States like Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Karnataka over the past few years, have attracted many investment proposals — though many of them have not been implemented. These states together have over 11,000 mn tonnes of the total available iron ore reserves of 12,000 mn tonnes in the country. These reserves, when utilised, can provide employment to over 1.5 mn people in the steel industry alone.

Currently, Orissa alone has signed MoUs for over 45 mn tonnes of steel projects, while Jharkhand is also attracting investments in the sector. Lakshmi Nivas Mittal’s Mittal Steel is close to signing an MoU to set up a 10 mn tonne plant in Jharkhand. Tata Steel is also planning an additional 10mn tonne capacity here, besides the ongoing capacity expansion from 4 mn tonnes to 7 mn tonnes at Jamshedpur. Besides, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has announced capacity expansions at the Bokaro Steel Plant. Chhattisgarh, which already has the Bhilai Steel plant of SAIL, has signed a MoU which will entail investments of over Rs 10,000 crore (approx. $2.2 bn) in the steel sector.

Orissa has been attracting huge investments in the aluminium sector. Vedanta Resources, a London Stock Exchange-listed company, has begun work on a 1.4 mn tonne refinery in Langigarh in Orissa. Vedanta will also set up a half a million tonne smelter here. The Aditya Birla group has also announced plans to set up the Aditya Alumina project in Orissa which will be similar to that of Vedanta’s project in terms of size. The Vedanta Group has already increased capacity at its aluminium refinery in Korba, Chhattisgarh.

The Aditya Birla Group is also setting up a half a million tonne smelter in Jharkhand. The Jindal South West Group, headed by Sajjan Jindal, has signed an MoU to set up a refinery and smelter in Andhra Pradesh.

According to an Orissa government statement, South Korean steel major Posco’s plan to set up a 12mn tonne steel plant in the state alone is expected to provide direct employment to 13,000 persons and indirect employment to another 35,000. According to estimates, Posco will need more than 18,000 skilled workers like carpenters, welders, brick layers, painters and electricians per day to set up the project. A back-of-the-envelop calculation on Posco’s employment generation figures indicates that every 37 mn tonnes of iron ore, which can support a million tonne of steel production for 25 years, can provide employment to 5,000 people.

This means that if the four iron ore rich states decide to make available the entire 11,000 mn tonnes of ore to use, these states can generate employment for at least 1.5 mn people. Moreover, since ore deposits are in rural areas, most of the employment will be generated there.

Besides steel, deposits of bauxite in states like Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh are also expected to produce employment in rural areas. According to industry officials, aluminium production also generates employment opportunities similar to that of the steel sector.

Orissa, which has the largest reserves of bauxite in India, is also attracting investments from multinational companies like Rio-Tinto and the L&T-Dubal combine for setting up alumina refineries. These projects, if implemented, can also generate rural employment.