Vedanta, the London-listed company founded by billionaire Anil Agarwal, has suffered a fresh blow in India, where a court has ordered the immediate shutdown of its massive copper smelter in the south citing violation of environmental laws in a sensitive coastal area.
Tuesday’s ruling by the Madras High Court came a month after India’s environment ministry rejected Vedanta’s plans to mine bauxite in the eastern state of Orissa, and during a sensitive time as New Delhi is considering whether to allow Vedanta to take a $9.6bn controlling stake in Cairn India, a rival which operates lucrative and strategically important oilfields in the northern state of Rajasthan.
The copper smelter in question is the Tuticorin plant in the state of Tamil Nadu, which has been operating for more than 12 years and which Vedanta has been planning to expand.
Critics had argued that the Tuticorn smelter – which is owned by Vedanta’s subsidiary Sterlite Industries – had caused unacceptable levels of air and groundwater pollution less than 25km from the Gulf of Mannar national marine park, one of the most bio-diverse coastal regions in Asia.
In their verdict, judges said the smelter was emitting noxious air pollution, that the plant’s effluents were hazardous and caused high levels of heavy metals, arsenic, and fluorides in the groundwater, and that the entire plant site was now “severely polluted.”
The judges also ruled that the plant’s location, being so close to the marine park, violated the company’s operating permissions from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control board, which specified the smelter should be located at least 25 kms away from any ecologically sensitive area.
The judges were quoted by a local newspaper as saying that the “unabated pollution” caused by the company should be stopped, at least for now, to protect “Mother Nature”.
Established in 1996, the Tuticorn smelter has annual capacity of 400,000 metric tonnes, and the company has been aiming to double that by the middle of next year.
Sterlite’s copper business generated around $2.8bn in revenues last year, according to the annual report.
Company executives said they were awaiting a full text of the judgement before deciding how to proceed. “The Tuticorin smelter has been operating for more than 12 years and has been in compliance with necessary rules and regulations,” the company said in an emailed statement to local journalists.
India has been stepping up its efforts to more tightly enforce environmental regulation and laws, amid growing concern about the ecological cost of its current development drive.
Lafarge, the global cement giant, recently had its plan for an integrated $187m cement plant in the sensitive Himalayas blocked by an environmental watchdog.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
PM to launch Unique Identification Numbers today
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will launch the issue of Unique Identification Numbers (Aadhaar) nationally by distributing the first set of numbers among the villagers in Maharashtra's Nandurbar District on Wednesday.
The Unique ID Authority of India started working in August 2009. The Government had committed to issuing the first set of Unique ID numbers in 12 to 18 months.
In the ensuing period of last one year, the infrastructure for this complex project has been set up. With the launch date for the project scheduled for September 29, the Unique ID Mission has achieved its goal of on-time delivery.
The goal of the UID Mission is to deliver Unique Identification Numbers (Aadhaar) to every resident in the country. In addition, it aims to establish a cost-effective, ubiquitous authentication infrastructure to easily verify these identities online and in real-time.
Today there are a large number of residents, especially the poorest and the most marginalized, who face challenges in accessing various public benefit programs due to the lack of possessing a clear identity proof.
The Aadhaar number will ease these difficulties in identification, by providing a nationally valid and verifiable single source of identity proof.
The UIDAI will ensure the uniqueness of the Aadhaar numbers through the use of biometric attributes (Finger Prints and Iris), which will be linked to the number. This will help agencies and service providers across India clean out duplicates and fakes from their databases.
The elimination of duplicate, ghost and fake identities across various schemes is expected to substantially improve the efficiency of the delivery systems by ensuring that the leakages are reduced and the benefits reach the right people.
The Aadhaar number will also enable the delivery of various services at the grass root level in a cost effective and efficient way. An example of such an Aadhaar-enabled service is in banking for the poor.
With the Aadhaar number, residents will be able to easily fulfill the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements of banks. They will be able to verify their identity through the Aadhaar number to banks both in person or remotely, using a mobile device.
As a result, banks will be able to provide branchless banking services to hard-to-reach rural regions, and the use of electronic transactions will further bring down costs. Similarly, electronic transfers of benefits and entitlements can be enabled through Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
India will be the first country to implement a biometric-based unique ID system for its residents on a national scale.
The national launch of Aadhaar will herald a new chapter in the efforts of the Government in enabling inclusive growth and bringing in greater efficiency and transparency in governance.
Aadhaar has the potential to fundamentally transform the service delivery and governance in the country.
The Unique ID Authority of India started working in August 2009. The Government had committed to issuing the first set of Unique ID numbers in 12 to 18 months.
In the ensuing period of last one year, the infrastructure for this complex project has been set up. With the launch date for the project scheduled for September 29, the Unique ID Mission has achieved its goal of on-time delivery.
The goal of the UID Mission is to deliver Unique Identification Numbers (Aadhaar) to every resident in the country. In addition, it aims to establish a cost-effective, ubiquitous authentication infrastructure to easily verify these identities online and in real-time.
Today there are a large number of residents, especially the poorest and the most marginalized, who face challenges in accessing various public benefit programs due to the lack of possessing a clear identity proof.
The Aadhaar number will ease these difficulties in identification, by providing a nationally valid and verifiable single source of identity proof.
The UIDAI will ensure the uniqueness of the Aadhaar numbers through the use of biometric attributes (Finger Prints and Iris), which will be linked to the number. This will help agencies and service providers across India clean out duplicates and fakes from their databases.
The elimination of duplicate, ghost and fake identities across various schemes is expected to substantially improve the efficiency of the delivery systems by ensuring that the leakages are reduced and the benefits reach the right people.
The Aadhaar number will also enable the delivery of various services at the grass root level in a cost effective and efficient way. An example of such an Aadhaar-enabled service is in banking for the poor.
With the Aadhaar number, residents will be able to easily fulfill the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements of banks. They will be able to verify their identity through the Aadhaar number to banks both in person or remotely, using a mobile device.
As a result, banks will be able to provide branchless banking services to hard-to-reach rural regions, and the use of electronic transactions will further bring down costs. Similarly, electronic transfers of benefits and entitlements can be enabled through Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
India will be the first country to implement a biometric-based unique ID system for its residents on a national scale.
The national launch of Aadhaar will herald a new chapter in the efforts of the Government in enabling inclusive growth and bringing in greater efficiency and transparency in governance.
Aadhaar has the potential to fundamentally transform the service delivery and governance in the country.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)