Coal.

Coal is India's largest fuel by a wide margin: roughly 1,050 million tonnes were mined in FY26 plus a further ~250 mt imported, and coal-fired plants supplied 70-73% of the country's electricity. Its estimated GVA is only ₹2.4 lakh crore (0.76% of national GVA) because the industry has an unusually high value-added ratio (inputs are mainly labour, explosives, diesel and contract mining rather than purchased materials), but every ₹1 of coal GVA sits underneath roughly ₹2.5 of power-sector value added and a government take (cess, royalty, dividends, tax) of close to ₹1 lakh crore a year. Output has grown 2.7x since FY05 (383 mt to ~1,050 mt), accelerating after FY20 as Coal India's evacuation constraints eased and commercial mining (allowed from 2020) added a third supplier class; coal's share of national GVA has nonetheless drifted down from ~1.0% to 0.76% as the rest of the economy grew faster. The industry is the most concentrated large industry in the book (Coal India alone ~74% of tonnage, HHI ~5,600) and heavily state-owned (PSUs ~85% of output), with essentially only two listed pure plays: Coal India and NLC India.

Estimated GVA

2.4 ₹ lakh crore · FY26

Production

~1,050 million tonnes · FY26

Imports

~250 million tonnes (US$22.5 bn) · FY26

Revenue pool (mine-gate)

~3.0 ₹ lakh crore · FY26

Listed PAT

~0.38 ₹ lakh crore · FY26

Employment

~0.55 million (departmental + contract) · FY26

Coal share of electricity generation

72 % · FY26

Coal India share of tonnage

74 % · FY26