Bhubaneswar,swa news : Leading experts, policymakers, and social advocates have urged the Government to take immediate,decisive and time-bound policy actionsto unlock the state’s rich bauxite reserves — calling it the missing link in India’s journey toward Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat.
At a national webinar jointly hosted by AIDENT, social welfare organisation and FIJEEHA, a development forum, participants called upon the government, industry, and local stakeholders to move decisively from potential to production, fast-tracking bauxite mine operationalisation and downstream development. With strategic reforms and collaborative implementation, Odisha can anchor India’s global aluminium leadership, strengthen its position in critical minerals, and power the nation’s journey toward Atmanirbhar & Viksit Bharat.
The webinar follows AIDENT’s recently launched White Paper “Mining Odisha’s Potential: Powering India’s Journey to Atmanirbhar Bharat and Prosperity”, which identified bauxite, iron ore, and coal as the state’s greatest strategic levers for inclusive industrialisation.Experts underscored that unlocking Odisha’s bauxite potential is not just an industrial necessity but a pathway to inclusive prosperity capable of generating 2.4 million jobs and empowering over 10,000 MSMEs through local entrepreneurship, downstream manufacturing, and green industrial clusters. They called for a shift in approach from raw resource drainage to value creation through Green Aluminium Parks and Value-Added Clusters, thereby strengthening India’s industrial resilience and export competitiveness.
Participating in the discussion, Dr. Umesh Jena, Former Additional Director of Mines, Government of Odisha, discussed the urgency of expanding Odisha’s mining capacity to meet aluminium demand projected by Government’sAluminium Vision. He said, “Delay in mine operationalization is depriving local population in remote areas to reap in the socio-economic benefits which come from the contributions of DMF, Royalty & Taxes which the exchequer earns from mining.Odisha must take the lead in operationalising bauxite mines. Time-bound expansion of mining capacity will ensure raw material security, reduce import dependency, and generate large-scale employment in mineral districts.”
The session focused on the Aluminium Vision roadmap released by the Ministry of Mines, which projects a sixfold rise in aluminium demand requiring production to expand from 4.5 MTPA to 37 MTPA and an investment of nearly ₹20 lakh crore over the next two decades. Odisha’s vast bauxite reserves were identified as the cornerstone of this growth, crucial to ensuring self-reliance, securing raw material supply, and reducing import dependency.
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