The Times of India reported that the Minister of State of Youth Affairs and Sport has prepared "a roadmap" to deliver a significantly larger number of medals at the "actual target" of the Los Angeles Olympics.

"India has 20 per cent of the young people in the world," Rijiju said.

"Every fifth youth is Indian.

"Can we be proud to win one medal and two medals in Olympics?

"We cannot accept this situation…that is why we have prepared a roadmap.

"For Tokyo 2020 we are ready but we have limitations.

"We have existing talent and we are hoping that Tokyo 2020 will be the best-ever Olympics for India but beyond that the actual target is Los Angeles in 2028.

"We will not be going for one or two medals, we will be in the top ten in the world – that is our preparation."

India won two silver medals in the first Olympics in which it competed at Paris in 1900.

Since then it has exceeded that total on only two occasions – at Beijing 2008, where it won a gold thanks to Abhinav Bindra in the men's 10 metre air rifle event and two bronzes, and at London 2012, where it had its best ever Olympic return in total, winning two silvers and four bronzes.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro India won a silver and a bronze.

Rijiju added that the stated ambition could not be achieved through "incremental improvement".

He claimed, "We should have a quantum jump.”