Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Mineral mining surge threatens India's forests

 India faces a tough choice between preserving its forests and digging up the valuable minerals that lie beneath them. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Orissa State - home to 35 percent of India’s iron ore resources, which it is exploiting fast.

Orissa’s production of iron ore alone increased seven times in the decade to 2009, topping 77 million tonnes as global demand, particularly from China, drove export prices higher. The state is also rich in bauxite, chromites and coal, holding 55 percent, 95 percent and 24 percent of India's total deposits respectively.

Orissa has... Read more..

Flying high with non-food biofuel

A couple of days earlier, KLM Royal Dutch became the first airline in the world to operate a commercial flight, carrying 171 passengers, on bio-kerosene produced from used cooking fuel oil.

Boeing was also closely involved in making this possible. KLM said it would be operating at least 200 flights to Paris on bio-kerosene in September.

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India plans 550 mw of concentrated solar power by 2013

The German summer is usually cloudy and not warm enough to generate grid quality electricity from solar power. But this has not deterred technologists and researchers there to come up with high efficiency solar technologies suitable for countries in the so-called sun belt, such as India.

Solar photo voltaic (PV) technology has been used for long to generate power from the sun. But its use has remained limited because of its low efficiency and other constraints. Now, concentrating solar power (CSP) is emerging as a viable alternative.

Unlike PV cells which are flat, CSP... Read more..

NMC finally bans POP idols

Finally, the civic body has banned idols made of plaster of paris (PoP). Mayor Archana Dehankar approved the proposal during a special general meeting of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Thursday.

For the forthcoming festival season, the civic body will launch an awareness drive to urge citizens not to buy POP idols. "This year NMC has planned to promote environment-friendly Ganesh festival and avoid pollution of lakes by enforcing a total ban on sale and use of POP idols in city as they don't immerse in water, Archana Dehankar said.

"The NMC is trying to improve the... Read more..

Retailers to charge for shopping bags from Friday

Retailers will start charging for shopping bags anywhere between Rs 1-7 from Friday in line with the Government notification to charge customers for the plastic carry bags from 1st July 2011. This initiative will be first piloted in Mumbai before being rolled out across the country.

"Charging consumers the cost of plastic carry bags would lead to a substantial drop in consumption of plastic bags whilst at the same time allow flexibility to service consumers who are ready to pay, said Kumar Rajagopalan , CEO, Retailers Association of India (rai).

RAI, which represents... Read more..

US strongly supports NSG clean waiver for India: Roemer

The United States today said it "strongly and vehemently" supports the NSG clean waiver for India and hoped that the civil nuclear deal between the two countries will continue to move in a positive direction.

"I want to say that the US and the Obama Administration strongly and vehemently support the clean waiver for India. The 123 civil nuclear legislation also underscores our support for India in this debate that is going on and our law also points to the clean waiver for India," US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer told reporters here.

On his last day in office here, the... Read more..

Container-free wards scheme too expensive for PCMC

The PCMC's plan to have wards without garbage containers has proved too costly and the civic body has decided to do away with the scheme.

"The scheme was implemented in five wards," said R B Chavan, medical officer. "As per the scheme, no garbage containers is kept in the wards. One vehicle goes around collecting garbage which is then dumped at the Moshi garbage depot. Vehicles have to travel 10 to 20 km to dump the garbage and this is proving too costly, so we want to stop this scheme."

He said that health department employees are employed to lift the garbage in two wards... Read more..

Top paint brands in India, Nepal and Bangladesh continue to flout lead norms: Study

A study of 27 paints from India, Bangladesh and Nepal has shown dangerously high levels of lead, according to a report by Toxics Link, the NGO specializing in pollution abatement.

The tests were conducted on all the major paint brands in India (and the other two countries).

"Overall 63% of the paint samples studied were exceeding the US’s 90ppm limit by 422 times, 44% of samples exceeded the much relaxed Indian Standard limit of 1000ppm by over 54 times," the NGO, headed by Ravi Agarwal, said.

The study found relatively lower concentration of lead in paint sold in... Read more..

A flood of ideas to go green

India's thinking green. With more than 2,000 ideas and pledges already in, over 10,000 signing up for the Times of India-Garnier Take Care Take Charge (TCTC) campaign on Facebook, and the number of supporters growing by the day, the campaign looks all set to take charge real time. The flood of ideas has not only overwhelmed us, it has also encouraged us to to extend the last date for submission of entries to July 3, 2011.

From Mumbai to Chennai, Bangalore to Kolkata, citizens are putting on their green hats and have sent in some truly interesting ideas. One such is the idea from... Read more..

Water pumps to run on solar power

Concerned about prolonged power cuts in urban areas, the state drinking water and sanitation department ( DWSD) has decided to switch over to more reliable and eco-friendly systems to run its pumps. The department is set to use solar energy, which will not only run the pumps during power cuts but also protect the environment. Sources in the department said they face power cuts all through the year and that there are occasions when there is no power for days together. "During summer and monsoon the situation is grimmer.

In monsoon, transmission wires snap and transformers develop... Read more..

Shirdi's Prasadalaya achieves a first, using solar energy to make meals for d3 evotees

With an increasing focus on protecting the environment from the ravages of climate change, and promotion of alternative energies such as solar energy etc., the Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan Trust in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar District is taking the lead in this regard through its food service.

 
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The Sansthan's Prasadalaya, said to be Asia's biggest, has taken a conscious decision to use solar energy for cooking food for the tens of thousands of devotees that visit the place where the first Sai Baba is said... Read more..

Show of support: MLA to shift to house near dumpyard

Kaviarasu Kannadasan Nagar, which is less than a km away from the city's largest dumping yard in Kodungaiyur, will soon get a high-profile resident in the name of A Soundarajan, CPM-backed CITU's state general secretary and sitting MLA of Perambur. He has decided to move to Door No. 8 A, Meenambal Salai in a week, to express his solidarity with the locals' fight against dumping of waste. "I want to share the garbage woes of my constituents who wanted me to experience the trauma they undergo each day," Soundararajan told the elected council meeting at Ripon Buildings on Wednesday. The CPM... Read more..