Nitin Gadkari wants to increase employment in MSMEs to 15 cr; plans to launch Bharatcraft portal

The passion, zeal and new ideas that define Nitin Gadkari resonate with the IMC’s theme: Innovate, motivate and consolidate. And this was evident during an event on August 27 where the Union Minister of Road, Transport and Highways and MSME was welcomed by a packed audience.

From the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, 55 flyovers, to the Mumbai–Pune Expressway, Mumbai bears the stamp of Gadkari, who was called ‘Roadkari’ by the late Bal Thackeray. Under his leadership, the speed of road construction in India has gone up from 2 km a day to 28 km.

As the head of the MSME ministry, Gadkari shared with the audience that he wanted to take up the sector’s contribution to the GDP from 29 per cent to 50 per cent. He also wants to increase employment from 11 crore people in the industry to 15 crore. Gadkari shared that he planned to launch a Bharatcraft portal, which is expected to generate revenue of Rs 10 lakh crore in two years.


A few of the solutions offered by the minister were:

• Finance — Cheaper funding
• Capacity – Efforts for a common portal
• Bargaining power – Developing dedicated areas for specific industry
• Registration & EODB – Simplification
• Startups – finance, taxation will be addressed
• Risk management – Mentoring
• Export promotion – Encouraging exports
• Labour – Better skilling
• Powers supply – Alternate power
• Infrastructure – Waterways and cheaper logistics

Gadkari also stressed on innovative methods of alternative bio fuels and creation of businesses from bamboo, honey, khadi, ethanol and solar energy.