The rising number of doping incidents in India means that the Indian athletes will now be put under more rigorous testing by anti-doping organisations. India has recorded the highest number of anti-doping rule violations in athletics for the last two years. Following 63 violations in 2025, India has already been pegged to top the 2025 doping violations as it is the leading country with 30 recorded violations till now. In 2022 and 2023, India recorded 48 and 63 anti-doping rule violations and was ranked second.Following the jump in doping incidents, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has been recategorised from ‘Category B’ to ‘Category A’, by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) under Rule 15 of the World Athletics’ Anti-Doping Rules.This rule categories member federations as Category ‘A’, Category ‘B’ or Category ‘C’ according to the doping risk, with the ‘A’ being the highest for extremely risk countries where the number of doping cases are consistently getting higher.“The doping situation in India has been high risk for a long time and, unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping programme is simply not proportionate to the doping risk,” explained AIU Chair David Howman in a press statement.“While the AFI has advocated for anti-doping reforms within India, not enough has changed. The AIU will now work with the AFI to achieve reforms to safeguard the integrity of the sport of athletics, as we have done with other ‘Category A’ Member Federations,” he added.Howman further announced that the Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) will be re-categorised from ‘Category A’ to ‘Category B’ in 2027 if the current measures are maintained throughout 2026.Howman is not the first chief of an anti-doping organisation to warn India. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Witold Banka only last week stressed that India needs to act against dope cheats or the dreams to host the Olympics may get hit. As per him a WADA compliance report is one of the essential requirements if India’s bid for the 2036 Olympics is to be taken seriously by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).“There is no doubt that the biggest production of illegal performance-enhancing drugs and illegal steroids is in India. There is a big problem which we have in India with this. So, the main target, the biggest producer of the world, is in India,” Banka said on Thursday.“…As I said, the Olympic Games, World Championships, major sporting events are not possible without WADA, without WADA’s stamp, without WADA’s compliance regulations. So we are necessary to make these dreams come true. And I think it is very important from our side to work closely with the authorities here in India to help them to assist. We are not here to punish anyone. The major mission of WADA is to help, to assist, because we have the same goals. We want to have a clean sport. We want to have a level playing field for the athletes. We want to destroy those who are producing PEDs, who are killing athletes’ lives, who are destroying their health. This is the common vision, and I don’t see any discrepancies,” he added.