Which one among the following statements about the Singareni Collieries Company Limited is correct?

Correct — B, it has now diversified into thermal and solar power generation, explosive manufacturing for blasting in opencast mines and consultancy works. Singareni Collieries has moved well beyond digging coal. It runs its own thermal power station, the Singareni Thermal Power Plant in Mancherial district, has built solar capacity across its mining areas, and its own literature lists consultancy in exploration and surveying among its services. Each of the other three statements fails on a checkable point. The company is government-owned, not private. It has no Navratna status, because Navratna is conferred on central public sector enterprises and Singareni is majority-owned by a State government. And the single largest coal producer in the world is Coal India Limited, not Singareni.

• (a)Located at Kothagudem in Telengana, this is the first and the oldest coal mining company in India in the private sector — The location is right and the claim about age is nearly right, but the ownership is wrong. Singareni is a government company, jointly owned by the Government of Telangana with 51 per cent and the Government of India with 49 per cent, and it is described as the first and oldest government-owned coal mining company in India. Calling it a private-sector company misstates what it is today. The paper prints the State's name as Telengana; the standard spelling is Telangana.
• (c)It has been conferred with 'Navratna' status since 2011 — Navratna status is granted by the Department of Public Enterprises to central public sector enterprises that meet defined financial criteria. Singareni is majority-owned by a State government, so it falls outside that scheme altogether, and it has never held the status.
• (d)It is the single largest coal producing company in the world — The single largest coal-producing company in the world is Coal India Limited. Singareni accounts for a much smaller share of Indian output, working the Pranahita-Godavari valley of Telangana, while Coal India operates across many States.

Singareni Collieries Company Limited was incorporated on 23 December 1920 under the Hyderabad Companies Act, on foundations laid earlier — coal was found near Yellandu by the Geological Survey of India in 1871, and a company incorporated in England acquired mining rights in 1886. The State of Hyderabad bought a majority holding in 1945, and the company has been jointly held by the State and the Union governments since 1960. Its headquarters is at Kothagudem, its reserves stretch about 350 kilometres along the Pranahita-Godavari valley, and it works both opencast and underground mines across several districts of Telangana.

This is a spot-the-true-statement item, and the fastest route is to eliminate. Two options can be dismissed on general knowledge alone: Navratna status belongs to central enterprises, and the world's largest coal producer is Coal India. The remaining choice is between an ownership claim and a diversification claim, and the ownership claim contains an error in its final words. The diversification statement lists several ventures; the two that can be checked directly against the company's own record are the thermal power station and the solar generation, and those alone are enough to establish that the company has moved beyond mining. Note also the printed spelling 'Telengana' in option (a), which is the booklet's own and is reproduced here unchanged.

• Singareni Collieries Company Limited is jointly owned by the Government of Telangana with 51 per cent and the Government of India with 49 per cent.
• It was incorporated on 23 December 1920 and is India's first and oldest government-owned coal mining company.
• Its headquarters is at Kothagudem, and its reserves run about 350 kilometres along the Pranahita-Godavari valley.
• It operates the Singareni Thermal Power Plant in Mancherial district and has developed solar capacity at its mining areas.
• Coal India Limited, formed in 1975, is the single largest coal-producing company in the world.

• Accepting the ownership statement because the location and the claim about age are correct.
• Assuming Navratna status can be held by a State-owned company.
• Confusing Singareni with Coal India when a superlative about size is offered.

A spot-the-true-statement item on a single public enterprise, where two options can be struck out on general knowledge and the third fails on a single phrase.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Singareni Collieries Company Limited is owned jointly by the Government of India and which State government?

  • (a)Andhra Pradesh
  • (b)Telangana
  • (c)Odisha
  • (d)Chhattisgarh

  Answer(b) Telangana — which holds 51 per cent against the Union government's 49 per cent.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Navratna status is conferred on which category of enterprise?

  • (a)State public sector undertakings
  • (b)Central public sector enterprises
  • (c)Private listed companies
  • (d)Cooperative societies

  Answer(b) Central public sector enterprises — by the Department of Public Enterprises.