KP Krishnan, Secretary from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Chairman of the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), Government of India, discusses the formidable task of upgrading India's skills deficit swiftly and inclusively to Aashna Agarwal, Content Coordinator at Gateway House.

The skill challenge of cement industry is only a small subset of the larger national objective of achieving demographic dividend that our large youth population can bring us.

Portland cement manufacturing is an energy intensive operation, and a refractory lining that can withstand high temperatures, alkalinity and corrosive conditions is absolutely essential.

After two years of depressed market, currently refractory market has stabilised a bit and it seems that recovery is underway in 2018. About 75 per cent consumption comes from steel market hence major dependence is on steel market and our market growth is tied with ups and downs of the steel industry.

Blended cements are cements produced by inter-grinding clinker along with mineral components (MiC) such as fly-ash or slag, both of which are industrial by-products or industrial waste.

French cement giant, VICAT Group, said it has invested Rs 300 crore this year out of Rs 1,700 crore of investment it had announced to expand cement capacities to meet growing demand in south and eastern parts of the country and launched its VICAT brand in India.

Cement manufacturing companies have faced scrutiny from the Monopolies And Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) in the past for the issue of Cartelisation, which is defined as an activity of forming an association of independent businesses organised to eliminate competition and maintain prices at high level.

There is a lot of good news going round regarding the cement industry. Companies are reporting improved numbers, analysts are agog with positive forecasts, brokers are issuing "buy" advices, government data is showing impressive growth month-on-month, and almost everyone is projecting a 7 to 8 per cent demand growth in FY19, and also for the next few years.

As government spending on housing and infrastructure gains pace in India, the world's second-largest cement market is set to accelerate and the country's low cement intensity offers the industry huge headroom for growth.