Ministry unveils new categories of industries for green nod

NEW DELHI: In a move which may push the Centre's `Make In India' initiatives, the environment ministry on Saturday released new categorisation of industries, exempting 36 types of industries from taking environmental clearance.
The newly introduced `White' category of industries pertains to those industrial sectors which are practically nonpolluting.

It includes cotton and woollen hosiery (dry process only without any dyingwashing operation), electric lamp (bulb) and CFL manufacturing by assembling, scientific and mathematical instrument manufacturing, solar power generation through photovoltaic cells, wind power and mini-hydel power (less than 25 MW of capacity) among others.


Under the new categorisation, industries which pollute the most have been put in the `Red' category while the moderately polluting units are classified `Orange'. Industries that have a significantly low pollu tion load have been placed in the `Green' category while those that operate without causing any pollution have been categorised as `White'.

Terming it a “landmark“ decision which gives a “fair picture“ of the industries, environment minister Prakash Ja vadekar said, “Re-categorisation of industries, based on their pollution load, is a scientific exercise. The old system of categorisation was creating problems for many industries and was not reflecting the pollution of the industries.

“The new categories will remove this lacuna and will give clear picture to everyone. Twenty-five industrial sectors which were not critically polluting were also earlier categorised as Red. This was creating wrong impression to everyone“.

A total of 242 types of industries have been classified into four categories -Red, Orange, Green and White (a new class) -based on their air, water and soil polluting potential. It is expected that the move will help deal with red tape.

Though the first three categories have been in existence for long, the categorisations were earlier made mainly on the basis of the size of an industry and consumption of resources.

The fresh `uniform' classification has been done by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).