Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the larger interest of the public sector would be fully protected.
The government is auctioning 42 coal mines among 204 coal blocks.
An Inter-ministerial panel had last month approved 10 per cent equity sale in Coal India. At present, the government holds 90 per cent stake in the firm.
Reliance Capital Asset Management Company (RCAM) and ICICI Securities Primary Dealership have been selected to manage Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) provident fund corpus of coal industry workers.
The Enforcement Directorate to take a "conclusive action" towards attachment of assets of those involved in coal scam.
The government on Friday said that some of the coal blocks lying in the "no-go" areas, which could not be used for mining, may be shifted to the go-areas, a move to expedite clearance for ultra mega power projects.
Major corporates are staring at an uncertain future after investing substantially on their projects
A casual worker employed at the Defence Ministry was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly providing forged identity card to a key accused in petroleum ministry leaks case while police maintained that no sensitive documents were leaked or stolen from the defence ministry.
Central Bureau of Investigation Director Ranjit Sinha on Monday admitted before the Supreme Court that certain changes were made in the coalgate draft report on suggestions given by Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, Attorney General G E Vanahvati and the officials of PMO and Coal Ministry.
Govt went against its own recommendation of Jun 20, 2007, where along with the 2 Jindal companies, it wanted 40% coal block to go to Lanco.
In an urgent need for its image makeover, the scam-tainted coal sector will require mammoth efforts in 2015 from the government and the corporates too.
Coal Secretary Anil Swarup has been appointed as school education secretary.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused the government of not cooperating with the Central Bureau of Investigation in the coal scam by dilly-dallying on sharing relevant files with the probe agency and demanded that the computers in the Prime Minister's Office, which store such information, should be seized for "data mining".
Trade unions on Tuesday began a five-day coal industry strike, terming it as the biggest industrial action for any sector since 1977.
Since the US, the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, has shifted in a major way to shale gas, the focus of global environmentalists' ire has fallen on India, which is the third biggest emitter, reports Darryl D'Monte.
Gautam Adani, promoter of Adani Power Ltd, has a reason to relax, even as the power arm of his group of companies continues to make losses for an eighth straight quarter.
In a serious allegation, former Coal Secretary PC Parakh had made a claim that ministers of coal were used to issuing oral orders and wanted file notings which suited them and not the "public interest".
The Coal Ministry on Monday received a total 69 applications from various PSUs
Area residents and environmental groups have resisted the coal power plant ever since it was originally proposed in 2006 due to worries about land clearance and pollution
The companies are crying foul over the cancellation of 25 blocks held by 68 firms over the past two days.
To increase gas availability for power plants, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has taken various steps.
The Opposition on Monday vociferously raised in the Rajya Sabha the issue of crucial files of the coal ministry going missing, alleging that it was a conspiracy to save Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the multi-crore-coal block allocation scam being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
In partnership with different US firms, two companies belonging to Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) have submitted competing bids for a single project floated by the Ministry of Coal.
R-Power, Essar could be hit as state mulls benefit-sharing levy for ecology loss.
The Central Bureau of Investigation was on Tuesday directed by a special court to record statements of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was holding charge as Coal Minister in 2005, and others in a coal blocks allocation scam case allegedly involving top industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla.
The Central Bureau of Investigation will question at least two former officials of the Prime Minister's Office who were involved in the processing of the file related to coal block allocation to Hindalco.
The Centre has completed asset monetisation worth Rs 96,000 crore during FY22, surpassing the target of Rs 88,000 crore. For FY23, it has set itself a goal of Rs 1.62 trillion, and already has a pipeline of assets worth Rs 1.6 trillion under advanced stages of implementation, an official said. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday reviewed the progress made by several ministries and nudged departments to achieve the targets set for them, the official added.
Questioning the Bharatiya Janata Party's stand, former telecom minister Arun Shourie on Saturday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be allowed to make a statement on coal blocks allocation controversy and said the opposition did not gain much by stalling the Parliament over the issue.
Noticing irregularities in coking coal purchases, the Steel Ministry has set up a committee to look into the rationale behind PSUs buying more of the commodity when it is expensive, and less of it when cheaper.
Rejecting the plea, the court said the application was "vexatious" and it was apparently moved to delay the trial.
Public-sector enterprise stocks have seen a good run thus far in 2023-24 (FY24), with the S&P BSE PSU Index surging by over 26 per cent during the period, compared to an 11 per cent increase in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
The government has received 745 applications from a variety of companies for 15 power-project-linked coal blocks with estimated reserves of 3.6 billion tonnes, which can support power generation of 18,000 Mw.
In 11 out of 29 coal mines successfully e-auctioned, a number of qualified bidders in the e-auction stage were from the same company/parent subsidiary company coalition/joint venture, CAG said.
Former Coal Secretary P C Parakh, who was named by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a first information report on a coal block allocated to Hindalco, had joined three private firms after retirement, raising questions over his role in one of the companies that's now under the scanner after getting a block.
100-day agenda: Commerce ministry pushes for separate logistics department
Coal ministry officials along with senior officials from Coal India and department of disinvestment would meet with capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India this month to take forward the process of listing the public sector unit.
The court fixed the matter for July 28 for order on cognisance.
Coal industry expert Sunjoy Joshi tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com that the NDA's e-auction of coal blocks will not solve the fundamental problems that dog the industry.
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