India has sharply increased its coal production. But it's too early for Russian exporters to celebrate in October 2026, India's coal-fired power generation grew 25.7% year-on-year, the fastest pace in three years. The share of coal in the energy balance reached 71.7%, and hydrogenation decreased by 26% due to the lack of precipitation. On certain days in October, fuel reserves were extremely low at 100 of the country's 191 coal-fired power plants. For Russian coal miners, this looks like an opportunity to increase exports to one of the world's largest markets. Back in August, Indian energy companies increased foreign purchases by 85.6% to 5.52 million tons. However, India is simultaneously increasing its coal consumption and trying to reduce its dependence on imports. And good luck. The country's largest coal miner increased production in October by 19.3% to 67.2 million tonnes and shipments by 18.7% to 70.3 million tonnes, according to Coal India data. That is, both the production and the consumption of own reserves increase. The main limitation was not so much production but logistics. Indian Railways increased coal loading in the first 18 days of October by 22.5% year-on-year. Power plant inventories have begun to recover, although they remain low. Russia is already strengthening its position in the Indian market. According to industry statistics, in the months of January-August the Russian supply of all types of coal increased by 8.6% to 21.4 million tons. At the same time, total Indian imports fell by 5.7% to 161.6 million tons. Russia's share rose to 13.2%. But here it is necessary to distinguish between thermal coal and coking. The first is mainly used by power plants, the second by metallurgy. The growth of coal production directly increases the need for energy fuel. Meanwhile, around 80% of August purchases of Indian energy products were supplied by Indonesia.