Stay Positive and Discover New Opportunities: Gadkari to Indian Students

In a weekend video conference with overseas Indian students, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, said that the way ahead for the country was in remaining positive and finding opportunity in adversity in these testing times.

The minister was interacting with Indian overseas students in countries like the UK, Canada, Singapore, Continental Europe and Australia under the theme ‘Indian Response to Global Pandemic: Roadmap for India’.

Gadkari said that as India moved ahead and restarted various activities, everyone was required to follow all the precautions regarding health protocols to prevent transmission of COVID-19 virus. The industries – big, medium, small or micro – would also have to affect a paradigm shift in the way they were doing their business operations. Apart from ensuring use of masks, sanitisers and social distancing and making food-shelters arrangements for labour in keeping with social distancing norms, they needed to boost import substitution and launch businesses and industries in new areas away from major cities to thus decongest them. Companies also needed to explore new partnerships with global firms to attract them to set up for JVs etc. in India, he added.

Gadkari stated, that efforts were needed to meet not only Indian demand but also cater to the global market as many companies and countries were looking to shift away from China. He called upon the overseas Indian students to contribute in this goal in a big way as youth had a stake in a thriving India.

Gadkari mentioned that 22 Green Express Highways were being developed and work on a new alignment of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway had started. This had resulted an opportunity for the industry to make future investments in industrial clusters, industrial parks, logistics parks, etc. He said that nearly 2,000 roadside amenities would be developed alongside those highways. There were also plans to develop 2,000 bus ports in the country.

Gadkari invited the young students and scientists of Indian origin abroad to participate in the India growth story. Interacting with Indian students in 43 universities of various countries through video conferencing on Sunday, he assured that the Central Government was highly supportive of such ventures in in various modes, be it through public-private partnerships (PPP)s or joint ventures (JV)s.