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Head Honcho Speak Work comes as a natural thing for Partha S Bhattacharya, who was not only able to bring the BCCL out of the red but also has made a mark ever since he joined as Chairman of the Coal India Ltd(CIL). In this era of mobile telephony, Bhattacharya last year organized two day brain storming sessions to improve coal production and overcome difficulties being faced by coal miners. The brainstorming session was so unique that neither Coal Minister nor any of the top officials of the Indian Ministry were allowed to keep their mobile phones on. The "vichar manthan"(brainstorming) did yield nectar in the shape of many positive things. The CIL Chairman Bhattacharya is quite agile but with an attitude of modesty he is able to win hearts of all. He told <whispersinthecorridors.com> in a chat, "In order to match the future demand of Coal, CIL has planned to introduce high capacity Heavy Earth Moving Machinery in its Open cast Mines. CIL has also plans to open up large Underground Mines to meet the future coal demand from Underground Mines in a big way. This will require technology transfer from foreign countries." 1/What is the 'mantra' for your success ? Pride of belongingness to the institution, making the work enjoyable
for self and other members of the team who share a common commitment. BCCL was formed in 1971 through nationalization of Coking Coal mines. Subsequently non-coking coal mines were also nationalized and handed over to BCCL. It became a Subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL) on 1.11.1975. During the initial years after nationalization, BCCL was producing around 19 to 20 mill. tons of coal. The production increased slowly and stabilized at around 27 to 28 mill. tons in the nineties. This continued up to 1999-00 (27.90 mill. tons). Since then the production started declining sharply and reached a level of 22.68 mill. tons by 2003-04. During the 5 year period 1999-00 to 2003-04, the Company incurred an aggregate loss of Rs. 3801 crores of which around Rs. 1874.6 crores were cash losses. These cash losses led to accumulation of huge liabilities towards PF authorities, suppliers of goods and services, employees and the CISF. The continuing fall in coal production during this period aggravated the financial crisis and the Company found itself in a vicious circle. The turn around from a near bankruptcy situation was made possible through dedicated and sustained pursuit, of a revival strategy focused on enhancing production of high value coking coal and washed coal, and arresting / reversing the trend of persistent decline in coal production since 1999-2000. The need for conceiving and pursuing a revival strategy focused more on value enhancement as well as on volume of production rather than on production alone arose essentially from the fact that the high density of population, difficult mining conditions and associated legacy problem severely restrict the scope of increase in coal production. Several decisive steps were taken towards the end of FY 04 and the order of the priorities was readjusted to turn around from a near hopeless situation. In order to procure production-holding items on a fast track and subsequent payment, sufficient powers were extended to concerned Directors. Secondly, funds for investment for replacement of worn out assets were tied up with CIL even before the Revival Plan could be taken up for approval. This paved the way for infusion of new equipment in the Company in 2005-06. Procurement of HEMM was adopted as a major thrust area. To supplement the drive to improve production from departmental mines by re-vamping the existing capacity, efforts were made to obtain coal production from isolated patches by deployment of hired HEMM. The combined outcome of these measures is a reversal of the trend of decline in coal production established since 2000-01. There was a growth in coal production by around 1 mill. tons (4.4% ). In 2003-04, the break-even level of production was around 30.68 mill. tons. Achieving increase in production of such magnitude was ruled out under the given circumstances. It therefore became imperative to focus on a) increasing production of high value prime washed coking coal, and, b) unshackle the constraints in value realization, wherever possible. Accordingly efforts were made to reverse the steep decline in washed coal production witnessed during the earlier years. The decline was halted in 2004-05 and in 2005-06 the washed coal production touched 22.9 lakh tons as against 18.65 lakh tons in the previous year - an increase of 4.25 lakh tons, i.e. 22.8%. Simultaneously, a remunerative price for washed coal was arrived at bilaterally with SAIL. The Washery segment incurring losses continuously till 2003-04, managed to turn around in 2004-05 with a profit of Rs. 58.38 crores has earned a profit of Rs. 280.06 crores in 2005-06. To further unshackle the constraints on value realization, BCCL pioneered e-marketing of coal sale to non-core sector. This was commenced in 2004-05 but has matured only in 2005-06. In 2005-06 the total quantity of coal sold and lifted through e-marketing was 2.95 mill. tons and the additional revenue realized over the notified price from such sale is Rs. 195 crores. As a consequence of all the above measures, acting in tandem, the Company has earned profit of Rs.205 crores solely from operations, for the first time in its history, in 2005-06 even after absorbing the impact of revision of wages under NCWA-VII signed in July 2005. 3/What are your priorities as Coal India Chairman To match the growth rate, we need to step up production from the present level of 363 million tonnes to 521 million tons by the end of XI Plan. Incremental production has to be stepped up from 84 million tons during X Plan to 157 million tons in the XI plan period. In order to meet this formidable task the priorities are (a) Achieving quantum jump in coal production thereby narrowing demand-supply gap. (b) Issues regarding environmental pollution & its mitigation. (c) Social dislocation/disturbances & its mitigation by formulating a more acceptable Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policy to facilitate acquisition of land for mining and integrating the same with (d) restoration of used up land to original shape by implementing a well defined land reclamation policy that envisages large scale commercial plantation or pisciculture through Cooperatives or SHGs formed out of Project Affected Persons (PAPs) (e) Intensify exploration to establish further coal reserves. (f) Infusing appropriate technology specially for UG mining, coal beneficiation, safety etc. (g) Reducing cost of production to improve competitiveness (h) Tackling competition from upcoming domestic players as well as imported coal. (i) Beneficiating non-coking coal on a substantially larger scale & supplying quality coal as per buyers' choice. (j) Adopting safe mining practices with reduction in accident rate. (k) Adopting clean coal technologies-UG/SURFACE gasification of Coal, CBM, CMM, AMM, liquefaction of coal (l) Acquiring overseas mining stakes. etc. We cannot achieve this high growth alone and will have to download the challenge to technology providers and equipment suppliers. I am happy that the country has created a lot of equipment manufacturing capacity. It is good that the mining equipment industry in India is developing with quite a number of manufacturers operating and I am confident that they shall be able to deliver what they are expected in the years to come. 4/How do you foresee coal scenario in India when PSU majors like NTPC and SAIL are still importing coal? India produced 618 billion units of power during 2005-06 of which generation
through coal was 405 Billion units which clearly defines the role of
coal in India's power sector. CIL has ensured that no power station
ever starves of coal and if they have faced problems it is due to reasons
other than non-availability of coal. However, since high grade coking coal for steel making is not available in abundance, importing is required to supplement the indigenous availability. 5/List three major achievements in BCCL Reversing the trend of decline in coal production, introduction of e-marketing of coal, introducing coal production with hired machines amidst stiff oppositon. 6/Demand for Ad-valorem duty on coal has been sought by many states. What is your view on this? The matter is under consideration of the Government. A committee appointed by the Planning commission is examining the present system vis-à-vis Ad-valorem. A comment at this stage shall not be proper.
The country is already self-reliant in non-coking coal segment. Nevertheless the high GDP growth rates are associated with concern of its sustainability. Well in time it was realized that incremental growth in the supply of energy is crucial for sustaining the GDP growth. Accordingly, the Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Kirit S. Parikh, Member Planning Commission. The committee has since submitted its report and has envisaged a major role for the coal sector to meet the country's growing energy needs in future. In a way this reinforces the earlier findings of the High Powered Fuel Policy committee set up in early seventies. The coal demand as projected in the IEP document is expected to rise at an accelerated pace and in 2031-32 be within the range of 1600 million tones (least coal consumption strategy) or 2600 million tones (continuing the present trend). As compared to current consumption of 460 million tonnes per annum, this represents a CAGR of 5.11 to 7.17 %. A CAGR of 6.05% shall be required to support coal consumption @ 2000 mtpa in 2031-32. The Public Enterprises in coal sector viz. Coal India Limited (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. (SCCL) accounts for 94% of current coal production of the country. With the adoption of a liberalized policy in allotting coal blocks to end users and its development through captive mining, other players are expected to come in the coal sector sooner than later. This will compliment the effort of the PSEs in meeting coal demand of the country. As a consequence, the country is expected to remain self-reliant in respect of thermal coal for all time to come. However, coking coal requirement will have to be met through imports to a substantial extent in the foreseeable future. 8/What innovations in terms of Technology and managements are in the offing ? In order to match the future demand of Coal, CIL has planned to introduce
high capacity Heavy Earth Moving Machinery in its Open cast Mines. CIL
has also a plans to open up large Underground Mines to meet the future
coal demand from Underground Mines in a big way. This will require technology
transfer from foreign countries. At present, CIL is using the Continuous
Miner technology and Power Support Long Wall (PSLW) in some of its Mines.
Applying these technologies in general and PSLW in particular for large
scale coal production (2 to 5 MT) shall require the expertise available
in foreign countries. Besides, CIL has future plan to install coal washeries
with state-of-the-art technology which will ensure supplying good quality
of coal to its consumers. Singh is new DGP of Tripura K T D Singh has taken over as new DGP of Tripura. He is 1974 batch
IPS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre. He has replaced G M Shrivastava. Defense personnel taking premature retirement A large number of Defense personnel are taking premature retirement
these days. In 2006 alone 464 Army officers and 87 officers from the
Air Force opted for it. What could be the reason? Communists challenging Islam's socialism A few cartoons which no one saw in India had thrown the Muslims in
uncontrollable rage. Another un-Islamic idea taking shape may take,
one knows not what course .There is no castiesm in Islam. Prophet had
said ,all the followers of Allah are equal. Now the communists are challenging
the socialism of Islam. They say there are dalits in Islam too. One
does not know what will Ulemas say on Communists preaching casteism
in Islam. Subhash Kumar is PS to Khanduri Subhash Kumar has been appointed new Principal Secretary to Uttarakhand
Chief Minister B C Khanduri. He is 1977 batch IAS officer. Rai promoted in Gujarat 1992 batch IPS officer Rajnish Rai has been promoted to the rank of
DIG in Gujarat. He will now move to CID. Pradyot on deputation to Uttarakhand Government IDAS officer Ajay Kumar Pradyot has joined the Uttarakhand Government
on deputation as General Manager (Finance) SIDCUL. Pocha is new Editor of Business World Jehangir Pocha is the new Editor of the Business World. Murthy moves to Delhi Senior IDAS officer who was posted in Leh has been transferred to Delhi. Z category security for Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Z category security is being provided to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary
N C Vajpayee. New Director of KNP Senior Indian Forests Service Officer, Surendra Nath Buragohain, has taken over as the new director of Kaziranga National Park (KNP) Administrative Reforms Committee in TamilNadu Administrative Reforms Committee headed by retired High Court Judge A K Rajan has been set up in TamilNadu. The other members are: retired IAS officer V Viswanathan; retired DGP S Kumarasamy; retired Chief Conservator of Forests S Shanmugasundaram; Alandur Municipal Chairman RS Bharathi; former director of Tamil Virtual University Ponnavaikko; former Director of Medicine and Rural Health Services N Kalyanasundaram; former Urban Development assistant director K.P. Subramanian; retired director of School Education A. Muthukrishnan; retired District Revenue Officer R Pannerselvam and Ambujam Dorai, wife of former DGP P Dorai. V Chandran is the Secretary. New recommendation about High Court Judges The Law Commission has in its 120th Report recommended that the present strength of 10.5 per one million population be increased to 50 judges per million population. The last Triennial Review of the Judge strength of the various High
Courts was held in 2006. The data received from the High Courts for
the triennial review of the judge strength of the High Courts has been
analyzed and according to the guidelines fixed for the increase of the
strength, only eight High Courts have qualified for increase in their
Judge strength. With regard to subordinate judiciary, the Supreme Court,
in its judgment of 21st March, 2002, in All India Judges' Association
& Ors Vs. Union of India & Ors, has directed that an increase
in the Judge strength from the existing 10.5 or 13 per 10 lakh people
to 50 judges per 10 lakh people should be effected and implemented within
a period of five years in a phased manner to be determined and directed
by the Union Ministry of Law. The Central Government have filed an affidavit
in the Supreme Court praying that the increase in judge strength in
the Union Territories for which Central Government is administratively
responsible be allowed based on workload and pendency of cases. The
matter is sub-judice. KC Jena new chief of CILT-India KC Jena, Member Staff, Railway Board was elected as National Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Logistic and Transport-India (CILT-India) at its recently held Annual General meeting. Other members elected for various posts are: Capt. J.S. Gill, Nautical Advisor Govt. of India , K.K. Agarwal former Member Traffic Railway Board Lt. Gen. D.V. Kalra (Retd.) - all three vice Chairmen, NM Balasubrahamanyam, former Executive Director, Institute of Rail Transport - Secretary General, Vinod K. Asthana, GGM (Operations) IRCTC - Treasurer of CILT. Following were elected as National Council members of CILT-India. Sanjiv Garg, Chittranjan Das, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Vinod K Chowdhry, S P Singha, Deepak Abbi, Rakesh Chopra, Ms. Ragini Yechuri, Dr. Vinay Maitri, Dr.(Ms.) Veni Mathur. Gurcharan Bhatura as immediate Past National Chairman CILT-India is also on the National Council. Four new posts at NJA, Bhopal With a view to ensure better functioning of the National Judicial Academy(NJA),Bhopal Delhi has cleared a proposal to create three posts of Professor (Law) and one post of Additional Registrar. National Mission on Monuments Indian Government is going to set up National Mission on Monument and Antiquities. The Mission would prepare a National Data Base on Built Heritage and Antiquities. Promotion of IRPS officers in J A Grade Eleven IRPS officers have been promoted to the JAG. They are Mssrs:-Aditya
Kumar,WR-> DMW,Rajeev Singh,NWR-> CORE,PK Srivatava,NER-> NER,Shiv
Dutt,WR->WR,KPS Meena,NR-> NWR,VR Patre,SCR->SCR,Praful Bhatnagar,WR->SECR Three new PCCF in Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh Government has appointed three new PCCF. They are Mssrs R K Sharma ,A K Singh and Devendra Singh. Mrs Swarup is no more Mrs Indira Swarup retired Additional Director Public Relations ,Madhya Pradesh has passed away in Delhi.Ms Swarup served several Chief Minister's while heading the PR office in Delhi. She was about 65. IAS officer appointed Vice Chancellor IAS officer Anuradha Gupta has been appointed Vice Chancellor of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila University in Haryana. Nayak is back to J & K Sandeep Nayak is back from central deputation to the parent J & K Cadre. On return 1988 batch IAS officer Nayak has been posted as MD of the Power Development Corporation. FORUM (The views expressed in this column are necessarily of their respective contributors. We do not own any responsibility, whatsoever, about these contributions). Will CBDT change transfer policy ? The CBDT has initiated the steps for the Annual General Transfer, without
waiting for the proposed amendments in the Transfer Policy which was
at best a knee-jerk reaction to an unfortunate scam. The disconcerting
factor, however, is that the same middle management which fed incorrect
data leading to the severe indictment of the Placement Committee by
CAT are still in place and ruling the roost. There has been almost no
effort by the new dispensation to marginalise them and allot the job
to fair minded people who do not believe in nepotism, unfair-play and
casteism. Things never move so fast Regarding charge sheet to 40 Commissioners Income Tax, it is submitted
about the member who got them charge sheeted ,that a few days ago there
was a whisper on your site that she transferred back 3 Chief Commissioners
within 4 days to the places of their choice by working even after retirement.
Two were transferred back to Delhi from Dehradun and Panchkula and one
back to Panchkua from Chandigarh. It is a known fact that Delhi and
Bombay are much sought after places in the department for obvious reasons.
Will anybody enquire how they got transferred? When did they join their
new places of posting to which they were transferred vide transfer order4th
January 2007 ,when did they submit their representations after joing
the places to which they were transferred and when did the placement
committee meet? All 3 of them have worked in Or nearby Delhi and only
in Northern region. Things never move so fast unless wheels are attached
to the file. If there was a 7% fall in passenger traffic then how did Railway
profit shoot up?? Bharat Kumar --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hrithik Roshan Acer's brand Ambassador Bollywood's noted actor Hrithik Roshan would endorse brands of Acer, a leading notebook vendor in Europe and the ASEAN Block and one of the top companies dealing in PCs. This was announced by W S Mukund Managing Director of Acer India, in Mumbai on Thursday. New CEO of Cathay Pacific Airways Cathay Pacific Airway's CEO Phillip Chen will step down in July and is reported to be replaced by COO Tony Tyler. Anil Berera is CFO of Whirlpool Anil Berera has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of the Whirlpool. |
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Dr
Suresh Mehrotra has his lips sealed, if you have any whispers then send it to
us |
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