Indian stone needs latest technology to compete
Indian stone sector needs to adopt latest technology to cut down production cost, improve quality and compete with the world market.
The stone industry of India needs to adopt scientific and cost-effective mining and quarrying practices apart from investing in skill upgradation to face stiff competition in the global market, Subbaramai Reddy, Union Minister of States for Mines said.
Speaking at the Valedictory function of 'Stona 2008', organised by All India Granite and Stone Association, he said if Indian stone sector had to compete with the world market it needed to adopt latest technology to cut down production cost and improve quality.
Though India was the largest producer of stones in the world market accounting for about 27 per cent production and a leading exporter, ranking third in terms of tonnage, the open cast method mining adopted was very old, slow and uneconomical and it should adopt advanced technology, he said.
India accounts for over 20 per cent of the world resources in granite. Granite reserves were estimated at over1,690 million cubic metres while marble reserves were estimated at 1,200 million tonnes with Rajasthan accounting for 91 per cent of the Indian reserves, he said.
On the issue of mineral wealth, he said that the ministry was committed to making India self-sufficient in terms of gold and diamond in a time-frame of 10 years by investing and focusing on mineral exploration and extraction.
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