India's coal-fired power generation increased 3.87% year on year in the first seven months of fiscal year 2024-25 (April-October), the coal ministry said in a statement.

Nevertheless, the country's coal imports for blending purposes by thermal power plants decreased 19.5% from a year ago, the ministry noted. This decline highlighted India's commitment to achieving self-efficiency in coal production and reducing dependence on imports, helping to ensure the overall sustainability of India's energy landscape.

The coal ministry ascribed the growth in coal imports for the power sector mainly to demand from imported coal-based utilities (designed to utilize imported coal only), who imported 30.04 million tonnes of coal from April to October, a 38.4% rise.

India's coal imports totaled 149.39 million tonnes over the given period, down 3.1% on the year. Coal intakes in the non-regulated sector (excl. power) experienced a larger year-on-year decline of 8.8%.

Moreover, coal production reached 537.57 million tonnes during the April to October period, hiking 6.04% from the year before. The growth reflected the government's ongoing efforts to promote coal utilization and boost domestic output, according to the ministry.

India is implementing strategic initiatives aimed at safeguarding foreign reserves and enhancing the nation's energy security.

However, despite possessing the fifth-largest coal reserves globally, India faces a significant shortage of certain coal types, particularly coking coal and high-grade thermal coal, which are not adequately available from domestic sources. As a result, this necessitates coal imports to sustain key industries such as steelmaking and to meet the growing energy demand, the ministry said.