Minister of State (I/C) for Power, New & Renewable Energy, Coal and Mines Piyush Goyal launched the Energy Efficient Buildings programme in Mumbai, in the presence of Chandrakant Patil, Minister for PWD, Government of Maharashtra.

“By allocating coal blocks to power companies, the issue of receipt of poor quality coal from mines through the coal linkage system while be taken care of since the power companies will mine and beneficiate coal for their economical usage. However, indiscriminate mining or unscientific mining of coal has to be guarded against in our national interest,” he added.

FICCI led a high-level business delegation accompanying Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, GoI to Vienna and London, aiming not only to see stronger business ties but also to express what could beckon Austria and UK to India.

The Cortec® Corporation has developed a breakthrough water-based rust preventative (RP) that reduces applied cost by 40 per cent compared to a best-selling oil-based RP. Cortec’s innovation offers excellent corrosion protection while reducing carbon footprint and cutting common labour or disposal costs associated with traditional RPs.

For developing the Maverick range of dedicated light duty vehicles (LDV) for mining, which provide maintenance, repair and lifecycle advantages never before seen on the market, Fermel has been named a finalist for the Swedish Steel Prize 2017.

In the past five years, coal power made up over two-thirds of capacity additions in India's generation, and currently accounts for more than 60 per cent of India's power capacity. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), India's coal demand will see the biggest growth over the next five years, despite a global slowdown.

The power sector in India is governed by the Electricity Act, 2003 (Act). The sector is divided into three major divisions - generation, transmission and distribution.

In order to meet the coal demand in next five years, Coal India Ltd, the main coal producer, has an ambitious plan of increasing its production to one billon tonnes by FY2019-20. CIL's production is showing an increasing trend, having gone up from 494 Mt in FY15 to 554 Mt in FY17.

One of the main criteria to determine the monetary value of coal is its net calorific value (NCV). Coal is a natural product and its quality can vary widely. In order to obtain a representative result of such a heterogeneous material, quite some effort is required.