Centre planning to split Coal India into 7 companies?

New Delhi: Senior Indian government officials, tasked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with reviewing energy security, are recommending the break up of the country’s coal monopoly, Coal India Ltd, within a year.

Attempts to break up the world’s biggest coal miner would be met by strong resistance from powerful unions representing the company’s employees, numbering over 350,000. The government had backed down from a similar proposal in the face of union protests in 2014.

Around 70 per cent of India’s power generation is coal based. The country is the world’s third-largest producer and third-biggest importer of coal, something the Centre wants to change by boosting local production.

In a presentation seen by Reuters, government officials recommend that Coal India should be broken up into seven companies, which they say would make it more competitive.