A decade-plus of auction-based reform, 1 billion tonnes of mineral production for two consecutive years, and a new amendment bill on the floor — Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy laid out the full arc of India's mining transformation on Thursday, 13 August 2026, framing it as the foundation for a Viksit Bharat @2047.

From auction chaos to a billion-tonne milestone

The pivot began in 2015, when the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act scrapped discretionary licensing and replaced it with competitive auctions — ending what critics had long called an era of opacity and underperformance. The results, as Reddy framed them, are now measurable: India has hit 1 billion tonnes of mineral output for two straight years, nearly tripled non-coal mineral production, and expanded exploration coverage by nearly 200 times.

The global scoreboard tells its own story. India now ranks 4th in iron ore, 2nd in limestone, 3rd in zinc, and 5th in bauxite production worldwide — positions that matter directly for steel, cement, and the battery-supply chains that every major economy is racing to lock in.

States' share jumps from 63% to 88% — what that means on the ground

The revenue story is as striking as the output numbers. States' share of mineral revenue has climbed from 63% to 88%, with more than ₹6 lakh crore accruing to state governments since 2015. That is not an abstraction — it is the fiscal oxygen behind roads, schools, hospitals, and drinking-water projects in districts that sit atop the ore but have historically seen little of the upside.

The mechanism is the District Mineral Foundation (DMF), a statutory body created alongside the 2015 reforms to direct a share of royalties into local infrastructure and welfare. Mining districts from Jharkhand to Rajasthan to Odisha are the intended beneficiaries — communities that have long borne the environmental and social costs of extraction with limited economic return.

What the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, 2026 adds

Reddy's post was also a pitch for the next legislative step: the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026. The minister described it as bringing 'uniformity, predictability and fiscal stability' to the mineral tax structure — language aimed squarely at investors who have flagged inconsistent state-level levies as a deterrent.

By standardising the tax framework, the Centre is betting it can unlock a fresh wave of mining investment and auction activity across states. The bill's parliamentary passage and subsequent state-level adoption of the new regime are the immediate milestones to watch.

India's mineral belt is vast, its critical-mineral reserves increasingly strategic in a world rewiring supply chains away from single-country dependence. If the 2026 bill clears Parliament and states align, the next chapter of this transformation will be written not in royalty percentages but in battery factories, steel plants, and semiconductor inputs — the hard infrastructure of a developed economy.