PANAJI: Signalling a new turn in the Dempo Corporate Group’s involvement in Goan youth sports promotion, Chairman Mr Shrinivas V Dempo announced a number of measures designed to make the oversight of the unique Dempo Goodwill Brand Ambassador Scheme more participative. Mr Dempo was speaking at the first meeting of the Scheme’s Sports Committee at Dempo House, the Group’s headquarters in city.

Among the steps taken to enhance the scheme’s aims of adopting Goan youth sports achievers as the Group’s goodwill ambassadors thus enabling them to excel globally, was the naming of outside experts to the Committee with recommendatory responsibilities in identifying new ambassador applicants, as also encouraging and following existing promotees.
The experts nominated to the Committee include senior governmental sports administrator and scholar, Susana de Sousa, eminent sports personality and administrator, Brahmanand Shankhwalkar and reputed orthopaedist and consultant in Sports Medicine, Shekhar Shirwaiker.
The Committee, chaired by Mr Dempo, has as its Convenor Mr B T Boke, Senior General Manager (Human Resources), along with in–house manager nominees heading the disciplines of Technical, Finance, Legal, Sports Editing, and Public Relations in the Corporate Group.
Among the decisions taken at the meeting was the renewal of the annual contracts of the current crop of the three wonder girls adopted as Dempo Goodwill Ambassadors, Natasha Palha in lawn tennis, Ivana Furtado in chess and Talasha Prabhu in swimming. Committee members were unanimous in lauding the budding young Goan trio and their sparkling run each in the first full year of
ambassadorship.
Mr Dempo spoke of his eagerness to have the scheme grow in inclusiveness, in terms of advisors as well as promotees, in order to realise his vision of developing Goa, and thereby, India, as a sporting power house. The Group already owns the country’s premier soccer club and a cricket club that is rapidly rising in prominence in the state’s cricketing circuit. He underlined the desirability of focusing on individual excellence, which the Scheme espouses, as different from team achievement which has been the Dempo forte so far.
Committee Convenor Mr Boke stressed the singular nature of the Group’s corporate social responsibility foray into Goa-centred sports promotion, saying no other corporate initiative, to his knowledge, ran any similar collective youth initiative dedicated to sporting excellence benchmarked to international norms. He pointed out that Dempo Chairman had shown maturity and magnanimity in opening the scheme, his very own brainchild, to group governance.
The Committee resolved to meet regularly in order, among other things, to ensure talent spotting of probable ambassadors and constructive oversight of the progress of the current adoptees.
The Dempo Goodwill Brand Ambassador Scheme is now poised at a crucial point of departure. Young Goan sporting wannabes never had it so good!