Republic of India
Ministry of Mines

Agency overview
Jurisdiction	Government of India
Headquarters	New Delhi
Annual budget	₹1,669.52 crore (US$210 million) (2018-19 est.)[1]
Agency executive	Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Mines
Website	mines.gov.in

The Ministry of Mines is the ministry in the Government of India. The ministry functions as the primary body for the formulation and administration of laws relating to mines in India. The head of the ministry is Pralhad Joshi, who has been serving since June 2019.^[2]

Functions

The Ministry of Mines is responsible for surveying and exploring for minerals (other than natural gas and petroleum) that are used in mining and metallurgy. It searches for non-ferrous metals including: aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, gold, nickel, etc. for administration of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act) in respect of all mines and minerals other than coal and lignite. There is one attached office, one subordinate office, three public sector undertakings (PSUs), three autonomous bodies, and additional agencies working under the support of the Ministry of Mines.

National Mineral Policy

The first National Mineral Policy was enunciated by the Government in 1993 for liberalization of the mining sector. The National Mineral Policy, 1993 aimed at encouraging the flow of private investment and introduction of state-of-the-art technology in exploration and mining.

In the Mid-Term Appraisal of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, it was observed that the main factors responsible for this were procedural delays in the processing of applications for mineral concessions and the absence of adequate infrastructure in the mining areas. To go into the whole gamut of issues relating to the development of the mineral sector and suggest measures for improving the investment climate the Mid-Term Appraisal had proposed the establishment of a High Level Committee. Accordingly, the Government of India, Planning Commission, constituted a Committee on 14 September 2005. under the Chairmanship of Shri Anwarul Hoda, member, Planning Commission. The Committee made detailed recommendations on all of its terms of Reference in December 2006. Based on the recommendations of the High Level Committee, in consultation with State Governments, the Government replaced the National Mineral Policy, 1993 with a new National Mineral Policy on 13 March 2008.

The National Mineral Policy 2008 provides for a change in the role of the Central Government and the State Governments to incentivize private sector investment in exploration and mining and for ensuring level playing field and transparency in the grant of concessions and promotion of scientific mining within a sustainable development framework so as to protect the interest of local population in mining areas. This has necessitated harmonization of legislation with the new National Mineral Policy.

Policy reforms

The Hoda Committee studied the various reports prepared and submitted by study groups and in- house committees set up by various Ministries from time to time on the issues before the Committee. The Committee gave consideration to the mineral policies of the States as presented by the State Governments, especially to the differing perceptions of mineral-rich and non mineral-rich states. The Committee also gave consideration to the papers prepared by FIMI, which provided comparative analyses of the mineral policies and statutes of other major mineral producing countries in the world such as Australia, Canada, Chile, and South Africa.

Legislation

The Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 was enacted so as to provide for the regulation of mines and development of minerals under the control of the Union. The Act has been amended in 1972, 1986, 1994, 1999 and 2004 in keeping with changes in the policy on mineral development. It has been recently amended in 2016 to make fundamental changes.

Legislative reform

Since that the existing law had already been amended several times and as further amendments may not clearly reflect the objects and reasons emanating from the new Mineral Policy, Government decided to reformulate the legislative framework in the light of the National Mineral Policy, 2008 and consequently, the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill was drafted in 2009-10 by the then Secretary Mines, S. Vijay Kumar,^[7][8] in consultation with the stakeholders. Government then constituted a Group of Ministers, chaired by the Minister of Finance (comprising Ministers of Home, Environment & Forest, Mines, Steel, Coal, Tribal Affairs, Law etc.) which harmonized the views of the Ministries and the final draft as approved by the Cabinet in September 2011, was introduced in Parliament in November 2011.

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011, inter alia, provides for the following, namely

• A simple and transparent mechanism with clear and enforceable timelines for grant of mining lease or prospecting licence through competitive bidding in areas of known mineralization, and on the basis of first-in-time in areas where mineralization is not known.
• "Extension" rather than "renewal" of concession to ensure complete exploitation of mineral deposit.
• Facilitating easy transfer of reconnaissance and prospecting licences; mining leases are also transferable but subject to prior approval of State Government.

A notable feature of the Bill is to provide a simple mechanism which ensures that revenues from mining are shared with local communities at individual as well as community level so as to empower them, provide them with choices, enable them to create and maintain local infrastructure and better utilize infrastructure and other services provided for their benefit. The Bill after introduction in Parliament in November 2011, was referred to the Department–related Parliamentary Standing Committee ("Standing Committee" ) which after eliciting the views of all stakeholders, submitted its Report.

Elections in 2014, however led to the Bill lapsing, and the new NDA Government used its majority to effect amendments in the MMDR Act. The most important amendment has been to make auctions the only way to get mineral concessions at prospecting and mining stages. Some auctions have been held, but the industry view seems to be that auctions are likely to lead to delays and supply interruptions, and that the auction is adding to the burden of taxes on mining. Auctions at mining lease stage are also disincentivising exploration by private sector.^[9]

Mining within a sustainable development framework

The Hoda Committee made important recommendations on the need for a Sustainable Development Framework (SDF), as follows:

""The Ministry of Mines and MOEF should jointly set up a working group to prepare a SDF specially tailored to the context of India’s mining environment, taking fully into account the work done and being done in ICMM and the IUCN. The Indian SDF comprising of principles, reporting initiatives, and good practice guidelines unique to the three sectors in Indian mining, i.e. SME, captive, and large stand alone, can then be made applicable to mining operations in India and a separate structure set up to ensure adherence to such framework, drawing from both IBM and the field formations of MOEF. • The aspect of social infrastructure in the form of schools, hospitals, drinking water arrangements, etc. needs to be addressed within a formalised framework on the lines of the ICMM model. The Samatha ruling requiring mining companies to spend a set percentage of their profits on model programmes for meeting local needs through a pre-determined commitment, is one option for the country as a whole. Another option could be to require the mining companies to spend a percentage, say three per cent, of their turnover on the social infrastructure in the villages around the mining area. The working group mentioned in paragraph 3.11 may take this into consideration when preparing the Indian SDF and determine the percentage that mining companies could be advised to set aside. "

Based on these recommendations, the National Mineral Policy 2008 explicitly underlined the need for mining within a sustainable development framework. The National Mineral Policy 2008 states, ( para numbers in brackets are the para numbers in the Policy): " (2.3) A framework of sustainable development will be designed which takes care of biodiversity issues and to ensure that mining activity takes place along with suitable measures for restoration of the ecological balance..."

In para 7.10 it states" Extraction of minerals closely impacts other natural resources like land, water, air and forest. The areas in which minerals occur often have other resources presenting a choice of utilisation of the resources. Some such areas are ecologically fragile and some are biologically rich. It is necessary to take a comprehensive view to facilitate the choice or order of land use keeping in view the needs of development as well as the needs of protecting the forests, environment and ecology... All mining shall be undertaken within the parameters of a comprehensive Sustainable Development Framework... Mining operations shall not ordinarily be taken up in identified ecologically fragile areas and biologically rich areas.

Para 7.11 states that "Appropriate compensation will form an important aspect of the Sustainable Development Framework mentioned in para 2.3 and 7.10…"

Para 7.12 states that: "Once the process of economical extraction of a mine is complete there is need for scientific mine closure which will not only restore ecology and regenerate biomass but also take into account the socio-economic aspects of such closure..."

And not least, para 3.2 of the Policy states that "The Central Govt in consultation with the State Govts shall formulate the legal measures for giving effect to the NMP 2008..The MMDR Act, MCR and MCDR will be amended in line with the policy…"

In line with the Hoda Committee recommendations, the Ministry of Mines commissioned ERM which prepared a Sustainable Development Framework Report in November 2011.

List of ministers

No	Portrait	Name	Term of office		Party		Prime Minister
1		N. V. Gadgil	15 August 1947	26 December 1950	Indian National Congress		Jawaharlal Nehru
2		Swaran Singh	17 April 1957	10 April 1962
3		Keshav Dev Malviya	25 April 1957	26 June 1963
(2)		Swaran Singh	26 June 1963	19 July 1963
4		C Subramaniam	21 November 1963	9 June 1964			Jawaharlal Nehru Gulzari Lal Nanda
5		N. Sanjeeva Reddy	9 June 1964	24 January 1966			Lal Bahadur Shastri
6		Tribhuvan Narain Singh	17 January 1967	13 March 1969			Indira Gandhi
7		M. Chenna Reddy	16 March 1967	27 April 1968
8		Prakash Chandra Sethi (MoS)	27 April 1968	14 February 1969
9		Triguna Sen	14 February 1969	18 March 1971
10		Surendra Mohan Kumaramangalam	2 May 1971	31 May 1973
11		Indira Gandhi	6 June 1973	23 July 1973
12		T. A. Pai	23 July 1973	11 January 1974
(3)		Keshav Dev Malviya	11 January 1974	10 October 1974
13		Chandrajit Yadav (MoS)	10 October 1974	24 March 1977
14		Biju Patnaik	26 March 1977	15 July 1979	Janata Party		Morarji Desai
			30 July 1979	14 January 1980	Janata Party (Secular)		Charan Singh
15		Pranab Mukherjee	16 January 1980	15 January 1982	Indian National Congress		Indira Gandhi
16		N. D. Tiwari	15 January 1982	14 February 1983
17		N. K. P. Salve (Independent Charge)	14 February 1983	31 December 1984			Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi
18		Vasant Sathe	31 December 1984	25 September 1985			Rajiv Gandhi
19		K. C. Pant	25 September 1985	12 April 1987
(18)		Vasant Sathe	12 April 1987	25 July 1987
20		M. L. Fotedar	25 July 1987	2 December 1989
21		Dinesh Goswami	6 December 1989	10 November 1989	Asom Gana Parishad		V. P. Singh
22		Ashoke Kumar Sen	21 November 1990	21 June 1991	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)		Chandra Shekhar
23		Balram Singh Yadav (Independent Charge)	21 June 1991	15 September 1995	Indian National Congress		P. V. Narasimha Rao
24		Giridhar Gamang (Independent Charge)	15 September 1995	16 May 1996
25		Atal Bihari Vajpayee	16 May 1996	1 June 1996	Bharatiya Janata Party		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
26		H. D. Deve Gowda	1 June 1996	29 June 1996	Janata Dal		H. D. Deve Gowda I. K. Gujral
27		Birendra Prasad Baishya	29 June 1996	19 March 1998	Asom Gana Parishad (United Front)
28		Naveen Patnaik	19 March 1998	4 March 2000	Biju Janata Dal		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
(25)		Atal Bihari Vajpayee	4 March 2000	6 March 2000	Bharatiya Janata Party
29		P R Kumaramangalam	6 March 2000	27 May 2000
30		Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa	27 May 2000	7 November 2000	Shiromani Akali Dal
31		Sunder Lal Patwa	7 November 2000	1 September 2001	Bharatiya Janata Party
32		Ram Vilas Paswan	1 September 2001	29 April 2002	Janata Dal (United)
(25)		Atal Bihari Vajpayee	29 April 2002	1 July 2002	Bharatiya Janata Party
33		L. K. Advani	1 July 2002	26 August 2002
34		Uma Bharati	26 August 2002	29 January 2003
35		Ramesh Bais (Independent Charge)	29 January 2003	9 January 2004
36		Mamata Banerjee	9 January 2004	22 May 2004	All India Trinamool Congress
37		Shibu Soren	23 May 2004	24 July 2004	Jharkhand Mukti Morcha		Manmohan Singh
38		Manmohan Singh	24 July 2004	27 November 2004	Indian National Congress
39		Sis Ram Ola	27 November 2004	22 May 2009
40		Bijoy Krishna Handique	28 May 2009	19 January 2011
41		Dinsha Patel (Independent Charge till 28 October 2012)	19 January 2011	26 May 2014
42		Narendra Singh Tomar	26 May 2014	5 July 2016	Bharatiya Janata Party		Narendra Modi
43		Piyush Goyal (Independent Charge)	5 July 2016	3 September 2017
(42)		Narendra Singh Tomar	3 September 2017	30 May 2019
44		Pralhad Joshi	30 May 2019	Incumbent

List of ministers of state

Ministers of State of Mines

Minister of state	Portrait	Political party		Term		Days
Vishnudeo Sai		Bharatiya Janata Party		26 May 2014	5 July 2016	2 years, 40 days
Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary				3 September 2017	30 May 2019	1 year, 269 days
Raosaheb Danve				7 July 2021	Incumbent	2 years, 190 days

References

External links

• Ministry website