Javadekar Announces Formation of Indian Resource Panel

Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar has announced the formation of Indian Resource Panel (InRP) on Resource Efficiency here today. The Indian Resource Panel (InRP) comprises the following esteemed members:

1. Mr. Viswanath N Anand (former Secretary, MoEFCC);

2. Mr. R. H. Khwaja former Secretary, MoEFCC);

3. Mr. Tishyarakshit Chatterjee, (former Secretary, MoEFCC);

4. Mr. Prodipto Ghosh, (former Secretary, MoEFCC);

5. Mr. Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives;

6. Mr. Ajay Mathur, Bureau of Energy Efficiency;

7. Mr. Ravi Agarwal, Toxics Link;

8. Ms. Sunita Narain, CSE;

9. Ms. Seema Arora, CII;

10. Mr. Prasad Modak, EMC.

The Minister highlighted that India has been at the forefront of Sustainable Development and is taking a number of steps towards promotion of Sustainable Development in the country. Shri Javadekar also said that Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) will partner with other relevant ministries of the Government of India, private and public enterprises towards creation of a facilitative environment for recycling to promote sustainability and decouple growth from environment degradation. He also highlighted that India can hope to recover over 1.5 million tons of steel scrap, 180,000 tons of aluminium scrap and 75,000 tons each of recoverable plastic and rubber from scrapped automobiles by the year 2020.

Developing countries like India need to address the disproportionate and steadily increasing share of natural resources required to support changing lifestyles, as well as raw material for industrial production. With a growing economy, India is expected to have the world’s third largest consumer group by the year 2020, with a consumption share of 13%. With rising consumption levels, India is already facing supply constraints and import dependence of key materials in certain sectors. The demand for resources in the future will be increasingly huge and may eventually lead to worsening of impact on economy, environment, and access to resources, if not addressed in a timely manner.

Given these facts, Shri Javadekar said that the Indian Resource Panel was an important and timely initiative, which shall prepare a strategic roadmap for utilisation of secondary resources for meeting the developmental needs. He added that India is the first country to constitute a National Resource Panel.