The last thing that Nitin Gadkari needs is an alternative source of income. Or a Plan B. Yet, Minister of Road Transport and Highways has had both in place via his Youtube Channel which runs by his name Nitin Gadkari, with 205K subscribers.
"Youtube pays me Rs 4 lakh a month," said the minister on Friday while speaking at an event in Haryana, where he was taking stock of the progress made in Delhi-Mumbai expressway.
How it all started
In the ever increasing space and shrinking profits for digital content, his statement came in for either close scrutiny by the netizens or applaud. As the case with many others, his journey too started with cooking at home during the lockdown.
"In Covid-19 time, I did two things---I started cooking at home and giving lectures through video conferences," said the minister, adding, "I delivered many lectures online, which were uploaded on Youtube. Owing to huge viewership, Youtube now pays me Rs 4 lakh per month."
Meet Nitin Gadkari --The channel
Within 50 minutes of being uploaded, Nitin Gadkari's live streaming video of foundation stone laying event had 2.7K views. While his subscriber base stands at over 200K followers. Apart from his interaction with media, press conferences and inauguration events that regularly make their way into the channel, a lot many videos give the followers a glimpse into his lectures and talks.
Of the most viewed videos, there's one which talks about Char Dham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna, that has attracted over 1 million views. There's yet another that introduces him in a video titled "Things to Know About Nitin Gadkari," wherein details of his place and year of birth to his ideology and family background are all mentioned.
The Aerial Survey of Mumbai-Delhi Expressway gives the viewers full aerial views of the region. At a time when the digital earnings and revenues of influencers vary vastly, many calculated the possibility of earning so much through a subscriber base of 202K, while others wondered if he was also getting ads from the centre on his channel.
"Please collect tax from him," joked one user.
