Now's the best time to invest in commodity business: Vedanta chairman

NEW DELHI: Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal sees commodity prices breaking out of the down-cycle in 1.5-2 years and says now is the best time to invest in the business as well as projects in Digital India as the billionaire's empire includes one of the world's largest capacity to make optic fibre.

He said investments in digital networks for high-speed data as well as investor-friendly policies for natural resources can drive overall economic growth in the country . He said the business climate had already changed with a sharp fall in corruption and a change from the days of arbitrary allocations and favours to transparent public dealings by a government that is being cautious and wants to avoid scandals.

"We are not bothered about commodity cycle. We are a long-term player. We set up plants for 50 years.At the same time, zinc price is good, oil has recovered to $65 and copper price is also better. I believe this is the time to invest," he told ET in an interview.

Agarwal said demand from China and uptick in major Western economies would drive demand for commodities, by the end of next year."This is the time to tighten ourselves as much as possible to hold the cost, but going forward I'm not bearish. For prices to recover, I believe it's a question of probably 1.5-2 years," he added.

Agarwal said Vedanta would in vest about Rs 400 crore to expand its fibre and cable manufacturing capacity as demand was rising. Ster lite Technologies had supplied cables for fibre network in 50,000 panchayats, and supplied 40% of fibre used for the rollouts of 4G ser vices in the country .

"Digital is our focus. We're doing it in J&K and are very excited. We are doing it with defence, which has been accomplished very well. We are the only people (in India) who make optical fibre and are one of the largest producers in the world. We have a huge research and development centre in our company . We have developed the latest fibre," he added.

For the economy , Agarwal said natural resources were very important "Obama had conflict with all the countries and he realised that he has to focus on oil in his country and last few years, with focus on oil, they have become self-sufficient in oil The whole economy has changed That kind of focus you have to bring in. Our government is also doing this."

He said people should be patient with the government. "The government wants to be careful that there should be no scandals. He also added that India can become self-sufficient in oil and gas. "We have to attract people by keeping the policy simple. India has a topography that clearly shows that we have a tremendous belt of hydrocarbon Anywhere in the world, if 50 per cent energy is not secured by the country it is vulnerable. We have to be very careful.