India will become second biggest steel manufacturer by year-end

Union Minister for Steel Birender Singh today said India would become the second biggest steel manufacturer in the world by year-end.

Currently, China is the largest steel manufacturing country followed by Japan and produces five times more steel than India.

"At present, about six lakh tonnes of steel is manufactured in old factories and private plants across India.

Steel industry accounts for just two per cent share in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country and efforts are being made to increase it," he said while inaugurating the newly-constructed Ganga Ram Hospital in Rohtak.

Singh said a new steel manufacturing plant of one million tonne capacity would soon be set up in joint venture and the Steel manufactured here would be exported.

In order to put a check on corruption and provide better opportunities to the youth, he said it is essential to bridge the education gap between the urban and the rural areas.

"The vision of a better India can only be realised after bridging the gap between the education facilities available in the rural and urban areas," Singh said.

Singh said the state government led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has introduced new programmes and schemes which had started yielding "positive results." "The BJP Government has eliminated corruption in Haryana to a great extent. It recently declared merit-based result of the HCS examination which bears testimony to better and transparent policies pursued by the present state government," he said.

Taking potshots at Congress, the former Congress leader, said the party had always suffered due to its inclination for "political expediency".

"It should play the role of effective opposition by eschewing selfish politics," he suggested.