Money can grow on trees!

Even as global businesses and industry are being forced to take a closer look at their negative impact on environment, the 'business of environment' itself is looking up. The focus on global warming and climate change and the campaigns to help save the planet are bringing more people closer to environment than they have ever been. 


Right from increasing attendance at wildlife reserves to the abundance of adventure sports that take people closer to nature, businesses that 'exploit' nature are doing better than ever before. Though, in India at least, questions still persist whether 'ecotourism' or 'environment tourism' really helps the conservation effort at the local level. 


Amol Khante, director of CAC All Rounder an organization that's involved in ecotourism activities, says, "There definitely has been more interest in the outdoors over the last few years, leading to more business. However, not all of the business leads to gains for the local environment or even the local people, whose day-to-day life impacts the environment. More needs to be done to ensure such businesses benefit local tribals or villagers and wean them away from a life living off the forests surrounding their villages." 


Even though such businesses may not always directly contribute finances to save the environment, Khante believes that they do help create awareness among the general population about the importance of environment. "Adventure sports pull you out of your comfort zone. At such times people are more receptive to new experiences. In this state of heightened awareness, say after a strenuous trek of 2-3 hours, any city-bred yuppie will realize the importance of a tree's shadow or the grass under it. He will remember the taste of cool water from a natural spring, and how different it is from his office water cooler. This bonding will stay with the person permanently, prompting him to think a bit more about his environment over the long term." 


Most people closely involved with environmental issues agree that there is a link between tourism and the well-being of the environment, though tenuous at times. Now, with the government making efforts to ensure the negative impact of tourism is minimized, everyone can only hope that tourism and nature grow on each other in a symbiotic relationship. 

5 JUN, 2011, 12.42AM IST, RAHUL SOMAN,TNN 

India to adhere global benchmarks for cell phones radiation

Amid concerns over likely health hazards due to radiations emitting from mobile phones and towers, the government today assured that India would adhere to best global and scientific benchmarks while drafting the final guidelines in the telecom sector . 

The government's reaction comes in the backdrop of a latest WHO report which says cellphone use can possibly cause brain cancer. 

"While telecom is a huge success story in India, we have to ensure that any possible health related effects of radiation emitted by mobile phones and towers are reflected in the guidelines. 

"The final guidelines would take into account the best global benchmarks and scientific evidence on the subject," Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot told PTI. 

The government in August last year, had set up an inter- ministerial group to evaluate the evidence, re-visit radiation guidelines for mobile towers and adopt guidelines for radiation emission by cell phones. 

The group had made it mandatory for cellphone manufacturers to declare the radiation level of each mobile handset on the packet itself. 

For mobile towers, the group proposed that radiation norms should be ten times as strict as the existing ones- from f/200 watts per square meter to f/2000 watts per square meter. 

Uptill March 31 this year, 5,88,645 out of 6,05,859 base stations had been self-certified. 

The group had experts from Department of Telecom, Ministry of Health, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Environment and Forests and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). 

The report is currently under the consideration of Department of Telecom.

5 JUN, 2011, 01.00PM IST,PTI 

India to emerge as third largest domestic banking market by 2050: PwC

Banking assets of emerging nations are likely to overtake that of G7 economies by the year 2050, with India likely to emerge as the third largest domestic banking market in the world in the next three decades, says PricewaterhouseCoopers . 

According to a PwC report, total domestic credit in the E7 economies (China, India, Brazil , Russia , Mexico , Indonesia and Turkey) is likely to overtake total domestic credit in the G7 economies within the next 40 years. 

The analysis also suggests that India is likely to be the fastest growing of the E7 economies and could grow faster than China in the long run. 

"China will continue to grow somewhat faster than India over the next 5-10 years, but after that Chinese growth will be held back by its rapidly aging population (due in large part to its one child policy) and diminishing returns to its investment-led strategy," the study said. 

In contrast, India and other emerging economies like Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey have much younger populations and faster-growing labour forces. 

The banking sector in the seven emerging markets are not going to "rival" those in India and China in terms of size, but by the year 2050, they could be of the same order of magnitude as the banking sectors in countries like France and Italy from the much lower levels today. 

"The banking world in 2050 will look radically different from the one we see today, with the E7 economies becoming at least as important as the G7," the report said. 

Many E7 economies already have relatively profitable banking sectors, and our estimates suggest that total profits from domestic banking in the E7 will be around half those in the G7 by 2025 and larger than in the G7 before 2050, the PwC report said. 

At present, the weight of the E7 in global banking assets is low so the global average looks close to the G7 average. However, overtime, this is going to change with the E7 ratio rising much faster than the G7 ratio so that "near convergence is achieved by 2050". 

Retail banking sectors in emerging market economies are likely to see particularly rapid growth, since mortgage and consumer credit lending is generally not well developed yet in these markets compared with corporate and government lending. 

Besides, in the next few decades E7 banks will also become major competitors in the global "war for talent". 

The signs are already visible, with Russian banks hiring investment bankers from London, Chinese banks importing the US or European executives, and Indian banks attracting staff with experience of working for major G7 institutions. 

"As the E7 banks internalise the knowledge of these staff, so their competitiveness in both domestic and global markets will increase," the report said. 

However, some major E7 banks may also come under foreign ownership, the study said.






5 JUN, 2011, 04.13PM IST,PTI