Why is India pushing for coal gasification?

The story so far: In a roadshow promoting surface coal gasification, Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy said the technology, which can also yield a range of downstream products, has the potential to substitute imports worth up to ?3 lakh crore. To encourage coal gasification, the Union Cabinet approved a ?37,500-crore incentive package. What is coal gasification? Coal gasification entails the conversion of coal into synthetic gas, or syngas, which can be further used to produce downstream products such as urea, methanol, ammonium nitrate, synthetic natural gas (SNG), hydrogen, ether, and dimethyl, among others. According to government data,…