Sustainability Standards Will Drive India's Growth: Suresh Prabhu

Adhering to global sustainability standards will help Indian products to be exported more globally, as misunderstanding related to some of the products will disappear, which will help industry to grow even faster. In his inaugural address at an International Conference on sustainability last evening, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Mr Suresh Prabhu said, “I will offer my full support to bring these standards into reality in India."

Addressing the “India And Sustainability Standards : International Dialogues and conference 2018” chairperson of India Sanitation Coalition, Ms Naina Lal Kidwai suggested Indian banks should adhere to what should and should not be funded while talking about funding by Indian banks without taking care of sustainable business practices. The lack of this norm leads to the issue of stranded assets and they keep piling up.

While talking about India Sanitation Coalition, she cited example from Bihar where NGOs were working in silos and were reinventing the wheel and hence the sanitation projects failed. Now, the india sanitation coalition is addressing such problems.

She  reminisced that while helming HSBC India, she found that in  Moradabad, the water was laced with metals that had seeped in the stream. The initiative started with citizen awareness through MSME collaboration, met the challenge.

Nobel Laureate Mr Kailash Satyarthi said that sustainable development goals (SDGs) of United Nationascant be achieved without taking care if people and their well-being and the planet. This can be met through compassion and it begins with the issue of children. Hence, child friendly supply chains is the need of time and businesses have to understand that they are not just profit making and changed leaders also as their initiatives and actions have an impact on the society.

Head of private sector development at German development agency, GIZ India MrNoor Naqschbandisaid SDGs set targets for all the countries and share a common responsibility. Currently the ranking of India in UN body, is very low. The theme of the conference is timely for India and this is how SDG performance can be improved. The Government and pvt sector need to collaborate to achieve these targets.But the govt. and pvt sector do not collaborate at a meaningful discussions and a constructive dialogue is wanting.

On this occasion a research project “Promoting responsible value chains in India for an effective contribution of the private sector to the SDG” (PROGRESS). This project will identify, explore and analyse the developmental challenges like employment opportunities for the youth, women’s social and economic empowerment, and environmental destruction caused through unplanned and unchecked business activities. This project will be undertaken by the Aston University of the UK which will suggest more responsible ways of doing business in the largest economy of South Asia.The Canadian Development Agency – International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is supporting the project while Aston University roped in Centre for responsible Business (CRB) to take care of all the research and studies in India for this project.

The 5^th edition of ‘India and Sustainability Standards: International Dialogues and Conference 2018’ has begun today in New Delhi. On 15^th November & 16^thNovember, the conference will host more than 30 parallel sessions on different sectors and themes discussing sustainable development and Corporate social responsibility.

The ‘India and Sustainability Standards: International Dialogues and Conference, has been looked at as the most coveted International conference on sustainability in India since 2013. Over the years, CRB has received a lot of encouragement and support for the initiative from large and small businesses, industry associations, public sector companies, government agencies, international and multilateral agencies, standard organisations, academia and civil society. This event has now emerged as a strong India-based international multi-stakeholder platform, attracting a large community of Indian and international participants. So far, the conference has received patronage from over 3300 delegates and more than 150 partners from across the world and created a benchmark of its own since its inception.