India can get 25 medals in Olympics 2020: Maken

New Delhi: Indian would be returning with its best ever medal haul in the Olympics from London, though without a gold in its kiity, prompting Sports Minister Ajay Maken expressing satisfaction with the performance of the athletes and hoping that the country can win 25 medals in 2020 Games. India had won three medals at the Beijing Games four years ago and the country’s athletes have improved the medal count by two ahead of the final day of competitions at the mega event, and Maken lauded the athletes for their performance. [caption id=“attachment_415250” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ajay Maken. PTI[/caption] “If you compare India’s past performance, I think this is India’s best Olympics so far we have ever had. We have improved on all counts,” Maken told Karan Thapar in Devil’s Advocate programme on CNN-IBN. “You should compare, how many medals India could win except Hockey ever since Olympics started. It was only seven medals. This time alone we have got four medals (at the time of interview),” he said. “It is not only in comparison to last time, if you take last time and this time together we have won seven medals (at the time of interview) so far as compared to seven medals India ever won since Olympics started. “By 2020 we can get 25 medals, and this is a achievable target. Out of it, it can be 5 or 10 golds. We cannot specify the number of gold,” he added. Before the start of the final day’s events, India were placed at 56th in the medal tally, with one silver and four bronze. Maken feels India cannot expect to win more medals when the country has a poor Human Development Index (HDI) and low Per Capita Income. PTI