MUMBAI (Dispatches) – India’s Olympic Association has asked the government for permission to bid for the 2032 Olympics and 2030 Asian Games as part of a drive to put the country at the heart of the international sporting community, IOA President N. Ramachandran has said.
Ramachandran said the IOA also wanted India to host the Asian Beach Games in 2020, the Olympic Council of Asia’s general assembly that year, and the International Olympic Committee session in 2021.
 The aim, Ramachandran said, was to use the engagement as a catalyst for the growth of Olympic sports in India and to help improve the country’s miserable standing in pretty much every sport apart from cricket.
As the world’s second-most populous nation after China, Ramachandran said it was time for India to follow its powerful neighbor in showcasing its burgeoning economic muscle through sport.
Dismissing concerns about whether India can afford to stage such huge sporting spectacles, Ramachandran said the country was one of the few in the region that did have the means.