Mining Sector Now Has A Dedicated Online Portal On 18th August, 2016, an online portal was launched by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), for filing up of returns for Star Rating of the Mines. IBM is a sub-ordinate office of Ministry of Mines. The template of the returns will be filled by the lease holder of the mines or authorised representative. The basis of authorisation will be self-certification. Mr Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) in the Ministry of Mines, Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, announced this information in reply to the questions asked to him in a Rajya Sabha session. The Ministry of Mines issued a notification pertaining to Star Rating of Mines for implementation of Sustainable Development Framework (SDF) in the mining sector. Based on previous year’s performance, the mining leaseholders are to file returns for Star Rating annually. As per sources, there is no separate deadline fixed by the Government for the mine operators to upload the details of the relevant permissions from Government, but the same would be required to be uploaded while filing the online return for Star Rating on the portal by the mine operators. Vaikundarajan, the MD & CEO of V. V. Minerals, said in an interview, “It is great to see that the government is putting in efforts. With everything going digital, even the mining industry needs to catch up on the digital age.”