**3. Importance of coal and the coal mining organization in India**

Mineral and mining sectors play a pivotal role in the economic development of a country as they are the principal source of raw materials for an array of industries. Among them, coal is the most dominating energy resource and remains as the lifeline for fuelling Indian industries since its first use in the 1700s. Coal mining constitutes a share of 80% of the total mining in India while the remaining 20% includes mining of various other ores such as gold, copper, iron, lead, bauxite, zinc, etc. [56]. At present coal contributes about 52% to the India's total commercial energy needs and about 66% of the country's power generation and is expected to remain the most viable energy resource contributing to sustainable economic growth for the years to come [56–59]. As India is among the top three fastest-growing economies in the world, the coal mining industry in India plays a substantial role in fulfilling the uprising demand of coal from the increasing power plants, steel, and cement industries.

The state-owned coal mining organization of India came into existence in the year 1975 after the Coal Mines (Nationalization) Act in the year 1973 taking over the private coal mines by the Government. For the purpose of this study, this organization is referred to as the Indian coal mining organization (ICMO). ICMO owns seven coal producing subsidiaries along with a mine planning and consultancy company located in eight provincial states in India. They are Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL) [57]. Ministry of Coal (MoC) is responsible for the development and implementation of policies and strategies for the entire coal sector that are exercised through ICMO and its subsidiaries along with Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) which is a public-sector undertaking company jointly governed by Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Government of India [56]. ICMO is of strategic importance to the country because of several reasons as mentioned below [57]:


The main business of the organization is based on the identification of coal reserves, coal exploration, design, optimization and application of operational activities for excavation of coal while distributing them to industries across the nation as per the demand.
