Coal India facelift: CIL to become a tech-driven 'clean products' company

Company could get into segments such as coal tar, naphtha and coal gas, among many others

Coal India, the central government’s near-monopolist entity, also the world’s largest mining company, has embarked on a comprehensive transformation.

From a purely mining entity, the aim is to create a technology-driven products company, perhaps getting into segments such as coal tar, naphtha and coal gas, among many others.

The major decision to transform follows Coal Minister Piyush Goyal’s commitment at the United Nations Climate Change Conference at Paris in 2015. He’d committed to 20,000 Mw of renewable energy (RE) production by 2022. This was later raised to 175,000 Mw.

A shift to RE means less dependency on fossil fuels and