Adopting the globally best environmental standards and practices for new units would give India a competitive advantage. Substantiate (200 Words)
Refer - Financial Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 4 years
KEY POINTS
· Apart from the ready availability of land with quality infrastructure and connectivity, speedy clearances are key to attracting global supply chains to India. The time taken in getting environmental clearance usually comes up at the top of the list of expected delays. The draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification is an attempt to address this problem.
· The EIA study for this should be undertaken with normal rigor and environment clearance obtained. India should adopt global best standards, say, of the European Union, for all new industrial units for air emissions, liquid discharge and solid waste. If a common effluent treatment is the most economical solution, it should be set up by the agency developing the industrial park.
· Sensor-based real-time measurement and logging of critical parameters of emissions into the air and of water discharge to the Pollution Control Board would ensure far better compliance than we have seen in the past.
· The softer option, in vogue, of permitting direct purchase of agricultural land for an industrial plant and granting land use change is not suitable for rapid industrialisation and should be discontinued. It also makes for weaker compliance of pollution control standards. Managing liquid discharge is a difficult challenge.
· Common effluent treatment plants in planned parks are the answer. Again, solid waste from industrial production needs to be collected and taken to proper disposal sites along with feasible recycling. This is best done in industrial parks.
· Thereafter, the government could create a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for each mine chosen for development and allocate the mine to it. These SPVs could assemble land and obtain environmental and forest clearance.
· Then these mine-specific SPVs with clearances can be taken over by the select private investor. The risk for the private investor would be far lower. The mine could go into production within two years. A similar SPV approach of assembling land, getting environmental and forest clearance for nearby steel and aluminium plants would also be equally beneficial.
