The mineral and mining sector will be critical to India’s development agenda going forward as the country aims at a multi-fold growth in GDP, captains of the industry said on Wednesday.

The government has to incentivise, offer regulatory flexibility and deregulate critical mineral mining to boost the sector, CII National committee on mining chairman and Vedanta group CEO Sunil Duggal said.

Speaking at the International Mining & Machinery Exhibition (IMME) and Global Mining Summit 2022 here, Coal India Chairman Pramod Agrawal said India has to grow and the mining sector is “critical for the growth”.

"The government is aiming at doubling the sector’s contribution to GDP to five per cent by 2030 from 2-2.5 percent now,” he said, while emphasising on productivity with sustainability, greater use of mechanisation and digitisation.

Duggal said the mining industry "needs incentives in exploration to attract new generation companies into this”.

He also called for a timeline for environmental and forest clearances in mining, and to resolve land acquisition issues, besides deregulation of mining of critical minerals.

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Duggal claimed that the low exploration and mining has resulted in importing USD 86 billion in 2021, which will swell to USD 280 billion by 2030.

BEML Chairman and Managing Director Amit Banerjee stressed on emission reduction and mining of critical minerals for new-age technologies in mobile, battery and solar.

National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) Chairman Sumit Deb stated that minerals are the bedrock for the country’s development.

The sector contributes 2-2.5 percent of GDP and supports 1.1 crore employment. The industry captains also stated that critical minerals are important for India to de-risk itself from dependence on imports for new-age technology products.

Catherine Gallagher, the minister of commercial-south Asia and the head of Austrade, spoke about all support to help India achieve its objective to become self-reliant in manufacturing by offering critical minerals’ supplies and technologies.

”We are committed to joint development,” she said.

Earlier, Vedanta Resources Limited founder and chairman Anil Agarwal wants India to work on a “lucrative policy” that will incentivise start-ups to take up junior mining, thereby creating more jobs and increasing the discovery of natural resources.

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(Edited by : Anushka Sharma)