Mineral Products
Mineral
products traded by the large Indian companies include petroleum, granite,
sandstone and other ores. There are nearly 300 large public and private
companies in this sector. Of these, 38 have invested in R&D during the year
2006-07.
Major players with R&D in the sector [2007]
|
|
Rs.
Crores |
||
|
|
R&D
Capital |
R&D
Current |
R&D
Total |
|
Reliance
Industries Ltd. |
167.4 |
157.3 |
324.7 |
|
Oil
& Natural Gas Corpn. Ltd. |
48.27 |
86.36 |
134.63 |
|
Indian
Oil Corpn. Ltd. |
9.55 |
71.43 |
80.98 |
|
Reliance
Petroleum Ltd. [Merged] |
43.91 |
1.2 |
45.11 |
|
Bharat
Petroleum Corpn. Ltd. |
7.51 |
10.91 |
18.42 |
|
Oil
India Ltd. |
0.25 |
11.26 |
11.51 |
*Annualized figures
Among the top companies engaged in R&D
Reliance has several well-articulated R&D projects aiming towards new
product and process development in the petroleum sector. However, even in this
case, an R&D intensity of 0.27 % is not substantial compared to the
international standards in the sector.
Most of the other large companies in the
sector belong to public sector and their R&D intensity is much lower.
ONGC’s R&D focus is on oil exploration. Extraction of oil, detection of
natural gas reserves and geological factors relating to the drilling are other
R&D interests.
IOL has, among other projects, one on
conversion of coal into liquid fuel. Other companies like Oil India has its
R&D efforts focus on solving their immediate problem in oil extraction in
their respective area of operation.
Given below is the graph indicating the
total R&D investment in the sector over the years.
R&D Investment Trends in Mineral Products Sector
