Sustainability Outlook Headlines

India Protests to Prevent UN Stopping Supply of HFC-23 Carbon Credits

 India, the world’s second-most populous nation, lodged a formal complaint to prevent the United Nations emissions market regulator from stopping issuances of credits derived from projects that cut hydrofluorocarbon-23 gas.

“India considers such steps to be violative of the rights and obligations of parties under the Kyoto Protocol and has lodged formal protest with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat” in Bonn, according to a statement from Environment Minister Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan.

Five Indian projects that destroy the gas, which traps about 11,... Read more..

Agri institutions team up as climate threat turns real

 Climate change and its adverse effects on Indian agriculture are now a reality. These effects take the form of drought, frost, flooding, increases in temperature and fewer but intense rainy days, and are being studied by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and other institutions in 100 selected districts across the country.

One of those districts, Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh, was found to have turned 'arid' from 'semi-arid' over the last thirty years.

According to SP Wani, who coordinates a project on water management at the Icrisat (International Crops... Read more..

Pak moves international court to stall J&K power project

Pakistan has filed a petition in the Court of Arbitration (CoA), The Hague, seeking an order to ask India to put on hold construction on the Kishenganga project till the final decision of the court.Constructed by the National Hydel Power Corporation at Gurez, close to the LoC, the 330MW hydroelectric project has been dogged in controversies. Pakistan wanted it should not come up, the militancy added to the indecision of the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir. The Rs3642.04 crore project is scheduled to be completed by 2015.
According to sources in the ministry of water and power, a... Read more..

'Indian firms lax in corporate responsibility'

Most Indian companies give out information on corporate responsibility as a part of their annual reports but very few of them take it seriously, says a survey by consulting firm KPMG. Only 16% of India's top 100 listed firms have a corporate responsibility (CR) strategy with well defined objectives and targets in place, says the survey.

"Some of the companies who have the best CR reporting strategy include ITC, NTPC, ONGC, Taj Group, Infosys, Ultratech cement, Tata Motors, SAIL, Larsen & Toubro, Dr Reddy Labs and Reliance Industries," the survey said.

Construction and... Read more..

Bananas Ship on Cooled Ingersoll Trucks as India Works to Limit Food Waste

About a third of Ayannan Karuppaiah’s 75-ton banana crop used to rot before it reached the market about 300 miles (480 kilometers) away in Chennai, India. Now, his fruit is eaten in the Middle East.

Karuppaiah transformed his business after buying a refrigerated truck from Ingersoll-Rand Plc (IR) two years ago. The vehicle, modified to handle narrow roads and temperatures that can reach about 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), enabled Karuppaiah to get his bananas blemish-free to Bangalore and Chennai, where he sells them wholesale for export to the United Arab Emirates... Read more..

Scientists help combat pests on cashew trees

With the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) stepping up efforts to increase cashew production in the nation, agricultural scientists in Goa are framing programmes to bail out farmers from a variety of pests in the state's cashew plantations.

Towards this, a programme to help farmers deal with the cashew stem and root borer (CSRB) pestin cashew has been devised.

Globally, the demand for cashew nuts has been on the rise, so have been the prices. But, the unchecked invasion of CSRB pest has eaten into the profits of farmers in the state, who have already been... Read more..

IBM India does its bit for the Ganga

 Given the tonnes of sewage and filth that have accumulated in the Ganga over the years, this may seem to be a drop in the ocean. Nevertheless, technology major IBM India is working with IIT-Kharagpur to develop data models that can help predict floods, the movement of water tables, the shifting of water beds, floods and droughts—factors which affect the health of people and crops, and safety along the river Ganga.

“The project is based on the shared university research (SUR) model, a global programme that promotes academia-corporate partnership to address challenging problems faced... Read more..

India could be our largest portfolio in next 12-18 months:Fred Hochberg, Chairman & President, Export-Import Bank of the US

 When the credit markets seized up in late 2008, the US government took a series of steps including boosting liquidity by the Federal Reserve. A lesser known initiative during that period was the appointment of Fred Hochberg, chairman and president, Export-Import Bank in early 2009. 

The US Ex-Im has the mandate to double the country's exports in five years and also create jobs, focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Promoting SMEs has hardly been on the radar of US policy-makers in an economy with thriving multinational companies. But Mr Hochberg has taken the mandate... Read more..

India next big destination for solar energy

India is turning into the next big destination for solar energy, with demand for solar systems rising in the developing world, including China.  The move to cleaner energy got a further fillip on Wednesday, when India and Germany signed an agreement to set up one of the world's biggest solar energy station in Dhule district of Maharashtra.

For this, the German government owned development bank KfW has approved a loan of Rs 1,600 crore for a 125 MW solar power station. The total cost of the project would be Rs 2,370 crore. 

"Developing the use of solar energy sources not only... Read more..

India likely to see about 1 mn "green jobs" in next two years

The fast-growing green energy sector is expected to create about one million new jobs in the country over the next two years, offering employment opportunities in diverse areas, feel experts.

Increasing environmental awareness, growth of global carbon markets and the rise of green buildings and the like will eventually mean employment opportunities for lawyers, policy writers, carbon finance consultants, business risk analysts, architects and engineers adept in green building norms.

As green jobs exist in all sectors, this means more engineering, more construction and more... Read more..

New body for environmental clearances: PM - Kerala Next

The government will set up an environmental assessment and monitoring authority to streamline the process of environmental clearances, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday.

'Preserving our environment even as we develop rapidly is a huge challenge for us. Climate change poses a threat to both our development processes and our natural resources,' he said in his Independence Day address.

As the debate over development and environment continues, Manmohan Singh said: 'In the coming months we will constitute an environmental assessment and monitoring authority to streamline... Read more..

Smart toilets may prove a boon for school girls

Mid-day meals and cash incentives aside, a basic unfulfilled need – of toilets – is a key reason for girls dropping out of schools in India.

According to the Annual Status of Education Report, 2009, only 50 per cent Government and private schools in 575 out of 583 districts in India have toilets. Four out of 10 Government schools do not have separate toilets for girls and even where there are, 12-15 per cent are locked and only 30-40 per cent are “usable”.

Now, a Kerala-based company, Eram Scientific Solutions, has come up with a novel idea which may be a boon for school... Read more..