NEW DELHI: Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said India is firmly on track to become the world’s largest automobile market, with the government setting its sights on overtaking the US and China in the coming years.
“The size of India’s automobile industry is now Rs22 lakh crore, up from Rs7.5 lakh crore in 2014,” Gadkari said at an industry event. “Our mission is to make India the number one auto market in the world.”
Currently, the US leads the global auto industry at Rs78 lakh crore, followed by China at Rs47 lakh crore. India, in third place, is growing rapidly due to a mix of rising domestic demand, policy incentives for local manufacturing, and the global shift toward electric and sustainable mobility.
Gadkari underlined that the automobile sector is not only India’s top job creator – with 4.5 crore jobs – but also a major revenue contributor via GST collections to both state and central governments.
However, the minister cautioned about the environmental impact of this growth. “The transport sector contributes around 40 per cenr of the country’s pollution,” he said, urging the industry to develop alternative fuels such as ethanol, green hydrogen, and electric mobility to address this challenge.
He added that agriculture should be diversified toward energy and power generation, enabling farmers to become energy producers while helping the country transition to greener transportation solutions.
