Pramod Agrawal, an Indian Administrative Service Officer of Madhya Pradesh Cadre 1991 batch, took over as Chairman, Coal India Limited (CIL), the world’s largest coal-producing company, on 1st February 2020. Prior to the assumption of the top post of the Maharatna coal mining behemoth, he was Principal Secretary, Department of Technical Education, Skill Development & Employment, and Department of Labour, Government of Madhya Pradesh. Agrawal succeeds Anil Kumar Jha who stepped down as Chairman on attaining superannuation on 31st January 2020.
On assuming the charge of the company that produces over 83 per cent of the country’s entire coal output, Agrawal underlined his priority as “to make Coal India a competitive, economically viable business entity, in the changing scenario, with greater emphasis on operational efficiency and lowering the cost of production. Coal imports need to be curtailed to the extent possible with higher coal output”.
A Graduate (BTech) in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai (1986), Agrawal completed his post-graduation in Design Engineering (MTech) from IIT, Delhi (1988).