Bengaluru | Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Friday announced the establishment of two National Centres of Excellence (NCOE), exclusively for women on the occasion of International Women's Day.

The NCOE cover 23 focused and priority disciplines where Indian athletes have a chance to win medals in global competitions like the Asian Games and the Olympics.

"Sports is a state subject but still the central government is keen to look at the upliftment of sports in the country. We have to spend a lot of money on infrastructure and coaches," Thakur said reacting to lack of trainers, coaches and infrastructure at the state level.

"We are collaborating with state governments and asked them to identify three key sports so that we have a roadmap and information on which state will promote hockey, boxing and athletics etc.

"I have already started consolidating our NCOEs and in association with the national sports federations, will greater emphasis on producing good coaches," he added.

The Sports Authority of India established 23 NCOEs across the country to impart specialised training to promising athletes by providing state of the art infrastructure and playing facilities, sports science backup, individualised diet prescribed by trained nutritionists and overall supervision under the best coaches, qualified support staff and High Performance Directors.