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CII, MSME Ministry and CPCB to promote higher environmental standards |
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Written by Arjun
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Friday, 07 December 2007 |
CII signs MoU with UNIDO for the benefit of Indian MSMEs
New Delhi: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) should assist the Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) for training of the consultants for 10,000 lean manufacturing MSME units in India, proposed Mr. Jawhar Sircar, IAS, Additional Secretary & Development Commissioner, MSME, Ministry of MSMEs at the International Conference on Environment and MSMEs, organised jointly by Ministry of Environment and Forests and CII. The Ministry of MSME has partnered with Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA) to conduct energy audits of MSMEs for next five years, said Mr. Sircar.
MSMEs should initiate environment standards as much quality standards since only 19 MSMEs out of 14687 units have received ISO 14001 certification for environment standards so far, he mentioned.
Dr. B Sengupta, Member Secretary, Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said that CPCB has initiated Corporate Responsibility and Environment Protection (CREP), which focuses on environment protection measures of MSMEs. Commenting on the measures to deal with the environmental challenges, Dr. Sengupta said that pollution prevention technology, especially air pollution in small industry and waste recycling through common effluent plant are being promoted by CPCB. Hazard Based Management and Pollution Prevention Management should be set up on Public – Private – Partnership mode to implement Pollution Prevention initiatives in MSMEs, said Dr. Sengupta.
The challenge for the MSMEs is to accept the high environmental standards and internalise them into business models, said Mr. Ramesh Datla, Co-Chairman, CII SME Forum, Managing Director, Elico Ltd. Proposing the points to constitute the main elements of an Environmental Policy of a MSME, he said that there should be binding and absolute emissions reduction commitments by the MSMEs. Use of carbon markets as a key tool should be extended to foster the much needed development and deployment of low carbon investments and technologies, said Mr. Datla. Cooperation on research, development and deployment of clean technologies must be scaled up and emissions from international aviation and maritime transport should be addressed, he said. Mr. Datla also mentioned deforestation and adaptation to climatic changes are other significant concerns for environmental issues.
Dr. K P Nyati, Principal Advisor, CII – ITC Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development, said that MSMEs should be creative and adaptive to innovation. More than 90% of global companies are MSMEs and their contribution to the economic growth of a country is crucial. Government should assist MSMEs to get carbon credits and a fund should be created for MSMEs to explore climate friendly technologies, Dr. Nyati mentioned. Industrial symbiosis should be framed with the formation of MSME clusters, where one industry can gain from the other industry’s waste,he said.
Mr. R C Jain, Director – Eicher, said that there is a real shift taking place in large sections of the business community who realise that strict environmental regulations are required to control environmental pressures.
The MSMEs must be part of the comprehensive UN agreement for global action to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the period after 2012, when Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period ends, added Mr. Jain.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between CII and UNIDO to take up consolidated project for SME development in India. Elaborating on the objectives of MoU, Ms. Sarita Nagpal, Director,CII said that the CII-UNIDO Development Project will promote direct foreign investment and industrial co-operation agreements, fostering investment and partnership of selected target market countries towards the MSMEs.
The MoU will facilitate and promote Investment, Development through cluster approach, Equity Financing, Technology and Subcontracting Partnerships between SMEs and International Potential Partners. The project will further upgrade and strengthen the existing capabilities and capacities of Indian SMEs through cluster twinning strategy. |
