Focus on creating a level playing field: Vedanta chief

Kolkata: Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Resources Limited has said that India needs to take stringent measures to safeguard interests of the domestic producers and focus on creating a level playing field to compete with exporting countries. "We are over a billion people and as a resource enriched country, we must not be dependent on imports for crude, aluminium, iron ore as well as coal," he said in a statement on Monday adding, "India is also not a global dump yard for aluminium scrap and we need to take stringent measures to safeguard interests of the domestic producers and focus on creating a level playing field to compete with exporting countries," the statement said. Optimum exploitation of domestic resources in India could raise the contribution of natural resources sector to the national GDP to 10% from the present levels of 2% and thus help cut India’s import bill of over $300 billion for minerals, fuel and metal products, he pointed out. 'India is on an irreversible growth path and its natural resources sector has played a critical role in this trajectory contributing to Prime Minister’s vision of a $5 trillion economy. The decision to allow 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in mining and exploration of metal and non-metal ores under the automatic route will propel growth in the sector to a great extent,' he felt. "The year gone by was another successful year for Vedanta as we expanded all our businesses, adding Electrosteel Steels to our portfolio. This will engineer our interests in further diversification of business," the statememt added. Agarwal also said the group is now looking at a strategy to bring 1,00,000 dependents and associates impacted by the closure of Sterlite's copper plant at Tuticorin back to normalcy, while welcoming the National Green Tribunal’s order to restart out copper unit.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2AlwNZq