Salt is existent in all animal and vegetable life and is coeval with life itself. It is a basic element in food of any living being. Salt as a chemical is of significant importance. Salt was the name originally given to the residue left by evaporation of sea water. Afterwards the name was employed to include all substances held in solution in sea water. Chemists ultimately extended the name to cover all combinations of an acid and a base. Sodium chloride (NaCl) now called common salt, is an example of the simplest type of chemical salt. Sodium chloride is an essential constituent of the body fluids and is responsible for a number of vital functions in the body. Sodium chloride or common salt is the chemical compound NaCl. It occurs naturally in many parts of the world as the mineral halite and as mixed evaporates in salt lakes. Seawater contains an average of 2.6% (by weight) NaCl. Sodium chloride crystals are cubic in form. Table salt consists of tiny cubes tightly bound together through ionic bonding of the sodium and chloride ions. Iodizing salt for human consumption is a modern trend. Iodine is an essential element in healthy human life enabling the function of our thyroid gland, “the master gland of metabolism.†Too little iodine can produce a thyroid enlargement known as a goiter; more significantly, iodine deficiency impairs fetal brain development and imposes on a newborn infant a lifetime intellectual deficit of 10 – 15 IQ points. Too much iodine is also a problem, though less common. Iodine is used in the body for formation of thyroxine an essential hormone. Salt is used as a medium to supply iodine to the body. Iodization of common salts has been recognized all over the world to meet the deficiency of iodine to eradicate goiter. Four inorganic compounds are used as iodide sources, depending on the producer: potassium iodate, potassium iodide, sodium iodate, and sodium iodide. The only iodizing agent so far approved for table salt is potassium iodide. It is present at a concentration of (0.01%). Looking to the high incidence of iodine deficiency, the iodization of salt was made compulsory in one after another state starting from 1980s. This resulted in establishment of many salt iodization plants in public and private sectors. The raw materials of edible salt are rock salt or crude solar sea salt or evaporated salt. Rock salt typically ranges between 95% and 99% NaCl, and mechanically evaporated salt and solar salt normally exceed 99% NaCl. Evaporated salt made with purified brine has the highest purity, in some cases 99.99% NaCl. Voluntary standards, such as those developed by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the American Water Works Association (AWWA) assure appropriate quality for the intended use. Mandatory specifications for food grade, drug/medical and analytical use include Food Chemicals Codex, U.S. Pharmacopoeia, and Reagent Grade Chemicals. Salt is used as a raw material in chlor-alkali industry and in manufacture of other inorganic chemicals. It is used in detergents, fertilizers industry. Salt industry is one of the very old industries. However, due to its wide spread use in all over the world and also due to increasing demand for refined, iodized, super quality salts, even today, the industry provide very big scope for new investment in salt cultivation and also number of forward and backward linkages. Future scope for demand to increase may not be that lucrative but the way in which the structure of demand is changing that may create new opportunities of investment. It is estimated that demand for raw salt for edible use will increase at the rate of 2 per cent per annum i.e. the rate at which population is increasing while the demand for iodized salt is expected to increase at 10 per cent per annum and refined salt at 12 percent per annum. New entrepreneurs should venture into this field. Few Indian Major Players are as under: Ankur Chemfood Ltd. G Das & Co. Pvt. Ltd. Hindustan Salts Ltd. Nirma Ltd. Rasoi Ltd. Saboo Sodium Chloro Ltd. Sahayamatha Salt Refinery Ltd. Sambhar Salts Ltd. Super Salts Pvt. Ltd. Tamil Nadu Salt Corpn. Ltd. Tata Chemicals Ltd. Tuticorin Salt & Marine Chemicals Ltd. Vaibhav Enterprises Ltd.