Steel Ministry to also recommend names for Padma Awards

Ravi S Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 13

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As a novelty to jumpstart the steel sector, the Union Steel Ministry will henceforth recommend persons for Padma awards for works of distinction and exceptional achievement in the field, just like other ministries do regarding nominations of person related to their domain.

Union Steel Minister Birender Singh, presiding over the Secondary Steel Sector Awards (2016-17) on Thursday, also announced that the ministry will institute a special award for superlative achievements in the field of steel.

This will be on the pattern and moral equivalence of “Khel Ratna” of Sports Ministry.

“The awards acknowledging the achievements and contributions made by persons for  growth of steel sector, and the country will help give further impetus to it.”
“Steel is a vital cog of fast-paced infrastructure growth in the country. The ministry will take initiatives for rapid expansion of the sector,” Singh said, urging members related to steel sector to also submit their applications for Padma Awards besides their mandatory filing of nominations directly to the Union Home Ministry.

There is a proposal to christen the name of the special award as “Ispat Agardoot”.

Singh further said that the production of steel in the country has increased exponentially in the past four years, and attributed it to the effective transformative development orientation of the Narendra Modi government.

“We plan to scale up the country’s steel production to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31,” Singh further said, and asserted that measures are being taken to boost export.

The measures include introduction of BIS for units in the secondary steel sector to make them competitive, and sorting out their power tariff in some states.

The ministry is also welcome to FDI based on the condition of technology transfer, he said.
He said the recent imposition of restrictions by USA has affected not affected India’s export substantially. However, talks are on with other countries as alternatives. India is also mulling taking the USA trade restrictions to the WTO.