Mining sector has seen maximum reforms in six years: Dharmendra Pradhan

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan today said that mining is one of the key sectors where a large number of policy reforms have been undertaken in the last six years, bringing about a paradigm shift.

Pradhan, who is in charge of critical ministries – petroleum and natural gas and steel– was speaking at the National Mining Summit organized by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Addressed the National Mining Summit organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce. Spoke about policy reforms driving mining sector to new heights and called for greater value addition to drive self-reliance in the sector. <a href="https://t.co/FQMG7giNHF">pic.twitter.com/FQMG7giNHF</a></p>
— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) <a href="https://twitter.com/dpradhanbjp/status/1328996303926267904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Minister said that after the Supreme Court decision on the ownership of natural resources, the government changed the nomination, bidding process for resource allocation. Now, the states, where these resources lay, have become the major beneficiaries in the revenue thus generated.
Pradhan said that the Prime Minister has envisioned that all natural resources including coal, iron ore, bauxite, manganese, rare earths etc should be properly assessed and exploited, and their monetization should be done through the transparent bidding process and at the same time, cost competitiveness of the country should be retained. He said the challenge is to make the processes simpler and easy.

The Minister said that in this age of global village, the international investors will invest only if they see certainty and profitability in the venture. He said that the policymaking is being done, keeping all this in mind. Various departments of the government are working in sync in this regard, along with the substantive help from various state governments.

Pradhan said that a holistic view of the sector needs to be taken as the country has to not only fulfill its own domestic requirements but also work towards becoming a global manufacturing hub. He said that policy certainty has to be backed up with cost competitiveness to ensure the value out of our raw materials are realized optimally with sustainability and drive self-reliance..