Praful Patel exhorts industry to extend green processes from one end of chain to other

Heavy Industries and Public Sector Enterprises Minister Praful Patel has stressed on the need to balance development considerations with sustainability.

He exhorted industry to extend green processes from one end of the chain to the other.

Inaugurating the Third International Green Manufacturing Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Patel said that he was also open to CII help for strengthening the green rating component in public sector MoUs.

Patel also released the CII-BCG report on 'Green Manufacturing - Imperatives for Indian Industry' which outlines key action areas for the industry and the government to drive sustainability objectives in a structured and comprehensive manner.

Viewing 'green technologies' as a public good, Sutanu Behuria, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industries, stressed on the need for green technologies in the manufacturing process to catalyse sustainable growth and asked for suggestions on how the policy framework could enable affordability of such technologies.

Ajay Shriram, president-designate, CII, suggested that the government create industrial parks for the manufacture of green products. The National Investment and Manufacturing zones (NMIZs) could also have a dedicated space for green manufacturing, he added.

K Venkataramanan, Chairman, CII Manufacturing Council called upon the manufacturing sector to continuously explore how they can integrate sustainable, green practices into their processes and into the entire supply chain. Dr Arindam Bhattacharya, Vice Chairman, CII Manufacturing Council pointed out green manufacturing was a critical topic both in terms of competitiveness and future sustainability.

Earlier, welcoming the participants, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said that a focus on manufacturing was integral to the inclusive growth agenda of the government. He said the CII had taken up green and sustainable issues and capacity building in the industry in a sustained and committed manner through its Centres of Excellence.

A major step in this area has been the CII-GreenCo Rating System and recently in July, the first nine GreenCo Rated Companies were awarded. Currently, over 70 companies are working on the rating and many more companies have expressed their interest in the system.

The Summit is an initiative by CII to integrate green manufacturing processes into mainstream manufacturing activities and make the industry more sustainable and clean. The seminar focused on areas such as marketing and promoting green products, creating a value chain, role of IT as enablers, new and emerging technologies and innovation.