Steel Minister RCP Singh met the leaders of the steel industry to review the key concerns of the sector. CNBC-TV18’s Anshu Sharma spoke to Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of JSW Group, and Naveen Jindal, Chairman of JSPL, post their meeting.

Sajjan Jindal said, “There are so many topics that we discussed, including how to take the steel industry forward."

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On PLI scheme for the steel sector, Naveen Jindal said, “We are already producing a lot of speciality products like different types of railhead, hardened rails, asymmetric rails etc. which will qualify for PLI scheme."

Sajjan Jindal said, "Electrical steel and many other steels are being developed by the industry. JSW is also part of that, and the idea is that India must be self-reliant on all steel capacities, technologies and grades, and there should not be any need to import steel.”

On coking coal concerns, Sajjan Jindal said, "India is endowed with a lot of mineral resources - iron ore, coking coal and other minerals. Unfortunately, the coking coal is concentrated in one part of India in the north, and there's a lot of habitation on top of the coal mines. So, it is a very complex and very tedious, and difficult assignment that the government is working on to relocate the people there. To become Aatmanirbhar, I think it is very essential that we develop those mines and thereby the steel industry can become more self-reliant.”

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Naveen Jindal said, “. We are very happy that the government of India, especially the Prime Minister has been taking a lot of keen interest in clean coal technologies like coal gasification. We are pioneers at JSPL in coal gasification and we feel now with more and more coal mines coming up for auction so, coal would be available economically, and thus, we can find alternate to importing coking coal

On expansion, Sajjan Jindal said, “The entire steel industry, whether it is JSPL, JSW, Tata Steel, Steel Authority, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, everyone is investing. The steel industry is really working shoulder to shoulder with the government to support the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.”

For full interview, watch accompanying video...

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(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)