DPIIT Consults with Indian Cement Industry for Enhanced Data Collection Mechanism

New Delhi:  The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, conducted a crucial consultation with representatives of the Indian Cement Industry to streamline the mechanism for collecting cement production data. The objective is to ensure 100% coverage of the industry, addressing gaps in the current data collection process.

Cement holds a pivotal position as one of the eight core industries in India, constituting 40.27% of the weight in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The cement production data plays a crucial role in calculating the Index of Eight Core Industries, with a significant weightage of 5.37%.

The Indian cement industry stands as the second-largest globally, boasting an installed cement capacity of 600 million tonnes and a production output of 391 million tonnes in the fiscal year 2022-23. Currently, the DPIIT gathers cement production data through the Cement Information System (CIS) portal, but irregular submissions from some plants pose challenges.

The accurate collection of cement production data is vital for government policy decisions and the calculation of the industrial production index. The DPIIT emphasizes that robust and precise data will benefit not only the government but also the cement industry and various stakeholders, including investors. Therefore, the industry was urged to ensure 100% coverage and timely submission of production data.

Join Secretary of DPIIT, Shri Sanjiv, shared that, as part of the Ease of Doing Business initiative, ad-hoc permissions for manufacturing and selling cement without the ISI mark are being granted to cement plants for up to 150 days or until they obtain Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification, whichever comes first. He highlighted that future registrations on the CIS portal will be a prerequisite for considering proposals for ad-hoc permissions. The CIS portal is set to undergo revision, and the updated version will be launched soon.

To facilitate the updating of the CIS portal, Shri Sanjiv directed the National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCCBM) to engage with representatives of the cement industry.

Assurances were provided by representatives from the cement industry during the meeting, affirming their commitment to regularly providing accurate production data. They also pledged to ensure that all remaining plants will be integrated into the CIS portal by March 31, 2024.

The hybrid-mode meeting, held on February 9, 2023, witnessed the participation of officials from NCCBM, Cement Manufacturing Association (CMA), and various prominent cement companies. The attendees included Saurashtra Cement Ltd., Dalmia Cement (B) Ltd., Shree Cement Ltd., Adani Group, Star Cement Ltd., Jammu and Kashmir Cement Ltd. (JKCL), Heidelberg Cement, Orient Cement, Nuvoco Vistas Corp, Zuari Cement Ltd., My Home Industries Ltd., UltraTech Cement Ltd., The India Cement Ltd., and officials from the Cement Section of DPIIT.