Coal has long been the coveted black gold, and India has one of the largest reserves in Asia. It was once the lifeline that fuelled the British Empire in Asia. Today, however, we rely on imports from Australia and Mozambique, challenged by limited output here.
Domestic output of coal is controlled by the coal behemoth Coal India Limited, ever since the coal sector was nationalised and brought under CIL in 1973. Former Coal India chairman Partha Sarathi Bhattacharyya's book When Coal turned Gold by Penguin Publishers, provides a ringside view of India's largest coal miner.
Bhattacharyya, who had joined Coal India Limited as a management trainee in 1997, retired as its chairman in 2006. During his tenure, he scripted many turnarounds in the sick coal mining sector. The largest IPO of Coal India was also issued during his tenure as chairman.
But Bhattacharyya is always a loyal government servant first, which explains why the book is critical only in a relatively historical sense of 'past mistakes' in the coal sector. He is keen to place on record in this book the transformation that changed CIL's age old and highly unsafe mining practices.
"The CIL's transformation is a direct offshoot of the economic reforms that were ushered in after a new Union government took over in July 1991," Bhattacharyya writes in this book.
In the foreword, former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee lauded the book as “a case study of successful public sector rejuvenation” and for bringing out the story of the CIL IPO. The IPO was launched under Mukherjee's tenure as finance minister.
Among other things, Bhattacharyya's book gives fantastic accounts on how he handled different challenges and won over them. Faced with challenges like land acquisition, militant workers and unions, litigants, ministers, mine fires and accidents, Bhattacharyya, in his book, gives a wonderful account on tackling all these exigencies from a policymaker's perspective. The author, among other things, was also one who worked to put an end to the coal mafia.
E-auction
The idea apparently worked out on a flight between Kolkata and Ranchi in 2004, during a discussion between the author and coal e-auctioning platform Mjunction founder Viresh Oberoi.
The book is a must read for the general reader to get a ringside perspective of the business of black gold. The way forward, to adopt a clean energy, is also spelt out by the author in later portions of the book.
This a compelling account of Coal India in the decades just past, and a peep into the future of coal in the country. A must read for students and exam aspirants.
When Coal turned Gold
Author: Partha Sarathi Bhattacharyya
Publishers: Penguin
Rs 699
