The national rugby tournaments and the Indian under-19 rugby teams would be sponsored by telecom company Hutch, who along with Indian Rugby Football Union (IRFU) will also promote and develop the sport in the country.

"Rugby is a fast growing sport in India. With Hutch's backing of the sport, we can now look forward to a greater vision for the development of the game," IRFU chief Pramod Khanna told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday night.

As part of the announcement ceremony, the official "Hutch Indian Rugby Team" jersey, specially designed by designer Tarun Tahiliani, was also unveiled.

"Rugby does not require any sports equipment and like football it is easy to set up for play and is an ideal mass market game that can sweep across all levels of society," executive director of Hutch Sandip Das said.

"Nations like Sri Lanka and Singapore with a fraction of India human resource pool have formidable teams. Hutch is happy to contribute to the development of this game during its formative stages to eventual popularity", he added.