Eight get TERI awards

New Delhi, Jun 26 (UNI) A spices and masala manufacturing company from Erode shared the stage with corporate giant Hindustan Lever and six others as they bagged The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) awards today in recognition of excellence in environmental protection and for fulfilling social responsibility.

President A P J Abdul Kalam gave away the awards, also shared in various categories by the Singareni Collieries, Northern Coalfields, the Madras Aluminium Company, Mecpro Heavy Engineering Ltd, Usha Martin and Solaris Chemtech Ltd.

While Sakthi Masala Ltd from Erode, Tamil Nadu, was honoured for its unique recruitment policy whereby 1/3rd of its workforce today is differently-abled men and women, HLL got the prize for marketing under the brand name 'Vindhya Valley' papad, pickle and other food products manufactured by village women in Madhya Pradesh.

The eight companies were chosen by a nine-member jury chaired by former Chief Justice of India J S Verma from among 152 applications, said a spokeswoman for TERI -- which started the Environmental Excellence and Corporate Social Responsibility awards in 2001.

Speaking on the occasion, the President expressed hope that the function would ''motivate many in the corporate sector towards certain special missions''.

In this regard, he called upon the corporates to come forward in realising Energy Independence for the country through increased tapping of non-conventional and other energy sources.

''The world energy forum has predicted that fossil based oil, coal and gas reserves will last for less than ten decades,'' he said, pointing out that energy was an important parameter for development.

The President said that as against the present five per cent, 25 per cent of future energy needs have to generated through renewable sources of energy such as wind power, biomass, power through municipal waste and solar thermal power.

The Missile man made special mention of solar power which could be used on a massive scale in the agricultural sector, ''where farmers need electricity exclusively in the daytime''.

''We need to embark on a programme in solar energy systems and technologies, for both large, centralized applications as well as small, decentralized requirements concurrently, for applications in both rural and urban areas''.

Efforts should be made to create a ''rural household solar mission'' which would provide lED-based nano crystal lighting system through small solar PV Power Points to the 70 million households presently using kerosene oil for lighting, he said.

''I am sure that this project will provide a very good business opportunity for energy industrialists''.

Dr Kalam also called upon the scientific community to develop Carbon Nano Tube (CNT)-based Photo Voltaic (PV) cells with an efficiency of at least 50 per cent. This work should be completed within three years so that their commercial production could start within five years, he said.

Since the transportation sector was the fastest growing energy consumer, there was need for innovation and work towards production of bio-fuels, hydrogen-based fuel and electric-powered vehicles also, he added.

There was also scope for collaboration with local authorities for generation of as much as 6,000 MW of power by setting up 900 electric power plants across the country fueled by municipal waste, he said.

Corporates should also come forward for productive use of the over 100 million tonnes of flyash generated by thermal power plants per year, he said.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, TERI Director General R K Pachauri and Hero Honda Group Chairman Brijmohan Lall Munjal were among others present on the occasion.

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