8th Environmental Partnership Summit Responsible Business Practices for Sustainable Development Kolkata, 24th December 2014: “Establishment of customized R&D units to facilitate large industries along with SMEs is the need of the hour for conservation of the Environment”:Dr. Sudarsan Ghosh Dastidar, Hon’ble Minister –in –charge Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal Addressing the Inaugural session at the 8th Environment Partnership Summiton Responsible Business practices for Sustainable Development, the Chief guest Dr. Sudarsan Ghosh Dastidar, Hon’ble Minister –in –charge Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal talked about the interlink of economic growth and environmental degradation. India being a developing country the Economic development Agenda cannot be avoided. But to reduce the burden on environment, best technological practices need to be undertaken including green energy and greenbuilding measures. As most of the technological tools arebeing imported from advanced countries, it becomes really expensive for Indian industries to import those from abroad. He believes that being endowed with a large pool of human resources and skilled manpower, time has come up for India to set up its own R&D unit to invent technologies according to the customized business practices followed in India. If a proper R&D facilitation center is established, it will also help the SMEs along with large industries to execute environment friendly production procedures to simultaneously safeguard the environment. He feels that allstate Governments and industrial bodies must come forward and take the responsibility to protect the environment from all form of damages. He mentioned about a few new initiatives that have been introduced by Government of West Bengal to protect the nature. These include water conservation programme, green building initiative and also a new venture to convert the public health centers and schools of remote areas into solar power units. He suggested that the industries dealing with sponge iron should alter their production process using coal methane or some other form of raw materials to increase the energy efficiency. He announced that sponge iron being an important industry in West Bengal, Government is ready to partly finance the industrial stakeholders to come forward with these alternative practices. To promote such kind of conversion, the R&D sector needs to be restructured. The prominent scientists and academicians must be encouraged to carry out the smooth conversion from low end technology to high tech business practices. He said that West Bengal Government is keen to support the industries to come up with new solutions to execute sustainable business practices. The Guest Of Honour,Shri AshokeLavasa,IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Environment ,Forest and Climate Change, Government of India,while addressing the house mainly talked about the role of industries to save the environment from continuous damage . He mentioned that impact of climate change has always been a majorconcern. With the progress of industrialization the rivers are getting affected as most of the industries are set up along the banks of river. He believes that the responsibility to protect the environment is not somehow the responsibility of the industry alone, all parts of the society needs to perform their share of task. The growth needs to be calibrated in a fashion which doesn’t lead the environment to compromise, by finding out other alternative business practices. Reduction in ground water level, increase in pollution and deterioration in biodiversity have been the major reasons for environmental degradation. Toeradicate such destruction of environment, proper awareness needs to be imparted across all parts of society. He thinks as society is getting consumption and comfort oriented, human being himself is becoming the biggest threat to environment .He mentioned that Government is on the verge to fulfill some of its missions which are meant for protecting the environment from future degradation. He firmly believes that the industries also need to support Government to accomplishthese missions. He said that Government is trying to increase solar capacity from 3000 MW in 2014 to 100000 MW by 2020 which will be big stepping stone to conserve thermal power for sustainable management of coal. However industries need to be involved in this task in a big way. Definite compliance of rules and other legislative measures must be followed by industries as the rate of urbanization in India has been quite rapid. As 70%of urban infrastructure is yet to be built, it must be done with compliance of energy efficiency norms and building codes. Hestrongly believes that although maintaining energyefficiency involves cost, howeverenergy conservation is subjected to adaptability and attitude. He suggested that all big industries should consciously incorporate a chapter in their annual report on environmental sustainability and adaption of environment friendly practices. Industries must be focusing more on recycling of water and conservation of ground water by implementing modern production practices. The special guest,ShriChandanSinha,IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal, during his deliberations mainly talked about the process of getting environmental clearances by industries for new projects. He mentioned that two independent bodies comprising of state level expert Committee andSEIAA actually take care of the assessment and approval of projects through the Environment Department in West Bengal. He pointed out that one of the major reasons for the industries not to get the clearances is lack of compliance to the documentation. All necessary papers are not always submitted by the industries which actually create flaw in the process. He said that although CRZ is also a matter of concern, however it hardly takes 15-21 days for the department to approve if all other documentation is correctly placed. He stressed on the fact that the industries must take help form the consultants before preparing the project proposal to complywith the existing norms and regulations. He also feels that increased level of interaction between the industry and Government is necessary for easy execution of clearance procedure and for better understanding of the problems faced by industries. During his key note address,Mr. KalyanRudra, Chairman, Pollution Control Board focused on the engineering of conservation and control which will not only help to control the nature, but will also benefit the society. Extensive deforestation, indiscriminateuse of fertilizers and generationof non-biodegradable components have been putting continuous strain on the environment which needs to be tackled in a judicious way. The balancing of growth needs to be done in a sustainable manner. He believes that sustainable development is an evolving process and it needs to be linked with every species and also human being. The ecological balance need to be maintained so that the welfare of future generation doesn’t get mortgaged for development of present generation. Mr. Siddhant Kaul ,Senior Vice president, ICC and Dr.Rajeev Singh ,Director General ,ICC delivered the welcome address and formal Vote of Thanks respectively. Eminent speakers from environment background, banking and academic sectors, delegates and participants graced the day-long conference which majorly focused on several measures of risk reduction through environmental practices and waste management system.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 14:51:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015