Navigating The Coal: Diversification And Dependency, Coal Secretary's Silent Leadership

Coal is one of the most important components of India's energy basket, Coal India is navigating the coal industry into steady waters despite facing dependency issues and criticisms of pollution. Coal India diversified its coal energy prospects and managed India's energy dependency. Coal accounts for 55 per cent of the country's energy needs, and therefore, dependency seems obvious, but managing it under the overhang of power crises and environmental issues is one Herculean task. Before going to calibrated policy responses taken by the Coal Ministry and Coal India, a few statistics throw light on the situation of the coal industry and the pressure it faces. In FY22, the demand for coal was about 980MT, while domestic supplies added up to approximately 777Mt.  Amrit Lal Meena, who took over the charge of coal secretary last year, had multiple fronts open to face, including coal shortage, energy pressure, and diversification. Top sources say Coal Secretary Amrit Lal Meena has always been a box thinker, culturally rooted and believes in silent leadership, which helped the government and Coal India develop calibrated policy responses covering multiple fronts. First, the coal crisis was smoothed by adjusting the coal reserves. Second, increasing India's energy basket  by underground coal mining, as Meena puts it “India is on a high-orbit growth trajectory, expanding industrially and economically,” “Coal continues to play a key role in India’s economic growth and development.” Underground coal mining, which will triple in coming years, will meet rising energy demands. The third area is fighting environmental issues while diversifying it. The underground mining itself is considered eco-friendly as Meena said that underground mining, which requires less land than opencast mines, as “eco-friendly”. “There is little disturbance on the land and almost no land degradation.” Even the policy of compulsory blending of biomass pellets came into effect in October last year.  As geopolitics and shocks loom over India's energy calculations while attempting to take care of environmental issues, Coal India Limited, under the leadership of the Chairman and with strong support at the policy level from Secretary Amrit Meena, it is expected that India's energy basket will endure the storm of shocks and continue to expand country's energy potential and bolstering our economy.