Roundtable

The world will have to invest $90 trillion in sustainable infrastructure by 2030, according to estimates by The New Climate Economy.

OVERVIEW

Sustainable infrastructure which includes equipment’s and systems that are designed to meet the population’s essential service needs — like roads, bridges, communications network, hydroelectric power stations, etc. — based on all-round sustainable principles, is a must in the fight against climate change. This means the infrastructure is environmentally friendly from end to end, and that includes economic, financial, social and institutional factors. Physical infrastructure provides the foundation for human society and economic activity and represents the greatest use of raw and processed materials by weight. Source: IDB, https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/sustainable-infrastructure

It is seen that replacing old urban infrastructure for new modern and sustainable elements will make cities more inhabitable and inclusive. The investments are crucial not only to renew old equipment in developed countries and bring them in sync with the fight against climate change, but also to bolster green economic growth in emerging markets and developing countries. This would require a multi-trillion-dollar investment worldwide over the next decade. But if we do things right, it would also see us on the road to economic growth.

UN has highlighted that 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) come from urban areas, most of which are poorly designed, lacking in public transport and consume vast amounts of energy.

Need of the Hour

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Among the SDGs, SDG 9 explicitly refers to building resilient infrastructure. However, all the goals are underpinned by infrastructure development. “Infrastructure is really at the center of the delivery of them SDGs,” says Virginie Marchal, senior policy analyst in the OECD’s Environment Directorate.

Materials and structures are the backbone of our societies’ health, economic growth, resilience and social progress and equity, providing shelter and mobility in a rapidly changing world. But with the challenges of climate change and diminishing natural resources, they are becoming stressed and strained.

It can be understood that there is need for developing science-enabled engineering innovations from the nano to the macroscale, new and improved sustainable material systems that enhance our society’s resilience to climate change and preserve our ecological infrastructure and biodiversity. Some of the solutions include pioneering bold approaches to enhance resilience and sustainability of materials and structures that will shift the paradigm of traditional infrastructure to face the perils of global warming.

Way to Bold Solutions

Globally businesses, cities, regions, investors are working towards building a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth. The objective is to build momentum around the shift to a decarbonized economy.

There is need for reducing the carbon footprint of materials and structures by pioneering bold solutions for traditional and new materials, including cement-based, polymer-based and bio-inspired with enhanced durability, resilience and reduced environmental impacts. Concrete, sand, and other natural minerals make up the greatest tonnage for infrastructure applications. Following these are metals, primarily steel, but increasingly aluminum for some weight-sensitive applications. Largely used sustainable material in the infrastructure sector is bamboo.

The upcoming webinar “Bold Solutions: Sustainable material and green Infrastructure” will feature a panel of renowned business leaders from different sectors to explore how companies can identify and build the right value for their business with identifying and using the green infrastructure and sustainable materials and way to zero plan. The round table discussions will analyze all the enablers and growth opportunities, along with potential challenges with regards to sustainable materials adoption.

Lubaina Rangwala
Associate Director, Urban Development and Resilience with the Sustainable Cities and Transport
WRI India
Moderator

Dr Mahesh Varma
Managing Director
Nandadeep Designers and Valuers

B R Chakor
Founder
B.R. Consultant

Pramod Chaugule
Principal Architect
STUDIO888 architects 

Sanjeev Karpe
Founder Director
Konkan Bamboo & Cane Development Centre (KONBAC), Sindhudurg, Maharashtra

Sanjay Patil
Founder Architect
Environ planner

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As we look out for ambitious answers to questions for integrating ESGs into SDGs, a critical challenge, in the initial decades of the 21^st century and in need of repair for every cause. The time has come for key stakeholders, businesses and organizations to urgently come together, to build momentum and identify Global Common Goals

The The Economic Times SDGs Action Platform witnessed the largest global gathering of changemakers, individuals and organizations who have led their voice to the cause and are dedicated to attaining the SDGs in a timely manner and path towards ESG’s and Net Zero.

In continuance to the The Economic Times SDGs Summit 2021, and in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden and Business Sweden, a Country Roundtable on “Sustainable Innovations Enabling Swift Transition of ESGs to SDGs” is being hosted on 28^th October, 2021 from 3 to 4:30 pm.

Sweden is among the most sustainable countries globally in terms of CO2 emissions and is a leading example of maintaining economic growth in a decarbonised manner. Sweden has setup a goal to become carbon neutral by 2045. And has been at the forefront of sharing knowledge, transferring technologies, and promoting capacity and skill development under various initiatives. These initiatives have helped to introduce new technologies, promote economic and technical cooperation among various stakeholders and to promote,  research and development cooperation between both the countries.

The discussions will bring together Swedish ecosystem partners with sector experts from Swedish Agencies and solution providers, and Indian businesses to showcase their existing catalytic practices and programs to achieve ESG goals while contributing to the overall SDGs and creating an impact towards the Road to COP26. The event also highlights Swedish contribution towards the achievement of India’s SDG targets and its drive to NetZero

Business Sweden and Embassy of Sweden, along with their Ecosystem Partners, has undertaken several initiatives covering energy, water, emissions control, clean air and, environment in collaboration with leading Swedish agencies, solution providers and experts. These initiatives include long-term business collaboration programs such as India Sweden Innovations Accelerator (http://innovationsaccelerator.com/) as well as joint research projects on smart grids and smart cities.

Dr. Ganesh Das
CSO
Tata Power

Sandeep Chandna
CSO
Tech Mahindra

Klas Molin
Ambassador of Sweden
Republic of India, New Delhi – India

Ludvig Lindstrom
Country Manager
Swedish Energy Agency

Sanjith Shetty
Vice Chairman & MD
Soham Renewable Energy

Mr. Arun Chakravarthi
Vice President Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability
Hitachi Energy

Mr. Daniel Paska
Technology for Good Program Director
Ericsson

Mr. Markus Lundgren
Counsellor, Head of Section, Trade, Economic and Cultural Affairs
Embassy of Sweden

Mr. Mattias Frumerie
Head of Delegation to UNFCCC
Swedish Ministry

Ms. Nirmala Singh
Country Sustainability Manager
IKEA

Ms.Cecilia Oskarsson
Trade Commissioner
Sweden of India
Moderator

Ms. Sara Lindstrand
Group Sustainability
Afry

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2020 and 2021 has been a year of change and innovation specially for the education and technology sector. The EdTech community made tremendous advances to address students’ needs. Although, the updates on testing and vaccination for the COVID-19 pandemic dominated our newsfeeds, there were many other innovations taking place behind the scenes, especially in the field of education.

The walls of classrooms are constantly being demolished by technology with every passing day. It has enabled new ways of learning, communicating, and working collaboratively.

The advent of digital classrooms is challenging the traditional methods of teaching and welcoming innovations that couldn’t have been imagined just a decade ago.

Riding the flight of digital transformation

The digital education system revolutionized the old chalk and board process of learning in classrooms and threw it far beyond the boundaries of brick-andmortar institutions and universities. At the same time, it also brought a great opportunity at the doorsteps of universities and institutions to become the campuses of the future.

Although, there is a plethora of information on the internet, the universities cannot ignore the urgent need of digital libraries that provides a 365*7*24 access to students with advanced search facilities and high-quality educational material.

The moment has arrived for the educational institutes to go beyond the geographical boundaries and learn to examine what to develop further and what to discard.

The tech savvy generation of today, millennials, can easily recall their early days when it was not much up to them what, how and when they study. However, this digital era has given them the golden opportunity to demand a personalised educational environment with a heightened amount of choice and instant access to good quality educational content that supports their need to upskill and learn at
their own pace, space, time and discipline.

They want employability and focus on job-oriented skills.

To acknowledge and meet these growing needs, The Economic Times presents Campus of the Future Roundtable, powered by Pearson. The platform where experts in the field of education and technology will come together and discuss the urgent need and demand of digitally advanced ecosystem that delivers a personalised and high-quality educational experience to the students of the 21st century.

Prof. C Raj Kumar
Founding Vice Chancellor
O.P. Jindal Global University

Prof. G. Sundar
Director
BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Prof. Jarugu Narasimha Moorthy
Director
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)

Prof. (Dr.) Neharika Vohra
Vice-Chancellor
Delhi Skills & Entrepreneurship University

Prof. P C Joshi
Pro Vice Chancellor
Delhi University

Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan
Director and Professor of Strategy
IIM Bangalore

Dr. Rudra Pratap
Founding Vice Chancellor
Plaksha University

Siddharth Banerjee
Managing Director
Pearson India & Asia

Prof. Yajulu Medury
Vice Chancellor
Mahindra University

Yogja Singh
Senior Associate Director, HR
KPMG in India
Moderator

The demand for carbon credits could increase by a factor of 15 or more by 2030 and by a factor of up to 100 by 2050. Overall, the market for carbon credits could be worth upward of $50 billion in 2030 as estimated by recent report published by The McKinsey & Company

Overview

Post Paris agreement, many companies are pledging towards climate change by reducing their own greenhouse-gas emissions, yet many businesses are finding that they cannot fully eliminate their emissions, or even lessen them as quickly as they might like. For the companies committing to achieve net-zero emissions, which means removing as much greenhouse gas from the air as they put into it, use of carbon credits will be very important to offset emissions they can’t get rid of by other means.

India can acquire a major share of this opportunity and attract significant investment in voluntary carbon credit generation projects if the policy framework can be streamlined and a conducive operative environment can be created. Private investment flows in the carbon credit generation projects can not only help the country improve the local environment, but also put substantial money in the hands of Indian farmers, as the carbon capture opportunities in Indian agriculture are humongous.

NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution):

The Paris Agreement requires all ratifying Parties to communicate an NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution). NDCs are documents capturing the pledges made by each country, outlining their mitigation and adaptation goals, under the agreement.  The first India NDC for the period 2021 to 2030 focuses on three priority areas:

• To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level.
• To achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030 with the help of transfer of technology and low-cost international finance including from Green Climate Fund (GCF).
• To create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

Agriculture plays a vital role in India’s economy and about 49% of the working population depends on agriculture as their principal means of livelihood, (MoA&FW, 2016). Agriculture, along with fisheries and forestry, is a large contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With agriculture being a major contributor to the GDP as well as GHG emissions, this indicates that India might claim emission reductions or removals created in an agriculture project for accounting under its NDC target.

The issue of Double Counting:

Double claiming may occur when two different parties claim the same emission reduction / removal / mitigation outcome. In the context of the Paris Agreement, this can occur when

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/a-blueprint-for-scaling-voluntary-carbon-markets-to-meet-the-climate-challenge#

a project’s host government claims the outcome towards its NDC and at the same time another country (for their own NDC) or an entity for a specific carbon reduction project claims it.

If the government of country from its national inventory does not exclude the benefits created by a specific carbon sequestration projects, this represents a double claiming situation. Carbon standards such as Gold Standard require a statement/clarification from the government proving such an adjustment. Due to environmental integrity, all carbon standards are very sensitive concerning this. The host country can forgo a claim to the emission reduction/removal outcome from a voluntary market project by applying a corresponding adjustment to the reporting of its progress towards achievement of its NDC, such that the level of effort required to meet its targets remains unaffected.

In India, The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is the responsible entity for the post 2020 climate regime and is the key national climate change focal point working on preparing and submitting national communication reports including the NDC to UNFCCC and meeting its Convention obligations. MoEF has formed an Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement (AIPA) that shall exercise and perform the function as a National Authority to regulate carbon markets in India, under Article 6.2, Article 6.4 and Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement.

While smallholder agriculture is NOT included in the current INCD, in the absence of a clear guidance on the carbon accounting, especially on the double counting, the private and international investment in carbon capture projects may slow down.

Objectives

• A clear guidance on the voluntary carbon markets in India that allows the private and international investors to claim ownership on the carbon credits generated through their investee projects focusing on smallholder agricultural projects.
• A system to issue NOC by government of India, for GHG emission reductions and/or removals from the privately funded projects from national inventory/NDC target.
• To develop a clear roadmap for sustainable voluntary carbon markets in India specifically around smallholder agriculture.

Expected Outputs

• Framework suggested for enhancing private sector investments and making carbon farming profitable and globally competitive
• Mechanisms for efficient use of carbon credits for agricultural development related activities
• Strategy/action plan prepared as a Road Map for strengthening public-private partnership to address carbon farming smallholder problems and for enhancing their income

Dr. Anshuman
Associate Director, Water Resources Division
TERI
Moderator

Dr. Bjoern Ole Sander
Senior Climate Change Scientist
IRRI

R.P. Gupta
IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change
Government of India

Usha Barwale Zehr
Executive Director
GrowIndigo

Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch
COO
Bayer South Asia

Dr. S. Bhaskar
Assistant Director General (ADG), Natural Resources Management (NRM) Division
ICAR

Dr. Shailja Vaidya Gupta
Senior Adviser, Ministry of Science and Technology
Government of India

Joe Phelan
Director
WBCSD India

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In today’s fast space and every changing work ecosystem business agility is always seen as the main driver for digital transformation. The COVID -19 pandemic has been a true witness to digital transformation and agility being the key enablers to staying on top of your game despite of the remote working. However, as a professional responsible for Customer Experience in your organization what does business agility mean to you? And how can you deliver your agile ambitions?

If we put agility and cx together the simple translation would be that agility is a catalyst for using digital channels to serve existing customers and acquiring new ones. This sound extremely simply but how do we do this? How can we move about with the transition? Hence, this round table discussion on Agility in Action: A CX perspective talks about latest trends and best practices, working building the right team and a road map to setting the tone right for CX in your organization.

Anubhav Prashant
COO
Apollo Cradle & Apollo Fertility

Jatinder Paul Singh
COO
EBIX Cash Travel & Holidays

Vidya Gandecha
Director & Head of Customer Success
Zest Money

Arjun Arunkumar
Product Design Architect
Swiggy

Himanshu Kumar
Director Customer Success
Darwinbox

Session Chair
Vasudeva Munnaluri
Sales Director
Zendesk

“Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.” – Peter Sondergaard,

Companies looking to breach the veil of uncertainty and weaving resilience into their DNA for future shocks are focusing on gathering more data to unlock new revenue options.

This data has enormous potential for helping a firm thrive and for assisting executives in making real-time decisions. However, this can only happen if this data is used to its full potential in order to generate useful insights.

And business intelligence can prove to be more useful in these tumultuous times if it is relayed in a real-time manner. Active intelligence seems to be the answer. It provides analytics-ready data along with the most updated information in real-time. With an amalgamation of the data at rest and data in motion, it represents the pulse of the data, providing business insights and creating an intelligent data-to-analytics pipeline.

Prepare your business for unexpected situations in future by using Active Intelligence, as it can help you anticipate the upcoming trends. It provides more detailed insights, thanks to AI-powered analytics. Active Intelligence also represents the business moment by adding business logic to analytics-ready data, transforming it into business-ready data and enabling collaboration among all data personas.

About The Economic Times virtual round table

As we are in the midst of the epidemic, companies must cling to the most cutting-edge technology in order to prosper in these trying times. The Economic Times Power of Active Intelligence: Transcending collaboration beyond the last mile will unleash the power of using Active Intelligence in today’s data-driven demands. With real-time agility becoming the need of the hour, it is critical for businesses to adapt to demands as quickly as possible. Active Intelligence enables them to not only outperform the competition, but also to adapt and respond quickly to changing situations.

Azain Ghany
Group CIO
Emjay International (Pvt) Ltd & Penguin Sportswear (Pvt) Ltd

Dr. Ajantha Ratnayake
Assistant General Manager – ICT
Regional Development Bank

Gaurav Jasoria
Group Director
Vallibel One PLC

Nidesh Fernando
Manager- Digital Banking
Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC

Charlie Farah
Director Solutions & Value Acceleration
Qlik
Moderator

In today’s Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world, rising consumer expectations are disrupting every industry, especially those with a digital backbone. Leaders in the BFSI industry have been early adopters of leveraging technology to connect with their consumers and also to enable their employees to carry out operations remotely. In the last 12-18 months, this trend has seen an upward shift with users and consumers of banking and financial services leveraging digital channels almost exclusively, to conduct their financial transactions. With this surge in both consumers and employees relying on digital channels to conduct their day-to-day operations, Financial services organizations and institutions are faced with challenges related to balancing between upscaling, performance and security.

Every financial organization, today, is part of an ecosystem of players that rely on each other to exchange business-critical data. With the growing usage of apps and API’s and the emergence of open banking platforms, today cyber security is one of the most important challenges that banking and financial services organizations must address. Traditionally, organizations have been implementing security measures on an adhoc basis and they are saddled with a patchwork security architecture that results in a high TCO. However, we see that more and more, data privacy and security are fundamental building blocks of organizations. This topic is no longer a regulatory tick box, or a product discussion, it is in fact a boardroom strategy. Companies recognize that lack of cybersecurity challenges the very foundation of any business that is growing digitally.

With this context, Economic Times is organizing two roundtables powered by Akamai, to bring together Financial services industry leaders and experts, who would share their points-of-view and their experience on how to strike the right balance between scale, experience and security. The first of the Roundtables would be focused on Banking and Insurance sectors and the second will host Fintech companies.

Register below to join in.

As we appear on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 enabled by the concurrent development and integration of digital and physical technologies, time is ripe to transform the Indian manufacturing ecosystem—and many other sectors and industries beyond.

To gain a better understanding of some of the pressing needs of manufacturers and various ways in which collaborations in general—and start-ups in particular—can provide value across multiple horizons of Industry 4.0 landscape, ETILC in association with Israel Economic and Commercial Mission, New Delhi is hosting a roundtable discussion(RT) (virtual) on Towards the Next Horizon of Industry 4.0 – Building Capabilities Through Innovative Collaborations and Start-ups on Wednesday, August 25^th between 4:00 – 5:30 pm IST. The RT will have 12-14 experts from India and Israel who will discuss innovation in technologies (IoT, AI, 5G and Cyber Security systems), ways to build industry collaborations, technological transfer partnerships and the future roadmap to accelerate Smart Manufacturing in India.

 The key points of discussion will be around:

• What will be the role of 5G in Industry 4.0 and how India & Israel can collaborate on this?
• What are the challenges for 5G deployment in India and how can the Israel start-up ecosystem work with Indian companies to find a solution?
• How can India quickly adopt and upgrade Smart manufacturing, analytics and IoT in its manufacturing sector?
• Creating more COE-IOT(centre of excellence across India). How can we build a cohesive environment to build these centres for easy transfer of ideas and technology between Israel and India?
• Boosting opportunities of technological collaborations between India and Israel

Today, the need for energy efficiency is more significant than ever as the world looks to de-carbonize industries and infrastructure. It has become an integral part of the manufacturing landscape, as companies strive to make efficient use of resources, while limiting their impact on the environment. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), industry accounts for 37% of global energy use and some 30% of global energy is consumed in buildings.

While mostly hidden from public view, electric motors and variable speed drives power a vast range of applications fundamental to our modern way of life, from heavy industries to facilities that produce food and beverages, water and wastewater facilities, and commercial buildings. By making the decision to use energy efficient motors, businesses can lower their energy costs and reduce their carbon footprint. Though there are significant efficiency gains to be reaped from upgrading a motor, still greater energy savings are achievable when a high-efficiency motor is used in combination with a variable-speed drive.

MEPS (Minimum Energy Performance Standards) for low voltage motors have played an important role in helping countries to meet their energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions targets.

Just as wind, water, steam and electricity allowed us to travel faster, build higher and fly further, there’s a new generation of energy efficient motors and drives, which could become the unsung heroes in the next phase of humanity’s journey.

Join us at The India Energy Efficiency Dialogue where the industry experts would deliberate on the current energy efficiency scenario and share insights on how greater efficiency will contribute to economic growth and environmental protection.

Morten Wierod
President, Motion Business, Member of the Group Executive Committee, ABB Ltd Switzerland, Chairman of ABB India Board

Anurag Saxena
Chief – Electrical Maintenance
Tata Steel

Charu Gupta
Director
Consulting, Deloitte India

Hemant Watve
Chairman and Managing Director
Wilo India

Maheep Jain
Managing Director
Eversource Capital

Prashant Gokhale
President (South Asia Region) and MD Buhler India

Sundaram Kannan
Senior Vice President (Electrical)
Reliance Industries Ltd.

A R Madhusudan
President – Drives Product, Motion Business
ABB India Ltd.

Sanjeev Arora
President & Lead Business Manager
Motion Business at ABB India Ltd.

Vineeta Kanwal
Director
BEE

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