The following is from a press release sent out by Pune based Praj Industries.

10 February, 2009, Pune: Praj Industries, the globally leading biofuels technology & solutions Company announced break-through in cellulosic biomass to ethanol technology at Pilot Scale. Praj formally inaugurated its cellulosic ethanol pilot plant at its R & D Centre called Praj Matrix – The Innovation Centre near Pune.

The Laboratory facility at Praj Matrix was put into operation in April 2008 with the objective of promoting basic research and its scale up for non-food biofuels and industrial biotech processes. The first phase of the scaled up program has now been achieved with this break-through wherein the pilot plant has successfully demonstrated production of ethanol from corn cob and sugarcane bagasse under varying operating conditions. This follows proven bench scale process development for which Praj has already filed for patents.

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TOI/PUNE/9th Feb ‘09: While Pune has already been selected as one of the nine cities to implement the Global Environment Facility-funded sustainable transport projects, the Union ministry of urban development has released a report stating the aims of the project, one of them being reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 9.6%.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) sustainable transport project was taken up by the Union government last year, for which the city was selected as a demonstration city, along with Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Hyderabad, Indore, Jalandhar, Mysore, Naya Raipur and Thiruvananthapuram to be implemented over a four-year period.

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NDTV in collaboration with Toyota has organized the Greenathon. They are accepting donations which shall be used to provide electricity in villages.

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Now in its third year, the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) is organizing the Entrepreneurship Week from the 7th to the 14th of February. This year, with over 400 colleges and 4,00,000 students participating, the theme being followed is “Go Green”.

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Pune can cheer about its growing green cover but faces rising noise pollution, huge disparity in water supply and worsening traffic and transportation situation.

The Environment Survey Report (ESR) 2008 for Pune city tabled by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) administration has found noise levels to have reached unacceptable levels, half the city receiving an excessive water supply and the other reeling under a severe shortage. The report finds the city growing in green cover (2,500 acres of land available for plantation) but concludes that increasing vehicular traffic, improper water and solid waste management was undoing the ecological balance the growing number of trees were trying to restore.

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