Date | Oct 04, 2017:

Arun Kumar, Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Mines, on Tuesday regretted that despite of the fact that the country is blessed with heavy deposits of minerals, its exploration could not be done in a desired manner for one or the other reasons.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the 20th Biennial Convention of Indian Geological Congress (IGC) being held at Chitnavis Centre Civil Lines here in the city, he said that the country will have to accelerate the pace of mineral exploration to meet the growing needs.
The theme of the flagship programme of IGC was ‘Make in India- Challenges & Opportunities for Mineral, Mining & Energy Resources.’

Arun Kumar was the chief guest on the occasion while N Kutumba Rao, Director General of Geological Survey of India was guest of honour. Dr Gopal Dhawan, CMD of MECL; R R Mishra, CMD of WCL; L K Nanda, Director, AMD, M P Chaudhari, CMD of MOIL; Dr Anupam Agnihotri, Director of JNARDDC; Ranjan Sahai, Controller General of IBM and Prof. O P Varma, Executive President of Indian Geological Congress were also present.

Arun Kumar called upon the geo-scientists and other concerned authorities to achieve much more than what they have achieved in the past. “For survival in the today’s competitive world, we need to identify mineral deposits,” he observed.
Praising contribution of some of the state governments in the field of mineral exploration, Arun Kumar said, private agencies should also be encouraged in the sector.

Apart from this, Arun Kumar said that the Government’s move of auctioning mining blocks is paying rich dividends to the nations. “Though auctioning of mining blocks is not practised in many countries, we in India are generating huge revenue through it. We are expecting revenue realisation of more than Rs 1.60 lakh crore from auctioning of identified mineral blocks in the current fiscal, which will benefit to the Central and state governments,” he said. The senior IAS officer further said that coal production in India has risen singnificantly in recent past which enabled the consumers to maintain sufficient stocks of the black gold.

Earlier in his keynote remarks, Gopal Dhawan said, the mining sector is witnessing a revolutionary change with Government of India introducing various new parameters. However, he also stressed on the need for improvement in infrastructure facilities and modern technology in mining sector. “There is need of high-tech laboratories and information technology to take exploration to a next level,” he said.

Dhawan offered his incisive insights about the reforms being adopted in the mining and mineral sector and shared his thoughts for further improvements and capacity building that is needed for an overall holistic growth of the sector.
Sharing his views, Kutumba Rao highlighted the collaboration of Geological Survey of India with its counterpart in Australia in the field of deep sea exploration.

O P Varma said, the event is an effective platform for geologists and Geo-scientists to share their views and contribute tin nation building. Dr Ranjeet Rath -- Deputy General Manager - Engineers India Ltd (EIL) conducted the proceeding of the evnet while Ashu Mathur - Organising Secreatry, IGC proposed a formal vote of thanks. The convention witnessed several technical paper presenters deliberating the mining-related topics.

(Source: http://thehitavada.com/)