Sir i am a student of M.Tech(mineral and fuel engg) from ISM Dhanbad.It is highly unfortunate that due to govt. policy even CFRI has become useless. simply we are loosing great strength of R & D in coal sector. please PM and President should know the ground reality. jai hind....
TVR Shenoy should stick to political gossip and innuendo, and his usual faithful BJP/Sangh Parivaar line.
Rao has no clue about the Indian Coal industry and he exhibits his ignorance in grand fashion in this article. For his information, Gujarat and Rajasthan, two states under BJP rule which both boast of large Lignite (Brown Coal) reserves, also account for a very large chunk of the Imported coal consumed all over Western India in power plants, cement plants and other industries. The real test for the user is the cost per unit of heat delivered at his plant. Coal is always cheaper to transport by ships in bulk, say 45 to 65000 Tons per ship rather than by train loads of a few thousand tons. This partly explains why Tamil Nadu which is about as far from Chota Nagpur as Punjab is, but receives Indian coal by the rail-cum-sea route, and is also more efficient in producing electricity.
Mr Shenoy is a good puveyor of gossip and assumes we are all dying to know what transpired between the Coal Minister and the Coal Secretary. But all the same Rediff editors should spare us from Shenoy's unalloyed prejudices and tripe.
I fully agree with Mr. Shenoy's views about coal. We need to do more for making domestic coal available which is a huge resource.
Sasol is world leader in developing technology for converting coal into oil. If they are not interested in giving the technology to India, we should develop it on our own. Indian Oil Corporation has an excellent R&D centre. Why can't Coal India too have a similar R&D centre for developing such technologies ? Another interesting technology is to convert coal into SNG (Synthetic or Substitute Natural Gas).
It is easy to blame politicians, but Coal industry; sadly enough has been the failure of private sector, their appalling management of our mines led to nationalisation being welcomed by coalmen. To overcome their collective memories and create an environment where private sector would be welcome is a very tough management challenge which CII, FICCI, management institutes and other associated institutions have not even begun to address. May be this poem give an idea of the issues involved.
A Cold Morning in an Industrial City -------------------------------------- The cold morning Gives way to a smoky silhouette. A vehicle's bleary drone steals silence with a jumpy start.
Sirens beckon and men have arrived From close homes To intertwine with their machines, And foul words, risking lives and disease. Leaving their homes behind Where women can't get past drudgeries, Emaciated children writhe with empty laughter.
O the mother of revolutions, Why can't you distill sense in the country liquor? So that men can see what needs to be seen.
The biggest threat to Indian energy sector actually is our over-dependance on conventional sources of energy like oil and coal. More efforts should be made towards research and development of alternative and renwable sources like wind, solar etc. Efforts should also be made to expand power production from the nuclear energy sector. Towards this end, the PM's deal that was signed with the US recently should be the beginning. While it's true that we have abundant resources of coal, the path to the future surely has to be paved with the alternate sources. Towards this end, there should be a minstry created at the center that will focus on these non-polluting , renewable sources.
I feel this article is so pathetic that I am contributing another comment section.
Dear MrShenoy, what do you mean by the word "performance" when you attribute it to PM's 15 Aug speech. Please give some respect to that man, the position and his words.
When you question PM's resolve to do something about energy independence, do you forget that he worked out a "controversial" deal to obtain nuclear fuel. The gas pipeline issue is on the cards. Our oil-PSUs are on an investment and overtaking spree, extensive gas and oil exploration partnering foreign firms was initiated by Mr.PC long time back and there are some promising results. Himachal is increasing its hydro-power utilization...so on and so forth.
Things do progress but at their own pace and it would be inappropriate to imply that no one is doing anything useful in the union or state cabinet.
This is too soon for me to be anguished on reading your articles, which I otherwise so wholeheartedly like and appreciate. Recently, I disliked your article on Congress and its moral compass.
Though I agree on the lack of planning and infrastructure, I must remind you that there is another side of the story. Do yo know what the transmission losses from power generators to consumers is? How much elctricity is required in the north (Punjab, Haryana, DELHI) and what would happen if power is generated in Jharkhand and transmitted to these places??? I recall that you made a hue and cry about the incident involving Maha ministers and the non-functional a/c in an airplane. If that was not you, please excuse me.
There are certain scientific reasons for which things are the way they are, after all our planners are all not extremely foolish people. You should also realize that all over the world, power plants are located based on power considerations and partly include transportation costs. In our country where there is non-uniform power demand and an even greater disparity between demand and supply, this is the best that people can offer.
