India is second largest coal producer in world: CIL chief

Vijayawada: Chairman and managing director (CMD) of Coal India Limited (CIL) P Mallikarjuan Prasad said that the production of fossil fuels should be reduced in phases.

Addressing students at PB Siddhartha College of Arts and Sciences on ‘Harnessing the Power of Black Diamond’ here on Monday, Prasad said that India is the second largest coal producer in the world and still we need to import coal for indigenous consumption. However, the focus should now be on increasing the production of renewable energies like solar, wind and hydro power generation, the CMD said.

The fossil fuel usage has been resulting in climate changes including rise in temperatures across the world. It is high time the usage of fossil fuels should be replaced with renewable energy. However, more research should be undertaken while increasing the production of renewable energy since storing the generated power is a big problem.

The availability of lithium and others for manufacturing batteries has been limited to a very few countries and mining of lithium also poses greater challenges. Moreover, the disposal of used batteries is also a very big problem.

Being one of the leading companies of the public sector they are contributing well above 2 percent net profit statutory target of CSR and spending around Rs 680 crore per annum. Coal India is also taking measures to safeguard the employee safety and providing statutory and non-statutory welfare measures. All their actions are taken based on the ESG framework which includes Environmental, Social and Governance issues into consideration.

Principal Dr Meka Ramesh, in his inaugural address urged students to emulate the lifestyle of great corporate leaders by following values such as discipline, focus and hard work. Dean Prof Rajesh C Jampala was the moderator in the interactive session.