Despite having large reserves of coal, why does India import millions of tones of coal? 1. It is the policy of India to save its own coal reserves for future, and import it from other countries for the present use. 2. Most of the power plants in India are

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Q: 9 (IAS/2012)
Despite having large reserves of coal, why does India import millions of tones of coal?
1. It is the policy of India to save its own coal reserves for future, and import it from other countries for the present use.
2. Most of the power plants in India are coal-based and they are not able to get sufficient supplies of coal from within the country.
3. Steel companies need large quantity of coking coal which has to be imported.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

question_subject: 

Economics

question_exam: 

IAS

stats: 

0,300,40,5,300,8,27

keywords: 

{'own coal reserves': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'coal': [0, 1, 2, 0], 'large reserves': [0, 0, 1, 1], 'sufficient supplies': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'power plants': [0, 0, 0, 7], 'steel companies': [0, 0, 0, 1], 'india': [8, 1, 7, 13], 'large quantity': [1, 0, 0, 1]}

Statement 1 is not correct as India does not have a policy to save its own coal reserves for the future and import it from other countries for present use. India imports coal mainly due to the demand-supply gap, as the country`s coal production is not sufficient to meet the demand. Statement 2 is correct, as many power plants in India face a shortage of coal and have to rely on imports to meet their fuel requirements. Statement 3 is also correct, as coking coal, which is a key input for the production of steel, is not abundantly available in India, and hence, has to be imported. Therefore, option 2 and 3 only is the correct answer.