This measure taken by the chief Minister will create an interest in sports in more number of students and will also help produce a large number of talented sports persons.

 Sports gives a person the maturity to accept defeat just as victory, the capacity to work honestly, and it also demonstrates the importance of team work. To inculcate interest in sports amongst the youth, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had in 1992, merged the department of Sports and Youth services and the Tamil Nadu state sports development corporation and formed the Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority on a par with the Indian Sports development Authority.

 Identifying the sporting talent in the youths and imparting them with necessary training and providing incentives and assistance to outstanding sports persons to help them create records on the sporting arena are some of the measures initiated by Ms Jayalalithaa.

 During the previous tenure of Ms Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister in 2002, she had ordered incentives to honour sports persons from Tamil Nadu who won laurels at the international events including Olympics, Asian Games, Common Wealth Games, South Asian Games and also in National competitions.

Against this backdrop, a Tamil Nadu government press release today said that considering the increasing number of sports events and sports persons, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had ordered increase in the number of seats under the sports quota for admission to engineering colleges through counseling from the present 100 seats to 500 seats from the academic year 2012-2013. This measure taken by the Chief Minister will create an interest in sports in more number of students and will also help produce a large number of talented sports persons and help them pursue higher education.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's wish that students from Tamil Nadu shine in all fields including sports and education will come true through this measure.