National Steel Policy: Sans Substance

Sans Substance The National Steel Policy (NSP), approved last week by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), has a grand vision. The Indian steel industry is to serve as a springboard to transform India into a developed country by 2020. India, according to the NSP, has all that is required to become a leading supplier of steel to the world; the country ought to take advantage of the enhanced opportunities arising out of relocation of production centres across the world. The NSP sets a target of 100 million tonnes of annual domestic consumption by 2020, which is to be met principally through domestic production. The latter sounds tediously familiar. During the Emergency in the mid-1970s ambitious targets had been set for the year 2000. Then too, the extremely low per capita consumption of steel was to be made history.