India, Jan. 5 -- In a first, effective 1 January 2026, Coal India (CIL) has permitted coal consumers located in the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, who wish to import coal from India, to directly participate in the Single Window Mode Agnostic (SWMA) auctions conducted by the company.CIL's Board has cleared the decks recently for this move, tweaking the scheme's mechanism in the SWMA auction. Under the revised framework, foreign buyers can participate alongside domestic buyers in SWMA auction. Earlier, access to CIL's coal by coal consumers across the borders was only through domestic coal traders who were allowed to buy and sell coal without any end use restrictions.All operational and procedural modalities have be...