Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged India’s steel industry to dig deeper at home, literally by mining more iron ore and cutting back on foreign steel imports. Speaking online at the India Steel 2025 event, Modi shared his dream of a “steel-strong” India, pushing the industry to help make the country a self-reliant, developed nation, or Viksit Bharat.
Modi asked steel companies to focus on untapped iron ore sites, called greenfield reserves, to boost local production. He also encouraged the industry to try new ideas, like turning coal into gas, and to make better use of what’s already available to reduce coal imports. This fits right into his Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) plan.
India’s got big goals: it wants to produce 300 million tonnes of steel by 2030, and some say it could hit 330 million tonnes, thanks to huge construction projects and growing cities. But there’s a catch. From April to September 2024, steel imports shot up 41%, mostly from China, which has hurt local prices. Modi called for teaming up with other countries to keep supply chains steady and urged companies to use cutting-edge tech to stay ahead.
Big players in the industry agree. Tata Steel’s CEO, T.V. Narendran said the government needs to step in to handle cheap imports. Meanwhile, JSW Steel, which just won a bid for an iron ore site in Maharashtra, is ready to grow. The government’s looking at ways to shield local companies, but trade deals with other nations might make that tricky.
Modi wrapped up by saying more mining means more jobs and better infrastructure. With India’s steel industry ready to shine, focusing on local resources and new tech could make it a global leader by 2047.
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