Ahead Of Budget, Nitin Gadkari Bats For Flexible Economic Policies

Days ahead of the Union Budget, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said India needed flexible economic policies to promote growth, and a socio-economic model that can boost job creation and reduce disparity.

The senior BJP leader was speaking at the launch of "Made in China", a Marathi book written by Loksatta editor Girish Kuber, in Nagpur.

The situation in China was changing very fast, and many countries were not very keen on doing business with it post the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Gadkari said.

The neighbouring country was witnessing a recession-like situation and many companies were shutting down there, he said, adding that one thing we can learn from China is that before becoming socialist, communist or capitalist, "we should become an economy which can create employment, remove poverty and reduce economic and social disparity in society." India needs a socio-economic model that can create employment, remove poverty and reduce disparity, he added.

Recalling a meeting with the Chinese president when he was BJP chief, Mr Gadkari said the former told him that the Chinese were committed to the development of their country and willing to do anything that was useful, notwithstanding ideology.

"We also need to bring such flexibility in a big way in our economic policies to remove poverty, attract capital investment and create employment out of it, to increase exports....(we also need to) pay special attention to agriculture, rural and tribal sectors," he said.

`Atmanirbhar Bharat' can not be created if rural and tribal sections of population remained poor, without employment and if their per capita income remained low, the Union minister added.

China was quite ahead in technology, and to compete with it, India must focus on quality and cost-effective production, he said, while also expressing confidence that India has the capacity to compete with its neighbour.

The Indian automobile sector was now in the third spot in the world behind the US and China, he said.

The chairman of Mercedes met him in Pune recently and told him that his firm planned to manufacture electric vehicles in India, Mr Gadkari informed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)