Odisha largely free from caste, religion resonance in electoral politics
Caste calculation, religious affiliation has never emerged as a tool to woo voters.
Odisha is one of the few states which had an online mineral monitoring system, issued e-passes during the pandemic to ensure hassle-free movement and business of the sector noted State Minister for Steel and Mines Prafulla Kumar Mallik.
The Minister said the mineral sector was least impacted by the pandemic due to several initiatives of the government.
We were able to conduct the auction of mines, he pointed out while participating in a webinar on the National metal and mining e-summit 2021’ organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
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Debidutta Biswal, Director Mines claimed that the digitisation of several mining-related works in mining, permits, and others helped the State in better managing the affairs despite the pandemic.
The industry experts spoke on the resilience of the sector during COVID 19, state policies, the bottlenecks, and deliberated on the future ahead, J B Pany, Chairman, ICC Odisha State Council said,
“We believe that there is a significant scope for new mining capacities in iron ore bauxite and coal and opportunities for future discoveries of subsurface deposits”.
Manish Kharbanda, Member, Core & Advisory Committee & Mentor, Steel &Mines Committee, ICC said, the State government should focus on the value addition of the mineral reserve in the state, which can generate five times more revenue than mining on a standalone basis.
Because of the low availability of ore in the open market, many operational plants cannot utilise their total installed capacity. He suggested that the government allot ores under the preemption policy to facilitate the survival of small industries.
When about 60 percent of the ore gets exported to other States, the survival of the small units like sponge iron plants is a matter of concern, he said.
Sabyasachi Mohanty, Director – Technical (Operations), Odisha Mining Corporation Ltd, referred to the avenues now available to miners with the amendment of several mining laws but talked about the existing bottlenecks relating to auctions in some segments.
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