The Ministry of Steel on Monday signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with 55 companies for 85 projects under the third round of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for specialty steel.
Tata Steel's two Dutch subsidiaries are facing a 1.4 billion lawsuit in the Netherlands alleging health and property damage caused by emissions from the company's steelmaking operations, a charge which the Indian conglomerate labelled as "unsubstantiated and speculative". In an exchange filing, Tata Steel said that environmental group Stichting Frisse Wind.nu (SFW) has served a writ of summons on Tata Steel Nederland BV and Tata Steel IJmuiden BV on December 19.
The Centre has proposed allowing captive mine owners to sell minerals in the open market after meeting the requirement of their linked end-use plants, as part of a broader overhaul of mineral concession rules aimed at easing operational restrictions and encouraging deeper mineral exploration.
The matter has now been escalated and the ministry has written to Customs, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to investigate it thoroughly.
Ahead of the key meeting called by the steel ministry with the industry captains on Monday to discuss the impact of rising steel imports, companies have raised the issue of cheaper 'substandard' inflows from China, Vietnam, and South Korea, saying they are setting the benchmark for domestic prices and squeezing the profitability of Indian producers.
To prevent companies from submitting unrealistic quotes to bag project contracts across industries, the government is planning to soon roll out a mechanism to curb irrational bidding.