MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, Nov 25: Jharkhand is yet to learn Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra for growth – focus on value added finished products instead of selling raw materials. The largest mineral producing state in the country has the lowest number of factories.
The state, which extracted 324 million tons of major minerals accounting for 22% of India’s total production in 2018-19, as per Union Ministry of Mines, has 2,875 factories, or merely 1.17% of India’s total, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The RBI in its ‘Handbook of Statistics on Indian States’ released last Saturday shows Jharkhand to have 2,875 factories in 2019-20, the lowest among the major states. At the other end is Tamil Nadu with 38,837 factories, or 16% of India’s total of 2.47 lakh.
The latest National Mineral Scenario published by the Ministry of Mines, which shows figures for 12 mineral rich states of India, ranked Jharkhand at the top among the major mineral producing states with 324 million tons against India’s total 1,493 million tons.
Even if mineral-based industries are considered for India’s major minerals like iron ore and coal, in which Jharkhand is among the leading states, the amount of steelmaking and power produced in the state leaves a lot of room for painless improvement.
The Union Ministry of Steel, in a 2019 statement on production of steel, accounts for 132 million tons of steel produced in 2018-19. Of which, Jharkhand produced 16.6 million tons, or 12.62% of the country’s total production. The state produced 11.35% of India’s iron ore in the same year. However, the coal production of the state stood at 18.48% in 2018-19. And, the state’s share in power generation is less than 2%.
As per the Central Electricity Authority’s (CEA) list of thermal power stations in India as on 31 March 2021, the installed power generation capacity in Jharkhand stood at 4,460 mega watt (2,250 mw in state and private sectors, and 2,210 mw in central sector).
The states with largest thermal power producing capacities are Maharashtra (28,173 mw), Uttar Pradesh (25,221 mw), Chhattisgarh (23,688 mw) and Gujarat (23,643 mw). The total production capacity of thermal power in India was 2,34,728 mw in FY 2021.
