The Union Cabinet has approved the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Bill, 2011 aimed at curbing illegal mining and bringing more transparency in the allocation of licenses for mining.

Briefing the News persons in New Delhi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ms. Ambika Soni said the bill has provisions for 26 per cent profit-sharing by coal miners and an amount equivalent to royalty by non coal miners with project- affected people.

The Mines and Mineral Minister Dinsha Patel said the Bill is likely to be tabled in Parliament in the Winter Session.

Eloborating about the provisions of bill, Mines Secretary S Vijay Kumar said, a Mineral Development Fund will be created in every district, in which profit and royalty shared by miners will be deposited and spent on the local population and area development. The new Bill also obligates mining firms to pay a 10 per cent cess to State governments and 2.5 per cent to the Centre on the total royalty paid. Modern technology like GPRS will be used to monitor mining activities and the Bill has punitive provisions to prevent illegal mining. Special courts will be established at the State level for speedier disposal of the cases of illegal mining. The new MMDR Bill, 2011 seeks to replace a more than half-a-century-old law under the same name.

Briefing other important decisions Ms. Ambika Soni said that theCabinet also accepted the Railway Ministry's proposal for payment of productivity-linked bonus equivalent to 78 days for over 12.60 lakh non-gazetted Railway employees. The wage calculation ceiling prescribed for the bonus is 3,500 rupees per month.

This will be the highest Productivity linked Bonus ever to be made by the Railways. The financial implication of bonus payment will be 1098.58 crore rupees.

A proposal for setting up of Central Procurement Agency, CPA, for Department of health and Family Welfare has also been approved. This agency will procure drugs, vaccines, contraceptives and medical equipment for its various disease control programmes departmentally and through Procurement Agents.

The Cabinet also gave its nod to the proposal for placing the new instrument adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) for domestic workers before Parliament.
The Cabinet also gave its sanction for the establishment of six new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research. These institutes will be established in Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Hajipur, Guwahati and Rae Bareli.

Cabinet also gave its approval for setting up the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), name after the famous agronomist and Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, in the country in collaboration with Mexico-based International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre. The proposal of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) to establish BISA in India has been also approved. CIMMYT has been authorised to establish the institute with centres at Ludhiana, Punjab; Pusa, Bihar; and Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh.

Ms Soni said, the institute will make India an even bigger centre for agri-research in the world and this, in turn, may attract further research and development investment in India.

The government today gave its approval to amendments in the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that seek to reform the multilateral body and provide greater representation to emerging economies.