Gadkari Recommends Committee to Reduce Dependency on Steel, Cement

EU nations urged to end insignifi cant travel from India

The Union Road Transport Ministry has planned to set up a committee under the chairmanship of K. Venkataramanan to reduce the dependency on steel and cement. It would also reduce the cost of construction and look for alternatives, said the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) and the Minister of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Nitin Gadkari. He was speaking at a webinar - Challenges and Opportunities in HAM & BOT Projects organized by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). Gadkari stated that all steel - whether produced from ore, billets, pellets, or melting of scrap - would be allowed to be used for National Highway construction, as long as it meets the standards required for specific grades of steel. He said that steel that was proposed to be used would be tested in NABL-accredited laboratories as a third-party check before approval. He informed that his ministry has managed to achieve three world records recently. “Firstly, we have managed to achieve a record by constructing 37 Kms of road per day during 2020-21.

Secondly, the construction of a 2.5 Kms four-lane concrete road was achieved in a matter of 24 hours. Our ministry also achieved a record by constructing a 26 Kms one-lane road in 24 hours flat. This is due to the efforts put by our engineers, contractors, and workers”, he said. Gadkari added that the Ministry has constructed 13,327 Kms of National Highways up to March 2021 as compared to 10,237 Kms in March 2020. “The award figure is 10,965 Kms during this period as compared to 8,948 Kms in the previous year. This kind of performance was never done earlier”, he informed. He informed that the Ministry has decided that all lanes in the fee plazas on National Highways shall be declared as “FASTag lane of the fee plaza” with effect from midnight of 15th February 2021. Vineet Agarwal, President, ASSOCHAM stated that the Complexities of infrastructure development need to be understood to ensure that the supporting frameworks are effective.

INDIA GEARS UP FOR WHEAT PROCUREMENT AT MSP

The country has now geared up for record wheat procurement at Minimum Support Price (MSP) in the current rabi season. Soon after the season began, the purchases of wheat, the key rabi cereal, by the official procurement agencies crossed the halfway mark against the target set for the season. If we look back, we find the pace of procurement and prevailing low market rates, the government may end up buying more than the target, which will put pressure on it to liquidate the stocks.

This time around, the funds are being transferred directly to the farmers’ bank accounts, throughout the country. Even Punjab joined the system, ending initial confusion over the manner of paying MSP to farmers in the state due to the state government’s reluctance to embracing the direct bank transfer system. As of now, the FCI and state agencies have purchased 22.23 MT of wheat, as against 7.76 MT during corresponding period of last year, sources from the concerned Ministry said. The purchases, as is the pattern, have been the highest in Punjab despite a late start from April 10, followed by Haryana and MP. The procurement in Uttar Pradesh, the biggest producer of wheat, stands at 0.77 MT, higher than year-ago period.

Wheat procurement last year started a fortnight late from its normal schedule of April 1, 2021 due to the lockdown and pace was slow because of social-distancing norms. Almost INR 8,180 crore has been transferred into the bank account of farmers in Punjab and about INR 4,668 crore in Haryana. As per record, a record wheat production of 109.24 MT in the country during 2020-21 crop year, the government has set a target to buy 42.74 MT for the central pool that is almost 10 per cent more than actual quantity that was purchased in 2020. This year the wheat procurement started about 15 days earlier than that of the previous records especially in MP, Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, the procurement would probably by June.

NATIONWIDE CORONA LOCKDOWN MAY AFFECT INDIA’S GDP UP TO 2 PERCENT

Recent month – long nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of Coronavirus 2.0 may shorten almost 100-200 bps of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. According to a report prepared by the Bank of America Securities India, it would be in a 300-bps risk to annual growth. The report also expressed reservations over the ability of local lockdown to control the pandemic. This situation has caught the Modi government off-guard with the daily caseload surging over 6.5 times over the past 30 days. With a record of around 3.53 lakh new daily cases, India has now turned to be the worst-hit country across the world. Through a note, the economic experts of the Bank of America Securities India, Indranil Sen Gupta and Aastha Gudwani said, “Now, it remains to be seen whether the second wave subsides without a national level lockdown. A month of nationwide lockdown costs 100-200 bps of GDP. This poses a 300-bps risk to our 9 per cent real GVA growth forecast for FY22”. Given the high economic cost, they expect the Centre and the states to try to contain the spread with further tightening of night curfews and localised lockdowns. The economists also expect the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to come to aid by funding the government’s welfare measures, like the resumption of free food grains to the needy in May-June, for which it needs an additional Rs 26,000 crore, or 0.1 per cent of GDP, through OMOs/G-Saps and other liquidity infusing measures to arrest the rise in yields. Experts predicted that the RBI to remain on hold in FY22 and hike rates by 100 bps in FY23.

Meanwhile, the brokerage said, “To slow rise in yields, we expect the RBI to conduct USD68.7 billion of OMOs/G-Saps and hike and extend banks’ HTM limits by 2 per cent of their books to FY26, and continue forward forex intervention”. Showing concern over the vaccination drive, the economists stated, about 8.7 per cent of the entire population has already been administered the first dose and they would be given the second doses soon.

INDIA’S REGULATORY BODY STEPS-UP TO APPOINT STATUTORY AUDITORS

India’s Central Bank and the regulatory body of Indian banks, the RBI has on April 26, 2021 issued guidelines for appointment of statutory auditors of banks and non-banking finance companies, apart from housing finance companies of the country. ‘Guidelines for Appointment of Statutory Central Auditors (SCAs)/Statutory Auditors (SAs) of Commercial Banks, UCBs and NBFCs would be applicable for the upcoming financial years. On the other hands, non-deposit taking NBFCs with asset size below Rs 1,000 Cr have the option to continue with their extant procedure. As per the RBI, the guidelines provide necessary instructions for appointment of SCAs/SAs, the number of auditors, their eligibility criteria, tenure and rotation, etc. while ensuring the independence of auditors. As the guidelines are being implemented for the first time for Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) and NBFCs from 2021-22, “they shall have the flexibility to adopt these guidelines from the second half of FY 2021-22, in order to ensure that there is no disruption”. Banks and UCBs will be required to take prior approval of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for appointment/reappointment of SCAs/SAs, on an annual basis, the guidelines said.

For entities with an asset size of Rs 15,000 crore and above as at the end of previous year, statutory audit should be conducted under joint audit of a minimum of two audit firms. All other entities should appoint a minimum of one audit firm for conducting statutory audit. The RBI guideline said, “It shall be ensured that joint auditors of the entity do not have any common partners and they are not under the same network of audit firms. Further, the entity may finalize the work allocation among SCAs/SAs, before the commencement of the statutory audit, in consultation with their SCAs/SAs”. It also said that in order to protect the independence of the auditors and audit firms, entities will have to appoint the SCAs/SAs for a continuous period of three years.

EUROPE, ASIA WITNESSES MIXED SHARES & PROFITS

The European countries and Asia had on May 3, 2021 witnessed mixed shares after strong corporate earnings, though the data lifted stocks on Wall Street. Besides others, London, Paris and Hong Kong increased, Frankfurt declined, comparatively. But the oil prices increased in the meantime. Meanwhile, owing to the holidays, cities like: Tokyo, Shanghai and few others were closed. “In comparison to the previous year, the profits increased by almost 30 per cent in the first-quarter of the year 2021. Now following increased crude oil prices and recovering demand as major economies have scrabbled their way out of recession. And hence, easing restrictions amid the ongoing vaccination drives to defeat the deadly coronavirus”, Saudi Aramco said.

While in the New York Mercantile Exchange, the United States benchmark crude oil has jumped about 70 cents to USD65.19 per barrel in electronic trading. On May 2, 2021 it had rose 91 cents to USD64.49 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 70 cents to USD68.31 per barrel. While, Japan was closed for Golden Week early May holidays, the trading turned thin with markets in China. The DAX of Germany lost 0.6 per cent to 15,143.42 and the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.2 per cent higher, to 6,317.39. In London, the FTSE 100 gained 0.5 per cent to 7,005.12.

The future for the Dow industrials slipped 0.1 per cent while that for the S&P 500 lost 0.2 per cent. On May 2, 2021, a strong dose of positive earnings reports and economic data that showed the U.S. economy is growing pushed the S&P 500 up 0.3 per cent. In Asian trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.7 per cent to 28,557.14 and the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6 per cent to 7,067.90. In Seoul, the Kospi picked up 0.6 per cent to 3,147.37. The sensex of India gave up early gains, falling 0.2 per cent to 48,610.71.

The Reserve Bank of Australia left its policies unchanged at its May meeting. The lack of trading in China and Japan and mixed results in New York “left the region content to sit in wait-and-see mode with Covid-19 nerves regionally, offsetting the bullishness of the Wall Street reopening gnomes”, Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a commentary. The Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the economic outlook has “clearly brightened” in the United States, but the recovery remains too uneven. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7 per cent to 34,113.23. The tech-heavy Nasdaq shed an early gain, falling 0.5 per cent to 13,895.12. The Russell 2000 index picked up 0.5 per cent to 2,277.45. Stocks have been grinding higher on expectations of an economic recovery and strong company profits this year as large-scale coronavirus vaccination programs help people return to jobs and normal activities after more than a year of restrictions.

Massive support from the United States Government and the Federal Reserve, and increasingly positive economic data, have also helped put investors in a buying mood, keeping stock indexes near their all-time highs. Over half of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results so far this earnings season, which show profit growth of 54 per cent so far, according to FactSet. This is another busy week for earnings reports, with Merck, Pepsi, Colgate-Palmolive and CVS among the companies reporting their latest quarterly results.

Investors will also get April’s jobs report. The yield was on the 10-year United States. The Treasury note was steady at 1.61 per cent. The U.S. dollar rose to 109.42 Japanese yen from 109.09 yen. The euro fell to USD1.2003 from USD1.2066.

Over half of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results so far this earnings season, which show profit growth of 54 per cent so far, according to FactSet

INCREASING RATES OF INTEREST CAN MAINTAIN ECONOMIC GROWTH OF US

The interest rates may have to be kept on rise to maintain an unprecedented growth of the United States Economy that has brought on in part by trillions of dollars in the spur spending of the Government, asserts the US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen. She added that it might be the interest rates that would have to rise somewhat to make sure that their economy did not overheat. Yellen was speaking during an economic forum presented by The Atlantic in the first week of May 2021. It may be the reason behind some very modest increases in interest rates despite, the additional spending is comparatively small with respect to the size of the economy.

She believed that these were the investments that their economy needed to be competitive and to be productive. She further thought that their economy would grow faster because of the situation. Later in the day, Yellen angered her comments somewhat on the need for growing rates, saying she respects the Federal Reserve’s independence and was not trying to influence decision-making there. She chaired the Fed from the years 2014 to 2018. The Fed sets interest rates through its Federal Open Market Committee during the time. This is not something that I am predicting or recommending. If anybody appreciates the independence of the Fed, it may be thought that person may be someone and it must be noted that Fed could be counted on to do whatever was important to achieve their dual mandate objectives. The United States Economy has been on fire, with the first-quarter GDP growth at 6.4 per cent. Recently, Goldman Sachs said that it anticipated the second quarter that grew up around 10.5 per cent.

Because of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic broke during the months of February – March 2020, the Congress allocated some USD5.3 trillion in stimulus spending, resulting in a more than USD3 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2020 and a USD1.7 trillion shortfall in the first half of fiscal 2021. The Biden administration is pushing an infrastructure plan that could see another USD4 trillion spent on a variety of longer-term projects. However, she said the United States needed to focus on financial responsibility longer term, Yellen said spending on matters should have been significant to the mission of the government, but has been left ignored for too long. The newly elected US President, Joe Biden, has taken a very ambitious approach by making up really for over a decade of inadequate investment in infrastructure, in R&D, in people, in communities and small businesses, and it is an active approach. But we have gone for way too long on letting long-term problems fester in our economy, Yellen said. The Fed has kept short-term interest rates anchored near zero for more than a year, despite an economy growing at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years. Central bank officials have vowed to keep accommodative policy in place until the economy makes substantial further progress toward full and inclusive employment and inflation that averages around 2 per cent over a longer term. Inflation concerns have arisen due to all the spending and the rapid growth, but Fed officials have said that after a brief rise this year, price pressures are likely to ebb. Yellen has said she is largely not concerned about inflation becoming a problem, though she has added that there are tools to address it should that happen.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently said that the primary tool to control inflation is through higher interest rates. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “certainly agrees with his Treasury secretary,” on the potential need for higher rates. The United States is running and the Businessmen need to pay for some of the things that they are doing, though the government still has a reasonable amount of financial space.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently said that the primary tool to control inflation is through higher interest rates

USNSP, TENCENT UNDERGOES A BUSINESS AGREEMENT

An agreement is now being negotiated between Tencent Holdings Ltd and the United States National Security Panel (USNSP). This agreement is meant to allow the Tencent Holdings Ltd to continue its ownership stakes in the U.S. video game developers - Riot Games and Epic Games. The company (Tencent) has been in news with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that had the authority to order the Chinese technology giant to separate from the United States holdings right from the June 2020.

The CFIUS has been looking in to whether Epic Games’ and Riot Games’ handling of the personal data of their users constitutes a national security risk because of their Chinese ownership, the sources added. Tencent owns a 40 per cent stake in Epic Games, the maker of popular video game Fortnite. Tencent also bought a majority stake in Riot Games in 2011 and acquired the rest of the company in 2015.

Riot Games is the developer of ‘League of Legends’. This is one of the most popular desktop-based games in the world. Tencent is negotiating risk-mitigation measures with CFIUS so it can keep its investments, according to the sources.

The details of the proposed measures could not be learned. They typically involve ring fencing the owner of a company from operations that have national security implications. They often call for the appointment of independent auditors to monitor the implementation of these agreements. Reliable sources said that the Epic Games had not been sharing any user data with Tencent.

The sources cautioned there is no certainty that Tencent will clinch deals to keep its investments and asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Tencent, Epic Games and a CFIUS representative at the U.S. Treasury Department declined to comment.

A Riot Games spokesman said the Los Angeles-based company operates independently of Tencent and that it has implemented ‘industry-leading practices’ to protect player data. He declined to comment on Riot Games’ discussions with the CFIUS. The CFIUS has been cracking down on Chinese ownership of U.S. technology assets in the last few years, amid an escalation in tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade, human rights and the protection of intellectual property. The U.S. officials have expressed concerns that the personal data of U.S. citizens could end up in the hands of China’s Communist Party government.

Recently elected, US President, Joe Biden’s administration has maintained the hawkish stance against China inherited in January from his predecessor Donald Trump, albeit with more of a focus on geopolitical issues such as the future of Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as China’s persecution of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Yet many key CFIUS roles have not yet been staffed. This has provided a reprieve to China’s ByteDance, which was ordered by Trump last year to sell its popular short video app TikTok but balked at a transaction that would have involved Oracle Corp and Walmart Inc .

The CFIUS has not sought to enforce the divestiture order under Biden. Epic is locked in a legal fight with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) over access to the iPhone maker’s app store. It alleges that Apple forces developers to use its in-app payment systems - which charge commissions of up to 30 per cent - and to submit to app-review guidelines that discriminate against products that compete with Apple’s own. Apple argues that Epic Games broke their contract when it introduced its own in-app payment system in Fortnight to circumvent Apple’s commissions. It says the way it runs the app store inspires trust in consumers to open up their wallets to unknown developers. The vast businesses of Tencent include video games, content streaming, social media, and advertising and cloud services.

China has in recent months sought to curb the economic and social power of Tencent and other internet companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK), in a clampdown backed by President Xi Jinping. Reuters reported last week that Beijing was preparing a substantial antitrust fine for Tencent.

The CFIUS has not sought to enforce the divestiture order under Biden. Epic is locked in a legal fi ght with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) over access to the iPhone maker’s app store

The sources cautioned there is no certainty that Tencent will clinch deals to keep its investments and asked not to be identifi ed because the matter is confi dential

US GAS SUPPLIERS, PIPELINE COMPANIES EMERGES SIGNIFICANT MARKET WINNERS

The natural gas suppliers, pipeline companies and banks involved in trading the commodities have now emerged as the biggest market winners from the winter blast of United States February. It all has shacked the markets of gas and power. Over a 100 people have died and almost 4.5 million were left without power as the deep freeze caught Texas’s utilities off-guard. Regular demands for heat pushed wholesale power costs to 400 times the normal amount and compelled the natural gas prices to record highs. Some of the companies are trying to escape from the normal talks soon after the storm. Sections of companies wanted to talk about their financial gains, not willing to be seen as profiting off the hardships of others. The biggest winners were companies with access to supplies, including leading energy trader Vitol, gas suppliers Kinder Morgan, Enterprise Products Partners & Energy Transfer and banks Goldman Sachs Bank of America and Macquarie Group.

The joint stand of the firm to collect billions of dollars as a profit by selling gas and power amid the storm is an issue. Possible denial by some companies in collecting on those sales because of current legal juggling cannot be ruled out. These losers include producers that could not deliver oil and gas due to frozen wellheads, gathering systems and processing stations.

Utilities are difficult of price scoring & of superfluous supply cancellations. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is reviewing gas and power markets for potential market manipulation. Goldman Sachs and Vitol did not comment.

The transfer of Energy that can collect almost 60 per cent of the United States daily gas utilization in areas hit hardest by the February freeze. It would report a profit of USD850 million from selling the fuel to utilities and industrial customers during the storm. Energy Transfer did not comment for this story. The company reports results. Another gas storage, Kinder Morgan, and pipeline operator, earned about USD1 billion during the storm, the vast majority from higher gas prices and sales. Predicting a huge demand, the dispatched workers

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is reviewing gas and power markets for potential market manipulation. Goldman Sachs and Vitol did not comment.

and backup generators ahead of the storm to its gas storage and pipeline facilities would act perfectly. At the beginning of February, gas prices ranged from USD2.50 to USD3 per million British thermal unit at hubs from Houston to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Energy traders along with three Texas electric cooperatives told Reuters they paid as much as USD400 per mmBtu during a four-day stretch that began Valentine’s Day weekend. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the crisis.

An energy and environmental advisory committee member at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the director at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, Tyson Slocum said, “I have been tracking natural gas markets for two decades. I have never seen price increases like we saw”.

The second-largest marketer of U.S. natural gas, Australia’s Macquarie, said its trading around the storm boosted its overall profit outlook for the year by about 10 per cent, which analysts estimated at about AUSD400 million. Macquarie traders researched how previous cold fronts disrupted infrastructure to prepare a plan, said sources within the firm, who requested anonymity. The grid operator ERCOT of Texas canceled USD1 billion in service charges and state officials are considering securitizing unpaid ERCOT bills from electric companies that defaulted.

Most of the firms that profited from trading like: Goldman Sachs and BofA, are also facing losses from their exposure to utilities and electric co-operatives that have declared bankruptcy. The BofA made hundreds of millions via its trading arm, but it is owed nearly USD480 million by Brazos Electric Power Cooperative.

Disputes over price gouging and reneged contracts have also emerged after some suppliers declared the freeze was a force majeure event that allowed them to suspend contracts. Macquarie was sued by Exxon seeking to void an USD11 million gas bill. CPS Energy sued BP, Chevron, Energy Transfer and others for submitting bills that ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The wind farm operators of Texas have also filed lawsuits against trading arms of JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, maintaining the cold snap was an extreme event.

The transfer of Energy that can collect almost 60 per cent of the United States daily gas utilization in areas hit hardest by the February freeze

STRONG ECO-SYSTEM AND EASING ENVIRONMENT NEED OF THE PLANET

India’s noted Public Sector Unit, IOL believes in creating pillars that that can ensure social as well as environmental safety for the masses.

This is not impossible, instead it’s possible to meet the country’s requirements of energy while, protecting its citizen and the ecosystem. It should be the commitment of the system to conduct business in such a manner that it can be compatible with the environmental and economic needs of the communities through which one operates and protects the safety of every employee. India’s noted Public Sector Unit, IndianOil, accords top priority to conducting its business with a strong environment conscience that can ensure sustainable development, safe workplaces and enrichment of the quality of life of its employees, customers and community at large. This leading oil & gas corporate has always remained confident and committed to excel in Safety, Health and Environmental performance. Let us know, the way the IndianOil employees are pursuing multiple commitments at the operations, social and environmental levels relentlessly.

The Way Indian Oil Manages Country’s Eco-System

During refinery operations, wastage of water, flue of gases and fugitive emissions and solid wastes are obvious. Normally, the refineries are significant consumers of scarce resources like water and energy. And hence pollution control and resource conservation activities are a priority area for environment management at Indian Oil. Effective treatment of wastewater and recycling, energy conservation and pollution abatement are examples of integrated activities that result in both pollution control and resource conservation.

Besides other steps, minimizing adverse environmental impact from refinery activities, products and services by using processes, practices, materials that avoid, reduce or control pollution and conserving scarce natural resources their consumption is continually optimized are important.

Management of Waste Water

Most of the refineries are equipped with a network of underground sewers for segregated collection of various wastewater streams, which are subjected to precise treatment in well-designed effluent treatment facilities involving physical, chemical and biological processes. State of art equipment have been provided in the ETPs for treating oily wastewater and hydrogen peroxide / wet air oxidation treatment for spent caustic streams etc. These treatment facilities are backed by sophisticated instrumentation and real time monitoring systems for close and precise monitoring. In Marketing and Pipeline locations, effluent water is routed through oil water separator.

The Major Steps for Conserving Water are as Follows:

1. The treated effluent streams are often recycled for various purposes in refineries. 2. Acerbic water generated in various units is stripped of contaminants such as ammonia and H2S and recycled. 3. Treatment systems like Ultra Filtration,

Reverse Osmosis etc. are used to convert treated effluent to demineralised water or for use in cooling towers as make-up water. 4. Rainwater harvesting structures have been put up in all refinery townships,

Marketing and Pipeline installations and R&D Centre for recharging groundwater.

Containing Environmental Pollutions

Main focus is given to contain emissions in the refineries. Main sources of air emissions are flue gases from boilers and heaters, FCC regenerators and Sulphur Recovery Units. Hydrocarbon leaks and evaporation during storage, handling and transportation of petroleum products and crude oil are sources of fugitive emissions. Measures adopted to control emissions are as follows: • Tall stacks for effective dispersion of pollutants. • Use of low sulphur fuel oil/ sweet natural gas desulphurised refinery gas in boilers and heaters to minimize SO2 emission. • Use of low NOx burners. • Hydrogen Sulphide generated during desulphurization of refinery gas is converted to elemental sulphur in

Sulphur Recovery Units. • Sulphur dioxide emissions from Catalytic

Crackers are controlled by effective feed sulphur management. • Flue gas scrubbing at FCC units at Haldia & Barauni Refineries for arresting emission of sulphur dioxide and particulate matters. • Carbon monoxide from FCCU regenerator is incinerated in CO Boilers and the resultant energy is utilized for steam generation. • Use of floating roof tanks for crude and other light product services &

Mechanical seals in pumps for minimizing fugitive emission of hydrocarbons. • Use of closed blow down vessels & safety release to flare system for arresting any emission of hydrocarbons during all situations, normal, abnormal as well as emergencies. • Continuous reduction in fuel consumption by ENCON measures, heat integration and increased use of hot feed in downstream processing units. • Flare gas recovery systems.

Management of Solid Wastes

Check, Minimize, Reuse and Recover are the fundamental principles that govern all our activities. Merely chemical, biological sludge generated from storage tanks during refinery turnarounds or from the basins & storage tanks of effluent treatment.

The Business of Indian Oil widely depends on crude imports through VLCC and other tankers which are unloaded through single buoy mooring (SBM) systems

Melting pits with skimming pumps, sophisticated hydrocyclones, centrifuges etc. are employed for de-oiling the sludge. Bioremediation in confined bioreactor is the latest innovation in bio-remediation of residual oily sludge developed in-house. The spent catalysts and other wastes are sent to approve recyclers for gainful use in their manufacturing processes like FCCU catalyst in cement kilns. This apart, accidental oil spills, whether on land or water have the potential to cause serious problems for coastal and marine wildlife, especially corals, fishes, birds, mammals and reptiles.

The Business of Indian Oil widely depends on crude imports through VLCC and other tankers which are unloaded through single buoy mooring (SBM) systems. Thus concern for marine life ensures that IndianOil has a well-structured system in place to plug / handle all possible sources of oil leaks including oil tanker spills, nontanker ship spills, pipelines from SBM to onshore tanks and tank farms or may be cross country crude oil and product pipelines. It’s Tiered Preparedness and Response enables a structured approach to both establishing oil spill preparedness and undertaking a response. It helps categorise potential oil spill incidents in terms of their potential severity and the capabilities that need to be in place to respond. Considering the regulatory framework under which this offshore marine oil spill is managed, other than the Environment Protection Act-1986 which is the basic act for all environmental activities in India, the most important and direct help comes from the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan briefly known as NOS-DCP.

Management of e-Wastes

So far as the E-Waste Rules, 2011 is concerned, the IndianOil ensures that e-waste is disposed by way of buyback against new procurements or through government approved trading agency M/s Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC).

Controlling Sound Pollutions

The most highlighted sources of noise pollutions may be recorded as: engines, compressor house, turbine hall, furnace etc. And hence, significant measures to control sound pollutions may be summed up as: Proper maintenance of machines, Using low noise machines, Properly designed enclosure for both source and receiver, Use of sound absorbing material

Creating Green Parks, Strong Eco-System

IndianOil regards ecological and environmental protection as the focal point of our environmental conservation program. To give back to the nature, large scale tree plantation activities are carried out at all our installations. Scientifically designed green belts have been developed, which serve as a pollution sinks and enhance aesthetics. Lakhs of trees already adorn our green belts. Ecological Parks have been developed at Refineries with lush green cover that serves as natural habitat for a large number of birds. More than 300 species of resident and migratory birds thrive in these Eco Parks. Over 285 species of native and exotic plants and trees grow there. Further, as a green initiative, e-portals have been launched and payments, data transfer are done using the electronic media. This results in considerable saving of paper, thereby preventing cutting of trees.

Working on Fuelling Country’s Green Energy Quest

This PSU has ambitions plans to broaden its energy basket with alternative energy options; the Corporation envisages setting up 260 MW of renewable energy (wind and solar) over the next five years. It has has so far converted about 6,600 of its fuel stations to operate on solar energy as a major initiative to reduce carbon emissions. Their cumulative capacity is about 26 MW. About 560 rain-water harvesting systems have been installed at various refineries, terminals, depots and housing complexes of IndianOil. With a total catchment area of 950 hectares, about 3 billion litres of water is being harvested annually. Our country is committed to cut carbon emissions by 33-35 per cent by 2030 and has set an ambitious target of 175 GW of renewable energy-based capacity by 2022. In support of this, Indian Oil is working to raise its grid- connected renewable energy capacity from 188 MW (wind-168 MW, solar-20 MW) currently to 260 MW by the year 2020.

Mechanism Adopted to Clean Development

The climatic changes, global warming or other such issues arising out of human activities has now turned to be the most significant concern all over the world. Meeting this challenge requires new ways to assess the scale of economic activity and its impact on environmental systems. Carbon foot printing of all our refineries has been done. And hence, being a responsible corporate citizen, Indian Oil is aware of its responsibility towards not only mitigating environmental pollution due to its operations but also the role it can play in improving the environment by making products that cause least pollution.

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