Date | May 31, 2016:

India has made tremendous progress in steel sector and has now become the world’s third largest producer, with the Narendra Modi government working towards ramping production up to 300 million tonnes per annum by year 2025. The government has also embarked on a transparent policy of auctioning iron mines while District Mineral Foundations ( DMF ) are being set up in every mineral-rich district to provide benefits to local populace, minister of state for steel and minesVishnudeo Sai said here on Sunday.

The minister was speaking to reporters during a visit to the head office of Manganese Ore India Limited (MOIL) here. The minister was in the city to inaugurate the new ore dressing laboratory of Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) at MIDC.

The Modi government has initiated several measures to boost domestic steel industry, including imposing minimum import price on various steel products to check below cost imports and dumping by China, Sai said.

The minister said the government has a vision to increase steel production to 300 million tonnes by 2025 and as a move in this direction it auctioned six iron ore mines recently, four of these are located in his home state Chhattisgarh. According to World Steel Association (WSA), India already occupies the third spot, with production of 89.4 million tonnes in 2015. China remained the world’s leading steel producer with an output of 803.8 million tonnes last year.

Claiming that the BJP-led government is working at a faster pace than the previous UPA regime, Sai said there were 60,000 applications of different nature, right from licence to lease renewals that were pending before his ministry when the new government took over. He said his ministry has drafted a National Mineral Exploration Policy (NMEP) for facilitating large scale private sector investments in exploration. The minister said the DMF would provide funds for creating social infrastructure like schools, hospitals and development benefits, and thus counter the Naxalite resistance in mineral rich areas..

The government has also initiated an ambitious project with the help of Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG) to curb illegal mining across the country. With the help of satellite imagery, BISAG would monitor all mines periodically to prevent illegal mining in these areas.
Source: TNN

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