Steel Govt focuses on rural India to meet 2030 steel consumption target among other measures
New Delhi/IBNS: The Union Steel Ministry has formed a Joint Working Group (JWG) to step up the use and consumption of steel in the country, especially in rural areas.
The JWG will develop standardised design and layouts of housing configurations with steel structure with estimated cost, as adopted in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-U and PMAY-G) houses, Union Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh told Lok Sabha Wednesday in a written reply.
The JWG has been formed after several rounds of consultations with various stakeholders including industry associations and leaders of domestic steel industry to promote the use and consumption of steel in the country including the rural areas, the ministry said.
Further, Steel Central Public Sector Enterprises like Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) have appointed rural dealers and also engage in various promotional activities specifically aim at educating rural India on advantages of steel use.
The National Steel Policy-2017 envisages the steel production capacity to be 30 crore tones, per capita consumption of steel to be 160 kgs and reduction of average CO2 emission intensity to around 2.4 t/tcs by FY2030-31.
Specific CO2 or GHG emission is measured in t/tcs which implies tonne of CO2 released per tonne of Crude Steel produced.
However, the crude steel capacity in April to November (2021-22) remained at 148.91mt (million tonnes) and per capita consumption of steel was 72.3 kgs, the government data showed.
In 2020-21, the crude steel capacity was 143.91 mt while per capita consumption was 70 kg and the specific CO2 emission was recorded at 2.60 t/tcs.
These figures were 142.30 mt, 74 kg and 2.63 t/tcs in 2019-20 while in 2018-19 they were 142.24 mt, 74.4 kg and 2.65 t/tcs.
The data clearly reflects India has a long way to go in achieving the targets in all the three categories, which also indicate the state of a country's economy.
The government has taken some key measures to increase the domestic production of Steel.
The Government has announced Domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products (DMI&SP) Policy to promote procurement of "Made in India" steel and Steel Scrap Recycling Policy to enhance the availability of domestically generated scrap.
Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMS) has been established for advanced registration of steel imports.
Further, Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme has been announced for domestic manufacturers of Specialty Steel with an outlay of Rs 6,322 crores.
To address the issues faced by various stakeholders, including industry associations, and leaders of domestic steel industry, the concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central Government and State Governments are engaging with them.
The Steel ministry is also engaging with relevant stakeholders including Railways, Defence, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Housing, Civil Aviation, Road Transport and Highways, Agriculture and Rural Development sectors to enhance the steel usage and overall demand for steel in the country.
A Project Development Cell has been set up in the ministry to attract and facilitate investment in the steel sector.
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