After four decades, the Thapars plan a return to coal mining

Kolkata: The Thapar family of Kolkata, which was Asia’s second biggest miner until the early 1970s, is looking to return to coal mining after almost four decades.

Karam Chand Thapar and Brothers (Coal Sales) Ltd, or KCT Coal Sales as it is popularly known, has formed a consortium with two businessmen of Indian origin from Indonesia and Thailand to pursue opportunities in coal mining in countries such as Indonesia and Mozambique.

After coal mines in India were seized by the government in 1973, KCT Coal Sales turned into a coal logistics company. Since then, it has worked closely with state-owned Coal India Ltd and coal consumers, mainly power plants. Its annual revenue is around Rs 250 crore, and it has a cash reserve in excess of Rs 1,000 crore.

“These people are close friends,” said Vikram M. Thapar, 63, KCT Coal Sales vice-chairman and managing director, describing his partners in the consortium. “They have interest in coal either because they consume or because they do the same thing as our company.”
The first acquisition could be completed in Indonesia “within months”. Mozambique, too, is on the consortium’s radar, but it hasn’t identified a takeover target there.

“We had almost concluded a deal (in Indonesia), but the seller wasn’t comfortable with our partners,” said Thapar. KCT Coal Sales could have closed the deal on its own, but decided against walking out of the two-month-old consortium.

KCT Coal Sales’ 93-year-old chairman Inder Mohan Thapar—once known as the “coal king”—was initially opposed to his son Vikram Thapar’s plan to acquire assets abroad.

Read more : visit here

Coal: The Foundation Of A Booming Economy

Coal is one of the most important and cost-effective energy sources for mankind. The abundance and low costs of using coal has made it the go-to choice of fuel for building power plants in the world. It is also widely used as a raw material for cement and steel and several industries like paper, aluminum, chemical, transportation and pharma also make use of coal.

Here we list down a few facts about coal and that make it such an important source of energy in India:

• Coal is nothing more than a kind of ancient wood, which has been under pressure for millions of years. It takes millions of years to form and therefore it belongs to non-renewable energy sources.
• Coal is a combustible, mostly black, sedimentary rock that is largely made of carbon but also features other elements like hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen.
• Coal mining can be mined and burned with very little environmental impact. Over recent years, there have been tremendous strides in environmental responsibility with mining coal.
• The mining process of coal uses two methods: surface or underground mining. Surface mining is a more dominant method largely because it’s much more cost-effective than underground mining.
• Apart from its advantages, the industry adds to the employment rate of a country as it adds a host of jobs. Unlike others forms of energy (nuclear, hydro, natural gas, etc.) coal provides jobs in mining, burning, disposing of ash and transportation of coal.
• Currently, India stands fifth in terms of World Coal Resources. Coal occurrences are mainly distributed along the river valleys i.e. Damodar Valley, Sone-Mahanadi Valley, Pench-Kanhan Valley, Wardha-Godavari Valley etc. In total, there are 69 major coalfields located in peninsular India.

Common methods of Tunnel Construction

Tunnel construction substitutes the need to travel or work around natural landscapes. Although it is an expensive mode of providing facilities, it issues convenience. The Delhi Metro is a striking example of how underground tunnel construction has eased commuting in congested places. With the advancements in technology, the processes have become easier. Tunnels are constructed for roadways, railways, and waterways. Read on to learn about the common methods of tunnel construction.

Bored Tunnel

Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) are modern technological equipment that is based on automatic transmission to simplify the process. It is a perfect method to be applied in high traffic areas owing to its faster accomplishment abilities. Different types of tunnel boring machines are available for different ground conditions. Below the water table conditions are easily manageable with these machines.

Shaft Tunneling

This method digs a shaft up to the required depth of the tunnel. It is employed to construct tunnels at greater depths. Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) are used to dig the shaft which is a permanent structure like a well. And inlet and outlet are both required for the construction.

Cut & Cover

The cut & cover tunneling method is engaged to construct shallow tunnels. A support that can bear the load of the construction is used cover a trench cut in the soil. The cutting can be carried out by two methods: bottom up method in which a tunnel is excavated with support under the surface and, the other is top to bottom approach in which side support walls are constructed first by slurry walling method or contiguous bored piling.

Clay kicking, pipe jacking, box jacking and underwater tunnel construction are other methods employed to build tunnels.

KCT-Ticil, the Infrastructure arm of KCT Group, employed shaft tunneling technology to construct various projects, including the state-funded Tehri dam project in Uttarakhand.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) built various tunnels for the different phases of the Delhi metro. Elevated platform for the metro was an unsuitable option in congested areas like Charwi Bazar and Rajeev Chowk. Underground tunnels for smooth flow of traffic in such areas have solved Delhi’s traffic issues to quite an extent.

Also read about :Kolkata finds its coolth

Enterprise Resource Planning – The Next Big Thing

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a revolutionary software technology that has remodeled the operational processes of enterprises, empowering them to integrate their business modules. They have drastically altered occupational procedures by substituting human personnel and hefty assets to accomplish functions related to development, manufacturing, sales, product planning and much more with a single integrated database, applications and user interface.

Entrepreneurs and businesses are switching to ERPs to systematically improve efficiency. The conglomerates operating on the global scale are unifying their departments and effectively managing scalability. Consequently, it is obvious that there is a fall in functional costs and increase in productivity.

Oracle is one of the leading companies providing comprehensive ERP services around the world. It has recently obtained a contract from Bank of America to provide its enterprise resource planning and financial planning software. “Oracle will deliver Bank of America the most modern, complete, global ERP applications in the world,” said Oracle CEO, Mark Hurd.

A ‘one of kind’ employment of ERP is Waterbase Limited acquiring services from SAP. SAP is a German company that will provide all-inclusive planning software to the company to integrate their shrimp feed processes, harvesting and exports. “We needed a strong ERP to support our strategic growth plans, the right technology that can help us to cut costs, become more efficient and grow through innovation. SAP ERP was a natural choice given their proven track record and expertise in integration.”

Ramakanth V Akula, CEO. The company is the aquaculture subsidiary of KCT Group which has emerged an essential entity in sustainable aqua-culture development in India.

On the other hand, Amazon, a competitor of Oracle and SAP has been pitching solution based ideas to financial giants like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to consolidate their banking procedures.

ERPs sweep the towering data and management loads away from the hands of enterprises and the progress graphs are escalating invariably, along with suggestions of increased productivity and satisfaction among the employees. ERPs are sculpting the future of the industrial sector and it can be stated without doubt that they’re the next big thing!

3 Leading Countries in Wind Energy

The world is moving from the exhaustible energy sources to renewable resources in order to satisfy the requirements of the ever increasing population. The global population has leaped from 1 to 7 billion in the past 200 years or so, which has stimulated the exponential upsurge in technology.

3 Path to Success Philosophies

Success is a unique combination of skills, mind-set and abilities repeatedly tapped into. The journey to success has no defined paths; you have to find your own. Some philosophies, however, can make a difference with the resolve to get to your destination; come what may!

Successful people never restrict themselves to just that one thing. They don’t shy away from unknown territories if their heart is set that way. And that makes them a whole new dimension of perseverance and being ‘at it’.