India Produced 1.6 Tonnes Of Gold During The Year 2020
India produced 1.6 tonnes of gold during the year 2020, Gold production in India has the potential to increase manifold.
India has produced only 1.6 tonnes of gold in the year 2020. The World Gold Council (WGC) believes that this production in the country has the potential to reach 20 tonnes per annum.
However, for this the government will have to curb the bureaucracy and encourage private investment in the sector, the council said in a report on Thursday.
India is the world’s second-largest gold consumer and meets most of its requirements through imports.
In the event of increased production, it will help in reducing the dependence on imports and the burden on currency reserves.
In the last year (2021), India spent 55.7 billion dollars (about Rs 4.17 lakh crore) on gold imports. This is the highest in the last decade.
Last year, India imported 1,050 tonnes of gold, which was nearly two and a half times as against 430 tonnes purchased during the year-earlier (2020).
World Gold Council Regional CEO (India Operations) Somasundaram PR said that increasing gold production capacity in the current circumstances is beneficial for India.
But for this to happen, the legal barriers will have to be largely removed. Along with this, investment in this sector will have to be encouraged.
The council said that the process of obtaining a license for gold mining in India is very long.
This discourages investment, especially of multinational companies. According to the WGC, most of the mining areas in the country are in remote rural areas.
There are not enough means of road and rail connectivity. Therefore, the transportation of goods in those areas is an expensive and difficult task.
At present, the Hutti mines located in the southern region of Karnataka employ more than 4,000 workers and contractors. Most of the country’s gold production comes from this region.
WGC believes that if the government removes the problems of the gold production sector, then the same number of people can get employment in this sector.
According to the news agency, in June 2016, India approved the National Mineral Exploration Policy (NMEP). Its objective was to promote mineral exploration activities.
In March 2019, the government announced the implementation of this policy.
Through this implementation, the government wanted to address the problems and accelerate the development of the mining sector. This policy applies to non-coal and non-fuel minerals.
Under this, the mineral production of the country was to be doubled during the next seven years. According to the data of the Ministry of Mines, at present, the gold reserves of the country are 70.1 tonn.
