BE GREENER TO GET THE GREENBACK

Gaurie Mishra & Neha Kohli

IT ISN’T often small companies beat their big brothers hollow in exploiting a business opportunity. But India Inc’s Liliput brigade are doing just that by trading carbon credits to shore up their toplines as well as bottomlines. The idea is simple: Invest in eco-friendly technology, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and trade in the certified emission reduction (CER) units that one obtains in doing so. For smaller companies, it means mega bucks - there are cases where net profits have jumped as much as 300%. Significantly, around three-quarters of the registered clean development mechanism (CDM) projects from India is by smaller companies having a turnover of below Rs 1,000 crore. Big corporates such as Reliance, ONGC and A B Birla group have been late entrants and hold just about 30% of the registered CDM projects. An official of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) says that considering India’s economic boom will be lead by small, emerging companies amid growing recognition that growth has to be environmentally sustainable, “we can only expect more and more small-scale units to add up CERs and make a moolah out of it”.

IMAGE IMPACT

Today, smaller Indian companies are looking for new markets abroad. They need access to technology, brands and a platform to sell their products. Often credibility comes in the way. With international presence being the norm of the day, carbon credits could add to the image of a company, as it is considered being responsible and eco-friendly. Needless to say, such an image helps in bagging export orders and helps get incentives in the host country as well. Says Deepak Asher, executive director of Gujarat Flouro Chemicals: “It is a win-win proposition. Host countries like India stand to gain through sustainable development and it also helps developing countries get more revenues. Companies across sectors and irrespective of their size also stand to gain.”

TOPLINE IMPACT

Of the six greenhouse gases, the largest carbon dioxide equivalent producer is HFC23, which is produced as a by-product in refrigerant gas-making. One tonne of HFC23 is equal to 11,700 tonnes of CO2. Medium-sized companies in India, such as SRF, Gujarat Flourochemicals etc., have registered their projects under the clean development mechanism. The carbon credits produced by these companies are in excess of their respective turnovers. Most recently, Navin Fluorine, another refrigerant-maker, will be able to sell over 2.8 million certified emission reductions (CERs) or carbon credits annually in the international market. At a conservative average price of $14 per credit revenue, the sale of CERs may fetch as much as $40 million or Rs 180 crore each year for the company for a period of 10 years. This is over 82% of the company’s total turnover of Rs 233 crore in fiscal 2005-06. Automotive tyre-maker Apollo Tyres has also managed to ramp up its bottomline by Rs 3 crore in the last one year. In sectors like cement manufacturing, co-generation in sugarcane mills, wind mill projects and recovery of waste heat at standalone units have, so far, been tapped by only smaller companies. Significant among the emerging firms in these sectors include Shree Cement, India Cement, J K Cement and Rajshree Cement. Other smaller CDM projects are by companies like Sai Engineering Foundation and Chambal Power. Other companies that have benefited are Gujarat Alkalies, Gujarat NRE Coke, JSW Holdings, Chemplast Sanmar, National Fertilisers, Torrent Power, MSP Steel and Balrampur Chini. They have either issued or are in the process of issuing CERs. Experts say the expected increase in the bottomline ranges anywhere from 39% to 173% for these companies.

FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE

Richard L Sandor, chairman and CEO of the Chicago Climate Exchange, recently told ET that India will “move quickly” in the future to capture a large part of the carbon credit market. “India’s future is significant. India continues to grow its economy at an impressive rate and one expects its CO2 emission to increase rapidly. At the same time, there is a tremendous recognition among Indian corporates on the need for environmentally-sustainable growth. Trading experience on platforms such as CCX and first-mover advantage will be attractive to many Indian corporates,” he said. CCX has tied up with TERI for India. “Significant amount of CDM will be produced in India. Some of the credits can be hedged in European markets and sold when the prices are good. On CCX, Indian corporates can join as liquidity providers and have the option to buy credits in the US, Brazil and China. Companies with subsidiaries in these countries can buy or sell credits on the respective exchanges,” Sandor added.

WHAT’S CARBON TRADING THE IDEA OF TRADE IN CERs

took shape after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It mandates GHG emission caps on industrialised countries, which have ratified it, but also allows them to buy a greener nation's GHG emission levels. Which means, a CER can be earned by reducing emissions through eco-friendly practices, or, in other words, a country with an emission cap can buy a CER from a developing country that doesn't face a cap. And that's where India comes into the picture as a seller of CERs under the (clean development mechanism) CDM of the legal framework of the protocol. CDM allows for company projects in developing countries, with no mandated emission reduction targets, to trade in CERs with countries that have such targets. One CER is equivalent to a reduction of one tonne of carbon.

source: The Economic Times

Government plans workers’ university

Urmi A Goswami NEW DELHI
THE INDUSTRY will have to contribute financially if it wants workers whose skills match its needs. The government is considering setting up a Workers’ Technical University that will ensure that India’s working population is able to meet the rapidly changing needs of the industry. The university will require a capital expenditure of Rs 500 crore to be set up, and Rs 100 crore annually after that. It has been proposed that trade unions, large, medium, and small industries and government all help fund the university. A four-member committee headed by G Sanjeeva Reddy, president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), submitted a feasibility report to the human resource development ministry in early May. On Friday, Dr Reddy met with HRD minister Arjun Singh, UGC chairman, AICTE chairman and ministry officials to discuss a roadmap for the proposed university. The university will not depend on just the government for its funding. One idea being toyed with is that trade unions commit 2% of wages, while large industrial enterprises will contribute 2% of their profit annually towards the university. Medium enterprises will required to give 1.5% of their profits, while small enterprises will allocate 0.5% of their profits annually to the university coffers. For this to be feasible idea, considerable finetuning would be required in terms of which industrial sectors would benefit and hence, contribute. Collecting a percentage of wages and profits would amount to an increase in tax rates. On the issue of management, the Reddy committee has suggested that the technical university could be managed by trustees comprising worker’s representatives. The committee has proposed that the university be based in Hyderabad with 13 regional centres and the entire network is expected to cater to nearly 3 lakh workers and students a year. Linkages with industrial and technical institutes (ITIs) will also need to be developed.


source: The Economic Times

The support is within you !!

There are times when you feel very dejected. It seems that every thing is falling against you..You feel depressed and just want to shut every thing and run away somewhere.

There are also times when you feel very happy. On cloud nine. As mentioned in the world famous and best seller book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, it seems that the whole world is conspiring to help you achive your goal.

But, is it actually that way? Happiness and sadness are all states of mind. Its our mind that decides whether to be happy or sad in a given situation.

The key is to remain steadfast. What is called "Sthita Pragna" in Sanskrit..

Below are the verses 54-72 of Chapter 2 ( Sankhya Yoga) from Bhagavad Gita. They have helped me many times to restore my cool in very precarious situations of my LIFE. Hope it would help you too .. The crux is to remain "Sthit Pragna".

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Arjuna said: O Krishna, what are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk?

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.

One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.

In the material world, one who is unaffected by whatever good or evil he may obtain, neither praising it nor despising it, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge.

One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness.

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them.

One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady intelligence.

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.

But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord.

For one thus satisfied [in Krishna consciousness], the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such satisfied consciousness, one's intelligence is soon well established.

One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Krishna consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?
As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence.

Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence.

What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires — that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still — can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.

A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego — he alone can attain real peace.

That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God.

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Thanking is a very small word, to express my gratitude towards my parents who instilled such things of atmost importance in me. This will help me, support myself, from within.. !!


Source for translation of verses: - http://www.krishna.com/gitaframeset/gita_frameset.html