Date:22/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/22/stories/2005012202621200.htm

Back Draft steel policy targets 110 mt output by 2020

Ambarish Mukherjee

New Delhi , Jan. 21

THE steel sector would directly and indirectly generate 10 lakh new jobs by the year 2020, according to estimates made by the Government in the draft National Steel Policy.

Domestic steel output, according to the target set by the policy draft, is expected to touch 110 million tonnes by 2020 from the current level of 36 million tonnes annually.

While this would involve huge investments to the tune of Rs 2,30,000 crore, the number of new jobs that would be generated directly in the steel sector and sectors that are linked with the production of steel would be approximately around 10 lakh, the policy states.

According to statistical estimates available with the Ministry of Steel, one man year of employment in the steel industry generates an additional 3.5 man years of employment elsewhere in the economy because of its linkages with other sectors such as transport, mining, construction, machinery, steel fabrication and others.

Interestingly, though the increase in steel production opens up the possibility of creating huge number of new jobs, there may be bottlenecks in the supply of available human resources in terms of skilled and semi-skilled labour force.

According to data available with the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, availability of scientists, engineers and technicians per thousand of population in India is 7.05 compared to 113 in Japan, 90 in the UK, 53 in Korea, 54 in Australia and 85 in Germany. So efforts would be required to make available the required manpower also, officials said.