Rural economy and agri crucial for self-reliance: Gadkari

Identifying rural economy and agriculture as the “main focus areas” for self-reliance, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “aatmanirbhar” (self-reliant) vision will make the country prosperous and powerful. Speaking at Symbiosis golden jubilee lecture series here on ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, the BJP MP underlined the need to select a direction for making the country self-reliant. “There is a need to formulate policies on how to implement ‘aatmanirbharata’ (self-reliance) in every sector. It is not only the responsibility of governments but it is also the collective responsibility of various fields like education, health etc in society,” said Gadkari. The Union minister for Road Transport and Highways also highlighted the need to form vision for every sector.




“Rural economy and agriculture are two sectors which are important for ‘aatmanirbharta’ and we will have to work with a vision on these aspects. Rural economy and agriculture is the main focus of ‘aatmanirbharta’ because when the rural economy and agriculture will prosper so will be the rural India,” he added. Strengthening the small places, villages, farmers and others will make India self-reliant, the minister said. He also underlined the need to cut down the import and augment export.

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“We need to explore the options which can substitute the import. For example, we import crude oil but our farmers can provide an alternative by producing ethanol from sugarcane,” Gadkari said. He said several options in the rural sector can be exploited to generate employment. He said the MSME ministry has decided to increase the turnover of the rural industry to Rs 5 lakh crore from Rs 80,000 crore in the next two years. “To increase this turnover, there are options such as bio-fuel, biodiesel, solar power, wind power, organic farming and several others in the rural sector,” he added.