World Bank Loan To Boost Infotech Use In Mining

Use of information technology in the mineral industry will get a boost with the approval of a $1.06 billion World Bank loan for Coal India Ltd, a portion of which will be earmarked for development of telecommunications by the public sector companys subsidiaries.

Against this backdrop, the national seminar on information technology in mineral industry being organised in Calcutta by the Mining, Geological & Metallurgical Institute of India (MGMI) assumes importance.

Shymal Ghosh, secretary to the department of electronics, in his keynote address at the seminar yesterday, said the mining industry was the oldest industry of the country and trying to utilise the most modern industry for further progress. He allayed the fear that the highly labour-intensive mining industry will be adversely affected by the application of computer technology. On the contrary, this technology will improve the productivity of the labour.