Samsung India announces Rs 20 lakh for gold medal in Olympics

New Delhi: Electronics major Samsung India on Monday announced cash award of Rs 20 lakh to any of the country`s sportsperson winning a gold medal in the forthcoming Olympic Games to be held in London.

The company, which is the official sponsor of the Indian team, also said a silver medal winner would be given Rs 15 lakh, while Rs 10 lakh would be awarded to bronze medal winners. "I hope this will provide motivation to Indian players to win more medals," Samsung South West Asia HQ President & CEO B D Park told reporters here. The company, which has been providing scholarship to six high potential Indian sportspersons, added two more stars --Manavjit Singh Sandhu and MC Mary Kom -- to its `Samsung 2012 Olympic Ratna` programme. The other sportspersons are Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Ronjan Sodhi, Laishram Devendro Singh, Vikash Krishan Yadav and Deepika Kumari. Under the programme, the company will also foot bills for one of the family members of these players to travel for the London games which will be held from July 27 to August 12. To rally support for the Indian Olympic team, the company also announced a marketing campaign. Under the campaign the company has set up a special page on Facebook to allow fans to send their best wishes to the Indian team members. PTI