e solar panels at Srinivasan seker's house. .J

G • f . I)fcClll' ~f)reen satis action Itt~fJliJ 'd 1(:.

This home is freefrom clutter ofpower, water linesNivedltha Jain

BANGALORE:One can findfreedom from power cuts,mounting water bills, be-sides eliminate the need forclumsy sewage connections,if only he or she has thegreen will. The added bonuswill a lesser feeling of guiltover contributing to carbonfootprints.

Srinivasan Sekar, 50, hasdone just that. His eco com-rnitment has been such thathe does not mind the extraburden that the environment-friendly home that he builtputs on his personal finances.For, he believes that investingin Earth's cause can pay richdividends in the long run.

Sekar has built his two-storey house, that is pleasingin its architectural simplicity,on a 4,OOO-sqftplot at Som-pura near Sarjapur. It optimal-lyharnesses green energytechnologies. He recentlymoved into the new house andis not dependent on theBescom line or BWSSB's wa-ter or sewage connections.

Sekar, who quit his careerin the IT industry, has in-stalled 12solar panels on hisrooftop and they more thantakes care of the energy needsof the appliances in his house.Reuse and recirculation of wa-ter are his mantra so that useof the precious commodity isoptimised.

He began construction ofthe building iI;1April 2012. InAugust 2012, he started re-searching and conceptualisingthe green ideas. Sekar hasadopted the slow sand filtertechnology, approved byWorld Health Organisation,for clean drinking water.

The drinking water isreused twice - the first time toflush toilets and second to wa-ter the gardens and trees. Theinitial source of water is a rain-

water harvesting system thatyields 20,000 litres after agood three-hour rain. Therainwater then goes throughsand and activated carbon fil-ters for general purpose use;including drinking. Waterfrom:showers and wash basinsare collected and filteredthrough a slow sand filter andis chlorinated, for use in toiletsand for gardening (after chlo-rine is depleted through acti-vated carbon).

3-stage sedimentationWaste water from the toilet isthen collected in a septic tank,where water is treated inthree-stage sedimentationstages and passed through areed bed filter, before beingused for inigating trees.

Says Sekar. 'The solar pan-els last for 25 years and I gotthem installed at over Rs fourlakh. On any given day; includ-ing rainy days, it can generate12-15units which is sufficientfor most four-people house-holds. Sun is more certain tocome up eachday than avail-ability of grid power which iscoal-based, nuclear and hydel.Last week when it rained, thewater tank collected upto30,000 litres. Till now, I usedonly 1,000 litres for the entireweek."

Very soon, Sekar's familywill relocate to the new house.Next on his agenda is adopt-ing turbines to harness windenergy, but he says thatprocuring the machines is a' _tad difficult as very few com-panies in India sell them.

"If every household har-vests rainwater, the City willbe fullyself-sufficient, with noneed to divert water from far-away rivers," said Sekar, whois now designing waste watermanagement and solar solu-tions for residential com~r'es and individual homes.DH News service

Cht,;H IC>l!,.3 0 f41r,..,A t..bfnOr-llCl.. G

!na aefends itS plans to~ulld nuclear reactors in PakBeijing: Amid concern inIndia and the US over a objections to China's moveChinese plan to build two saying that it violated the '1000 MW nuclear reactors In strict norms set by the 46-Karachi, China on Wednesday member Nuclear Suppliersdefended Its civilian nuclear Group (NSG). The Issue may

also figure during Primecooperatlon with Pakistan, Minister Manmohan Singh'ssaYing it was under "strict" visit here next week. Chinainternational norms"Relevant cooperation is in and Pakistan, In principlestrict accordance with the were engaged In civiliantwo countries' International energy cooperation In.recentresponsibility and Is for years, Hua said. Recentpeaceful aim. We also receive reports from Pakistan saidthe supervision of the that two big reactors would

> International Atomic Energy b~ built In Karachi by China,A.geney (IAEA)," Chinese for- With construction beginning

I as early as next month. There,elgn m nlstry spokesperson Is no direct confirmation of.Hua Chunylng said. Both th;~dl~ and USs conveyed their ~:.;~;~~ent to build the

"i~+j/;rij'T;rn'is"~'F"i'~o£~40% of Western Ghats

tagged as sensitive'zoneMumbai: Almost 40% of the Western Ghats or60,000 sq krn of the green belt that runs across sixstates is set to become an Ecologically SensitiveArea (ESA), a tag that will keep mining, quarry-ing, thermal power plants or any polluting indus-tries out of the zone.

Hydro-electricity projeets will be allowedthere after taking consent from the gram sabhasthere. The decision for the new tag is taken follow------------ ing recommen-

TO BE PRESERVED dationsfrom the, K Kasturiran-

gan Committee that was set up to review the Mad-hav Gadgil Western Ghats Ecology Expert PanelReport which had suggested that the entire West-ern Ghats be declared an ESAfor its bio-diversity. .But after a review, the Kasturirangan Committeedivided the Western Ghats into natural (no devel- .opment) and cultural (agriculture, plantationsetc) landscapes. It said development activitiescan be carried out in nearly 60 % of the Ghats.

Happy that the Centre has accepted the newreport, Sunita Narain of the K KasturiranganHigh Level Working Group, said, "It's time wemoved ahead."

_l~I~~II> D 11Ift- •NO to the water hike!

I

i,.

..•.

)~..1lo~~ 0&«. t\- •••.•l.t#lWwl tt.E-

coal import meets '1every quarter

t-

New Deihl: The governmentwill hold meetings with ctt,

every quarter for examiningthe import of fossil fuel. The

world's largest coal miner hasto Import coal to meet the fuelsupply agreement commitmentwith the power producers. "Thecoal ministry will be monitoringImports.of coal by CIL by hold-

Ing quarterly meetings," anoffiCIal said. Cil is likely to

Import 15 million tonnes (MT ofcoal for power utilltles as part

of meeting .the commItmentwith regard to fuel supply

agreement. "We have receivedInterest for 15 million tonnes

from IPPs and state ownedentities:' en, Director (market-

..<..t".;.,)ng) B. Kl,,~a~eJ'l.,,:~aid.;q ,•• ::I __ ~. h ~ _

This is in reference to the article in dnatitled 'BWSSBseeks hike in water tariffdated October 15,2013. The authoritiesclaim that there hasn't been a hike inwater tariffs for over eight years, butjust this July there was a 300% hike inwater tariffs for apartments. Now. theBWSSBwants another 10%hike to fundtheir water supply and pay for expen-ditures on power and establishment.Maybe before charging the people

i '. .'*more money to fiX their own financial

woes, they should get to the root of theproblem and try to reduce their own 'expenditures. With prices for basic.amenities shooting through the roof,',how is the average man supposed to,save any money for himself and his fu- .ture? Or maybe, they can ask he gov-ernment for a certain allowance to .meet their expenditures, instead of

, taxing the people who already pay ex-.orbitant amounts of tax every day. I .won't be surprised if the government;charges us for the air we breathe also.

-Kanika Ranawat, Bangaloreee:-

\,

T:t...h0 ll) ;t",o.r~"""~"ff£1.f,.5)]Q,£ L H I RFQ for Cbbattisgarb Revoked~ ,',." )

{[he government has withdrawn the thelt~J1der inviting preliminary bids for the"proposed 4,000 MW ultra mega power~project at Surguja in Chhattisgarh. "The:~l}r.questfor Qualification (RFQ) for~4,OOOMW Chhattisgarh UMPP issued~on March 15, 2010 is withdrawn," PFCjsaid in a notice posted on its website.

SUbhashChandra NS

BANGALORE:Ifa counteraffidavit filed in the HighCourt is to be believed, theBruhat Bangalore Mahana-gara Palike (BBMP)has beentaking "all appropriatesteps" to make the City'sroads motorable but fre-quent development workstaken up by other civicamenity agencies, coupledwith heavy rains, are "spoil_ing" the measures.

He further said the Palikehad begun restoring (sic)pot-holes "as per the Indian Road :~~~g~~~~~~~Congressand MinistryofRoadTransport and Highwaysspec- ~~~!!.T=~1:::-~3r~ificationsbyadopting machin-ery in 1,940-km arterial and ~!!JQIJ!lill~l'llI~E~~sub-arterial roads." I es sew ines, electrici

In the affidavit, the BBMP ~ 'i Commissioner; M Lakshrni- That apart, at variousnarayana, has sworn:"...main- places, roads are being dugup

, tenance ofroads is an ongoing for maintenence of existingprocess,It isnotthatthe BBMP pipelines,"he said, adding thathas not taken care of mainte- the agencies in question hadnance., There are variousoth- "causedgreat damage to roadser factorswhichresult in dete- built by the BBMP". Heavyriorationofqualityofroads." rains and overflowing man-

The'affidavitwas filedin re- holes were also damagingsponse to a contempt of court roads, he stressed.petition byK N'Subba Reddy, According to Lakshmi-president ofthe AdvocatesAs- narayana, a recent BBMPsociation, Bangalore (AAB), Councilmeeting approved anwho sought action against the action plan for asphalting andBBMPfor"notimplementing" improving about 400 km ofthe High Court orders of Feb- roads and it willbe "tackled inruary 2, 2012. The court had (a) phased manner, ens~then formed an expert com- better qualityroads"."Ifurthermittee, headed by Captain S submit that the restoring (sic)RajaRao,whichmade 112rec- . of potholes will be completedommendationsto ensure good early,"he said.roads.ReddynamedChiefSec- The Palike also initiated ac-retary,SVRanganath, the first tion on maintenence of roadsrespondent.Lakshminarayana and wastaking advicefrom itswas the second respondent. technicaladvisorycommittee-

The counsel for Reddy,A V consisting of experts in field I

Amarnathan,arguedthat ifthe roads and highways.Besides,BBMPhad implemented the it would appoint project man-recommendations, the City agement consultants to super-

, would not have had a single vise quality and quantity, andi pothole.TheBBMPwasspend- they would submit periodicaling more money in fillingpot- reports on executionofworks.holesastherecommendations The BBMP commissioner I

werenotlmplemerited.he con- argued that the contempt pe-tended. In reply, the BBMP tition was "bald, vague andmaintained that it was not re- doesnot point out violationshesponsibleforbad roads. is alleged to have committedEkshminarayapasaid a~n- withregard to the committee's

I cies such as Bangalore Water recommendations".'The com-

I'.fuw.Dly and Sewerage Board plainanthasmade sweepingal-BWSSB Ban alore Electric- legations without placing any

Ii Su I Com an escom, materials before the court,"heBangalore Metro Rail Corpo- added, seekingdismissaloftheration LimIted (BMRCL), petition.j ~ara~sanchar Nigam_Limit- DHNews Service L

·.I

, r4-hollJ "J:.I'-ID:.rftrv' 08"P(l..~~.5

Fund-starved BWSSBWants3-Fold Hike in Water Tariffsby N R Madhusudhan

Bangalore: Left with virtu-ally no money to bear theincreasing maintenancecosts, the cash-strappedBWSSB',has requested thestate government to allow itto hike the minimum watercharges from ~83 to ~300 amonth. Sources said theChief Minister is likely togive his approval to revisethe water tariff.

According to sources inthe BWSSB, the Board hadrequested the government toallow it to hike the minimum by the customer, by 20 perwater charges per household cent.to ~300 per household. At While refusing to divulgepresent, the tariff increases details, BWSSBengineer-in-along with the increase in chiefTVenkatrajusaid,"Thecons?mption,fO'l' bo~h ido- tlf~<ltWjt~WJ9a'b~ot bee~He:-mesne and commercial us- ..Y,lSe~r-;;l!1ce.;wQ5and opera-ers. The BW~»,cl'\argps ~6' 'tibpsU.a\idh,il!ii}dmancecb,stsper kilolitres for the first have gone up since then. At8,000 litres for domestic us- present, the Board generatesers, ~9 for 8,001 to 25,000 revenue of ~45 to 46 crore,litres, ~15 for 25,001 to and most of it is spent on50,000 litres, ~30 for 50,001 electricity c~rges and otherto 75,000 kilolitres and ~36 operatIOnal costs. As thethereafter. board does not have suffi-

ity bill of ~35 crore. The op-erational costs have gone upfrom ~8 crore in October2012 to ~1O crore now.

Venkatraju said, "The elec-tricity charges and opera-tional costs have gone upafter the commissioning ofthe Cauvery Phase II works,as we are running three" ad-ditional pumps and pumpingan additional 300 MLD ofwater to the city. As a major :portion of the additional 300 .MLD that is being pumpedinto the city is being used fortesting the pipelines in the

increased byaroundrvcrore newly added areas, it is notsince the Cauvery drinking being billed. Therefore, the.water project Phase IVStage revenue has not increasedII phase was commissioned proportionately". At pres-in October 2012. But, the ent, the BWSSB has aroundre~eny.~ ~~~~cl;~sed.J:)l~ight l~ cop.. ~ecti.o~.sanda~\?~~':'ff:l:rISJ~,~ffii.ng the-:1>y revismg toe mirumums~~Rerl~~'/,~~; w~ter char&es,.tl?-E!~WSSB

The BmSBhad arevenue Will generate an a~ditionalof around ~42 crore in Octo- revenue OH17.36 crore. Theber 2012; and used to pay BWSSBhas revised the min-around ~28 crore as electric- imum water tariff for apart-ity charges. Now the BWSSB ment complexes and bulkearns revenue of around ~45 users from ~6 per kilolitre to :crore and incurs an electric- ~19per kilolitre in July. / ,

The BWSSBhas proposedto hike the water tariff underall the slabs and the pro-posed hike varies from 50per cent to 150per cent. TheBWSSBhas also proposed tohike sanitary charges, whichis fixed according to thequantity of water consumed

cient funds to take up newwork, we are unable even tochange the old pipelines.Therefore, we have request-ed the government to allowus to revise the water tar-iff."

To add to the BWSSB'swoes, electricitycharges have

... .. .-..······iinoli j-:-",---V-j\} &- , , , ,6REENIS 6000 IAlthough heading in the'direction of green IT and sustalnabillty, India Inc has a lot to learn

'

The water tariff has not been revised since2005 and operational and maintenance

costs have gone up since then- T VEHKATRAJU, BWSSB englnee r- in-chlef

Indian firms warming up to eco-friendlyways \still lack the strategic focus SomegreencompaniesIn India Newtechnologythat comes with a clear under- ITe Infotech: The entire ltsper capita energy· areasstanding of the core issues and electricity requirement of consumption and source all !._Hybrid e!:~ric ve.!'!cles__key technologies that brir.g their 32-acre campus Ismet electricity from renewableabout real change in the vision from renewable energy, The energy sources by 2017, !.Uquefled natural ga~ __for sustainability and green IT company Ismajorly Into Wipro: It has Increased the _ Biomass electricity .in an organisation," said recyclingwaste, Allthe paper share of electricity from -.------.-.----- -Ganesh Ramamoorthy, re-. waste is100% recycled. The renewable/energy - Wind power generationsearch director at Gartner. company also makes efforts considerably over the last few ';Mach;;;-; to machine .

"Policy initiatives and regu- to reduce food waste Intheir years. communication serviceslatory measures from the Indi- campus.an government will be the key .------- HCL Technologies: The

. f Infosys: The company plans company has taken steps Indrivers for implementatIOn 0 to become carbon neutral by solving the problem of solvingsome of the technologies nee- 2017by offsetting its carbon toxlcs and e-waste Intheessary to usher in low-carbon emissions. It plans to reduce electronics Industry,sustainable growth," he added.

Though a few leading or-ganisations in the country arebeginning to make initiativesin this direction, they have apiecemeal approach that reliesmore on the hype surroundingthe solutions, thanon the realbenefit of these to the organi-

dna correspondent @dna

Bangalore: Realising the im-portance of green and sustain-able living in today's world.In-dia Inc seems to be doing its bitfor the environment A Gartnerreport states that India'sspending on green IT and s~s-tainability initiatives have in-creased by '17.6% to reach $29.2billion in 2013. Last year, thespending was $24.8 billion.

Thanks to various initiativesby the government, which ispushing for changes that willlikely set the tone for sustama-ble, low-carbon econormcgrowth in the country in thecoming years, businesses andinvestors in India are slowlywaking up to green and sus-tainability issues.

"Many Indian organisations

vance to stay competitive.'There are regulations that

are going to come up in thisspace. More and more con-sumers are demanding greenproducts. Hence, companieshave to change their strategyto be more relevan~ to con-sumers," says Sandeep Kumar,global head, business. consult-ing group, ITC Il}fptecll.

Inbox@dnalndla.net

sation's green vision;According to Ramamoorthy,

India Inc faces some uniquechallenges in terms of unrelia-ble power infrastructure andgrowing urban-rural divide,which will give them the op-

portunity to innovate and testnew cost-effective approachesand green technology solu-tions that may be adapted inother cpuntries.

Even corporates feel thatgreen initiatives will gain rele-

l:rtloltJ ~3 I~CDNO.cnl'-'1tcnEsA better spread of roads, electricity and cell phones is raising rural incomes like never before

In Our Villages, 1+ 1

"""'j ometimes, putting one and, one together does make 11;

but many of us seem hardwi-•. red in our thoughts to assu-"'--' me rural income growthis azero-sum game.For example, somepeople believe subsidies have driventhe 15-20%-a,year growth in ruralwages over the last five years. Theycome up with "explanations", inclu-ding "people are selling land andconsuming", "rising minimum sup-port prices", and "NREGA is takingpeople away from thejob market".

Personal experience also serves tocement such conclusions. Almost ev-eryone, for example, knows someonein their extended family who soldland and drank away the money.

However; each of these is unconvi-ncing when challenged by facts.

Let's start with land, More than80% of Indian households hold lessthan two acres, While rising land pri-ces may help sentiment, the cash forconsumption cannot comefromlandsale as there isn't much to sell,

Then, take NREGA: the 2,3 billionperson-days of work it creates annu-ally is less than 4% of the availablerural person-days. The annual spendper eligible person is less than ei.oco.That cannot explain 20% wage grow-th for five years, especially whenNREGA wages rose only at a 10%clip, If the availability of theNREGAalternative was the reason workersdemanded more for regular work,

the gap between regular wages andNREGA wages would not have ex-pandedevery yean

Lastly, minjrilllm support prices(MSPs) affect less than 40% of Ind-la'sfarmoutput.andaremore the ef-feet than the cause: a sign of risingcosts. Even the argument that highMSPs for cereals prevent the shift tocrops with deficient supply isunten-able as fruit and vegetables yield 5.5-.6.0 times the realisation of cerealsper hectare. The only constraint on .the shift of acreage to fruit and vege-tables seems to be the inability offar-mers toreach viableend-markets. .

End of Dark AgeWhat is really driving this unprece-dented income growth at the bottom-of-the-income pyramid?

Simply put, Itis improvement inground-level infrastructure that hel-ps achieve two targets, Firstly, the sp-read of wireless telephony and ruralroads have helped create larger econ-omic clusters ..allowing the creationof new types of jobs.

Secondly, better rural infrastruc-ture has added several productivehours in a day that can be put to pro-ductive use. Why didn't this happenearlier? State governments weren'tresponsive, but now they are,

Despite much cynicism aboutmost of these schemes being leakyand ineffective, 4,00,000km of goodquality all-weather rural roads havebeen built in the last 12 years, con-necting88,ooo new habitations,

Then, 12% of Indian householdsgot electrified in the last decade: thepercentage of households withoutelectricity dropped from 45% to 33%.The cost of light from a light bulb is afractlon of the cost of light from acandle or kerosene lamp. Edison issupposed to have said, "We will makeelectricity so cheap that only the rich

As incomes become more uniform throughout the year,large villages now see 4-5 stores opening. These couldhave created several, rnillion jobs in the last five years

II

will light candles." So, working hou-rs are no longer defined by daylight.

Cell phone batteries getrecbargedany time, buffaloes can be milked atnight or a housewife can roll samo-sas for a nearby cIhaba after her kidsgo to bed. Mobile phones have beenthe most potent catalyst since a high30% of India's workforce is casual,suddenly the time taken to find thenext job has fallen drainatically withthe advent of the mobile phone. .

Mobile phones and roads help cre-ate larger economic clusters, whichallow people to specialise, improvingproductivity. Fbr example, a farmerliving in a village with 2,500 peoplebut without roads and phones can'tspecialise in poultry farming, as the-re is insufficient demand. But when50-100·villages are connected byroads and phones, a large number ofpeople can get easy access to chickenfrom several new poultry farmers.The same arguments work with veg-.etable production; hence 1+ 1= 11.

Harvesting Uniform IncomePoultry farmingand agriculture cancreate millions of better-paying op-portunities for the rural population,given the right infrastructure. Fur-

ANIRBAN BORA

thermore, as incomes become moreuniform throughout the year-as op-posed to large cash inflows duringone or two harvests when the econo-my was largely agrarian, large villa-ges have started to seefour orfive sto-res opening. These could have creat-ed several million jobs in the last fiveyears. As the number of houses withcemented walls in rural India grewat an 8% compounded rate last dec-ade, it has created millions of jobs inbrick kilns and construction,

Wages of High IncomeThis spurt in specialisation and pro-ductivity is changing the terms oftrade between unskilled labour andthe rest of the economy. Underlyingmuch of inflation is food inflation,which, in turn, is driven by the costpush of wages, particularly for fruitand vegetables and animal products,the farming of which remains la-bour-intensive .

How long can these terms of tradecontinue to change? Perhaps until anaverage middle class family cannotafford an army of helpers.

The writer is Credit Suisse'sIndia equity strategist ,

\,

r~Jlo//3 Df(£,AfV (It(1.0,vl<.L-E-

BBMP to bag ~300cr from taxDC CORRESPONDENT .BENGALURU, OCT. 16

The cash-strapped BBMP is tryinghart! to meet both ends meet and islooking at avenues to generateadditional revenues to payoff thecontractors, who had carried outcivil works, and service and repayits loans. -

The Palike is launching a specialdrive to collect property taxarrears from Friday. It will targetcommercial establishments thathad failed to declare property taxand drawing up a list of defaulterswith the help of health officialswho issue trade licences. '

The BBMP hopes to garneraround ~300 crore from the drive.Most of it will go towards'clearingthe pending bills of contractorsw~o ~ threatening to stage ro{agitation and stop ongoing infra-

structure projects. The BBMPowes ~3,600 crore to contractors. Ofthis, ~1,609 crore is for completedprojects, while ~2,OOO crore is for

tongoing projects, BBMP sources. said. .

As the contractors' threat seemsserious this time, BBMP Commis-

s~oner M. Lakshminarayan hasdirected the BBMP revenue officialsand zonal joint commissioner tolaunch an intense. drive to collectproperty tax arrears.

Deputy Commissioner (Revenue)1. Ramakant said his higher-upshad directed him to start the drive

'arrearsafter the Dasara and Bakrid festi-vals, and it would commence fromFriday. Targets have bWn fixed fortax inspectors and revenue inspec-tors, he said. ''Tax inspectors havebeen told to review the declara-tions made under the SelfA;ssessment Scheme (SAS) byhigh-value properties. The KMeAct also provides for review of 10per cent of properties," he said.

Revenue inspectors have alreadystarted issuing notices to "taXdefaulters, some of whom have~pproached the court and obtained~tay. Revenue officials are workfngin tandem with the legal cell- tofight cases, he added.

Owners of commercial buildingswho have failed to declare SAS willbe traced through ~ bills andtrade licences is . OncemesUcllliuildi:ilgS are Identlllei:f1Ilearrears will be collected/he said.