{"id":40459,"date":"2025-04-05T19:02:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T13:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=40459"},"modified":"2025-04-05T19:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T13:32:43","slug":"india-coal-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/05-04-2025\/india-coal-boom","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Coal Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India achieved a historic milestone as it crossed<strong> one billion tonnes (BT)<\/strong> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-06-2022\/coal-action-plan-for-2022-23\">coal <\/a>production in March in 2024-25, surpassing last fiscal year&#8217;s 997.83 million tonnes (MT).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India, with the <strong>fifth-largest <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-06-2022\/coal-action-plan-for-2022-23\"><strong>coal <\/strong><\/a><strong>reserves <\/strong>and being the <strong>second-largest consumer, <\/strong>heavily depends on coal.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-06-2022\/coal-action-plan-for-2022-23\">Coal <\/a>contributes <strong>55%<\/strong> to the energy mix and powers over <strong>74%<\/strong> of electricity generation in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Growth in Coal Production and Dispatch<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India\u2019s coal production has reached <strong>1047.57 MT<\/strong> (Provisional) in FY 2024-25.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Coal production<\/strong> refers to the extraction of coal from mines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Coal dispatch has also crossed the <strong>One BT milestone,<\/strong> with total dispatch reaching 1024.99 MT (Provisional).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Coal dispatch<\/strong> refers to the process of transporting and distributing that coal to various consumers, including power plants and industrial facilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Coal imports fell 8.4% <\/strong>to 183.42 MT in April-December 2024 in the same period of FY 2023-24, saving <strong>$5.43 billion<\/strong> in foreign exchange.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Government initiatives<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Commercial Coal Mining <\/strong>opened the sector to private players to boost production, efficiency, and competitiveness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mission Coking Coal <\/strong>aims to reduce import dependence by enhancing domestic coking coal availability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Safety measures:<\/strong> Directorate General of Mines Safety revamped the Coal Mines Regulations 1957 into <strong>The Coal Mines Regulations 2017<\/strong>, addressing modernisation, mechanisation, emergency response, and evacuation planning.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Coal Mitra Portal <\/strong>developed for flexible coal allocation to power plants, ensuring better coal supply management.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Economic significance of the coal sector<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Railways &amp; revenue: <\/strong>Coal stands as the single largest contributor to railway freight, with an average share of nearly<strong> 49%<\/strong> of total freight income amounting to <strong>Rs. 82,275 Crore<\/strong> in the fiscal year 2022-23 alone.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Government earnings: <\/strong>The coal sector contributes over Rs. 70,000 Crore annually to the central and state governments through royalties, GST, and other levies.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Employment: <\/strong>The sector provides jobs to over 239,000 workers in Coal India Ltd and thousands more in contractual and transport roles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Coal gasification initiative<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Coal gasification<strong> converts coal into syngas,<\/strong> which can be used for producing methanol, ammonium nitrate, Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG), and fertilisers.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Government has undertaken the following coal gasification initiatives:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Financial incentive: <\/strong>The Government approved<strong> \u20b98,500 crore<\/strong> for promoting coal\/lignite gasification projects for PSUs and the private sector.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Revenue share rebate:<\/strong> A 50% rebate in revenue share for coal used in gasification has been introduced in commercial coal block auctions, provided at least 10% of the total coal production is used for gasification.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Concluding remarks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The coal sector remains central to India\u2019s energy and economic goals. Rising production, clean coal initiatives, and tech-driven safety and sustainability efforts reflect its evolving role.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>With strong government support and workforce commitment, the sector is set to drive India\u2019s journey toward self-reliance and development by<strong> 2047.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2118788#:~:text=India&#039;s%20coal%20production%20has%20reached,recorded%20in%20the%20previous%20year.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>PIB<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India achieved a historic milestone as it crossed one billion tonnes (BT) of coal production in March in 2024-25, surpassing last fiscal year&#8217;s 997.83 million tonnes (MT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40461,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40459\/revisions\/40461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}