Ann: Suspension from Official Quotation, page-211

Shareholders need to know what is going on with NMDC but ECT is not giving enough details.

In my opinion the recent problems started with an "unexpected absence of the Director sponsoring the project" at the November 2018 board meeting. Who is this Director? I think NK Nanda because he represented the company in the signing of the MOU and is the main NMDC director mentioned in ECT announcements.

Years ago, at the start of the ECT deal, Nanda was acting as CEO of NMDC. During this time NMDC was without a CEO for 18 months but eventually Nanda was selected to lead the company. However his appointment was overturned by a committee chaired by the Prime Minister of India and another CEO was appointed in late 2017. Since then Nanda's influence over NMDC is surely less than it was at the start of the ECT deal.

In my opinion it appears the new CEO publicly favours R&D work with CSIRO ahead of the ECT project which is favoured by Nanda.

NMDC also has an Australian mining company Legacy Iron Ore and recently (12 March) Nanda has been replaced on the board of this company by the new NMDC finance director. Nanda once was the chairman but now "the Company wishes him well in his future endeavours". Nanda is close to retirement age now. This extension of his board position was with effect from 1/12/2013 for 5 years - until the end of 2018? But he's still a NMDC director according to the NMDC website.

Recent financial decisions of NMDC have been in the interests of the shareholders - board meetings have ratified the decisions for cash surplus to used to buy back shares and declare dividends, instead of new investments. An Indian general election is underway in a few weeks time and there needs to be handouts from state controlled companies!

A recent headline project of NMDC has been to build its first steel plant. This project has been behind schedule and only recently fired up. With this plant successful and the delays forgotten, I think the company and its board can now consider new initiatives like the ECT project.