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SEBI’s BRSR is a huge step towards standardised disclosures on ESG parameters and enables comparability across companies, sectors and over time

In a recent webinar on Driving Climate Action through Disclosure: BRSR as Bedrock for ESG Action in India, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) in association with CDP, and WMB on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow, Ajay Tyagi, Chairperson, SEBI has said that global developments, such as Paris Agreement on climate change, increased focus on sustainability, among others, have led to a review of the disclosure requirements under the  Business Responsibility Report (BRR).

“Accordingly, after extensive stakeholder consultation, SEBI introduced the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR). The BRSR is more focussed on having quantifiable metrics and is outcome oriented. The nine principles of BRSR echo the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and cover both environment and social aspects,” he added.

Tyagi stated, that SEBI had introduced mandatory BRR for top 100 listed companies in 2012, which was then extended to 500 companies in 2015 and then for top 1000 companies in 2019. SEBI had also introduced voluntary adoption of integrated reporting by top 500 companies.

India’s new mandatory disclosure regime – BRSR, is a huge step towards standardised disclosures on ESG parameters and enable comparability across companies, sectors and over time.

“We believe that for a country like India, social factors are as relevant and important as climate-related factors. Therefore, we have consciously followed a Climate Plus approach while working on BRSR. The disclosures are not only related to climate-related metrics but also on quantitative social metrics,” the SEBI Chairperson noted.

Further, speaking about sustainable investing, Tyagi said that investors are realising the implication of sustainability related risks and have started treating these as material to their investment decisions. This is reflected in the recent increase in total assets and inflows in sustainable funds globally.

Mahendra Singhi, MD and CEO, Dalmia Cements, said “The BRR and now the BRSR have been proactive and positive efforts for businesses. BRSR is a good foundation for ESG reporting, it will go a long way to help companies to introspect and then to communicate.”

SEBI’s BRSR is a huge step towards

Presents an easy plug-in business model for its edible coating that extends the life span of fresh produce

Tel Aviv – AgriTech start-up Sufresca has optimised its novel invisible edible coating designed to extend the shelf-life of fresh produce and expand its use to fit a range of fresh fruit and vegetables. Sufresca also shares the business model for its simple plug-in system to benefit retailers and growers.

Sufresca developed an edible, biodegradable, water-based emulsion composed of wholly natural food ingredients and inbuilt with advanced modified atmosphere properties. When applied to fresh fruit or vegetable, the solution creates a breathable coating. Minute disruptions within the coating act as a partial barrier that allows for optimal gas exchange. This slows down the post-harvest maturation and ripening processes and subsequent degradation and decay. It also solves the problems that come with using impermeable sealants.

The sustainable solution can extend shelf life by up to several weeks, saving plastic packaging and extending shipment time. This drastically reduces the loss of fresh produce on-route as well as in-shop waste. “The chaotic structure of our coating was inspired by the cuticle structures that naturally layer plants to protect them from extreme environmental conditions and water loss,” explains Efrat Boker-Ferri, CEO, Sufresca.

Sufresca developed a high-feasibility business model for the straightforward application of its solution into existing systems. This makes the coating solution an attractive, highly scalable, and convenient option for producers, distributors, and exporters of fresh produce in the early stages of the supply chain but can also be applied at the later stages.

Presents an easy plug-in business model for

The pact will help in the sustainable development of rural poor and income generation

Department of Animal husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) recently signed an MoU with the Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MoFPI). 

Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, DAHD, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Pushpa Subrahmanyam, Secretary, MoFPI signed the MoU for extension of benefits to dairy entrepreneurs/ dairy industries through the convergence of various schemes of Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), MoFAHD. The MoU was signed in the presence of Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Pashupati Kumar Paras, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries and the Ministers of State of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan and Dr L Murugan, and also the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Prahlad Singh Patel.

The objectives of MoFPI & DAHD are interlinked and complementary. Hence, the DAHD and MoFPI will work together to achieve the goal for income generation for sustainable development of the rural poor through the extension of benefits of various schemes to the beneficiaries whenever they require credit support for establishment/ extension/ strengthening of quality control, dairy processing and its value addition, meat processing and value addition infrastructure, animal feed plant and technology-assisted breed improvement farms without any limitation.

Ministry of Food Processing Industry is also implementing various schemes with similar objectives and aims. Under the ’One District One Product (ODOP)’ scheme, credit link grant assistance will be provided for dairy, fisheries, poultry and animal feed. Under this, new units for ODOP products will be supported for capital investment. Also, implementing the Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI) will result in the creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet.

The pact will help in the sustainable

The company has engaged in states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan

 

Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC), a nationalised insurance company, has introduced ‘Parametric Insurance’ to protect crops against weather vagaries. AIC has worked to gather the data with multiple credible weather data agencies like IMD, Skymet Weather and private/government vendor/agency that have automatic weather stations installed in various locations PAN India.

AIC aims to cover all Indian corporates and affinity groups and/or individuals owning establishments or businesses, income of which can be affected by variation in crop yields due to adverse weather conditions. The insurance programme entails tracking of various weather and crop parameters through automated weather stations and based on these parameters a crop-specific index is derived and the most suitable insurance product is created for a specific crop. 

The adverse weather conditions indicated by direct proxy weather indicators are the trigger events for this insurance cover. The pay-outs are made when the weather index deviation exceeds a predetermined threshold which is detrimental to crop growth. For example, rainfall parameters are deficit rainfall cover, excess rainfall cover, unseasonal rainfall cover, cover for inadequate distribution of rainfall, cover for wet spells and more. 

The company piloted the product with a leading warehousing company which is an agribusiness value chain integrator from India, focusing on catalysing the ecosystem for smallholder farmers and FPOs through post-harvest interventions that include storage solutions, credit and risk guarantees, financial and market linkages and policy level changes. AIC has covered 281 warehouses under this product in the current season located in various states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. 

The company has engaged in states like

The new method is non-invasive and can be implemented in a portable Raman system to be used on crops in commercial agricultural farms

Researchers from the Disruptive & Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) of Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore and their local collaborators from Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL), have developed a rapid Raman spectroscopy-based method for the detection and quantification of early bacterial infection in crops. The Raman spectral biomarkers and diagnostic algorithm enable the non-invasive and early diagnosis of bacterial infections in crop plants, which can be critical for the progress of plant disease management and agricultural productivity. 

The breakthrough by SMART and TLL researchers offers a faster and more accurate method to detect bacterial infection in crop plants at an earlier stage, as compared to existing techniques. The team explained their research in a paper titled “Rapid detection and quantification of plant innate immunity response using Raman spectroscopy” published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science.

A portable Raman system can be used in agricultural farms and provides farmers with an accurate and simple yes or no response when used to test for the presence of bacterial infections in crop plants. The development of this rapid and non-invasive method will improve plant disease management and have a transformative impact on agricultural farms by efficiently reducing agricultural yield loss and increasing productivity. 

The researchers are currently working on the development of high-throughput, custom-made portable or hand-held Raman spectrometers that will allow Raman spectral analysis to be quickly and easily performed on field-grown crops.

 The development and discovery of the diagnostic algorithm and Raman spectral biomarkers were done by SMART and TLL. TLL also confirmed and validated the detection method through mutant plants. The research is carried out by SMART and supported by the National Research Foundation of Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.

The new method is non-invasive and can

Dr Satish Kumar Gupta, Professor, PAU has received the Commendation Medal Award (2020)

Dr Satish Kumar Gupta, Professor and Training and Placement Officer of College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, PAU has recently been awarded Commendation Medal Award (2020) by the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers (ISAE), New Delhi. The award will be formally conferred to him during 55th Annual Convention of ISAE to be held during November 23- 25, 2021 in Patna.

Dr Gupta has also been awarded the Best Teacher Award by the Indian Society for Technical Education in 2017 and an appreciation Certificate by DDG (Agril. Extn), ICAR and Vice-Chancellor, PAU in recognition of services. During his tenure as Joint Secretary cum Treasurer, the Punjab Chapter of ISAE has been awarded the best Chapter Award twice. Vice-Chancellor; Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology and Director of Research, PAU congratulated Dr Satish on his achievement.

Dr Satish Kumar Gupta, Professor, PAU has

GHG emissions from pre-and post-production phases of the food supply chain accounted for more than half of the agri-food system total in both Europe and North America

According to a new study led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the food supply chain is on course to overtake farming and land use as the largest contributor to greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the agri-food system in many countries. This is due to rapid growth driven by food processing, packaging, transport, retail, household consumption, waste disposal and the manufacturing of fertilisers.
Factors unrelated to on-farm activities and land-use changes already account for more than half of the carbon dioxide emissions from agri-food systems in advanced regions and their share has more than doubled over the past three decades in developing countries.

The study authored by FAO senior statistician Francesco Tubiello, builds on a wave of recent efforts to quantify GHG trends to facilitate mitigation measures and alert policymakers to emerging trends.

The new data found that 31 per cent of total anthropogenic GHG emissions, or 16.5 billion tonnes, originate from the world’s agri-food systems, a 17 per cent increase from 1990 when the global population was smaller. The global shares are in line with previous work, indicating a range between 21-37 per cent.

Furthermore, the study found that GHG emissions from pre-and post-production phases of the food supply chain accounted for more than half of the agri-food system total in both Europe and North America, while the figure was below 14 per cent for Africa and South America.

GHG emissions from pre-and post-production phases of

Inaugurates Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2021

The Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu, urged scientists, technocrats and entrepreneurs to come out with new ideas and innovations to create knowledge wealth and economic wealth for the progress of humanity and betterment of society at large.

 

Inaugurating the Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2021 in Bengaluru, Naidu said that the ultimate goal of technology is to bring happiness to our lives and called for the development of technologies that address people’s pressing problems and make their lives happier and comfortable.

 

The Vice President, while acknowledging the recent technological disruptions in many areas, stressed that the real potential of the technology can be unleashed when there are significant improvements in sectors such as agriculture, education, healthcare, governance and climate change.

 

Urging the Bengaluru Tech Summit participants to bestow greater attention on agriculture, he called for adopting smart agro-tech solutions such as precision agriculture, online marketplaces and artificial intelligence in agriculture to help improve farm productivity and incomes. Expressing concern over the adverse impact of climate change on agriculture, the Vice President called for technological solutions for this challenge.

 

The Vice President thanked the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison and the Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett for joining the BTS-2021 through video conferencing.

 

Inaugurates Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2021The Vice

Corteva Agriscience implemented the Manna Irrigation Intelligence solution in more than 4,000 hectares in Austria

Corteva Agriscience and Manna Irrigation, a leading provider of irrigation intelligence software solutions, have announced a new contract to enhance effective irrigation practices.

Corteva Agriscience implemented the Manna Irrigation Intelligence solution in more than 4,000 hectares in Austria across multiple locations. With the Manna solution, hundreds of corn seed growers improved their crop management practices, boosting seed production metrics and promoting sustainability.

Manna’s software-only solution leads the trend in crop management decision-making driven by virtual sensors. It provides growers with actionable insights on how much and when to irrigate, based on a combination of remote sensing data, pinpointed weather information, and crop-specific models.

Manna’s mobile-friendly app removes the need for sensor installations and maintenance and provides real-time notifications about crop development issues, as detected by analysis of high-resolution and high-frequency satellite images.

The deal reflects the growing momentum in the sector towards more sustainable and streamlined irrigation practices, thanks to combined agronomic and technological expertise.

Corteva Agriscience implemented the Manna Irrigation Intelligence

Wilmar scored 70 points in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability with an industry average of 25 points and an industry-best score of 88 points

Wilmar announced its inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) World Index1 for the Food, Beverage and Tobacco industry grouping. Wilmar joins the ranks of 322 global companies on the World Index with the best environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance after having previously been included in the DJSI Asia Pacific Index in 20202.

Wilmar scored 70 points in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), with an industry average of 25 points and an industry-best score of 88 points. The CSA utilises comprehensive methodology and research focusing on best-in-class companies to determine scoring based on environmental, social, governance and economic criteria, with a strong emphasis on long-term shareholder value.

The DJSI, including the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World), were launched in 1999 as the pioneering series of global sustainability benchmarks available in the market. The index family
is consists of global, regional and country benchmarks.

Wilmar scored 70 points in the S&P

The company has also signed technology partnership agreements with Monsanto Enviro-Chem Systems and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions

Coromandel International, part of Murugappa Group, announced the project initiation for setting up a new 1650 Metric Tonnes per day design capacity sulphuric acid plant at its fertiliser complex in Visakhapatnam at a cost of Rs 400 crore. The announcement was made by Arun Alagappan, Executive Vice Chairman, Coromandel International Limited. The company has also signed technology partnership agreements with MECS (Monsanto Enviro-Chem Systems) and TKIS (ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions).

The new sulphuric acid plant for which the investment has been announced will increase the sulphuric acid production capacity by a further 5 Lakh Metric Tonnes per annum from the current level of 6 lakh metric Tonnes per annum, thereby resulting in a combined capacity of 11 lakh metric tonnes. The investment is in line with Coromandel’s long-term objectives to secure key raw materials for its fertiliser production. The 1650 TPD sulphuric acid plant project will be set up within Coromandel’s existing Visakhapatnam plant premises.

The Visakhapatnam manufacturing unit of Coromandel has a production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum complex fertilisers and a captive phosphoric acid production capacity of close to 4 lakh tonnes per annum. The new Sulphuric acid plant at Vizag will reduce the import dependence considerably and ensure sustainable production of Phosphoric acid, one of the key raw materials for phosphatic fertiliser manufacturing.

The new state of the art sulphuric acid plant is being built on par with globally best technical standards to control emissions. The steam generated from the process shall also be used for captive power generation.

The company has also signed technology partnership

Imagindairy is currently collaborating with leading dairy companies, offering a complete range of dairy-free proteins

FoodTech company Imagindairy has announced the completion of a $13 million seed round. The funding was led by MoreVC, a leading seed-stage investor in Israel managing $275 million across three funds. Also joining this round: Strauss Group, Entrée Capital, S2G Ventures; Collaborative Fund, New Climate Ventures, Green Circle Foodtech Ventures; Emerald Technology Ventures and Pierre Besnainou. This round includes a pre-seed investment by Strauss Group, FoodSparks by PeakBridge, CPT Capital, and Entrée Capital earlier this year.

 

Imagindairy is milking new technology to leave the cow out of the dairy equation. With natural precision fermentation, the company creates true milk proteins that are indistinguishable from the real thing. Imagindairy’s proprietary technology, based on systems and synthetic biology platform, allows manufacturers to offer cow-free, sustainable milk and dairy products with all the nutritional values of dairy milk. 

 

Imagindairy is currently collaborating with leading dairy companies, offering a complete range of dairy-free proteins. “Imagindairy’s innovative technology allows dairy companies to develop new products or reformulate existing products, without involving animals and with a dramatic reduction in carbon-footprint,” says Glen Schwaber, MoreVC partner. 

 

Imagindairy is currently collaborating with leading dairy

The new partnership marks the first-of-its-kind industry collaboration to identify CO2 e emissions across supply chains

BRF, Raízen, Rumo, AMAGGI and SINAI Technologies, announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration to collect, calculate, forecast and share primary emissions data across the global supply chain to drive industry mitigation and decarbonisation.

 

Through this collaboration, the companies reinforce commitments to the global agenda, understanding that engagement is essential to reach decarbonisation. This is the first time – in any industry – for a collaborative initiative with the shared goal of identifying decarbonisation opportunities throughout all supply chain operations. While this first partnership focuses on the agriculture industry, the goal is to accelerate the deployment of low carbon solutions across any and all supply chains.

 

The companies will connect emissions from seed processing to agricultural production, trading, logistics, feed and food production and operation, and finally distribution from Brazil to global markets using SINAI Technologies’ decarbonisation platform. From a consumer perspective, this yields the potential to see carbon-neutral food products available at your local supermarket.

 

The companies are utilising SINAI Technologies’ decarbonisation platform to allow industry experts to develop emission allocation frameworks based on the primary data provided while prioritising data privacy. The goal is for software to provide automated allocation methodologies that are developed and reviewed by sustainability experts to guarantee that the primary data in this way will provide accuracy and transparency which may incentivise the adoption of low carbon solutions, and contribute to the liquidity and reliability of off-sets and in-sets in a voluntary market. All data collected will be audited by a third party to validate the data, allocation methodologies, and calculations in SINAI’s decarbonization platform.

 

 

SINAI Technologies, a San Francisco-based startup that provides organisations with the technology tools needed to build effective decarbonisation strategies, is acting as the technology partner. SINAI’s newly-launched Value Chain Module calculates Scope 3 emissions for participating companies using the same accounting methodology across the chain. The software also demonstrates how to allocate emissions at the product level, from the facility level (GHG inventories), without using common outdated product databases.

The new partnership marks the first-of-its-kind industry

Fellowship, Post Graduate Diploma and certificates were given to 460 students who passed out during the academic sessions 2018-19 and 2019-20

The Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal virtually inaugurated the 50th Convocation Ceremony of National Sugar Institute, Kanpur, which was organised by the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD).

 

The institute organised the convocation during which Fellowship, Post Graduate Diploma and Certificates were given to 460 students who passed out during the academic sessions 2018-19 and 2019-20. Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Sadvi Niranjan Jyoti felicitated the students in Kanpur.

 

Out of it, 34 students were conferred Gold Medals viz Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal, ISGEC Gold Medal, CVSubba Rao Gold Medal and other awards sponsored by ISMA, NFCSF, M/s Shrijee Heavy Engineering and Praj Industries etc. The alumni of the institute occupy a very senior position in the sugar industry not only in the country but in other sugar-producing countries in the world too.

 

More than 9000 students have passed out till academic session 2020-21 which include students from more than 20 countries e.g. Nigeria, Thailand, Shri Lanka, Bhutan, Vietnam, Uganda, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Iran, Kenya, Yemen and Nepal etc.

 

In addition to regular courses, the institute also conducts Refresher Courses / Short Term Training Programmes / Executive Development Programme etc. for enhancing the knowledge of in-service personnel, carrying out skill development and with a view to updating knowledge of the staff working in sugar factories and distilleries about the recent technological developments.

 

The institute is conducting 12 courses in sugar technology, sugar engineering, alcohol technology and other related disciplines which include three fellowships, 6 PG Diploma and three certificate level courses.

 

Apart from publishing about 40 research articles per year in reputed national and international journals and other proceedings, the institute has filed seven patent applications during the last five years.

 

Goyal said, “The sugar industry is the backbone of rural economy and as experts of sugar industry you are crucial to bringing Aatmanirbharta to farmers, villages and nation.” 

 

Fellowship, Post Graduate Diploma and certificates were