The Business Bytes
New Delhi, May 08, 2024 (TBB Bureau): Representatives from 26 states convened in a pivotal meeting aimed at creating a State Mining Index, a groundbreaking tool designed to illuminate key aspects of the mining sector’s operational landscape within each state. The meeting, held on Wednesday, served as a platform for stakeholders to delve into the intricacies of fostering an environment conducive to streamlined mining activities.
In his keynote address, Union Mines Secretary VL Kantha Rao underscored the significance of establishing such an index, emphasizing its potential to foster cooperative federalism while simultaneously spurring healthy competition among states. He emphasized the importance of States’ efforts in the development of mining sector getting properly reflected in the policy narrative. He emphasized the importance of having a State Mining Index, which will promote cooperative federalism as well as competition among States. Emphasizing the active participation of States being important in making the exercise successful, he requested the States to help in data collection efforts by properly submitting the statistical returns in time.
The workshop convened policymakers, administrators, and practitioners from both central and state governments, facilitating robust discussions on refining the indicators and sub-indicators essential to the Index’s framework and methodology. Principal Secretaries, Directors, and other officials actively engaged in crafting a comprehensive blueprint for evaluating mining ease and efficiency.
Following extensive consultations and feedback from participating states, the Framework of the State Mining Index is slated for finalization and public release in July 2024. This framework will pave the way for the actual ranking process scheduled for April 2025, heralding a new era of informed decision-making and performance benchmarking within the mining sector.
Organized by the Ministry of Mines in collaboration with the esteemed Indian Institute of Technology-Indian School of Mines (IIT-ISM), Dhanbad, the one-day workshop exemplified a concerted effort to harness data-driven insights and collaborative partnerships in advancing the nation’s mining agenda.
