Ranchi, Jharkhand | October | 30, 2017 :: The Global Mining & Mineral Summit was inaugurated today by Raghubar Das, Chief Minister of Jharkhand in presence of Chief Guest of the event Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Railways and Coal. The inaugural event was supported by presence of Alex Dakin, Consulate general of Russia, Ministers from Government of Jharkhand Nikanth Munda, C. P Choudhary, Amar Kumar Bauri, Ram Kumar Pahan, Parliamentarian Mahesh Poddar, Mayor of Ranchi & Dhanbad and industry Titans like Dr. S K Acharya, Chairman & Managing Director, NLC India Limited, Avijit Ghosh, Chairman & Managing Director, HEC Ltd, D K Hota, CMD, BEML Ltd, Rajesh Adani, Managing Director, Adani Group, Sandeep Singh, Managing Director, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Co Pvt Ltd and the senior bureaucrats of Government of Jharkhand.
Raghubar Das in his speech apprised that Jharkhand is the land of opportunities and the team Jharkhand working as a cohesive unit has rolled out red carpet for the investors. He also mentioned that the recent groundbreaking activities is the testimony to GoJ’s commitment. Shri Das said Jharkhand is playing a pivotal role in the success of Prime Minister’s Make in India Programme by giving a strong call to investors to ‘Make in Jharkhand’. He said Jharkhand has all the ingredient to be a successful state yet lagged behind due to political instability. His government which is in decisive majority is determined to break that jinx and take the state to the league of Gujarat. He quoted his vision for arranging this summit – “GoJ intends to move away from Royalty based Mining economy to Value Added Mining Economy”
The chief guest Union Minister of Railways and Coal lauded the Raghubar government’s efforts to seek for newer avenues for mineral usage by organizing Jharkhand Mining Show 2017. He said efforts of the state government is already recognized by the center and reflected the center’s cooperation and encouragement through expedition of projects like Railway link for coal and Sports University. He also lauded the Government’s effort in Rehabilitation & Resettlement. He said the positive involvement of people only can sustain the development in mining and same can only be achieved by addressing the need of displaced population. He cited that Government of Jharkhand is one of the leading states in utilization of District Mineral fund intended to be used in rehabilitation of displaced population due to mining allocation. The MoU signed today between the Government of Jharkhand and the Coal India limited to provide potable water at the mining areas of the state; is a burning example of the commitment the state has been showing.
The Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand pointed that the government has been relentless in its effort to provide necessary support to the business entities in the state. To fulfil its objective it has taken necessary steps to get clearance for the identified mines on fast track. She said that Jharkhand is investment ready & now it is an ideal place for setting up industrial units in mining equipment & Locomotive manufacturing for its investor friendly policy & strategic geographical location in the mining belt of the country comprising of Jharkhand, Odisha & Chhattisgarh. She said the opportunity in offering will not only helpful to Mega units but also to the MSMEs of the state.
The bigwigs of mining industry present in the inauguration event were unanimous on development made by Raghubar government through good governance and its paradigm shift for industries i.e. from Rate Tape to Red Carpet.
Dr. Sunil Barnwal, Secretary Industries, Mining & Geology welcomed the distinguished guests, citing the achievement of state post GIS, he said we have been successful in grounding 95 projects out of 210 MoUs signed in GIS and another 100 is going to be signed in the phase-III of the grounding efforts. Dr. Barnwal said the state is endowed with 40 percent of country’s mineral wealth and has presence of big mineral mining companies in the state which is going to be the key for future success the state aspires. He said that the growth in mining will not only be generated through allocation of new mining blocks but also exploration of new avenues of growth in auxiliary sector to mining. He encouraged the industries to explore the potential offered by the state and make policy recommendation during the interactive sessions.
Abhijit Ghosh, HEC Ltd said Mining is backbone of downstream industries of state, hence important to unlock full potential. B.K Hota, BEML said PSUs are capable of Competing in Open Market, Opportunity like Jharkhand has provided in equipment manufacturing is encouraging. Gopal Singh, Coal India said Production and Potential gap in Jharkhand mining sector is 31 percent, which provides a perfect opportunity for investment in Mining sector. Rajesh Adani expressed his faith on able leadership of Shri Raghubar Das and confirmed investment of 20 thousand crore in the state, the areas of Power Plant, Transmission apart from MDO of Major Minerals in the state.
A session on Role of Mining in Economic Development: Future Outlook & opportunities in Mining Sector” was conducted in the second half of the day. The session Started with sectorial video and moderated by Prof AK Singh, Chair Professor, Department of ESE, IIT(ISM) Dhanbad. The session was attended by dignitaries like Mr. Rajeev Singhal VP Tata Steel, Kalamani Biswas, Director Finance, NTPC Ltd., S K Bhattacharya, Director Mining, Hindustan Copper Ltd., Dr Manoj Kumar, Founder & Managing Partner – Hammurabi & Solomon &, visiting Fellow – observer research Foundation, Souvick Maxumdar, COO- Iron ore business, Vedanta Ltd., Sandeep Singh, Managing Director, Tata HITACHI Construction Machinery Co. Ltd., N K Tripathi, General Manager, (I/C) and Director (Technical) Eastern Coalfields Ltd., Ms Usha Singh, Head- Business Development and Corporate planning NMDC Ltd. apart from the government officials involved in dealings related to mining and mineral development. The panel opined that the abundance of natural resource has the potential to slow the economic growth if it is not manage correctly. They complimented the state for taking a positive step forward by taking a paradigm shift from “Royalty based Mining economy to Value Added Mining Economy”. It was an interactive and fruitful discussion that paved the way forward for making policy decision in this regard.
