Anil Swarup: A saviour for the crisis-hit coal sector

For Swarup, the job would not be just challenging but also tricky, given the negativity attached to the sector.

The appointment of Anil Swarup as officer on special duty in the ministry of coal and his taking over as secretary on November 1 comes at a time when the sector is logjammed after a Supreme Court judgment de-allocated captive mines allocated over the past two decades. 

For Swarup, the job would not be just challenging but also tricky, given the negativity attached to the sector. 

However, he has done similar jobs in the past. The United Progressive Alliance government had made him head of project-monitoring group (PMG) under the Cabinet Secretariat, and he was entrusted with the task of removing road blocks to stalled projects across the country. 

With 38 per cent of the stalled projects worth Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) in the power sector, and another large chunk of projects costing Rs 73,000 crore (Rs 730 billion) in the coal sector, 56-year-old Swarup in PMG is already hands-on on the sector. 

PMG was set up in June 2013, five months after the Manmohan Singh government notified the constitution of the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI).

The need for this group was felt as the key to getting the projects rolling wasn’t just a CCI decision, but also implementation on the ground.

The 1981 batch official of the Uttar Pradesh cadre is considered close to Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Swarup moved into PMG from the labour ministry, where he worked as director-general for labour welfare. The assignment of monitoring stalled project at PMG came to him on the merit of his driving the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (National Health Insurance Scheme).