The Indian economy is back on the path of a recovery to pre-lockdown levels, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“There has been a swift recovery during the last week of May and the first week of June in power generation, consumption and demand of petroleum products. Compared to April 2020, there has been a 200 per cent increase in e-way bills in June 2020. Toll collection in June 2020 has reached 70 per cent of the levels during February 2020. There has also been a 26 per cent improvement in railway freight tariff during May 2020, compared to April 2020. There is also an increase in volume and value of the total digital retail transactions,” Modi said while announcing the launch of commercial coal mining in the country through a video address.
“The rural economy is also picking up pace. Kharif crop area under cultivation 13 per cent more this year compared to last year. Wheat procurement is up 11 per cent from last year. This means that the farmers have more money in their hands,” he said.
In the video address, Modi said the auction process is being initiated at a time with business activities are fast moving towards normalcy. “Consumption and demand are very speedily moving towards pre-Covid levels. All these indicators show that the Indian economy is ready to bounce back,” he added.
Taking a jibe at earlier regimes, he said: “For decades, the country's coal sector was entangled in a web of captive and non-captive. It was excluded from competition and there was a big problem of transparency.”
He said that the government will spend ₹ 50,000 crore for creating infrastructure around coal mining. “We have set a target to gasify around 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030. Four projects have been identified for this and about ₹20,000 crore will be invested in them,” he said.
Modi said that India should stop coal imports and instead aim to become the largest coal exporter in the world.
Commenting on the commercial auction of mines, Minister of Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi said: “This auction process marks the opening of Indian coal sector for commercial mining and will enable the country to achieve self-sufficiency in meeting its energy needs and provide thrust to economic development and employment generation.”
Commercial coal mining auction process
Source: Ministry of Coal