Decision on ore exports soon

The government will soon take a decision on the export of iron ore. The decision is likely to be in favour of the indigenous iron ore industry and will allow the industry, particularly the steel sector, to undertake capacity expansion, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, Prithviraj Chavan said.

The issue of iron ore exports is being re-looked at in view of the submission of Huda Committee report and a firm decision is expected soon in the new mining policy, Chavan said at the 86th annual general meeting of industry body Assocham on Wednesday.

On the new pharma policy, Chavan said the policy would take care of pricing issue of essential drugs to safeguard interests of the domestic industry. The list of essential drugs would be increased from 74 at present to 260 drugs, he added.

Chavan, however, did not specify a particular timeframe for the finalisation of new mining and pharma policy. "The two issues are being addressed at the highest level, which will be made public shortly," he said.

Chavan also announced that the government was formulating a new policy framework to put in place a regulatory mechanism for the commodities market.

The government would also bring about changes in new FMC Act to ensure that commodity prices are fixed within the country rather than in the UK and others.

He added that the government was bargaining hard to address some of the issues arising out of signing of FTAs, PTAs and other regional and bilateral agreements to ensure that the interests of the domestic businesses are protected.

On energy, Chavan said huge discoveries of gas have been made in the KG basin and some of the areas of Rajasthan and a public announcement on this would be made soon.

"With these discoveries, the domestic gas availability will accelerate and our dependence on POL imports will also decrease in near future," he said.