India visits Canada in a bid to attract foreign investment

Indian delegation had been to Canada to attend the International Conference on Mines organised by Natural Resources Canada and the Canada-India Minerals and Metals Forum. �Apart from increasing the area of operation and duration of concessions, the government is looking to simplify procedures for granting licences for exploration and mining,� said A.K. Jadhav, secretary of mines. �The �right to transfer licence� was also under consideration,� he added

The Indian government recently announced a decision to allow foreign ownership of diamond mines in the country. RK Sharma, secretary general, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries said, �The government was actively addressing key bottlenecks that discouraged foreign investment in the sector.� Services like digitised scientific data maps would be made available to investors, stated an official from the Geological Survey of India (GSI).

Canada, which has been the recent focus of diamond mining majors like De Beers and BHP Billiton, welcomed India�s co-operation in exploiting its natural mineral assets. Praveen Shankar Padya, working committee member of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said, �India is ready to set up diamond cutting and processing units in Canada if they are commercially viable.�