Environment

Groups like the National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco) are petitioning for new measures to make it easier for foreign property investment firms to buy in India.

Hindu Business Line also reports politicians are being asked to intervene to ease a shortage of credit for developers looking to complete building projects.

Attention has swung to the Indian government after China announced a $586 billion package for infrastructure and other domestic projects in a bid to help its own economy.

Quoted by Hindu Business Line, Nardeco director general R.R. Singh said:

    "The monetary policies of the Reserve Bank of India for real estate projects and home loans by Indian banks, closure of ECBs and rises in interest rates together with the stock market crash have lead to a situation where credit has dried up and buyers are hesitant to invest despite a strong demand."

Last month the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut rates by 100 basis points to eight per cent following a meltdown in financial markets.

RBI said it would continue to monitor the situation and would take more action "as appropriate".

Foreign investment in Indian property remains a contentious issue in some areas, with the government recently warning against illegal sales to outside buyers, particularly in the Goa region.

In its directive on September 20, The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has told the PMC that the new common bio-medical waste treatment facility (CBWTF) should meet all the norms and come up within two months, failing which it will be prosecuted.

The treatment facility at the Kailash crematorium on the Rajabhadur Mills road was shut following the accident on September 11. A youth died when one of the body spray containers he was opening exploded. Six other workers succumbed to their injuries later.

The CBWTF should

• be set up on a plot of land not less that one acre

• be reasonably away from residential areas

• have a separate housing for all types of treatment, including incineration room, autoclave rooms, microwave room, shredder room etc

• be located at the entrance of the site to upload and store all waste transported by vehicles

• maintain records for all operations carried out at the CBWTF
  

Tharoor, who was in Pune to flag of the sustainable transport rally on Saturday, said the CYG green council has planned a four-pronged approach to manage consumption of carbon-intensive energies during the games.

The aim, he said, is to avoid use of carbon-intensive energies, reduce usage of power, replace high-intensive sources with low intensive ones and offset the consumption with renewable sources.

"It is a positive thing to hold a major sporting event like the CYG, but because of the adverse impact on the environment, it also has its negatives. For example, during any mega sporting event, the influx of athletes, officials, spectators is big. Consequently, there is large-scale usage of land, increased waste generation, a rise in usage of electricity and transportation etc. We have to be conscious of the impact of all this and more on nature. The challenge is to ensure consumption neutrality during the games," said Tharoor.

"In fact, we are in the advanced stages of negotiations with a company which will offset the equivalent amount of energy consumed during the games with renewable sources of energy that will be generated elsewhere," he said.

The maximum response came from Karve nagar - Warje ward office where, in all, 34,167 idols were immersed in water tanks followed by 16,294 in Sahakarnagar and 13,290 in Dhankawadi ward office jurisdiction.

About 57 containers were put on the job to collect the remains of the immersion.

"The PMC had launched the initiative around five years ago despite opposition from several quarters. The idea was to keep the rivers clean by encouraging public to immerse the idols in artificial tanks. In the first year, only a few hundred idols were immersed in the tanks.

But this year, the figure crossed 80,000, said PMC Public Relation Officer Sanjay More.

This year, the PMC conservancy staff managed to clean up the city roads within two hours after the procession. They collected over 25 containers of garbage and two containers of foot wears, ward officer Madhav Jagtap said.

Meanwhile, Mauli Seva Pratishthan, an NGO, has alleged that the corporation resorted to throwing the immersed idols into the river while cleaning up the tanks, thereby defeating the whole purpose of setting up tanks.

The Pune model involves a eco-housing certification and stresses environment architecture, energy-efficient lighting, solar water heating, eco-friendly building material, water management, waste management and other innovative technologies. Besides, the civic body grants up to 50 per cent concession on the premium on proposals, and 10 per cent concession on house tax.

Builders across the state want to reap the benefits and the minister is ready to extend the incentives, provided they follow the rules. In a meeting convened recently, Tope proposed to grant property tax rebate and development charges besides amending development control rules, provided the civic body keeps a check on the builders. "The government is keen to come out with a housing policy itself and have the rules in place," said Tope.

The minister said that it is a win-win situation for the government, civic bodies, consumers and the environment.

After witnessing a good rainfall in the second week of August, the situation went from bad to worse with almost a dry spell in the third week. With a subdued rainfall throughout the state, Pune has recorded a meager 382 mm rainfall for the season.

In the first phase, which was implemented recently, around 1,000 trees were planted in various locations, including Peshwa Marg, Kondhwa Road, Loyd Road and Vikramaditya Marg, said Jayant Kangane, garden overseer, health department, PCB.

"The saplings that will be planted will be of the bush variety as it is not practical to plant trees that will grow to a great height inside the Race Course. The objective is to beautify the Race Course premises and give it a green look," Kangane said. The recently set up Muredha Nallah and Garden ad hoc committee under nominated member Col A K Arora will plan more such initiatives soon, he said.

The PCB will hold a general body meeting on August 6. "Various developmental measures will be discussed at the meeting, such as the creation of more employment opportunities by the board and construction of a sports complex at Golibar Maidan," PCB CEO S K Sardana said. An ad hoc committee that would look into hoardings and advertisements in cantonment areas was set up recently, he said

"If the visitor, on his return from the fort, is found carrying less plastic than what he took along, the deposit amount will be kept as penalty," said State Forest Minister Babanrao Pachpute, who was in the city for a hearing at Council Hall, on Monday.

Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi was also present. The forest department is also planning to charge entry fee for vehicles at the fort, it was stated.

Pachpute said, "Sinhagad is a popular haunt. People take a lot of plastic with them and litter them. In order to curb this menace, we have decided to charge amount in the range of Rs 50 to Rs 100, if the person is found carrying plastic bag with him. This will be in the form of deposit. Before they climb the fort, the plastic items with them will be counted, and on their return these will be again verified. If these plastic bags or bottles count less than they were, the deposit will be kept with us as penalty."

Villagers from the local village committee will be put into action. "The penalty and the entry fee amount recovered from the citizens will be utilised for paying remunerations to these employed people," he said.

The State Forest Department, with the help of the Pune Municipal Corporation, has also embarked upon the development work at Sinhagad. Since the forest department does not have sufficient amount of funds, the PMC will provide Rs 1.75 crore. This joint project will spread over a period of two years. It will include, among other things, a plantation drive, repairing and strengthening of the old water tanks on the fort, cement weir and control over forest fires.

The 10-teraflop supercomputer being built by the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) will be 10 times more powerful than the USbuilt Cray supercomputer in use at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), based in the Delhi suburb of Noida.

A teraflop machine does one trillion calculations per second.

The machine is expected to be ready by 2009. "It is more versatile, (will provide) better accuracy and modelling (of weather data)," said A.R.

Upadhya, director of NAL.

A scientist at the NCMRWF , who did not want to be named, said a country as large as India that experiences complex weather patterns because of monsoon vagaries needs more powerful machines and also trained personnel to use the machines.

"For (building) new models, you need people who understand them (supercomputers)," he said.

The new supercomputer, which is to be linked with the proposed integrated Indian weather forecasting system, could help in both long-range forecasts and short-range predictions of extreme weather events such as the early monsoon being witnessed in parts of India.

The country is also launching new remote-sensing satellites such as Megha Tropiques and Oceansat to understand cloud patterns around the tropics, crucial to provide accurate weather forecasts.

Speaking at a press conference at Empress garden on Sunday, Suresh Pingle, honorary secretary of the Agri-horticultural Society of Western Maharashtra and a member of the green committee, said, "There are a lot of places with greenery in the city, such as the University of Pune and the National Defence Academy campuses. However, often, because of the interference of the bureaucracy, there is a threat to the green cover in the name of development. Nobody can question this. With this in mind, we have decided to form the body, which will act as a watchdog of the green cover."

The Agri-horticultural Society of Western Maharashtra is the managing body of the Empress garden.

Senior botanist Shridhar Mahajan, wellknown ornithologist Prakash Gole, industrialist Suman Kirloskar and a few journalists have come forward to form the committee, Pingle informed.

The real estate boom in the country in the last two years has turned the sector into an exciting investment option. With property prices escalating, investments in real estate have fetched returns that can even rival the stock markets'.

While not many can invest directly in real estate because of the huge money required for property purchases, the launch of realty mutual funds has made it possible even for small investors to have access to a diversified portfolio.

The options are open to all whether to invest in a physical property or buy mutual fund units. While taking the plunge, an investor needs to consider a number of factors, including the tax aspects, the liquidity and long-term prospects of such investments.

Let us begin with a comparison between investments in physical property and real estate mutual funds.

Money matters
An important consideration in favour of realty mutual funds is the small money required to enter the sector. A person can begin with investing just Rs 5,000 as in any other mutual fund. However, an investor needs to be well informed and the guidelines on the back of the form about the minimum investment and other details will be of significant help.

On the other hand, investors need to shell out big bucks for physical purchase of property.

While bank loans can be a way out to meet a person's financial needs in buying property, no such facility is available for purchasing mutual fund units.

A property must be held for a minimum of 36 months from the date of purchase to calculate long-term capital gains, while it takes just 12 months for mutual funds to yield long-term results.

Tax count
A property may serve as a steady means of income from rent but this income is taxable.

However, dividends earned from real estate mutual funds are completely exempt from tax under section 10 (35) of the income tax act. This can act as a big boost for small as well as big investors to go for real estate funds.

However, the tax liability on long- and short-term capital gains is the same for both physical assets and mutual fund units.

Again, a property calls for a tax deduction of up to Rs 1,50,000 per annum taking into account the interests on loans.

• Duty scale
  
• Liquidity flow
  
• Easy gift

Speaking to TOI, Tasneem Balasinorwala, founder-member of Kalpavriksh said, "This booklet takes up the issue of greens in the city. It has a simple purpose -- it demonstrates how you can contribute to the environment by simply knowing more about it or saving a tree from being felled in the neighbourhood. It does not seek to make an environmentalist out of citizens, just to take a few minutes of the citizen's time in order to impart new information. For example, how a simple phone call could save the life of a tree."

This guide will have three sections covering the city's environment, the Tree Act and tree plantation. The city's hills, rivers, lakes, trees and complete eco-system will be detailed and there will be information on how a citizen can go about a plantation drive and a list of heritage trees as well as dead trees in the city.

"We can do a lot to protect our immediate environment. Rampant tree-felling in cities has seen many citizen groups including Trees (Delhi), Pune Tree Watch, Hasiru Usiru (Bangalore), Nizhal (Chennai) and Save Rani Baug in Mumbai rally round to protect what rightly belongs to the citizens. Besides, there are projects in many Indian cities where efforts are being made by citizens to protect the environment in different ways. An environmentally-conscious citizen may wish to participate as well, and this book will serve as a perfect guide," Balasinorwala said.

The book will also include various drives of the Pune Municipal Corporation in consultation with Yashwant Khaire, head of the garden department.

Initially, 500 copies of the book will be printed and a tentative price of Rs 50 has been decided upon. According to Balasinorwala, the NGO will target school and college students and teachers, government agencies, common citizens and resident welfare associations.

The section provides details such as minimum and maximum temperature, minimum and maximum relative humidity, rainfall and wind direction for each district for the next five days.

To view the district-level forecasts, click on the map of the country in the district level forecast section on the IMD website, and then on the state and district.

The website will have short range (next 48 hours), medium range (3-5 days) and long range forecasts (issued twice a year). A multimodel ensemble-based district-level weather forecast will also be issued every five days.

TOLL FREE NO:
1077
26114805 / 26122114

For the first time, the Zilla Parishad has been asked to install the rain gauges so that the irrigation department has information about the rainfall and is better equipped to control the release of water from dams.

The first major event since their launch - IYCN's Delhi Youth Summit on Climate (DYSoC) - will be held on May 28 and 29, in Teen Murti Bhawan. Eighty young people will come together to set the agenda on climate change for Delhi.

The DYSoC is in association with UKbased Lead International's India chapter, Fountain of Development, Research and Action, the UNESCO and the Youth Parliament Foundation. Registration forms can be downloaded at iycn.in.

"There has been no real `Indian' youth movement on the issue of climate change. When Kartikeya, a key member of IYCN, attended the UN Cli- mate Change Conference in Bali in De- cember as part of a US youth delega- tion he was shocked that there was no representation of the Indian youth at such an important conference," says Govind Singh, a Ph.d scholar at Delhi University's School of Environ- ment Studies.

And so Kartikeya Singh, a Compton Mentor fellow (a US fellowship) who is working on renewable energy resources in India, and Govind envisioned this youth coalition.