Current Affairs Summits

Category : Summits

A brainstorming session “Chintan Shivir” was held at Kevadia in Gujarat. The session aimed to focus on the future prospects of the coal sector. The session was chaired by Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri Pralhad Joshi and he stated that India will put an end on importing thermal coal by the Financial Year 2023-24.

Some key highlights of the “Chintan Shivir”: The session discussed the issues faced by the coal sector and deliberated on ways to resolve these issues with the help of innovative solutions. Participants also discussed on ways to achieve the coal production target of 1 billion tonnes (BT) by Coal India Limited (CIL) by Financial Year 2023-24. Shipping Ministry and Indian Railways will be helped by the Ministry of Coal to enable the Coal India Limited (CIL), Captive and Commercial Miners to evacuate more and more coal by 2030. “Coal Minister’s Award” would also be constituted to appreciate the measures taken by the coal companies in coal production, productivity, safety, sustainability etc. Strategies for sustainable mining, environmental conservation, use of clean coal technologies were also deliberated during the shivir. There is a scope for Coal India Limited to transform its pithead thermal power plants into an integrated energy company and CIL can generate solar power of 5 GW by 2023-24 and could achieve a target of 50 Million Tonnes by 2030 by diversifying itself into the coal gasification.