Hon Union Coal, Parliamentary Affairs and Mines of India Pralhad Joshi laid out his vision for the coal and mining sector today (Dec 10) during his address to a virtual gathering at the Swarajya's ‘Road To Atmanirbhar Bharat’ webinar series organised in association with Vedanta Resources Limited.

Delivering a keynote address on Atmanirbhar Bharat and Strategic Importance Of Mining’, Joshi covered

1. The pivotal role that Mining industry needs to play in enabling India’s growth ambition USD 5 Trillion economy including direct contribution to the GDP, indirect contribution through development of downstream industries and employment.
2. Regulatory framework that the Union government is building to make it conducive for ease of doing business in Mining sector with simpler, transparent and time-bound procedures for doing business.
3. Recent mining-sector reforms and the recent launch of commercial coal block auction.
4. Enhancing role of private sector in exploration, redefine norms of exploration for auction of mineral blocks to ensure a seamless transition from exploration to production
5. Various sectoral policy initiatives including auctioning of blocks for prospecting license-cum mining lease, open acreage licensing policy for allocation of mining rights to boost to production of minerals in the country.
6. Need for states to implement business friendly steps in the sector to increase the contribution of mining in GDP and create large scale employment opportunities.

The webinar session was moderated by Rajesh Ivaturi, Partner at Ernst & Young LLP