonwealth Shooting and Archery Championship'' - was cancelled in July 2021 due to ongoing concerns over COVID-19.