Road to $5 trillion economy, India’s untapped bauxite reserves to play a vital role

The metal aluminium stands as a crucial role player for all the major sectors that will shoulder the Indian economy to reach the goal of $5 trillion.

The mammoth mineral resources and their exploitation have always remained as the backbone of the Indian metal sector including downstream production. In addition, to fulfil the surge in demand for these commodities, the mineral sector remarkably stands as a vital contributor to the national economy and also delivers job to more than five crore people attached to direct and indirect employment status.

However, if strategically nurtured, the contribution of the mineral sector to the nation’s GDP can be boosted from the current 1.75% to 6%-8%, while the government has envisioned 2.5%.

The Govt. of India’s $5 trillion aspiring growth plan vision, Self-reliant India and the enterprising mega infrastructure projects will seek massive aluminium consumption, among other commodities.

The green metal is a strategic metal for the country and is quite vital for all the key sectors that will support India to reach a $5 trillion economy from building and infrastructure to aerospace, electrical distribution and more.

India’s bauxite reserves are high-quality metallurgical grade bauxite deposits and which are close to four billion tonnes. However, these colossal bauxite deposits are majorly untapped, and the country is yet to take the advantage of this natural wealth for economic growth and development. While at the same time, paradoxically, bauxite importation remains an ongoing process to meet the domestic demand, with an estimated loss of $570 million in the existing six years.

A comprehensive outlook must be granted for the utilisation of India’s abundant bauxite resources and restricting unnecessary imports of the aluminium ore. The primary initiative needs to be taken, by bringing on board successful auction procedures for bauxite mining, as it lacks from the auction regime started in 2015.