{"id":31002,"date":"2018-10-27T11:45:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T06:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=31002"},"modified":"2018-10-27T11:45:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T06:15:56","slug":"why-has-coal-mining-been-opened-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-has-coal-mining-been-opened-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Why has coal mining been opened up?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-business\/why-has-coal-mining-been-opened-up\/article22853466.ece\"><b>Why has coal mining been opened up?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centre opened up commercial coal mining for the private sector recently.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Key facts:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> About 70% of power generated in India uses coal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Domestic coal has been able to meet only 75% of our annual coal demand.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the significance of the move?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With this decision, the sector will move from an area of monopoly to that of competition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government has termed it the most ambitious coal sector reform since 1973 when the sector was nationalized.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) was set up in 1975. Ever since, it has monoplised the sector, and is now the world\u2019s largest coal-producer.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What led to this move?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The coal ministry had, from 1993 to 2011, allocated 218 coal blocks to eligible Public Sector Undertakings and private firms for specified end-use projects, as well as for commercial mining by PSUs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These allocations were challenged before the Supreme Court , which in August 2014 cancelled the allocation of 204 blocks after finding that the allocations were arbitrary and illegal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To manage and reallocate the cancelled blocks, the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 was enacted.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In March 2017, the coal ministry brought out a discussion paper on auction of coal mines for commercial mining.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How will the recent decision be implemented?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The approved methodology for auction of coal mines \/ blocks for sale will prioritise on transparency and ease of doing business.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There will be an \u2018<\/span><b>ascending forward auction\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8212; a two-stage online auction comprising (i) technical bid and (ii) financial bid with initial and final price offers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There will be no curbs on the sale or use of coal from the mine.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the benefits?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is expected to bring in greater efficiency, technology, higher investment and more employment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would also lead to more revenue that can be used for development of the area and inhabitants around the mine by the State. Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra would benefit the most.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the first step towards the full privatisation of the mining sector.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> However, coal blocks would be commercially viable only if they are offered in minimum blocks of 40-50 million tonnes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why has coal mining been opened up? Context: The Centre opened up commercial coal mining for the private sector recently. Key facts: About 70% of power generated in India uses coal. Domestic coal has been able to meet only 75% of our annual coal demand. What is the significance of the move? With this decision,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-has-coal-mining-been-opened-up\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Why has coal mining been opened up?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":34,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}