Net profit in the April-December period of this fiscal rose to Rs 7,526.50 crore from Rs 7,346.83 crore a year ago.

Singh is currently the managing director of Gujarat State Electricity Company Limited (GESC). Having started his career in NTPC in 1987, Singh has a profile consisting of major names in the sector—both public and private companies. He was earlier associated with Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, Powergen and IDFC Projects in different capacities.

The first phase of the Raghunathpur plant was scheduled for commissioning in 2010 but even after a delay of nearly five years and a revised cost estimate of R7,500 crore, the utility continues to suffer from issues related to land acquisition for the rail and water corridors. Besides, the plant has failed to tie up a buyer.

NTPC Limited is presently operating a coal-based 2,600 MW (stage-I, II & III) thermal power station at Ramagundam in Telangana's Karimnagar district and is in the process of expanding it by addition of 2x800 MW.

During the week, Cairn India (down 9.80 per cent), Punjab National Bank (down 8.60 per cent), Vedanta (down 8.50 per cent), Coal India (down 8.20 per cent) and YES Bank (down 7.60 per cent) slid the most in the Nifty pack.

Giving a major thrust for green and clean energy, the Maharatna company is targeting to achieve 10,000 MW of renewable energy by 2022.

These two contracts are awarded under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana of 12th Plan (2012-17), the company said in a press release today.

"In an effort to attract candidates from the private sector, the government has relaxed a few requirements, including the necessity of an engineering degree, which might have resulted in such a large number of candidates applying for the post," a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

Some 110 Mw of solar power generation places it next to Reliance Power that has around 185 Mw renewable energy capacity with Tata Power (read Part IV of the series) topping the list in this category. Being a government-controlled entity, most of this change is driven by directives from the Centre. It is obligated to facilitate addition of another 10,000 Mw of clean power in the next five years.

Based on the existing contract, NTPC is supposed to buy around 2 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of liquified natural gas (LNG) from GAIL. For the current year, the contract price for this gas was fixed at close to $11-12 per million metric British thermal units (mmBtu). However, NPTC has failed to pick up any of this contracted gas so far this year, leaving GAIL, which sources the gas from a third party, in a spot.