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New Delhi: The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) President Witold Banka addressed India’s doping issue and stressed on the need to take strict action to resolve it in the coming years here on Thursday.

According to WADA’s 2024 testing report, India led the world in doping violations for the third consecutive year with 260 positive cases from 7,113 samples.

“There’s no doubt that the biggest production of illegal performance-enhancing drugs and illegal steroids is in India,” said Banka at WADA’s Global Conference in New Delhi.

Banka noted that he met with the Director General of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to tackle the problem and ensure those producing performance enhancing drugs in the country are caught.

India is set to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and is also preparing to bid for the 2036 Olympics, and Banka is hopeful that the nation will improve its anti-doping system by then.

He commended the enthusiasm shown by the Indian government and NADA to tackle the issue and also stressed on the need to have targeted testing and widespread awareness programs.

“I see the willingness from the government and NADA to address this issue and work more strongly on their Anti-Doping program,” he said.

“We need to have more intelligence and targeted testing here and need broader education to not only catch the offenders but also prevent the young athletes,” he added.

WADA also urged India to make doping a criminal offence and hold those feeding athletes contaminated substances guilty.

Banka was speaking at the sidelines of the of its Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigations Network (GAIIN) Conference in Delhi.

GAIIN is an international investigation program, involving more than 20 countries which work collaboratively to seize performance-enhancing drugs at a trans-continental level.

GAIIN has so far dismantled 88 illegal laboratories and caught nearly 90 tons of performance enhancing drugs. It currently has around 250 active operations across the globe.