(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: India's Coal Sector Reforms

Topic: India's Coal Sector Reforms

Guest:

M. Nagaraju, (Nominated Authority & Joint Secretary, Ministry of Coal)
Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, (Consulting Editor, Business Standard)
Prabir Neogi, (Mentor, Power Committee, FICCI)

Topic Description:

The Centre on Thursday launched the auction of 41 coal blocks for commercial mining, with the Prime Minister formally giving the green signal and expressed optimism that it will help in reducing dependency on imports. The move is aimed at reviving the auction process, which has remained in limbo with only 31 coal blocks having been auctioned since 2014, when the NDA had first come to power on the promise of bringing transparency in the sector in the aftermath of the 'coalgate' scam. Modi said that the Centre has allowed commercial mining under its Aatmanirbhar Bharat package, with the aim of making India among the biggest exporters of the dry fuel. He also stressed on the irony that India is the second largest coal importer, despite having the world’s fourth largest coal reserves and being the second largest producer.