PM Modi steps ahead for “Self-Reliant India”: Rolls-out auction for commercial coal mining, win-win for Bauxite mining and Aluminium Industry

On 18^th June’20, The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi initiated the auction of 41 coal blocks for commercial mining video-conference. The allocation of the mines has been adopted with a two-stage e-auction.

The decision was part of the announcements made by the Government of India under the “Self-Reliant India” scheme.

The Prime Minister said: “India would overcome COVID-19 and turn the crisis caused by the pandemic into an opportunity.”

He also said: “The country’s economic activity was fast returning to normal, with consumption and demand attaining the pre-pandemic levels. The rural economy had also started looking up, with the area under pre-rain sowing crops and wheat procurement increasing this year. These were signs that the economy was ready to bounce back and march ahead.”

The Prime Minister said: “A self-reliant India meant reducing dependency and saving foreign currency on imports by developing resources domestically. It also meant India becoming the biggest exporter of commodities that it was now importing.”

To be successful with this plan, Mr Modi said: “Each sector, each product and each service had to be worked upon holistically. The auction for commercial mining was a major step towards making India self-reliant in the energy sector.”

The Indian Prime Minister stated the launch marked not only the implementation of reforms to the coal mining sector but also the beginning of the creation of lakhs of jobs. It liberated the sector from decades of “lockdown”. The government had decided to spend INR.50,000 crore on creating infrastructures for coal extraction and transport, which would also create job opportunities for locals closer to their homes.

The Prime Minister said the reforms would be a win-win for all stakeholders, as it would make the sector self-reliant and benefit other sectors, including Bauxite mining, Aluminium Industry, etc. It would also help to increase power generation.

The government has set a target to gasify around 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030 and four projects have been identified, in which INR.20,000 crore will be invested.