India will delink diamond mining from exploration
corruption and arbitrariness in diamond mining in India, the Union government has decided to delink mining rights from exploration rights. As of now, companies that have rights to explore an area for diamond deposits are also given the rights to profit from mining the deposits. Recently, the Union Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal, said, "We will now have a separate contract for exploration. The government will pay the cost for it. All the data accumulated during exploration activities will be put in the public domain. We will then have a bidding process for everything that has been found. This way, everybody will have a chance to be part of it." Goyal further said that the proceeds obtained from bidding would be used for the benefit of households affected by the mining project.