Undp Aids Green Rating Study Of Indian Industry

The United nations Development Programme is sponsoring a green rating study of the Indian industry. It has sanctioned $2,50,000 to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), non-government organisation, for the purpose.

The project will build a profile of the Indian industry in terms of environmental measures that are being taken, the extent to which the industry is environment friendly, what environmental management principles are being observed and what plans they have in this regard.

The industry-wise environment profile of this kind, it is said, is being prepared for the first time in the country. The study is covered under the first sub-programme, of the UNDP environment programme, for which the support document was signed between India and the UNDP in September last year.

 

According to a World Bank study by Carter Brandon and Kirsten Hommann, environmental degradation in India necessitates health-care worth $7 billion per year. Another World Bank study on Thai, Indonesian and some other economies showed pollution load of developing nations increased ten-fold with the doubling of the gross domestic product. This is because environmental degradation is inbuilt in the development process, unless safeguards are taken.

The green rating of the industry under the current scheme will focus on relative performance of Indian industries, on the basis of their environmental compatibility.

The target areas of the study will be industrial and urban pollution, waste management and management of environment standards.

The idea is to disseminate information on the subject for the benefit of investors, environment managers and consumers. This will benefit investors who may be then inspired to adopt state-of-the-art technologies. The amount sanctioned for the purpose covers the CSEs work for the first five years. A CSE release said the documents were recently signed by UNDP resident representative Brenda Gael McSweeney, finance joint secretary Gajendra Haldia, UNDP associate administrator Rafeeuddin Ahmed and finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia.