Summary
During 2014-15, Coal India Limited (CIL) — a public sector undertaking (PSU) — had produced 494 million tons (MT). This was a record 32 MT higher than during 2013-14 and higher than a cumulative increase of 31 MT in the previous 4 years. In 2015, this prompted Prime Minister Modi to set a target of 1500MT for 2019-20. Of this, 1000 MT was to come from CIL and remaining 500 MT from private firms.
During 2019-20, India produced around 730 MT with CIL contributing 685 MT. Forget the target, the production fell much short of the demand leading to 300 MT import in that year. In 2020-21, domestic output declined to 716 MT; courtesy, Covid-19. During the current year......