BENGALURU: The startup world found a willing listener in Nitin Gadkari , the union minister for road transport, highways and shipping, who promised speedier action to confront this national problem.Infrastructure, particularly dismal roads inside cities, took centre-stage at India's premier ET Startup Awards , as entrepreneurs and investors came together to press for action saying the country is being hobbled by traffic grid-lock.Electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy co- founder Tarun Mehta asked the minister how the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles would be created in the country. He wanted the minister to set up a standing committee at the central government level. Gadkari said he would do more than that."Creating a standing committee means making more people stand up to create obstacles. You come and meet me in Delhi, explain your problem and I will give you a policy," Gadkari said. He even acknowledged the regulatory hurdles facing cab aggregators such as Ola and Uber and suggested that they could absorb some of the regular city taxis into their fleets to reduce the friction."It doesn't matter if politicians are idealistic if they lose their seats in the election. Kaali-peelis have big numbers and lobbies. This is a political issue. It will take time," he added.When Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal asked him to make Bengaluru's traffic woes a central issue, Gadkari said he was working on the problem, even though it wasn't in his remit, and that the chief minister of Karnataka was co-operating with him.Gadkari asked the entrepreneurs present at the ET Startup Awards to partner with the government to help tap a Rs 10 lakh crore market of reusing waste products in the country into wealth."Innovation in technology and entrepreneurship is our future. People talk about turning knowledge into wealth, I want us to also turn waste into wealth. You are all our entrepreneurs. You should work with us to tap this market, Gadkari said. He added that India needed more people who did research and created innovative solutions, rather than just the having more 'copy-masters'.