Policy Watch: TRAI Tests Quality Of Service, Railways To Recruit 50k & Much More

From Ruins To Bonanza: The Story Of PB Coal Mine

Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) has introduced a new leaf in the chapter of Atmanirbhar Bharat. It has resurrected the long-abandoned PB project from the grave and successfully restarted coal production in it under the Mine Developer and Operator (MDO) model.

The PB project is a legacy coal mining operation located in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. The name is derived from the original one, Pootkee Baliharia (PB) project. This one remained abandoned for decades before this recent revival.

BCCL, by the way, is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), which is directly under the administrative control of the Ministry of Coal under the central government. BCCL mainly looks after the mining of coking coal, an important component for steel production.

The current revival is powered by the private muscle of Eagle Infra India Limited (EIIL). The project is now awarded to EIIL for 25 years and is expected to produce 52 million tonnes of coking coal over its lifecycle. This ushers in an important chapter of public-private partnership in coal mining.

The revival of the PB project underlines India's commitment to energy self-reliance. This will revive legacy coal assets through private sector efficiency, reduce coal import dependence through enhanced domestic supply, and introduce advanced mining technologies and best practices.

It will also generate employment and support regional economic development, apart from ensuring transparent, sustainable, and productive resource utilisation.

The project is about to set a benchmark for equitable and transparent mining partnerships, as BCCL will receive 6 per cent of gross revenue in the revenue-sharing model adopted.

It is indeed a miracle in the self-reliant India playbook.

A Bouquet Of Policy Boosters In Fisheries Sector

The Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying (MoFAH&D) has just turbocharged the fisheries sector on July 10, by unveiling 17 new clusters under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY). The ministry also marked July 10 as “National Fish Farmers Day 2025.”

The newly launched clusters, adding to the 17 existing ones, took the total tally of fisheries clusters across the country to 34. The Union Minister also launched 70 more projects with an outlay of Rs 105 crore, covering 11 states.

The resultant wave of innovation, investment, and opportunities is going to benefit India’s 3 crore-strong fishing community. India is the world’s second-largest fish producer, with a combined production of 195 lakh tonne. This is a 105 per cent growth in production in just about a decade.

What is heartening is that inland fisheries contribute nearly 75 per cent to the total production. So, the government’s phenomenal Rs 38,752 crore worth of investment is going to boost the fisherfolk’s income and transform rural livelihoods.

Engagement in these fishing clusters will be among a diverse range of stakeholders, including fishers, enterprises, individuals, self-help groups, joint liability groups, fish farmers’ producer organisations, fish farmers, processors, transporters, vendors, cooperatives, fisheries start-ups, and other entities.

The primary objective is to ensure holistic development and efficient management of the fisheries and aquaculture value chain. In a bid to strengthen these clusters, the ministries of Food Processing, MSME, along with NABARD and the Department of Fisheries, will make a strong collaboration.

This grand partnership, in the end, is likely to focus on enhancing infrastructure, financial support, and market linkages, while fostering entrepreneurship and value addition in the fisheries sector.

In the final policy push, relevant government schemes and programmes will converge with all these to maximise impact and ensure sustainable development.

Telecom Policy Check In TRAI’s Test Drive

In a unique and innovative policy-oriented move at the intersection of different segments of infrastructure, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) conducted an Independent Drive Test (IDT) for the Himachal Pradesh Licensed Service Area (LSA), covering extensive city, highway, and railway routes during May 2025.

The tests were undertaken across the Una and Mandi districts of the state. TRAI-calibrated equipment and standardised protocols in real-time environments were used in these tests. 

TRAI’s specialised teams conducted detailed tests across 116.6 km of city test, 283.9 km of highway test, 384.8 km of railway test, 5 hotspot locations and 2.3 km of walk test.

The mobile networks of India’s top telcos — Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio (RJIL), and Vodafone Idea (VIL) — were put under the microscope in real-world conditions. The results are out now. In data performance, Jio’s average download speed is 194.15 Mbps, and average upload speed is 18.89 Mbps. Airtel clocked 134.56 Mbps average download speed and 19.07 Mbps upload speed.

The average download speed of VIL was 15.88 Mbps, and the average upload speed was 7.15 Mbps. BSNL’s average download and upload speeds are 3.25 Mbps and 3.76 Mbps, respectively.

The performance of the networks depends on the respective mobile network infrastructure. The idea of introducing the 5G network was to create lightning-fast speeds, which will transform the country’s communication.

Now, the ball is in the court of the policymakers. They have to decide on appropriate tweaks in policies to tackle the issues that came to light through these tests.

Railways Recruitment Drive To Continue In This Fiscal, And The Next

Since November 2024, Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) have conducted Computer-Based Tests (CBTs) for more than 1.86 crore candidates. These were for 55,197 vacancies, announced through seven different notifications.

The RRBs are now poised to offer appointments to more than 50,000 candidates in 2025-26. The first quarter of this financial year saw more than 9,000 appointments by the RRBs.

Going by the sheer size of the exams, the CBTs imply a huge exercise, requiring a lot of planning and coordination. To make the tests more candidate-friendly, the RRBs have recently taken the initiative to allot exam centres closer to candidates' places of residence, with special preference given to female and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) candidates.

This results in enlisting more exam centres and garnering more human resources to conduct the exam in a fair and transparent manner.

In total, 12 notifications have already been issued for 1,08,324 vacancies since 2024, according to the annual calendar published by RRBs. The planning is to again recruit more than 50,000 employees in 2026-27.

For the first time, to increase the fairness of exams, e-KYC-based Aadhaar authentication has been used in these tests to authenticate the identity of candidates. According to the recruitment boards, the implementation is a 95 per cent success. In addition, jammers are now being deployed across all exam centres of RRBs to eliminate cheating through electronic devices.

The decision to recruit a sizeable number of fresh workers in the Railways, of course, will provide some boost in employment generation in the economy.