Coal mining activities by definition are commercial, but in India this has come to define the right of a coal miner to sell the products in open market.

The coal sector remains the most inefficient and least open to private investment, despite coal being the country´s primary source of fuel, says Krrishan Singhania, Managing Partner, Singhania Associates.

In the early 1970s, the Government of India took over the management of coal mines in two tranches. The process kick-started with the nationalisation of coking coal mines in 1971-72, followed by non-coking coal mines the following year. With the enactment of the Coal Mines Act, 1973, all mines were nationalised.

The Ministry of Power has signed an MoU for Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) with Tamil Nadu in New Delhi, on 9 January, 2017. With the signing of the ‘24x7 Power For All (PFA)’ roadmap document with the state, the roadmap for all the 28 states, except one, and all the seven Union Territories in the country has now been finalised and is under implementation.

Roads, Ports & Other Infrastructure Committee and Hydrocarbons Committee of PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry organised the “Infrastructure Conclave 2016 – Accelerated Growth with Inclusion & Equity” on 5th October 2016 at PHD House, New Delhi which was attended by more than 130 delegates and 27 speakers from Industry, government and other stakeholders during the full day event.

The Ministry of Coal (MoC) is targeting coal production of 1.5 billion tonnes. Of this one billion tonnes will come from Coal India Limited (CIL) and the remaining 500 million tonnes will come from non-CIL sources, particularly from the mines that are presently being auctioned or allocated to non-Coal India entities.

The movements in the global commodity markets have added to the intensity of the changes and dynamism of the demand-supply equilibrium in the coal sector.

Before kicking off the process of allotting coal mines to States and Central public sector units for commercial mining, the Ministry of Coal is assessing whether the procedure conforms to the model code of conduct of the Election Commission.

Ending the 41-year-old monopoly of the central government over mining and sale of coal, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA)