TechSci Group organises Air Quality Control and Monitoring Summit and Awards for Excellence in Air Quality
Launches Conferences and Trainings vertical; to
cover five continents in various industries
The
Air Quality Control and Monitoring Summit and Awards for Excellence in Air
Quality was recently organised at The Imperial, New Delhi. The event was
well-received by prominent representatives from public institutions such as
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), National Green Tribunal (NGT), European
Commission (EC), World Health Organization (WHO), All India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and National Environmental Engineering Research
Institute (NEERI), as well as from private corporate majors such as Tata Power,
Honeywell, Environ Care, Nevco, Environment SA, Rave Innovations and HiCare.
The
two-day summit witnessed a host of thought-provoking discussions around the
critical subject of air pollution in India, and the release of our Knowledge
Report on the subject.
A number
of speakers from the above mentioned organisations offered their own distinctive
perspective on the issue, and the need for dynamic solutions due to the
pervasion of the problem, emphasising on pragmatic solutions to tackle the same.
Dr. Prashant Gargava (Addl. Director and Head, Air Quality Management Division,
CPCB) focused on the complexities in air quality monitoring and the lack of
actionable data due to a generally chaotic method of planning and operation. He
stressed on the need for a comprehensive, pan-India, National Air Quality
Monitoring Network which would marry technological solutions with management
intervention and combine scientific acumen vis a vis satellite technology, low
cost censor based systems, use of modelling with active public participation to
tackle the problem.
According
to Anumita Roy Chowdhury of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) ‘95%
of Indians are breathing air pollution levels above the threshold limit set by
WHO’, and therefore there is a need to cooperate on multiple levels to tackle
air pollution; a National Air Quality Monitoring Network would ensure that a
national level strategy can be created to meet the exigencies of all
stakeholders.
While
Dr. Gargava spoke about the macro aspects of air quality monitoring and
control, Dr. (Prof.) Randeep Guleria (Director, AIIMS) focused on the micro
aspects of the subject. He went in-depth into the impact of pollution on human
health, with some stark layman illustrations that could be easily understood by
one and all. By his reckoning a typical ‘chullah’ (stove) releases 400
cigarettes per hours’ worth of smoke, and as per WHO’s Ambient Air Pollution
database, 13 of the top 20 cities in the world with the highest annual levels
of PM2.5 are now in India, with Delhi featuring at the top of the list. He went
into technical details about the various physiological aspects and
psychological effects of air pollution, including lung cancer, heart problems,
respiratory diseases, decreased lung function, pre-term birth, still birth, low
birth weight etc. He stressed on the need for scientists and educationist to be
actively involved in improving awareness amongst policymakers, students and the
public at large. As Dr. S.K. Goyal (Sr. Principal Scientist, NEERI) eloquently
put it, ‘We need to realize…I
am no different from my environment, I am what my environment is.”
Manjeet
Singh Saluja of the WHO spoke about the need for broad based cooperation
between the people, the local and state representatives and between the central
government and various global and national organizations. He stressed on the
benefits of partnership between UN agencies such as UN Environment Programme
(UNEP) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and various Health,
Environment and Energy ministries in India. He urged the government to scale up
efforts in getting together with Member States to implement the World Health
Assembly Roadmap for enhanced global response to air pollution.
The
Study on Air Quality Control in India released by TechSci Research, at the
occasion, focussed on many of these talking points in great detail, in addition
to providing other data that corroborates the perceptions and utterances of the
speakers.
Discussing
the key findings of the Report, Karan Chechi, Research Director, TechSci
Research, said, “Electricity generation in India has grown from 771.55 billion
units in 2009-2010 to 1107.82 billion units in 2015-2016. Similarly, domestic
vehicle sales have gone up from 15.48 million in 2010-2011 to 20.47 million in 2015-2016.
However, India’s environment protection spending as a share of total GDP remains
abysmal, at 0.01%, far behind China (1.45%) and USA (0.40%). The numbers tell
their own story; while India has been leveraging its resources to justify the
tag of ‘fastest growing economy’, the corresponding increase in social spending
and boosting environmental sustainability has been sorely lacking.”
Around
the need to create awareness on indoor air pollution, Mr. Sudhir Pillai,
General Manager, Homes, Honeywell Home and Building Technologies, India shares
“There is a strong need to increase the awareness towards indoor air pollution
and how it adversely affects human health – be it for kids, senior citizens,
expecting mothers or the general health conscious citizens. Air pollutants
inside enclosed spaces of our homes, cars and offices are mostly invisible and
people need cost effective and efficient solutions across the spectrum to fight
this problem.”
The
Summit culminated with a glittering Awards ceremony. Here is a list of the winners
of Air Quality Excellence Awards 2017 in different categories:
1. Award for Green Establishment
of the Year: Jindal Steel & Power
2. Award for Chief Sustainability
Officer - Dr. Mritunjay Chaubey, UPL Limited
3. Award for Best Air Purifier –
Consumer Category – Honeywell Air Purifiers
4. Award for Best Air Purifier – Commercial
Category – Crusaders Air Purifiers
5. Award for Best Air Purifier –
Industrial Category – Honeywell Air Purifiers
6. Award for Best Air Filtration
Technology – Environ Care Products
7. Awards for Best Air Quality
Monitoring Equipment Award – Nevco Engineers
The
next edition of the Summit will be organised in January 2018 in Mumbai.
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