Circular for the temporary restrictions on new development projects in industrial clusters

The Centre has imposed temporary restrictions through a circular issued on 22nd Jan 2010 on new development projects in industrial clusters that score more than 70 points on the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Consideration of projects for environmental clearance based on Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index. Dated:13-01-2010 [pdf].


Consideration of projects for environmental clearance basded on Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index - Implementation thereof. Dated:22-01-2010 [pdf].

Safety awards announced

Thiruvananthapuram: FACT Ltd., Udyogamandal; BPCL, Kochi; ITI Ltd., Kanjikode; Vijayalaxmi Cashew Company, Kollam; HLL Life Care Ltd., Thiruvananthapuram, and Terumo Penpol Ltd., Thiruvananthapuram, have bagged the first prize in the safety awards instituted by the Department of Factories and Boilers for the year 2009 in the very large factories category employing more than 500 people.

Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd., Ambalamugal; Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation, Ernakulam; Krishna Food Processors, Kollam, and Vaidyaratnam P.S. Warrier’s Kottakkal Arya Vaidyasala, Malappuram, bagged the top honours in the large factories category (employing 250 to 500 workers).

Among medium factories employing 100 to 250 workers, the first prize went to Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd., Ernakulam; BPCL Ltd., LPG filling plant, Kazhakuttom; United Electrical Industries Ltd., Kollam, Rubfila International Ltd., Palakkad, and Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project, NTPC Ltd., Choolatheruvu.

The first prize winners among small factories employing 10 to 100 workers include Carborandum Universal Ltd., Thrissur; HPCL LPG bottling plant, Kanjikode; Minar Ispat Pvt. Ltd., Kozhikode; Diamond Food Products, Ernakulam; Prime Veneers Ltd., Kannur; Safa Enterprises, Kodungalloor; Comtrust Super Designer Tiles, Palakkad; William Goodacre and Sons Pvt. Ltd., Alappuzha; Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Company, Palakkad; T.V. Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Ltd., Kollam; Malankara Rubber Factory, Thodupuzha, and MRCMPU Ltd., Peringalam.

Steel Tech, Koyilandy; Mayilvahanam Marketing, Shoranur; Gayathri Motors, Palakkad; Krishna Ojus Saw Mill, Kochi; Colornet, Feroke; Sabari Rubber Pvt. Ltd. and Indus Speciality Oils, Palakkad, were adjudged the first prize winners in the very small factories category (less than 10 workers).

Individual prizes for best safety committee and safety officer were also announced at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Source: The Hindu
Online edition
Thursday, Feb 25, 2010

'Kerala Sandals' to hit shelves tomorrow

KOZHIKODE: After a long wait, the fragrance of ‘Kerala Sandals’ manufactured by Kerala Soaps Ltd will hit the market on Wednesday. The premium soap will be available both through the public distribution systems and the open market.

In the first phase of production, Kerala Soaps is aiming to sell Kerala Sandals through wholesale, retail and small shop network, said P P Bhaskaran, general manager of Kerala Soaps. Ten metric tonnes of soap will be produced everyday. The product will be introduced to the market through a wide marketing network, he added.

The Unit has a capacity to produce 20 metric tonnes of soap per day once full-fledged production starts. A total of 6,000 metric tonnes will be produced a year. This is excluding Sundays and other holidays, said the officials.

However, in the first phase, the targeted production is only 50 percent of the maximum capacity, said Bhaskaran.

The Kerala Soaps management on Monday tested the line capacity of the machines installed by the contractors. "The machines and other equipment will be handed over by the contractors to Kerala State Industrial Ltd on February 26," said the GM.

Express News Service
First Published : 23 Feb 2010 01:52:00 AM IST
Expressbuzz

Coir doormat set to roll into Guinness records

Express News Service
First Published : 04 Feb 2010 04:54:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 04 Feb 2010 12:00:19 PM IST

ALAPPUZHA: Kerala’s own coir industry may soon find a place in the Guinness Book of World Records with the Travancore Cocotuft (P) Ltd, a 10-year-old export-oriented unit at the Coir Park in Thiruvizha here, unveiling a 333.3-ft-long handloom coir doormat, which the company claims is the world’s longest one.

At a press conference at the company here on Wednesday, CEO P Mahadevan said the doormat - 101.6 metres long, 1.2 metres wide and 30 mm thick and weighing 999 kg -- was produced by four workers over a span of four months, inserting 4,70,000 coir tufts between alternate wefts of coir yarn. The total cost of the work is over Rs 4 lakh.

The doormat was the brainchild of Mahadevan, who was inspired by SIDBI’s Alappuzha BDS project implemented by Cluster Pulse.

The mat will be displayed at the exhibition being held as part of the golden jubilee celebration of the Central Coir Research Institute (CCRI) at Kalavoor here.

The CCRI celebration will be inaugurated by Union Minister of State for MSME Dinsha Patel on Thursday in the presence of Coir Minister G Sudhakaran.

“In spite of the fact that the coir industry is facing a plethora of problems, including scarcity of raw materials and shortage of skilled workers, due largely to labour migration to the construction sector, our mission was to draw the authorities’ attention to this crisis-ridden traditional sector,” Mahadevan said.

He said he wished to exhibit the doormat, a dream come true for him, at the Buckingham Palace and before President Pratibha Patil.

Later, it will be handed over to the Coir Museum.

Cocotuft was set up in 2000 as a subsidiary of the Travancore Mats and Matting Company at Cherthala.

Houseboat services to be regulated

Minister for Tourism Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said on Wednesday that a
regulatory frame work would be introduced to check the operation of
houseboats. He was replying to the debate on the demand for grants for
tourism in the Assembly. Boating facilities, he said, would be
introduced in various parts of the State with the participation of the
private sector. Alappuzha would be developed as a heritage town. Mr.
Balakrishnan said a working group had been set up to steer Kerala's
tourism industry in tune with global trends. It would look into the
recessionary conditions and identify areas where Kerala could make
gains. The Kerala Shopping Festival would be organised this year also
to turn Kerala into a trade and shopping destination. He said
development activities carried out in the tourism sector during the
past three years had achieved their objectives. Tourism destination
councils had been set up at 35 destinations to oversee comprehensive
development. The government was planning heavy investments in the
tourism sector. As much as Rs.421 crore would be spent on the
development of the sector this year, including Rs.293 crore earmarked
in the State Budget. Of this, Rs.135 crore had been set apart for
Malabar tourism. After the Minister's reply, the House passed the
demand for grants for tourism as well as the demands for grants for
administration of justice, police and jails.

The Hindu, June 25

CMZ : Fishermen plan nation-wide agitation

Fishermen under the banner of Natiional Fish-Workers Forum and Kerala Swarantra Matya Thozhilali Federation will launch a nation-wide agitation in protest against the Union Government's decision to implement the Coastal Management Zone (CMZ). State president of the Federation T.Peter said that Union Minister for Forests and Environment Jayaram Ramesh had decided to issue notification cancelling the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and implement the CMZ from July 16. The Union Government's decision is a challenge to the people living on the coastal belt of the country, he said. Peter said that Governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Goa had asked the Union Government not to implement the CMZ in its current form. The Parliamenary Standing Committee also had submiyyed a report to the Government asking not to implement the CMZ after conducting sitting in various states. The Centre for Environment Education (CEE) also had conducted sitting in the coastal areas and advised not to implement the CMZ, he said. The draft notification had seen stalled following protests from the fish workers and various other trade union workers. He alleged that the UPA Government was once again trying to help the tourism industry and sand-mining lobbies. Peter alleged that since the 12-nautical mile limit of coastal waters, which is under the control of the State Governments, also  has been included in the CMZ, it will have to let the coastal waters for activities other than fishing. Such activities would be detrimental to the interests of the fishermen. In the proposed CMZ, there has been demarcation of a setback line. Construction of houses will be allowed only outside this setback line. At the same time, there is provision for allowing construction activities for tourism and industrial projects even within the setback line, he pointed out. He demanded that the next session of the Parliamentshould discuss the CMZ and facilitate a public debate on this issue. If the government did not take the opinions of the MPs representing the coastal constituencies and States concerned, it will lead to serious repercussions. The National Fish Workers Forum's meeting to be held in Kolkata on June 19 and 20 will finalise the national agitation. He called upon the mainstream political parties to make clear their stand on the issue. 

 

The New Indian Express, 14th June 2009   

On a short fuse

Hundreds were killed and many more rendered homeless when cyclone Aila hit Bangladesh and West Bengal recently. We can argue whether this happened because of climate change or not. But that is only a detail. Today, as the earth faces its most serious environmental crisis, the time to quibble over such detail is long past.For, an indisputable fact is that the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the world's atmosphere, the consequence of decades of fossil fuel burning mainly by industrialised countries, has set in motion a series of environmental disasters.Today, the earth is warmer. If temperatures increase by two degrees Celsius, we are talking of major catastrophes. Sea levels are already rising. If they continue, entire island nations could be wiped out. Maldives, with its population of 300,000, is already planning evacuation strategies. Food production is declining in the countries that need it most, such as sub-Saharan Africa. A new report by the World Bank suggests that climate change will also impact agriculture in several parts of India. And glaciers, including those in the Himalayas, are melting faster. The list of environmental changes following global warming grows every day. The consequences of climate change are already on our doorstep.As the crucial COP 15 — the 15th Conference of Parties discussing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — approaches (December 7 to 18 in Copenhagen, Denmark), the buzz about global warming can be heard in the corridors of power across the world. Even in India, several members of the new Cabinet mentioned the importance of these negotiations for India.Environmental issues are easier to grasp when they concern man-made or natural disasters that affect us, or when government action exacerbates environmental deterioration. They are more difficult to comprehend when they comprise international negotiations such as those in Copenhagen. Why should any of this be of interest to the ordinary Indian?Yet, as voluminous studies and documentation have already established, the consequences of global warming will affect everyone, rich and poor. But the poor will have to bear the greater burden, as their dependence on natural resources for survival is greater. According to the international charity Oxfam, by 2015 global warming will adversely affect an estimated 375 million people, the majority of them from developing countries. That is just six years away.The essentials of the debate on climate change have remained unchanged in the last decade. The current crisis is the result of accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the earth's atmosphere as a consequence of decades of uncontrolled fossil fuel consumption by industrialised countries. Their growth and current economic status was premised on this pattern of energy production and consumption.The price for this accumulation of GHGs is being borne largely by developing and poor countries. They are being forced to adapt to the changes in the environment resulting from an increase in the earth's temperature and they do not have the funds to use less carbon and yet sustain economic growth that is essential to their survival. The G77 countries and China have argued that not only should industrialised nations cut back their emissions of GHGs — China has demanded a 40 per cent cut to 1990 levels by 2020 — but that they should also finance poor countries if they want them to curb their emissions. With the focus on the growing economies of India and China that are using all available resources to meet their energy deficit, the importance of financial support to underwrite low-carbon growth becomes even more important. In Copenhagen this debate will continue but with one major difference. In 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol set up internationally agreed targets of limiting GHG emissions by industrialised countries, the biggest emitter of these gases, the United States of America, refused to come on board. Today, under the new Obama Administration, the US is more willing to be a part of an international agreement. President Obama has already announced a 10-year programme for renewable energy in the US with an investment of $150 billion. He has discussed with the automobile industry setting up fuel efficiency norms to reduce vehicle emissions. However, the US is still resisting any imposition of targets and many argue that even the steps it has taken are too little and too late given the crisis facing the world.Unfortunately, the flip side of this is US pressure on India and China to also accept targets to curb their GHGs. At the moment, the US and China together are responsible for 16 per cent of the carbon dioxide emitted. But while the per capita emission of the US is 20 tonnes, that of China is less than four tonnes. India, at just over one tonne per capita, is even lower. India and China have argued that while present and future accumulation of GHGs must be addressed, the current crisis is a consequence of the past. Therefore, the major responsibility for addressing it rests with the industrialised world.So Copenhagen and the run-up to it will see more of such sparring. India, as part of G77 countries, and China will push hard for a commitment from the industrialised countries for a percentage of their GDP to fund climate action in developing countries. In recent days, the Mexican government has put forward a proposal based on past and current emissions and the size of GDP to calculate how much countries should give for a global climate fund. Also, even as this is being written, crucial negotiations are under way in Bonn, Germany on the sticky issue of finance. The UN estimates that $100 billion per year will be needed for mitigation and Oxfam suggests another $50 billion a year for adaptation to climate change. An agreement in Bonn would hold out hope for a positive outcome at Copenhagen.But apart from this global dimension, countries like India and China also face the challenge of devising strategies that ensure growth and yet are environmentally responsible. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is quoted in India's position paper on climate change as saying, "Our people want higher standards of living, but they also want clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe and a green earth to walk on".  At present, our pattern of growth seems to be heading in exactly the opposite direction. There is no fresh air in our cities, clean water is available only to a few and our green areas are disappearing by the minute. For too long, governments have paid mere lip service to renewables. The ministry for non-conventional energy resources that has now been renamed as ministry for renewable energy was always considered unimportant. As a result, there are desultory efforts made to encourage solar energy in a country with abundant sunshine or to promote wind energy or tidal energy. How are these renewables going to be pushed by the new government? Similarly, in the building frenzy in our cities, little thought has been given to establishing building codes and norms that require energy efficiency and conservation in these new constructions. Even if we hold that others have brought on this crisis, surely we need to ensure that we do not add to the problem. Less energy intensive construction need not necessarily be more expensive. Yet, there is a singular absence of debate on such issues in India. While the world debates the dire consequences of automobile emissions, in India we continue to add more cars to our congested roads. In Europe, on the other hand, efforts are in place to reduce vehicular emissions by making cities bicycle and pedestrian friendly and improving public transport. This is combined with taxes, such as a congestion tax, to discourage private automobiles from entering crowded city centres. The result is cleaner air and smoother travel. Isn't that something every urban resident in India dreams of? Yet, inspect any Indian city's development plan and you see no attempt at such an environmentally sound approach. Is it impossible to plan to aim for the clean air the Prime Minister has spoken of by working on this perspective for our cities? Surely the question is not just one of funds but of vision. India cannot afford to wait until there is an international agreement on a climate fund before taking crucial decisions about its energy generation and consumption. Our poor will be amongst the millions who will bear the brunt of global warming. They are the environmental refugees that already flood towns and cities because every year drought, floods and other disasters force them to abandon their homes. Climate change will bring with it a noticeable increase in the scale and frequency of such disasters. Even as the Indian government lobbies internationally for a more just and equitable system to deal with the consequences of global warming, we as citizens should push the government to take steps that prevent this country from becoming a place where every breath you take is foul, every sip of water is contaminated and where green is a colour we see only on our flag.

 

The Hindu, 7th June, 2009

Renewable energy seeks a place in the sun

Chennai: The mood in the renewable energy sector alternates between hope and despair. Every time there is a development that augurs well for the sector, players get upbeat and then wax eloquent about the potential that the country offers for the entire range of renewable energy sources. This joy is, unfortunately, often short-lived. One step forward, two steps back, is how an industry player described the green energy sector's progress. But, then, the players add that in India things happen, albeit slowly. They turn green with envy when they look at the developments in China, especially with the wind power sector. At the end of calendar 2008, China overtook India to occupy the fourth slot in terms of total wind installed capacity and jumped far ahead with regard to annual capacity addition. China added 6,300 MW of wind power capacity in 2008, taking its total installed capacity to 12,210 MW. In comparison, India added 1,800 MW, taking its installed capacity to 9,645 MW. China also boasts of a much larger manufacturing base for wind energy equipment when compared to India. Mr Ditlev Engel, President and CEO, Vestas Wind Systems, a leading wind turbine manufacturer, told this correspondent in Denmark last year that things in India have been disappointing as far as the wind energy sector is concerned, especially because the country was so much ahead some years ago. "I think India has a wonderful potential if the country wants to go ahead," was his observation. But, some like Mr G. M. Pillai, Director-General of the Pune-based World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE), an eternal optimist as far as the renewable energy sector is concerned and a vocal proponent of its advantages, in a recent interaction, listed some of the positive developments for the sector. The 50 paise a unit generation-based incentive offered by the Government of India is one such. The other is the response to an initiative taken by him – that of getting a renewable energy law enacted in the country. He said that at the political level, almost all parties were aware of the need for such a piece of legislation and was confident that this legislative impetus would give the sector the much-needed boost.A look at the ground reality is in order. Of the total 148,265 MW of installed power capacity at the end of April 2009 in the country, the renewable energy sector at 13,242 MW accounts for just about 9 per cent. Of this, the wind power capacity totals 10,134 MW, with the balance being accounted for by other renewable energy sources such as biomass, cogen, small hydro, solar and waste-to-energy projects.More advanced economies, particularly in Europe, have set ambitious targets for increasing the electricity they get from Green power sources and are following that up with major fiscal incentives and regulatory measures. In India too, there has been some movement at least as far as the regulatory measures are concerned. A number of State electricity regulatory commissions have specified that distribution utilities, in cases where the electricity utility has been unbundled, or the State electricity board itself should source a specified percentage of the power they sell to consumers from renewable energy sources. Moreover, the States are also offering attractive tariffs for power from renewable sources. All this, the industry believes, will lead to increased private sector investment in the sector. As it is, a number of multinationals and some domestic power utilities and petroleum companies are investing in the renewable energy sector.For the sector to really take off, the powers that be have to realise that incentives are needed and that these to be sector specific and properly monitored. Emerging technologies in the renewable energy sector are capital intensive, which calls for higher levels of State support through higher tariffs and funds at cheaper rates of interest.The US and Europe look at Green Power from an entirely different perspective. It is not just one that will help add generation capacity, but will also provide rural jobs. That is an approach that India too will have to adopt. If that is done, a majority of the problems will be sorted out. Wind turbines, for instance, can come up only in rural areas, where the infrastructure is poor. The developers not only have to provide this infrastructure themselves, they also have to contend with numerous "local issues," as they put it.Green Power will also help in distributed generation — having small generation capacities in places where there is not heavy demand for electricity. A number of small-size biomass power projects have been put up and more are in the pipeline. For them to come on line quickly, attractive tariffs are a must. Rather than look at different sources of electricity generation in isolation, it is necessary for all States to work out an integrated energy plan that will cover a 25-year period. This should not be confined to just how the State is going to meet its electricity needs, but also look at the transportation sector. Some States such as Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have embarked on such an exercise. Mr Pillai of WISE believes that this is a must, as otherwise, the States will not be prepared for the sudden energy demand growth. One area that Mr Pillai wants the States to look at seriously for power generation is solar. It may be an expensive proposition now, but large-scale projects tend to bring down costs. Also, newer technologies are emerging that will help lower cost and enable larger quantity of electricity to be generated. His confident assertion was that solar power can power the entire northern region. Only policy and regulatory push can determine whether that is indeed feasible.

 

Business line, 5th June, 2009

Right of way

On March 23, Greenpeace Inter' national issued full page
advertisements in the international press to draw attention to the
Olive Ridleys, which come annually to the beaches of Orissa's
Gahirmatha to nest . The advertisement drew on the hype around the
cheap car Nano by Tata, the company building the Dhamra port
along'wtth the L&T group, to raise alarm about the impact of an
upcoming port on the endangered turtles. The port at Dhamra is less
than five km from the Bhitarkanika National Park; it is 15 km from the
Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary. The beaches are one of the world's
largest nesting sites for the turtles. The turtles didn't nest there
last year; this year's nesting season-from December to March-hadn't
seen any turtles. March 24 brought a surprise. Unaware of the
advertisement-and the talk of construction work driving the turtles
away from the beaches where they breed thousands of olive coloured,
heartshaped shells emerged from the waters off the Gahir' matha coast
They were seen floating in the inshore waters around sunset.
This cycle continued from March 24-30, and the Dhamra Port Company Ltd
said the event vindicated their stand that the port does not pose .any
threat to the turtles. The company argued there were occasions earlier
when the turtles did not visit the Orissa coast Mass nesting did not
happen in the early 1980s and the late 19OOs. "The port construction
started in late 2007," a company spokesperson said. So, why didn't the
turtles come to the beach in certain years? The answers are not
known;" there are only anecdotes. People in the Kend' rapara district,
under which the beach lies,' say missile tests on the Wheeler island,
close to the Gahirmatha sanctuary, and fishing ports could be the
reasons. But there are no scientific studies to back these
conjectures. The state government, port authorities and,
conservationist&-local and international""': who claim the port
disturbs the turtles have; possible impact on turtles. The port
company had invited activists for talks to allay the impact of the
port on the turtles, if any, but the, green groups are not ready to
meet till the, company stops construction.
With talks in limbo, the port is now half complete. Violations in the
clearances given to the port have not been debated publicly because of
the impasse on the impact on the turtles. Take the example of the
environmental impact assessment (EIA) report This raises interesting
questions even about other¬port projects.
The Dhamra Port Company claimed to have all the approvals before
starting the port's construction in 2007. A Pune-based consultant
wrote the EIA report for the Dhamra port in 1997, when it was to be
built by. Internal Sea Port. Then, the port was to come up on Kani ka
island off the coast, near the mouth ofpM~ river Dhamra. In 2004, the
state government moved the location of the port to the main .land,
close to the Gahirmatha sanctuary.
The new proposal envisaged a bigger port than previously planned-cargo
handling' capacity increased to 83 million tonnes per, year compared
to the 25 million tonnes per' year proposed earlier The EIA
notification, under which the port was cleared, does not allow such
expansion.
"The Orissa government did not get new studies done because it found
the new site' most suitable for a deep sea port. Besides, Dhamra is
the expansion of an old project, so the question of a new EIA does not
arise," said A K Panda, the state's deputy secretary of port
development. There is a distinct advantage in labelling a project an
expansion of an old one: it goes for clearance to the Union: surface
transport ministry, which is charged: with developing Infrastructure
like ports. A new project, however. must get the nod from' the Union
environment ministry, responsible, for safeguarding the environment. ;
A 2006 report, by the International Union, for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN), on the scoping mission of the Dhamra port project contradicts
Panda. It said: "The new port significantly dwarfs the old port in
terms of size and potential environmental Impacts. In our view the
port is really not an expansion of an old port, the two are not even
adjacent." It also said the port would see a growth in industry in the
area. "If the port becomes a net importer of raw materials, industries
would want to be as close to the port as possible. While the port
itself might be committed to may not be so." These concerns do not
find a mention in the ETA, which addresses the turtles in two of the
160 pages. The EIA says the port site is not the nesting ground for
turtles and hence won't affect them in any way. MCN disagrees:
"Turtle hatchlings are attracted to bright lights, and it is possible
the". hatchlings will be misguided and head inland towards the port
rather the"" offshore."
There is little mention of possible impact of erosion or dredging on
turtles in the EIA. Men asked for a comprehensive environmental
management plan. So the company commissioned in 2008 a study to the
National Institute of Oceanography in Goa to find out if dredging
would affect nesting beaches. The study would be complete in May 2009;
initial findings suggest erosion and accretion of the beaches is a
natural process and an annual cyclical phenomenon and cannot be
attributed to dredging at the port site. IUCN officials suggested
safeguard measures. Nicolas J Pilcher, co chair of IUCN's Marine
Turtle Specialist Group, said mitigation measures work well and the
company had taken a proactive stand in this regard. He added IUCN
brought the world's best science to the table, which would benefit the
project. But conservationists do not buy the explanation because the
mitigation measures are limited only to the Dhamra port site. "There
have been no impact studies on ancillary and downstream projects-ship
building yard, steel plant, fertilizer plant-as a result of port,"
said a report by Sudarshan Rodrigues and Aarti Shreedhar of ATREE. The
Orissa state government is planning 11 ports, including Dhamra. The
state wants to be on par with other maritime states and has proposed a
slngle window agency for development of ports and Inland waterways. At
this point, the Importance of regulations and safeguards cannot be
overstated.

The New Indian Express, 23rd May 2009

Cost of climate change in a financial crisis

The US President, Mr Barack Obama, has articulated the first three challenges of his Presidency. These are: the financial crisis, climate change and the war on terror. He has spelt out his target on climate change — an 80 per cent reduction in emissions in the US by 2050.Every CEO will also be faced with at least two of the challenges that Obama has named — the financial crisis and climate change. But how many CEOs would be willing to stay the course in addressing climate change during this financial crisis? It was far easier to talk about climate change when the price of oil was $150 /barrel, when consumers had the ability to pay and when corporates were generating large profits.There are many things common to both the crises. Both are man-made and are a consequence of living beyond our means, and both evolved dramatically over the last decade. The solution to both these crises will have many things in common. Their solutions will need people to curtail greed, and will take time to yield results, They will call for people to come together and lasting solutions will be painful. In short, the remedies to both crises will involve a lot of give and take. The key challenge would be to balance the short-term challenges of the financial crisis with the long-term challenges of climate change. Dealing with climate change needs capital. Power generation from renewable sources, for example, is about one-and-a-half times to four times more capital-intensive than fossil-fuel-based generation. In the current financial environment, where capital is so scarce and there is so much capital needed for the basic survival of major institutions, generation based on renewables could easily take a back-seat. This is the time when a new world order in the financial markets and climate change is being created. It is similar to re-writing some of the basic rules of global engagement. What is our position in India on these matters and in the related global dialogue?On the ground, in India, we have been consistently taking quiet but significant steps. Our energy intensity, which is the ratio of emissions/GDP, has been steadily dropping. Our pollution control norms are some of the most stringent in the world. We have introduced stringent emission norms for the auto industry. Fortunately, the impact of the financial crisis on India is limited and we should actually look at ways to capitalise on this advantage. The following should be in sharp focus in these recessionary times. Energy efficiency is one the key points of the Prime Minister's action plan on climate change. There have been many attempts made to gently persuade people to be more energy-efficient but such persuasion has hardly yielded results. Energy efficiency actually has a negative cost of abatement, which means that by saving on energy consumption one not only reduces emissions but also saves money. Unfortunately, it seems the country needs to move from persuasion to legislation. It needs to legislate on the kind of equipment that is allowed to be sold in the market. This means that all appliances sold would need to meet a certain minimum efficiency criteria. Having efficiency tags is not enough. Energy audits should be carried out regularly to ensure that industry does not waste precious energy. An energy efficiency trading platform, as articulated in the Prime Minister's action plan, should be introduced quickly.The national power transmission network should be strengthened as a priority. Power generation is a main contributor to emissions. Power policy in India has swung from a focus on generation to distribution and currently back to generation. Between these swings, transmission issues have conveniently been lost sight of. In India most energy sources, such as coal and hydel power, are in the East, and most consumption centres are located in the West, South and North. It is critical that power is generated close to where the fuel is and then wheeled to where the demand is.   Generation and trading of green power should be allowed on a countrywide basis, with renewable power targets across the country, as in Maharashtra. Clear incentives should be offered to those setting up power plants based on renewables. There is a 15 per cent shortage in peaking power but no policy to address it. Load-shedding is used as a tool to address peaking requirements The first priority would be to price peaking power at a substantially higher price so that people have an incentive to reduce consumption during peak hours. This is a good time to introduce the "time of the day" tariff regimeFollowing this, the setting up of peaking power plants close to load centres, such as towns and cities, should be encouraged.It is time to make improvements in biomass combustion efficiency. Twenty-seven per cent of India's national energy needs are met from biomass, which is the second largest source of energy in the country.Our present efficiency of converting biomass into useful energy is woefully low, at 5-6 per cent. There is hardly any surplus biomass available today The Prime Minister's action plan needs to focus on the development of technology for mass scale because there is a large multitude of people that survive using biomass-based fuels. As there is currently no value attributable to such biomass, it would be difficult to find commercially viable solutions. The government, therefore, will need to step inBiomass can also be used for decentralised power generation in rural areas. The so-called "free power" distributed to to the rural areas now actually 'costs' the country dear. Further, this "free power" is only made available for a few hours, mainly during night-time! But, in actual fact, the rural consumers are more than willing to pay about Rs 3 per unit, provided they get reliable power. Carbon capture and storage should be made a national mission. It is clear that the major source of energy for India, in the short term as well as the long term, will be coal. If we have to live with coal in a carbon-restrained economy, we would need to find a way to treat the CO2 emissions from coal-based power plants. The only way to address this problem is to strip the carbon from the emissions and then find a place to store it. As India is going to remain coal-dependent for a long time it is imperative that we assume global leadership in carbon capture and storage technology. There are a number of ways to continue on the path of dealing with climate change despite the financial crisis. What is important, however, is the change of mindset that has to be brought about when it comes to climate change. The present financial and ecological climate is the right opportunity to make people realise that it is an economic and environmental imperative that we learn to live within our means.

The Hindu, 20th  May 2009

Intensive farming at heart of flu crisis

In modern disaster management theory, when any large system experiences a major shock or failure, you assess the risk, activate an ordered emergency response, and manage the after-effects. In the world of real people hit directly by the real shock, you look for someone to blame. For ordinary Mexicans this week, who faced the shutdown of their country by swine flu and an unknown number of deaths, it was a culprit that was needed. The source of the current epidemic was easy to identify in their eyes. Near the town of La Gloria, east of Mexico City, which appears to be the epicentre of the flu outbreak, is a giant industrial pig complex jointly owned by the world's largest pig processor, Smithfield Foods. Smithfield is adamant that the swine flu epidemic is not of its making and has no connection to its factory farms in Mexico or in any of the countries where it has established its powerful presence. By the end of the week, the company had, like a besieged banker, gone into shutdown mode and declined to give interviews, but it issued a statement: "We have found no evidence of the presence of influenza virus in any of our pig herds or any of our employees at any of our worldwide operations. All our herds are tested regularly for disease including influenza. We routinely administer flu vaccines to protect them and conduct monthly tests to examine the presence and identity of different flu strains." When a young boy from La Gloria who had been ill in March became the earliest confirmed case of the current swine flu outbreak, following new tests by the U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC) on previously cleared samples from Mexico, Smithfield said it too was re-examining its herds. It was confident that it could reassure people who have been "bombarded by unfounded opinions, non-scientific statements and unrestrained internet rumour and speculation" that it was not the source. It declined to answer detailed press questions on its tests.Like the rest of the world watching a potential pandemic unfold as though in a slow-motion car crash, Smithfield could do little but wait to see how hard or soft the landing would be. Smithfield's predicament has not been helped by the fact that it has made itself somewhat conspicuous with its habits. It operates on a grand scale. The volume of its pig waste is extravagant. But just as one bank did not alone cause the financial crisis but merely conformed to the latest banking type, so it is the very nature of today's globalised meat industry that is at the heart of this swine flu pandemic. The factory unit near La Gloria fattens nearly a million pigs a year. Globally Smithfield slaughtered 26 million pigs in 2006, generating sales of $11.4bn and profits of $421m. It already controls over a quarter of the total U.S. processed pork market and it has expanded by acquisition in Europe. Like the banking sector, the global food system has seen the emergence of unprecedentedly large players that are dominant at every stage of production from pig breeding to bacon slicing. The modern food system has a sophistication and global interdependence to match the financial system, too. It looks too big to fail. But like that sector, it is also extraordinarily fragile and vulnerable to shock. Many of the shocks are likely to be of its own making. Smithfield's intensive factories of densely packed hogs, like those of the rest of the large-scale industry, produce vast lagoons of foul-smelling discharges. In many of the areas where it has sited its factory farms or slaughtering and processing complexes, activists and locals have campaigned against it, accusing it of environmental pollution, labour rights abuses and in some places operating without proper permits. The people of La Gloria have had long run-ins with the company's nearby subsidiary Granjas Carroll. When 60 per cent of the town's population became ill in March with flu-like symptoms, they quickly blamed the pigs. Swine flu is currently being passed from human to human, and it is possible that this particular strain of swine flu was created without ever seeing a pig directly, as U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) experts on animal health point out. The FAO has, however, dispatched a surveillance mission to help the Mexicans check their pig herds. But the focus on Smithfield is not surprising given its history. It won notoriety a decade ago when two of its US subsidiaries were given the largest ever environmental fines by the government's Environmental Protection Agency, having to pay $12.6m for illegally discharging pollutants from its operations in to the Pagan river in Virginia. It had committed more than 5,000 violations of permit levels for discharging faecal coli forms, phosphorus, ammonia, cyanide and oil from its pig factories over more than five years, destroying fish stocks and polluting water tables. Even more troublingly, it was also found guilty of falsifying documents and destroying records. And as expert labs continued their forensic work through the week, the ancestry of this latest strain of flu and its connection with modern intensive pig farming in general if not with any farm in particular was established. By Wednesday night the reason why scientists had pressed the full flu alert button even though only a few hundred cases outside Mexico, almost all mild at that point, had appeared, also became clearer. At CDC the head of virology had completed the genetic fingerprinting of the swine flu and was able to say that it has arisen from a strain first identified on industrial pig units in North Carolina in the late 1990s. It is no coincidence that this threat to global human health should have emerged from that particular state, as Michael Greger, director of public health at the U.S. Humane Society and leading author on the history of bird and animal flu explains: "North Carolina has the densest pig population in North America and boasts more than twice as many corporate swine mega-factories as any other state. With massive concentrations of farm animals within which to mutate, these new swine flu viruses in North America seem to be on an evolutionary fast track, jumping and reassorting between species at an unprecedented rate." Novel human disease is the toxic debt of today's industrial livestock farming. The influenza virus has eight genetic segments. If two different types of flu infect the same cell at the same time, the genes from both viruses mix, swapping segments to form totally new hybrids. In Mexico as in many poorer countries, industrial pig and poultry farms are increasingly sited close to crowded urban populations, making simultaneous infection by different flu strains more likely. The 1918 flu pandemic was an H1N1 strain and was a kind of bird flu new to humans so they had no immunity to it. It killed at least 50 million people as it raged around the world in less than a year. The 1918 H1N1 strain passed from humans to pigs, and became the dominant form of flu among pigs, albeit one that evolved into a fairly mild strain. But then in 1998 there was an explosive new outbreak of swine flu in a factory farm in North Carolina that made thousands of pigs ill. The virus had evolved into a triple hybrid that had never been seen before, containing gene segments from bird, human and swine flu. It had found the ideal breeding ground. Pigs, whose immune systems were suppressed by the stress of crowding and fast feeding, and kept confined indoors, were perfect disease incubators for flu whose preferred method of transmission is virus-infected aerosol droplets, expelled by the million in the hog's famous barking cough. Thanks to the modern practice of transporting live animals, the new virus spread rapidly through pig herds around the country. Six of the eight genetic segments of today's swine flu outbreak isolated by CDC experts can be traced back to the triple hybrid from North Carolina. Factory animal farming has developed as a giant ecological credit bubble. It has delivered enormous growth in global meat production over the last three decades. Consumers have happily bought its cheap products just as they gobbled up the freely-offered loans of the financial boom without asking too closely how such consumption could be sustained or what the eventual consequences might be. Swine flu should make us question that complacency. Jan Slingenbergh, a senior animal health officer at the FAO believes the precise final evolution of the current virus may never be found. "We don't know, but what is most likely is that a human was infected by a common flu virus and at the same time with a second virus which had elements probably from pigs and they mixed to form a new virus. The last bit of human mixing probably took place around mid-March in Mexico." Slingenbergh is sceptical that a link will be found to the Granjas Carroll factory. The current virus may now progress as a mild strain and die down or it may mutate and evolve further to become more virulent. The reason experts have invested so much effort in preparing for a flu pandemic and are taking this one so seriously, is that these rapidly evolving strains that mix bird, pig and human forms could throw up a particularly deadly variety. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

The Hindu, 4th May 2009 

Computers adding to global warming

Greenhouse gases produced by big computer warehouses, including those powering the Internet, threaten to overtake those by the airline industry by year 2012-2015, adding significantly to global warming/climate change. The best energy management practices demand data centre energy efficiency and sustained interface between the IT professionals and energy management professionals, according to Mr S. Kumar Deepa, a member of the Society of Energy Engineers and Managers (SEEM) and an Energy Technologist at the Energy Management Centre, Kerala. Computer data centres, the vast collection of computers that power everything from online banking to data entry operations, consume an incredible amount of energy. Each of those large cabinets standing tall in these centres represent a rack of processing power, which generates a lot of heat. This heat is sought to be controlled by air-conditioning, which in turn involves use of huge amounts of energy. On an average, every kWh of electricity used for processing IT loads translates into another kWh of electricity for the supporting physical infrastructure such as UPS (uninterrupted power supplies), PDUs (power distribution units), chillers, air handlers, pumps and other devices. Power demand in 2005 (including for additional infrastructure) was equivalent in capacity terms to about five 1,000 MW power plants for the US and 14 such plants for the rest of the world. Total electricity bills for operating these servers and associated infrastructure in 2005 was about $2.7 bn and $7.2 bn for the US and the world respectively, Mr Kumar Deepa says. Reports suggest that the energy consumed by data centre servers and related infrastructure equipment worldwide has doubled between 2000 and 2005. Energy managers need to create a strategic road map for reducing energy consumption in data centres and IT firms. Data centres are a relatively easy target due to the very high density of energy consumption and ease of measurement in comparison to other, possibly more significant areas of IT energy use. Policy makers have identified IT and specifically data centre energy use as one of the fastest rising sectors. The flaring of energy prices in the recent past had one unintended but salutary impact on data centre managers – it substantially impacted their business models and triggered changes in the way data centre capacity is charged for commercially. The use of best energy management practices and the best available technology to process digital information, such as energy efficient computer servers and visualisation server software apart from removing the heat rejected from the data centre equipment in an energy efficient manner, provides an opportunity to improve data centre energy efficiency significantly. Environmental impact of data centres has become a significant issue for both operators and policy makers. Data centre operators are now grappling with the issues of energy security, costs and energy availability like never before. This is especially so given the pressures of fossil fuel availability, generation and distribution capacity and uncertainties surrounding the environmental energy policy.

The Hindu, 30th   March 2009

Nod for Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary

The proposed Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary in the district has become a reality. The State Wildlife= Board approved the new sanctuary at its meeting in the State capital on March 2. With this, the State will have 13 wildlife sanctuaries, apart from three national parks. Top sources told The Hindu here on Wednesday that the Wildlife Board chaired by the vice-chairman Benoy Viswom, who is also the Forest Minister, took the decision. Now the government would issue orders for the declaration of the new sanctuary. The orders would be issued only after looking into the aspect whether it would breach the model code of conduct with the announcement of the parliamentary elections. Sometimes the order would be issued only after the elections, the source said.P.K. Mohanty, Principal Secretary, Forest and Wildlife; T.M. Manoharan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, and K.P. Ouseph, Chief Wildlife Warden, among others, took part in the meeting. The decision was taken in the absence of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who is the chairman of the Wildlife Board, he said. The formation of the new wildlife sanctuary in north Kerala is expected to give a thrust to the tourism industry besides generating employment to hundreds of local people. The sanctuary, covering 75 sq km, falls in the limits of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The area is an integral part of the Wayanad Elephant Reserve under Project Elephant. The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, spread over 344 sq km, is another important sanctuary which falls in the Nilgiri Biosphere.The region of the new wildlife sanctuary consists of the Pannikootur reserve forests of the Peruvannamoozhi range and Karapara; Olathuki, Shankaranpuzha and the Attikkode vested area. The total area covers 74.24 sq km. Initially, the proposal was to carve out a new wildlife sanctuary consisting of the forest areas in and around Kakkayam in Kozhikode district and its adjoining forest tracts in Wayanad district.Kakkayam and Peruvannamoozhi reservoirs will be in the new sanctuary. The area has a marvellous diversity of flora and fauna. The lion-tailed macaque, brown palm civet, elephants, guars, tigers, leopards, flying squirrels and Nilgiri Langur, the Kerala laughing thrush, oriental darter, grey-headed bulbul, Malabar parakeet, small sunbird, and white-bellied blue flycatcher have been reported in the region. Over 100 butterfly species apart from a wide range of reptiles have been recorded in the new sanctuary.

 

The Hindu, 5th  March  2009

Ban lifted on Chinese toys

In a surprise move, India on Monday announced that it had lifted the ban on import of toys from China provided they conform to international safety norms. India had on January 23 banned the import of Chinese toys for six months on grounds of public health and safety. According to a public notice by the Commerce Ministry, imports of toys from China will be allowed if they conform to the standards prescribed in 'ASTM F963' or 'ISO 8124 (parts I-III) or IS 9873 (parts I-III).' These regulations primarily deal with safety and health hazards. The government further stated that the imports from China will have to be accompanied by a requisite certificate from laboratories accredited to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). Following the restrictions on toys, the Chinese media had reported that Beijing was contemplating dragging India to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) challenging the ban. However, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath had said the ban was WTO-compatible. The toys market in India is estimated at Rs. 2,500 crore while the volume-driven, price-competitive Chinese toys are estimated to control 70 per cent of the global toys market.

 The Hindu, 3rd March  2009

Radioactive contamination in steel: a wake-up call

Regulatory authorities have identified Indian steel products contaminated with cobalt-60 in the U.S., Germany, France and Sweden. The events occurred at disturbingly high rates."Overall, 123 shipments of contaminated goods have been denied entry to U.S. ports since screening began in 2003, according to Homeland Security data. Of those, 67 originated in India, 23 came from China and 20 were from Canada" (The Los Angeles Times, November 13, 2008). We cannot ignore this wake-up call. In the last three years, out of the 500 incidents, involving uncontrolled radiation sources, which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came to know, 150 were related to sources found in scrap metal or contaminated goods.The finding in Germany is attracting more attention. On August 19, last year customs officers identified a container of contaminated stainless steel bars from India on way to Russia. They ordered that the container be put back on the ship immediately and be sent back to India (SPIEGEL ONLINE, February 16).There were several such findings later; The German Environment Ministry received 19 findings which included radioactive bars, steel cables, chippings and valve housings from 12 states. SPIEGEL reported that a total of 150 tons of contaminated steel has been seized. Some of it, about 85 tons, according to a reliable source, have been sent back to India. Rest of it remains in Germany pending a decision on its safe disposal. One of the possible practices is to use the items depending on their radiation levels in fencing or in bridges where the occupancy is less. Imported metal scrap After a thorough survey, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) concluded that the steel products in the recent incidents were made out of imported metal scrap which contained radioactive material. India imports more than 80 per cent of stainless steel metal scrap for recycling in the steel industry. Also most of the contaminated material was exported.The health consequences from these products were negligible, as the radiation levels were low. But the presence of even low radiation levels is not desirable. We do not have any estimate of the humongous economic losses including loss of business suffered by the industry. In some instances, the defaulters had to ship back the rejected material for safe disposal.In spite of regulatory control, radioactive sources get lost occasionally. These may be melted along with other metal scrap. The steel products include handle bars, manhole covers, metal straps, steel wires, lift buttons, metal strips used in leather bags etc. Sources licensed for use in India are unlikely to get into metal scrap, because of regulatory measures in place. However since there were a few instances of loss of control of sources, there is no room for complacency. Presently, we have no firm assurance that contaminated imported scrap will not enter the country. Several measures including the plan to install radiation monitors at shipping ports through which bulk of the imported scrap metals enter the country must be implemented swiftly. Precautions Every importer of metal scrap should obtain a certificate from the exporting country that the scrap is free from radioactivity. A multilayer radiation check system proposed by AERB should be followed to prevent the import and export of radioactive contaminated material.During this week, over 300 specialists from 62 countries including India are attending a five day International Conference on Control and Management of Inadvertent Radioactive Material in Scrap Metal, organized by the IAEA at Tarragona, Spain. The delegates asserted "that further steps are needed to protect people from radioactive material that can end up in junks and scrap yards," (IAEA release, Feb 23).

The Hindu, 26th February 2009

Scientists to working to clone Pashimna goat

A team of scientists from Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana are working on a project to clone the famous pashmina goat, the success of which is expected to give boost to the dwindling trade in the sought-after fur. Under a World Bank aided project, the scientists from Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and National Dairy Research Institute will use somatic cells from the ear of a goat to produce the clone. "The work on cloning of pashmina goat has begun under an ambitious World Bank aided project – National Agriculture Innovation Project – in joint partnership between National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST)," Assistant Director Research, Animal Sciences, SKUAST, Dr Farooq Ahmed said. Sanctioned by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, the project comprises four components and has been granted Rs 9 crore aid by the World Bank. Out of this, SKUAST will get Rs 1.80 crore and rest will be given to NDRI, Dr Ahmed said. The project 'Value Chain on Zone Free Cloned Embryos Production and Development of Elite Germ Plasma Pashmina' hopes to change the pashmina production scenario in the state. Dr Ahmed said a six-member team will use somatic cells of the goat to clone the cell to produce new pashmina goat using a hand-guided cloning technique and the four-phased project would run for next three years. The scientists would use small tissues from the ear of the goats to start the cloning mechanism. The oocytes (female eggs involved in reproduction) isolated from ovaries would be matured in-vitro (outside the womb and in a lab) and treated with enzymes to clear its outer coating. The egg will then be isolated with the help of a hand held fine blade. Then somatic cells from the ear of a donor goat will be electro fused with oocytes, grown in the laboratory for a week and the resultant embryos would be transferred to recipient goats for the production of the offspring of desired gender. One goat gives birth to one offspring a year and a maximum of five in her lifetime but under the cloning methodology, one goat can give birth to over 50 offsprings. There are over 1,50,000 pashima goats in Chanthang plateau in Ladakh region, which contribute to 90 per cent of pashima wool production in the country. There are 36,000 artisans associated with pashmina industry in Ladakh and Kashmir Valley and due to downfall in production, the industry is battling for survival.

 

 The New Indian Express, 21st February 2009 

International conference on Biotechnology

Biotechnology is currently considered as an useful alternative to conventional chemical process technology in industrial, analytical, environmental, agricultural, food and medical fields, said S F D'Souza, scientist of Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,(BARC) Mumbai.He was delivering the keynote address at the international conference on 'Impact of Microbial Biotechnology in Indian Industry'organised by the MET's School of Engineering, Mala, in the district here on Tuesday.He said that enzyme and microbial biotechnology has influenced the process industry significantly by improvement of existing processes towards achieving better quality product at reduced cost as also in the production of unique products.Pressure on industry to operate within environmentally compatible limits has also been a stimulus to the increased use of biotechnology.

The New Indian Express, 4th February 2009

U.S.-India sign pact on biofuels

India and the United States on Tuesday inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in production and marketing of biofuels in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner and in accordance with national priorities and socio-economic development goals.A statement from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said eight specific areas were identified for collaborative activities. Biofuel feedstock production based on sustainable biomass would be carried out with active involvement of local communities through non-edible oil seed-bearing plantations on wastelands.Under the MoU, thrust would be on production and development of quality planting materials and high sugar containing varieties of sugarcane, sweet sorghum, sugar and cassava. Besides this, other areas of cooperation are advanced conversion technologies for first generation biofuels and emerging technologies for second generation biofuels, technologies for end-use applications in the sector based on a large-scale centralised approach and stationary applications in rural areas and industry for motive power and electricity production.

The Hindu, 4th February 2009

Chinese toys banned

To protect the domestic industry from cheap imports and dumping, India on Friday banned import of toys from China. The ban, notified by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, will remain valid for six months. However, the government gave no reason for slapping the ban. China's toy industry has come under close scrutiny since millions of goods were recalled globally last year amid fears that they were made with toxic lead paints or had dangerous design flaws.

The Hindu, 23rd January 2009
 

Robot suit for elder farmers

Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a robot suit designed to help
reduce the heavy burden of harvesting as the nation's farm industry
faces an aging, shrinking workforce. Researchers at Tokyo University
of Agriculture and Technology demonstrated a prototype wearable
assistance machine equipped with weight motors and 16 sensors. The 25
kg device is designed who need support for their leg muscles and
joints when they keep a crouching position or lift their arms high.

The Hindu, 10th January 2009