New Delhi: The Ministry of Steel has signed 57 MoUs with 27 companies for specialty steel under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. An event to exchange MoUs with companies was recently organised by the Ministry of Steel at Vigyan Bhawan here.

Union Minister of Steel and Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia along with Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste gave away the MoUs to the representatives of the companies. Scindia commended the initiatives of the participating companies in the PLI Scheme for specialty steel.

Under the PLI scheme, the Central government has approved Rs 6322 crore to give a new impetus to the steel sector. Scindia said that the PLI scheme is expected to generate an investment of about Rs 30,000 crore and additional capacity creation of about 25 million tonnes of specialty steel in the next five years.

This will also create great opportunities for direct and indirect job creation, besides contributing towards achieving the status of 3rd largest economy by the year 2030-31 as per the resolve and determination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the Budget 2023-24, the government has announced Rs 10 lakh crore Capital Expenditure Plan that becomes the source of great demand for our industry.

The Minister said that there is a structural shift at international level from West to East has enabled India to emerge as an epicentre of evolution and growth of the Steel sector. He said that India is set to become a power house of manufacturing which will increase the share of steel in GDP from two to 5 per cent.

Scindia added that the steel sector is poised to contribute greatly towards strengthening the foundation of national infrastructure building in this endeavour of self-reliance. Talking about carbon emission, the Minister said that keeping the 12 per cent contribution of carbon emission by the steel sector, we must move from being a hard to abate sector to a low carbon emission sector and look at carbon neutrality through initiatives such as green steel and green hydrogen mission.

Scindia said that the government has also transitioned from being a regulator to a facilitator and a collaborator and expressed optimism that India is on course to achieve record production of 125 million tonnes and 11 per cent to 12 per cent growth in consumption levels.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste said that India became the 5th largest economy due to the vision and efforts of Prime Minister Modi. Government and industry working in close coordination is a good sign for the country and augurs well for growth.

Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Nagendra Nath Sinha, said that research and development, new product development and adoption of global best practices in the steel sector should be given top priority. Production of value-added steel should be seen as a step towards entering the global value chain. The earnestness displayed by the companies in signing MoUs must be matched by them by translating targets into achieving the actual production. /BI