1vember 2007

Thanks : The Indian Express
Green buildings to get a rating system

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 1: There is an attempt to promote green, energy-efficient buildings in the country. On Thursday, energy and resources institute TERI signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for the development of a national rating system, GRIHA, for green buildings.

Using various qualitative and quantitative assessment criteria, GRIHA would be able to “rate” a building on the degree of its “greenness”. The rating would be applied to different types of new buildings, whether commercial, institutional or residential.

A National Advisory Council (NAC) and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) will be constituted to provide advice, direction, modification and constant upgradation of the GRIHA framework. The rating system confirms the building code and guidelines developed by the bureau of energy efficiency and MNRE. In fact, it is a broader guideline than the one developed by these agencies.

“The GRIHA system is proof that near self-sufficiency in energy is not a utopian idea but a reality cast in brick and mortar. India needs to devise such technologies customised for the needs of our people,” said Dr RK Pachauri, Director General of TERI, which has developed this rating over the last two years. MNRE proposes to incentivise the rating system so that more architects are inclined to use it.

MNRE Secretary V Subramanian suggested that a syllabus be developed to be made mandatory in all engineering courses and all municipal corporations in the country should give tax break on properties developed on GRIHA.

The rating system, based on accepted energy and environmental principles, will seek to strike a balance between the known established practices and emerging concepts. The guidelines/criteria appraisal may be revised every three years to take into account the latest scientific developments during the period. These buildings will use less artificial resources thereby reducing GHG emissions, improving energy security, and reducing stress on natural resources.

Thanks : The Indian Express
IIT to Centre: Reward young teachers to draw fresh blood
New Delhi, October 31 In Keeping with its latest initiatives to recruit more teachers, the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi has asked the government to launch at least a thousand fellowships for young teachers of Science across the country.
In a proposal sent to the Department of Science and Technology, IIT-Delhi has suggested that the fellowships, amounting to Rs 1 lakh each, must be created to recognise and reward outstanding young faculty members.

“Creating fellowships is most important to us than anything else now — return on money invested in a young faculty usually exceeds everything else,” Prof B N Jain, Deputy Dean (Faculty), said. “They are young, enthusiastic and several of them have left lucrative jobs abroad to join us.”

But much before the proposal was sent, IIT-Delhi had launched the Outstanding Young Faculty Fellowships for its new breed of teachers who have taken charge in the past one year. The fellowships, currently 26 in number, offer Rs 1 lakh per annum to the select faculty for a period of five years.

Jain said the premier institution hopes to launch some 500 such fellowships over the next five years. “The biggest problem that the country faces today is quality manpower,” he said. But “we can achieve the target through incentives like these fellowships.”

The proposal, sent to the Department of Science and Technology, also suggests that once launched, the initiative would infuse a healthy competition among teachers, as fellowships would be open to faculty members in all the engineering colleges in the country. “Similar proposals, with lesser number of fellowships, have also been sent to departments of Biotechnology and Information Technology,” Jain said.

Thanks: The Hindu
Merkel offers help to develop Indian cities
MUMBAI: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that fast-growing cities needed all the attention of national policy but to help cities “we must not stop developing the countryside.”

“Helping cities means also developing the countryside. This has been a basic rule of our policy in Germany. Developing the countryside is as important as helping the city, struggling with climate change, migration and poverty,” she said, delivering the keynote address at the Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award presentation function here.

“You cannot compare German cities like Berlin, with its 3.5 million inhabitants, to Mumbai. But German cities have also had to deal with a lot of problems like the integration of migrants. Education is very important for integrating migrants and spreading economic opportunities in cities.” Germany would be willing to extend assistance to Mumbai to help it deal with urban problems, she said.

Dr. Merkel said the presence of the German Minister for Science and Technology in her entourage and the government’s programme to work with the Indian government and universities to improve life in global cities underlined that German and Indian politics shared the same challenges.

Urban age


“Kofi Annan has said that the 21st century will be the urban age. Therefore, I lay emphasis on the creation of global networks for cities, like the Deutsche Bank Urban Age network,” she added.

Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann announced the winners of the first Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award in the presence of Dr. Merkel and Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna. The award of $1,00,000 would be shared by two Mumbai-based projects: the Triratna Prerana Mandal initiative and the Mumbai Waterfronts Development Centre. The Urban Design Research Institute’s Fort Management Project gets a special commendation.

“In scope, quality, and quantity, the submissions to the jury exceeded expectations for the award, the first of its kind. Seventy-four applications were received from organisations working in the slums and the historic districts, from government and non-governmental organisations, from groups working with children and women,” said jury member and MP Shabana Azmi.