Cement, Energy and Environment

Courtesy : The Masterbuildei~ Feb-Mar 02, Pp 14-16. Email: dicomnet@vsnl.com Web: www.masterbuilderindia.com CII TO FOCUS ON COMPETITIVENESS ET, New Delhi Burea u, 29 April 02. Compe titiveness for India Inc is the CII theme for the current financial yeM. This was disclosed by newly-appointed CII PresidentAshok Soota w hile addressing the first media meet after his election today. Outlining his vision, Mr Soota set a target for all those representing India Inc to ensure that India reaches the top 20 on the World Economic Forum's Growth Compe titiveness Index by 2010. Enhan ci ng competitiveness would be through ind us try ac tion wherein companies would take initiatives to benchmark with the best intemational norms along with government poli cy reforms both at the domestic and external front. Talking about industry action required to compete in the global world, he mentioned that the indu stry should take care of technology adoption, increasing R&D spend, prioritising innovation, adhering to corpora te governance, building ind u s try ins titutes p artner ship, integra ting e-commerce with business models, greater emphasis on quality, price and delivery of exports and targeting new markets. However, on an optimistic note he added tha t a growth of 6 per cent was possible provided the reform p rocess continued. Giving a preview of some new init ia tives pl anned from CII he informed about the forma ti on of four new councils wh ich would be in the areas of agriculture, manu fac turing, convergence and public policy. Courtesy : The Economic Times, New Delhi, 30Apr02, P 3 Web: www.economictimcs.com SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN BUILT ENVIRONMENT A seminar on the theme 'Su s tain able Deve lopme nt in Buil t Env ironmen t' was organised by Indian Building Congress and Public Works Department, Government of Madhya Prad esh to coincide w ith the mid-term session of IBC held on December 8-9, 2001 at Rabindra bhawan, Bhopal. The gathering was addressed by number of digni taries including Hon. Minister of Sta te, PWD, Madhya Pradesh Mr. Manvendra Singhji. The Hon'ble Minister in his address pointed our that, a strong healthy environment makes the people feel sa fe, secure and happy. It improves both physical and mental health and encourages their creativity. He urged the engineers to bring out a concept of economy based on the life cycle cost and not on initial cost. While persuing the mod ern technology, we must study the technology adop ted in the past. He concluded his address by recalling Gandhiji words "Let us build our villages and towns in such a manner that there is pros perity and happiness everywhere. " Mr. M.N.Buch in his keynote address stated that sustainable development demands that before construction begins a careful inventory is made of the resources ava ilable, with a view to planning the use of these resources in such way that was ter is minimized, ex traction of raw materials is done in a carefully planned manner, which also provides for restoration of the land, wa ter resou rces are so used tha t there i s adequate rep lenishmen t. There is direct co-relation between sustainability and levels of economic development. When the economy decays we have evidence of township being abandoned.When the economy recovers the towns are spruced up, acqu ire a new life and new townshi p ge t crea ted. There fore a sustainable urban built environment requires a v ibrant economy which can inves t in the maintenance of the towns. ---- ...