Overview

• Speaking at the 20th FICCI Higher Education Summit in New Delhi, Nitin Gadkari said EVs will cost the same as petrol vehicles within four to six months.
• He linked the push to clean transport to energy security, citing an annual fuel import bill of Rs 22 lakh crore.
• The minister set a target for India to become the world’s largest automobile industry within five years.
• Gadkari said the sector’s size has grown from Rs 14 lakh crore when he took office to Rs 22 lakh crore, compared with the US at Rs 78 lakh crore and China at Rs 47 lakh crore.
• He said farmers have earned about Rs 45,000 crore from corn-based ethanol and announced a plan to use all segregated solid waste in road building by 2027.