Kotak Mahindra Bank : Collaborates with Inspire Institute of Sport for Kotak’s CSR Project on Sports

Media Release

Kotak Mahindra Bank Collaborates with Inspire Institute of Sport

for Kotak's CSR Project on Sports

Mumbai, 21st July, 2021: In its quest to keep the Indian flag flying high at international sporting competitions, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited ("KMBL" / "Kotak") today announced its collaboration with the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) to implement Kotak's CSR Project on Sports. KMBL-IIS CSR partnership is a joint endeavour to help fulfil the dreams and aspirations of budding wrestling and boxing athletes from across Indian geographies, irrespective of their socioeconomic strata, gender, race or religion.

The idea behind KMBL's CSR partnership with IIS is to support athletes who have skill but they or their parents may not have requisite means to pay for their coaching and training. KMBL's CSR Project fully funds the coaching and training of wrestling and boxing athletes.

The 'Kotak Karma Contact Sports Centre' is a state-of-the-art training facility at the IIS campus in Bellary, Karnataka, comprising of a 62mx62m column-free indoor training centre that offers world class infrastructure, technical training and sports science support to accomplished as well as promising junior and senior Indian wrestling and boxing athletes. The holistic development of residential athletes at the Centre covers academic support, nutrition and psychology, leadership and vocational training.

Rohit Rao, Joint President & Group CSR officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited, said, "Kotak's CSR Project on Sports with IIS provides international-class coaching and training to accomplished as well as promising junior and senior Indian wrestling and boxing athletes. Kotak's CSR Project is an effort to create tomorrow's world champions and also includes providing education and life skills programmes to empower the athletes to make them good citizens of India."

Rushdee Warley, CEO, Inspire Institute of Sport, said, "India has a strong history and tradition of success in Contact Sports, with the country already having won multiple Olympic and World Championship medals in boxing and wrestling. At IIS, we are aiming to provide talented Indian athletes with a world-class daily training environment through a structured program focusing on the holistic development of the athletes. In Kotak Mahindra Bank, we are pleased to find a partner who believes in our vision of nurturing Champions, inside and outside their fields of play."

Kotak Karma is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) identity of the Kotak Mahindra Group. At Kotak Karma Contact Sports Centre, 100 wrestling and boxing athletes are undergoing training. Of these, 48 athletes are being trained for boxing (19 female, 29 male) and 52 athletes are being trained for wrestling (28 female, 24 male).

The key coaches and support staff for the Kotak's CSR Project on Sports at IIS are as follows:

• Rushdee Warley (South Africa), Chief Executive Officer, IIS. Rushdee is a specialist in high performance training with more than 25 years of experience in talent identification and athlete development in South Africa, New Zealand and India.
• Ronald Simms Jr. (USA) is the Head Coach for Boxing. Ronald is a qualified USA Boxing Level
  IV certified coach with an AIBA 3 Star Certification, and has coached some of India's top elite boxers.
• John Warburton (UK) is the Head of Youth Boxing. John holds an MSc in Sports Coaching from John Moores University and is a former Talent Development Coach at England Boxing
• Aamir Tavakolian (Iran) is the Head Coach for Men's Wrestling. Aamir is an Olympian, a multiple-time Asian Champion and former Head Coach of Iran National Youth Team. He has over 15 years of coaching experience with elite and junior wrestlers.
• Yandro Quintana (Cuba) is the Head Coach for Women's Wrestling. Yandro is the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Men's Freestyle Wrestling 60kg weight class.
• Spencer Mackay (Scotland) is the Head of Strength & Conditioning for all sport training at IIS.
  Spencer has worked extensively with some of India's top wrestlers and boxers over the past five years and leads IIS' focus on scientific and evidence-based training for athletes. Spencer has previous experience with the Scotland Women's Rugby team and the National Age Grade Programme.
• Dhananjay Kaushik (India) is the Head of Physiotherapy for all sport training at IIS. He is a USA-licensed physical therapist and has had multiple research articles published. Dhananjay has worked with top Indian and international athletes in sports including Boxing, Shooting, Athletics and Cricket.

About Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

Established in 1985, Kotak Mahindra Group is one of India's leading financial services conglomerates. In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. (KMFL), the Group's flagship company, received banking license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), becoming the first non-banking finance company in India to convert into a bank - Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

The Bank has four Strategic Business Units - Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury, which cater to retail and corporate customers across urban and rural India. The premise of Kotak Mahindra Group's business model is concentrated India, diversified financial services. The bold vision that underscores the Group's growth is an inclusive one, with a host of products and services designed to address the needs of the unbanked and insufficiently banked. As on 31st March, 2021, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd has a national footprint of 1,604 branches and 2,598 ATMs, and branches in GIFT City and DIFC (Dubai).

For more information, please visit the company's website at https://www.kotak.com/

About Inspire Institute of Sport

The Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) is India's first privately funded High Performance Training Centre that trains talented young athletes across five Olympic disciplines of Wrestling, Boxing, Judo, Athletics and Swimming. Spread over 42 acres in Vijayanagar, Karnataka, IIS is a unique initiative led by the JSW Group that brings together over 25 corporate donors who are collectively funding the operations of the institute through CSR funding. Led by an Advisory Board comprising senior Indian sporting legends and high-performance experts, the Khelo India-accredited institute will offer about 300 talented young athletes full scholarships in a completely residential, world class training environment at full capacity. In under four years, IIS has cemented its place as the destination of choice for India's top athletes, having hosted a range of professional teams and athletes for training, conditioning and rehabilitation programs. IIS is the only Indian member of the Association of Sports Institutes in Asia (ASIA) and has forged high performance partnerships with national and international federations and universities with a focus on kick starting an Olympic movement in India.

For further information, please contact:

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