Even as United States President Donald Trump is "trying hard" to bring Olympics to Los Angeles, India also seems to be interested in hosting the quadrennial global sporting spectacle.
While it may sound ridiculous, especially after the drab show at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, India is eyeing the 2032 Olympic Games, thus giving itself quite a lot of time to coming up with a foolproof plan. The International Olympic Committee will announce the host city only in 2025.
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is all set to do a feasibility study, through which it will assess the pros and cons of hosting the event, which, in the recent past, has had severe economic impacts on host cities.
The Sports Ministry's move comes in response to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) request that sought permission from the government for hosting the 2032 Games as well as the 2030 Asian Games, according to the Times of India.
Apart from India, Australia and Germany have also reportedly expressed interest in bringing the multi-sport event to their countries.
IOA keen on conducting multi-sports events
Notably, IOA president Narayana Ramachandran had hinted last month that India had already started the groundwork necessary for a serious bid.
Referring to the embarrassing episodes during and after the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Ramachandran also said the country will learn from its mistakes and make sure everything goes right. He shed light on how the country had successfully hosted the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati.
"We have learnt from our mistakes. You see the South Asian Games (in 2016) that was hosted in Guwahati. Nobody said anything," Ramachandran told Reuters in June.
Government not rushing into the process
The Sports Ministry seems to be quite clear that it has to find out whether it is "practical and desirable" to host the Games before even beginning the process to bid for it. A source close to the developments says the government will have to look for a USP to the project.
"We are keen on understanding where the country stands before we decide upon the future course of action. All things that go into hosting the Games will be discussed as we pose ourselves the question whether it is desirable and practical and whether we ought to consider bidding for Olympics at any point," the source said, as quoted by the report.
It added: "Besides the implications and requirements such as resource mobilisation, sports infrastructure to be built, scope of private-public partnership and athletes' development programme as we aim for the top 10 in the medals tally, we also need to assess the uniqueness India can bring to the Olympics considering that we are the largest in terms of youth population."
Can India handle the economic impact
Gone are the days when hosting Olympic Games was a sure-shot profitable venture. Starting from 1976 Games in Montreal to 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, quite a few host cities have faced disastrous financial result.
It is evident that countries are not willing to come forward and host the Games, when Hamburg, Rome and Budapest opted out of the race of 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games. Now, Paris and Los Angeles are likely to get the nod.
Not just hosting, even the process of bidding that begins a decade before the Games, is going to be costly. Notably, Chicago reportedly spent a $100 million while bidding for the 2016 Games in a losing cause.
However, Ramachandran is confident that India, an ever-growing economy, will be able to successfully pull off the global event.
"India is one of the emerging economies. Even assuming you spend $12 billion on an Olympic event, $6 billion will be given to you by the IOC," Ramachandran had stressed.
He added: "What is $6bn over a period of eight years for a country which has the size of the economy which India has today."
