Bhubaneswar: Nalco CMD Dr. T.K.Chand Friday said that mines in India has 60,000 vacancies in critical operator category. He said there is a need to fill up vacancies to step up mining activities in the country.

Stating that the there is mindset that mining sector is not environment friendly, he said there is a need to change this perception in view of the widespread adoption of best practices of safe and green mining technologies.

Dr. Chand was addressing the Geominetech International Symposium which was attended by  large number of  technocrats, engineers, mining professionals, scientists and R & D experts.

The two-day 18th Geominetech International Symposium on New Equipment- New Technology Management & Safety in mines and mineral based industries got off here on Friday.

The CMD said, ‘’Civilisations has progressed due to unearthing of natural resources. The world has come around to accepting mining as a positive step towards betterment of society. Now, people are realising its benefit because it has the potential to offer large scale employment, which is of prime importance in New India. What matters is to work on the entire value chain of minerals.’’

‘’Mineral-based mother plants like Nalco should create an ecosystem for employment and employability to set up Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and give them the necessary support to make them competitive and sustainable. This will ensure large scale sustainable employment in the MSME sector,’’ Dr. Chand added.

The Nalco CMD Dr. Chand was handed over the  ‘Best Corporate Governance Award’ on this occasion.

CMD of HECL, Ranchi, Avijit Ghosh, former director of NIT Allhabad and Sikkim, Prof. A Samaddar, Former deputy director general mines Rakesh Kulsresth,  former executive director ICRMD(SAIL) Saidev, and chairman BOG, IITISM, Dhanbad and former director CIMFR Prof DD Mishra were present.