The Centre will invest around Rs 200 crore over five years for the exploration and development of these mines.
India and the US have decided to hold sector-specific talks in the coming weeks to finalise the structure of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the government said on Saturday. The engagement between the two countries came in the backdrop of the USA's threat to impose reciprocal tariffs on its key trading partners, including India, on April 2.
The Ministry of Mines has directed the Geological Survey of India (GSI) to conduct a re-exploration of the 5.9 million tonnes of lithium block in Jammu and Kashmir's (J&K's) Reasi district after repeated setbacks to put the reserve up for auction again in six months.
Roads, railways, and coal together are likely to account for 70 per cent of the government's takings from the upcoming second edition of the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), set to run from FY26 to FY30. In comparison, these three sectors are estimated to have contributed 66 per cent in the first edition of the NMP - FY22 to FY25.
Among the new entrants to the Union cabinet, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been given the agriculture and rural development portfolios, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda the health portfolio and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar the power portfolio.
The mines ministry on Friday said it has sought the law ministry's advice on how to go about granting leases till the proposed new mining Bill, having provisions for auctioning of mines, is passed.
In June last year, India unveiled its first list of 29 critical minerals open for private sector exploration and mining. Since then, 38 critical mineral blocks have been auctioned, but only 14 - less than 37 per cent - have found bidders. This modest achievement was secured only after the Centre conducted a second round of auctions when the first round fell flat, failing to attract the minimum required bidders.
The petition alleged that "illegal mining" was being carried out by Singh, the MP from Kaiserganj, in Majharath, Jaitpur and Nawabganj villages of Tarbganj tehsil in the district.
The government on Monday appointed Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared Malhotra's name, who has been appointed as the RBI Governor for three years, starting Wednesday. Malhotra, a 1990 Batch Rajasthan Cadre IAS Officer, will replace Shaktikanta Das, whose tenure ends on Tuesday (December 10, 2024).
India's industrial production (IIP) growth slowed to 3.5 per cent year-on-year in October 2024, mainly due to poor performance of mining, power and manufacturing, as per official data released on Thursday. The IIP recorded a growth of 11.9 per cent in October 2023, according to a statement by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.
A Group of Ministers is expected to soon clear the proposal that companies share 26 per cent of profits from their mining projects with the displaced people, a Mines Ministry official said.
Parliament has cleared the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023, recently. The objective of the Act is to invite investments from the private sector, including foreign companies, for mining minerals such as lithium and other critical minerals. Other than lithium, some of these minerals were classified as atomic minerals, including beryl and beryllium, niobium, titanium, tantalum and zirconium.
The Centre is likely to plead before the Supreme Court that there should not be a blanket ban on iron ore mining in Bellary in Karnataka and that only the violating companies should be dealt with, when it presents its interim report this week.
The finance minister, in her Budget speech, should focus more on what she is directly responsible for, rather than on programmes where her role is largely supportive, notes Nitin Desai.
Outgoing Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday that restoring inflation-growth balance is the most important task ahead of the central bank. Addressing a press conference on his last day as the central bank chief, Das said his successor will have to navigate the changing world order, effectively deal with cyber threats, and focus on harnessing new technologies.
The Union mines ministry on Wednesday said its profit sharing plans are not focussed on any corporate houses like Tatas and Jindals, but aims at providing compensation to the people displaced by mining projects.
South Korean steel giant Posco's wait for a mining licence in Orissa has got a little longer.
The Bill also envisages ushering in a regime of royalty concessions for the first time in the country.
Amid UPA Chief Sonia Gandhi voicing concern over land acquisition norms, a Group of Ministers (GoM) will meet this week to take a view on the new mining bill, which seeks that miners share 26 per cent of profits with those affected by the project.
Coal production by Coal India (CIL) has grown slower than the captive mines, awarded over the last six years. During 2020-22, production from the captive mines jumped by 38.5 per cent while CIL saw a tepid growth of 3.4 per cent, according to government data. In terms of dispatch to the power sector, captive mines have raced ahead, witnessing a growth of 72 per cent compared to 15 per cent for CIL. For the current fiscal year, CIL's production is expected to be around 565 million tonnes.
The coal ministry is likely to begin next week issuing deallocation letters to private firms whose mines were cancelled and those where bank guarantees were deducted for sitting idle on mines given to them for captive use, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Monday said.
Rao is now just the Minister of State for Coal.
In a bid to capitalise on its underwater resources, the Indian government has introduced new rules for auctioning offshore mineral assets, aiming to ensure a transparent and competitive process. While these rules feature stringent eligibility criteria, they also simplify the awarding process. This move comes in the wake of the less-than-expected interest in critical mineral auctions.
Ray of hope for power, metal companies.
'The global climate system doesn't look at where the carbon dioxide is coming from. 'It may be emitted by the US, but it will not remain above the US alone but covers the whole world.'
There is good news for coal mine developers who want to go in for expansion. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), in its new notification, said the developers that had already bagged environment clearance for their existing projects might be exempted from the stipulated public hearings for obtaining clearances for their expansion projects, provided they met certain criteria specified by the ministry.
Days before Diwali, the monthly economic review by the finance ministry has highlighted moderation in urban demand, softening consumer sentiments and limited footfall as areas that need to be watched. In its review, released on Monday, the ministry also noted the early signs of artificial intelligence displacing workers, as described in anecdotal reports. The commentary from several large consumer goods companies, including Nestl India, Hindustan Unilever, and ITC, in their recent quarterly earnings, has been around a sluggish urban demand. Rural consumption, however, has mostly seen a revival, the companies pointed out.
As RBI governor, Sanjay Malhotra will have to give the highest priority to the interest of the economy while deciding on the growth-inflation trade off at Mint Street.
This adjustment is aimed at helping workers cope with the rising cost of living, a labour ministry statement said.
Our visa operations in Bangladesh constitute the largest visa operations India conducts worldwide. This has taken a hit after Sheikh Hasina's government was overthrown and India reduced its diplomatic presence in Bangladesh, notes Aakar Patel.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday retained 46 ministries as she allotted portfolios of Rural Development and Panchayti Raj, Health and Mines among her Cabinet ministers.
India is planning to soon sign new and updated mineral pacts with about a dozen countries in Africa. The Ministry of Mines is in discussions with Cte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Business Standard has learnt. Negotiations are ongoing with around a dozen countries, and more will be added to the list soon.
'... that it once again shies away from renewing its commitment to strategic divestment,' points out A K Bhattacharya.
India's industrial production output decelerated to 4.8 per cent year-on-year in July 2024, mainly due to poor performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors, as per official data released on Thursday. The factory output growth, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was revised to 4.7 per cent in June from provisional estimates of 4.2 per cent released last month. The IIP for July 2024 was 4.8 per cent, as per the data.
'With the deployment of a higher degree of mechanisation, awarding contractual mining to MDOs and operational efficiency, we feel confident of achieving the desired target.'
The Centre may overshoot the Rs 56,260 crore target for dividend receipts from central public-sector enterprises (CPSEs) set for FY25 and is likely to end up getting around Rs 65,000 crore this financial year, according to a senior government official. This excludes dividend from nationalised banks and financial institutions. As on October 21, the Centre collected Rs 28,913 crore as dividend and other investment from CPSEs, accounting for over 50 per cent of the Budget Estimate for FY25.
Under current laws, a company cannot sell mines but only transfer leases when it is acquired by another firm.
The two ships are part of the series of eight anti-submarine warfare shallow water crafts which are under construction in CSL.
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