Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA)

37 Future of Limestone availability associated with existing Cement plants beyond 2030 Bhanu Prakash Bhatnagar Mining Head, Ambuja cement Limited group company of Adani Cement Limited, Ahmedabad Background Limestone Mining is one of the backbones of the cement plants, in turn affects Indian economy, which has the potential to contribute to GDP growth and generate employment opportunities. This is a labour-intensive industry and has a huge potential for employment generation, it plays a pivotal role in creating more avenues for job opportunities, particularly in the backward areas, where cement plants are located, and have limited potential for other economic activities. Given the current unemployment crisis, it is believed that employment-intensive growth is the key to utilizing India’s demographic dividend and ensuring a remarkable growth story. In addition, it acts as a significant variable towards achieving a sustainable and inclusive growth. Every 1% increase in economic growth, the mining sector creates 13 times more employment than agriculture and six times more than manufacturing. (Source: 12th Five Year Plan.). The mining sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP has been declining in recent years, despite growth in production and value accretion. From 1.93 per cent in 2012-13, the mining sector’s share of GDP (excluding petroleum & natural gas) fell to 1.53 per cent in 2017-18. India’s GDP grew from 5 per cent to 7 per cent during the same period. There are all-round efforts of the Ministry of Mines and NITI Aayog along with other ministries to deliberate on the potential reforms, which could double the share of mining in GDP contribution and reduce the import dependency for the sector. This could both enhance the potential GDP and employment avenues.