The government on Wednesday expressed disappointment over a French company snapping up Mahatma Gandhi's Johannesburg house, through Sotheby's auction firm, but said it will continue efforts to acquire the heritage property through a public sector company."The matter concerns national sentiment and I will leave no stone unturned to acquire the historic property and declare it a national monument," said Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal.
Plans 'complete' agricultural solution in mining areas
These three blocks figure in the 'Schedule I' list of those coal mines, which are being auctioned afresh
The Union cabinet had approved Coal India's IPO last month, to divest 10 per cent of the government's stake in the Navratna PSU.
Earlier this year, the government raised around Rs 1,000-crore by selling its stake in Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam.
Euphoric about India's biggest IPO, possibly to garner up to Rs 15,000 crore, from the world's largest coal producer CIL, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Friday said October is an "auspicious" month to launch the issue.
Top sources in the government told Business Standard that Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's opposition to divestment plans of profit-making public sector entities prompted the cabinet not to take it up for discussion today.
The state-run miner, which recently raised a record Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) from the markets, is running short of executive manpower, even as it looks at expanding production to meet rising coal demand in the country.
Coal India Ltd's Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) mega issue, which opens on Monday for public subscription, has garnered a bullish endorsement from most of the market experts who believe it would be the star attraction of this week for all, including retail investors.
Aiming to raise Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) from disinvestment, the government on Wednesday said it will sell its stake in 10 more PSUs, including IndianOil, MMTC, Coal India Ltd, SAIL, RINL and Shipping Corporation, in the current financial year.
State-run Coal India is likely to file the red herring prospectus for its initial public issue, through which the government is expecting to raise about Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion), on September 25.
The deadline for these overseas mining firms for responding to CIL's EoI notice is August 31 this year.
ArcelorMittal, Anglo Australian major Rio Tinto, Hyderabad-based GVK Power & Infrastructure, Essar Mineral Resources and JSW Steel are among 10 prominent corporations in a shortlist to develop 18 abandoned coal mines owned by state-owned Coal India Ltd and its eight subsidiaries.
Last week, the Indian markets were all about coal. However, amidst the hype over the debut of Coal India Ltd (CIL) on domestic bourses, what was mostly overlooked was the brand new logo of the world's largest coal miner.
The issue, through which the Centre will be divesting 10 per cent of its stake, garnered applications for 5,67,40,450 shares within the first hour of opening.
Coal India wants to organise PAN cards and demat accounts for each of its 400,000 staff ahead of its IPO.
The world's largest coal producer Coal India Ltd on Tuesday said it may consider setting up power plants in the country to utilise excess coal.
In her fourth tranche of the economic package, she said commercial mining will be done on revenue sharing mechanism instead of the regime of fixed rupee/tonne.
State-owned Coal India is expected to seal deals worth $1.8 billion (about Rs 8,000 crore) with foreign firms in the next two months for mining coal abroad.
Coal India's foreign-venture arm Coal Videsh chief general manager Phalguni Guha said he expected the deal with Peabody to be finalised in the next 'few months'.
Coal India Ltd, the world's largest coal producer, may buy up to a 15 per cent stake in US-based Peabody Energy Corp's Australian assets early next fiscal for an estimated USD 100 million (about Rs 450 crore).
The Ministry of Finance may seek the Union Cabinet's approval for the proposed 10 per cent stake sale in state-owned Coal India Ltd by the end of this month, a senior Coal Ministry official said
Currently, the government holds 100 per cent stake in the PSU and plans to offload 10 per cent equity through the IPO, which will offer 63.16 crore (631.6 million) shares.
The proposed units comprise seven coking coal washeries and 13 non-coking coal washeries.
"We have recommended that at least 20 per cent of coal should be sold through e-auction," said Kirit Parikh, member (energy), Planning Commission. CIL currently puts for sale about 10 per cent of its annual production through online bidding. The National Coal Distribution Policy has already recommended increasing this quantum in a bid to ensure better price discovery of the fuel.
The body of the trapped miner was spotted on January 16 and efforts were on to pull it out of the shaft of the coal mine filled with water.
"We expect the government to exempt our employees from paying tax on housing perquisites. On an average, every year our non-executive workers pay about Rs 144 crore to the government on account of such tax. Exemption will motivate our employees, working and living in difficult conditions," said Coal India Ltd Chairman P S Bhattacharyya.
Coal India Ltd, Steel Authority of India Ltd, Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation were among the 15 top PSUs, which went about head hunting at the IIM-L. CIL and SAIL recruited 12 students each. "Out of the total of 267 IIM-L students graduating this year, PSUs recruited 65 students," IIM-L Placements Chairman Sushil Kumar told the media in Lucknow.
As it wants to put a sizeable number of shares in the market and also offer them to employees and farmers displaced by its mines.
State-run Coal India Ltd is likely to hit the market by the third week of October with India's largest ever public offer to raise up to Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion).
Five leading unions (INTUC, AITUC, BMS, HMS, and CITU) had given the strike call from January 5 to 7 to press for their wage revision demand. However, with the Coal India management and the unions entering into a memorandum of understanding on the wage agreement in Hyderabad on Sunday, the strike has been called off.
As of now, only Indian power, steel and cement companies can mine coal for their own consumption.
In fact, the 9 per cent growth story cannot happen without coal, which fires over 50 per cent of the country's installed power capacity, says Partha S Bhattacharyya.
Efforts to retrieve the body would continue on Wednesday.
The incident occurred at around 7.30 pm on December 29 when a massive mound of earth came crashing down on excavators at Lalmatia open cast coal mine of Eastern Coalfields Ltd, the worst such disaster in over a decade.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Officers of Central Public Sector Units will go an indefinite nationwide strike from December 22, demanding higher salaries and autonomy for the public sector.
This will help Coal India become globally competitive, says Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayana Rao.
However, the National Disaster Response Force, which has been engaged in the rescue operation since the day of the tragedy on December 13 last, will continue with their services.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances