'India needs to boost exports & should not depend on China now': Union Min Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that the country needs to focus on its exports as the foreign investors are shifting their focus from China to India in the wake of the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic. He also said that India should no longer depend on China and instead focus on research and innovation to ramp up domestic manufacturing.

'Not very much interested to deal with China'

"The whole world is now not very much interested to deal with China. It is a blessing in disguise for the Indian economy. A lot of people from different parts of the world want to deal with India, in this situation we need to increase our export and reduce import," Nitin Gadkari said.

Addressing a webinar on India's electric vehicle roadmap post-COVID-19, the minister for Road Transport and Highways and MSME said, "I feel that it is time, which I directly want to tell you because I was not using those words, we should not depend upon China now." Gadkari also said the government is working on formulating a new policy for import substitution. 

His remarks come in the wake of border clashes between India and China and also promoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push for 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' which aims to make India self-reliant by increasing economic activity and pushing growth.

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'Without that, we don't have a good future'

According to PTI, the Union Minister said even though presently the prices of Chinese goods are attractive and Indian electric vehicle companies are earning good profits by importing parts, in the long-term, the country should produce everything locally.

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"Without that, we don't have a good future. Otherwise the Chinese, somewhere they can give a reasonable concessional rate at the starting point, and when your industry will achieve good production they will charge more. So again there will be a problem. So self-dependence on everything is the key to success for this industry," Gadkari said.

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Twenty Indian Army personnel were killed in violent hand-to-hand clashes with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley on Monday -- the biggest confrontation between the two sides in about five decades.

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(With agency inputs)