Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent
Charge) of Power, Coal, New & Renewable energy and Mines, today
underlined the need to step up mineral exploration in the country that is
currently constrained due to lack of Private sector participation in the
activity. He said this while inaugurating a conference on ‘Indian
Mining Industry 2030 – Way Forward’, organized by FICCI jointly with
the Ministry of Mines, Government of India.
Shri Goyal said that the
time was ripe to reflect on where we had gone wrong and suggested a PPP model
could be tried out for giving a fillip to mineral exploration. He urged FICCI
to set up a committee comprising young mining aspirants to develop a position
paper to speed up exploration activities. This committee should look at
innovative ways to bring down the time of actual operation of mine after it is
put up for auction, thus enabling the sector to make a quantum jump.
Addressing the industry’s
concerns, the Minister said that high value, strategic and import substitution
minerals were the priority minerals for exploration for making India
self-sufficient in minerals. Shri. Goyal said that Young person’s specializing
in mining could be invited to India and a system could be worked out to benefit
all the stakeholders.
He assured the industry
that the issue of wide differences in stamp duty in various states would be
addressed by the Government in consultation with the State Governments. Also,
mapping would be undertaken and data on minerals would be updated for making an
accurate assessment of mineral reserves in the country.
On the occasion, a
FICCI-KPMG report titled ‘Mines & Minerals Development: Way Forward’ was
unveiled by the Minister and other dignitaries. The report suggests an action
plan for achieving mineral Security in the country by 2030; enhancing
exploration activity; bridging skill gap in the sector; strengthening mining in
states; and making the sector backbone of ‘Make In India’ through ‘Mine in
India’.
The Guest of Honour, Shri
Arun Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, while addressing the issue
of Part B un-notified minerals in the new Act said that a meeting was being
held to look into the issue and clarified that the government will not support
G2 exploration for them. He added that the industry, government and public were
the three stakeholders in the project for taking the sector and country
forward.
In his Keynote
Address, Shri Syedain Abbasi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel,
said that for the steel industry to maintain its competitiveness it
was necessary that the prices of raw materials remained competitive. Though
iron ore was cheap and India had a large market but the high capital and
logistics cost was affecting the sector’s efficiency. He added that steel
industry was in crisis some years back but in the last three years, the
industry has experienced a positive trend with an increase in export and
decrease in imports.
In his concluding
remarks, Shri Tuhin Mukherjee, Managing Director, Essel Mining &
Industries Ltd and Chair, FICCI Mining Committee, said that there was
a need to relook at the present processes and work out an innovative business
model while focusing on asset management. Also, governance and workforce
collaboration was needed in the sector and energy and environment issues needed
to be addressed with the help of technology.
Dr. A Didar Singh,
Secretary General, FICCI, said that mineral security
was as essential as energy and food security for the economic growth of the
country and the private sector has a critical role to accelerate the pace of
growth of mining sector.
YSK/MI
