Coal news and updates

Coal India chairman Sutirtha Bhattacharya is slated to retire in two days, which may leave the company without a full-time chief executive at a time when the company’s profit has been falling and the future of coal is threatened by renewable energy. The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB), which conducted interviews for the new chief, found none of the applicants good enough for the job.

 

Coal India executives said unless there’s a last-minute appointment for the top job, the government may give temporary charge to a bureaucrat or extend the current chairman’s tenure until a successor is found. 

 

Coal India is grappling with an uncertain future. It aims to produce 1 billion tonnes by 2022, but it is also planning to diversify into related fields. 

 

The PESB interviewed candidates for the chairman in June, but it did not find a suitable person and recommended that the government may choose an appropriate course of further action for selection. 

 

Candidates who appeared for the post from Coal India group companies were Gopal Singh, chairman and managing director at Central Coalfields, R R Mishra, CMD at West Coalfields, A K Jha, CMD at Mahanadi Coalfields and S Saran, CMD at Central Mine Planning and Design Institute. Others in the race were K Biswal, director finance at NTPC, and T R Rao, director commercial at NMDC. 

 

Executives from private firms were also eligible for the job but none of them were shortlisted. A Coal India executive said it is for the first time that PESB has not been able to finalise a candidate following an interview and has left it to the government to take a new course of action. 

 

Source: Economic Times