General delay in grant of mining lease: In India even for obtaining a mining lease it takes minimum one year’s time and this can get extended to even more than 5 years as compared to with just 30 days in Canada and 60 days in Australia.
Evacuation infrastructure: The lack of adequate evacuation infrastructure in form of railway lines, roads have further created hindrance for the development of mining sector.
Poor focus on underground mining: Exploration in India is mostly limited to a depth of 50-100 meter as compared to 300 meters in countries such as Australia. Thus not only lead to poor output but also leads to natural environmental pollution.
Way Forward
To overcome above challenges there is a need for comprehensive National Mineral Exploration and licensing policy. The global private sector firms need to be encouraged towards mineral exploration so that best technology for mineral exploration can be infused. Further the coordination between center and state government need to be created so that the existing delay in grant of lease could be reduced.
The Centre announced a Rs 2.1 lakh crore capital infusion plan for state owned banks. Banks will get Rs 1.35 lakh crore from bonds, Rs 18000 crore from the Budget and raise the remaining 58000 crore through share sales.
PSU banks have been short of capital due to the huge provisions needed for loan losses between March 2015 and June 2017 when NPAs rose by Rs 4.6 lakh crore.
