India has a doping problem and ‘nobody is blind to it’: WADA chief

Witold Banka, president of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), said that India has a doping problem and that ‘nobody is blind’ to it. However, he said India was making ‘sincere efforts’ to address the issue, as the nation prepares to host the Commonwealth Games in 2030 and aspires to host the Olympics in 2036.

Banka spoke to news agencies after a series of meetings with Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) chief Anant Kumar, among others.

"The biggest producer of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) and steroids is in India. There is a serious problem, and nobody is blind to it,” Witold Banka told news agencies on Thursday. “But at the same time, India has aspirations of hosting the World Championships of different sports and also the Olympics, which is obviously not possible without WADA compliance,” he said.

For three consecutive years, India has topped WADA’s list of dope offenders among major nations. However, Banka acknowledged India’s participation in the INTERPOL-backed 'Operation Upstream' targeting global drug suppliers.

“.. there are efforts to address this problem, and I believe the efforts have been sincere. I would be taking a lot of optimism with me about what the future holds,” he said.

'Operation Upstream' has reportedly resulted in 250 raids, seizure of 90 tons of PEDs, which is approximately ‘1.8 billion doses’ of banned drugs that were prevented from entering the market, and closure of 88 illegal laboratories across 20 countries.

Obviously, we have had discussions with the CBI on this with regard to intelligence gathering, and details of it cannot be shared right now because it's an ongoing operation.

“So far as other measures are concerned, we would like NADA to address the problem with targeted testing and a strong educational programme. We expect stronger engagement and action,” Banka said.

NADA claims it has increased testing from 4,000 in 2019 to 8,000 in 2025. In comparison, China tests more than 15,000 athletes annually.