New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) Sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated an Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) at the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) here on Thursday, making India the 17th country in the world to have a dedicated system for tracking blood and steroidal profiles of athletes over a period of time.

The APMU will serve as a specialised body responsible for monitoring and managing biological passports of athletes.

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A biological passport compiles data on an athlete's variables such as blood parameters, hormonal levels, and other physiological markers to detect doping.

The APMU keeps a tab on "anomalies or trends indicative of doping" without directly identifying banned substances.

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"APMU is a key milestone in India's fight against doping, enabling the longitudinal tracking of Athletes Biological profiles through the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) system. This innovative mechanism will help in detecting doping patterns and protect the fairness of sports by identifying unethical practices," Mandaviya said at the inauguration.

Mandaviya said India's APMU will also help neighbouring countries that don't have enough resources to set up similar systems.

The NDTL's APMU aligns with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines, strengthening anti-doping programme globally.

India joins countries like China, the USA, Germany, France, Australia and Japan among others to have an APMU at its WADA-accredited dope testing facility.

The inauguration was also attended by Sujata Chaturvedi, Secretary (Sports), Kunal, Joint Secretary (Sports), and other officers of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports including Dr P L Sahu, Director and CEO, NDTL.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)