INDIA-KOREA - Asia-Pacific Business and Technology Report

INDIA-KOREA
Glorious Past Bright Future
India-Korea Cooperation on Green
Technology for Sustainable
Health and Well-being
by Manju singh and R.B. Singh
India and Korea differ in levels of development;
India being a developing nation,
while Korea is relatively more developed.
Yet both have a multitude of commonalities.
Both nations gained independence at approximately
the same time; India in 1950
and Korea in 1948. They also adopted democratic
political systems. The two nations
have marked similarities in physiography,
dominated by mountains, hills and rivers.
The population density of Korea is nearly
equal to India. The coastal area of Korea is
reclaimed from sea and is modern, whereas
the Indian coastal region has a mixed flavor
of tradition and modernity.
India and Korea are both experiencing
fast growth of megacities. With fast urbanization
Korea has developed excellent city
transportation and subway systems. India is
also doing well in the field of urban transportation
and it could benefit from co-operation
from Korea in this sector. India and
Korea experienced impressive economic reforms
and liberalization at same time during
1990’s. India’s manufacturing sector and Korea’s
electronic sector are performing well.
Both the countries are attracting enormous
numbers of foreign and domestic tourists.
Linkage between Green
Technology and Human Health
and Well-being
Innovation in the field of green technology
will not only help to provide an alternative
eco-friendly energy source but will also
help livelihood security to a vast section of
societies. Green technology has great potential
to create various sources of earnings
and thereby improve the quality of life of
Indians and Koreans.
Green chemistry is a tool for chemists,
chemical engineers, and other researchers
from physical, chemical and biological sciences
who design materials to help society
toward the goal of sustainability of global
health and well-being. Toxicological understanding
and ‘environmental fate’ are necessary
components for understanding the
entire “molecular life cycle” of any commercial
endeavour to make a significant contribution
for achieving sustainable development.
Since 2001, S.C. Johnson has had a
process in place called Greenlist. “It’s really
a process for rating the raw materials up
that we use and the packaging for our products,”
said Chris Librie, Director of Global
Sustainability for the company. Green processes
generate the smallest amount of
waste and packaging which require the
least amount of material. There was a time
no so long ago when people would throw
food scraps, peelings, etc., into the compost
heap in the back corner of their garden. The
rest of the household rubbish went into the
dustbin in plastic sacks. Nowadays things
have changed. Many companies are producing
fully degradable bin bags, carrier bags
and other plastic bags from polyethylene,
using new additive technology to reduce
the plastic to carbon dioxide and water in
just a few weeks, so that now you can feed
the compost heap with the plastic sacks too.
An example of this technology can be seen
with biodegradable polymers, which are designed
to degrade upon disposal by the action
of living organisms.
Extraordinary progress has been made in
the development of practical processes and
products from polymers such as starch and
lactic acid. The need to create alternative
biodegradable water-soluble polymers for
down-the-drain products such as detergents
and cosmetics has also taken on increasing
importance. The two emerged economies of
India and Korea can cooperate and collaborate
on the above issues for global sustainability
of health and wellbeing.
Green Technology / Chemistry
Principles
According to America’s Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), 12 Principles of
‘Green Chemistry’, which are important
components of green technology, include
the following: 1. Prevention- It is better to
prevent waste than to treat or clean it up
after it has been created. 2. Atom Economy-
Synthetic methods should be designed to
maximize the incorporation of all materials
used in the process into the final product. 3.
Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses- Wherever
practicable, synthetic methods should
be designed to use and generate substances
that possess little or no toxicity to human
health and the environment. 4. Designing
Safer Chemicals- Chemical products should
be designed to affect their desired function
while minimizing their toxicity 5. Safer Solvents
and Auxiliaries- The use of auxiliary
substances (e.g., solvents, separation agents,
etc.) should be made unnecessary wherever
possible and innocuous when used. 6. Design
for Energy Efficiency- Energy requirements
of chemical processes should be
recognized for their environmental and
economic impacts and should be minimized.
7. Use of Renewable feed stocks- A
raw material or feedstock should be renewable
rather than depleting whenever technically
and economically practicable. 8.
Reduce Derivatives- Unnecessary derivatization
(use of blocking groups, protection/
deprotection, temporary modification of
physical/chemical processes) should be
minimized or avoided. 9.Catalysis- Catalytic
reagents (as selective as possible) are superior
to stoichiometric reagents, 10. Design
for Degradation-Chemical products should
health
© pib.nic.in
The President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam shaking hands with the President of the Republic of Korea before
the commencement of delegation level talks at the Presidential Palace in Seoul, on February 7, 2006.
be designed so that at the end of their
function they break down into innocuous
degradation products and do not persist in
the environment, 11. Real-time analysis for
Pollution Prevention- Analytical methodologies
need to be further developed to allow
for real-time, in-process monitoring and
control prior to the formation of hazardous
substances, 12. Inherently Safer Chemistry
for Accident Prevention- Substances and
the form of a substance used in a chemical
process should be chosen to minimize the
potential for chemical accidents.
India, Korea and Green
Technology
Environmental pollution and waste generation
are problems faced not only in India
and Korea but in many developing countries
too. Many of these kinds of problems
are created due to misinformed policies
and strategies which are based on end-of
pipe treatment, rather than pollution prevention
at source. Most frequently, income
generation activities are dependent on an
efficient use of energy and other resources
such as water, which may pose some serious
problems to future generations.
The United Nations Millennium Development
Goals at the country level strongly recommend
the imperative need to implement
renewable energy resources in these countries
and to implement energy conservation.
Green technology is a sustainable practice
which is playing a pivotal role in the use of
solar energy together with the introduction
of sustainable farming, recycling, etc.
Green technology can also have a very
strong impact on water sufficiency issues in
the developing world where availability of
these resources is the most vital issue. It is
through the implementation of cleaner production
and use of safe and biodegradable
chemicals that a huge volume of wastewater
could be reused.
Both India and Korea need to work for
their own betterment by encouraging the
practices of green technology. Governments
could undoubtedly facilitate the formation
of more effective industrial/academic partnerships.
The India-Korea collaboration can
promote green technology through education,
information collection and dissemination,
research and international collaboration
via conferences, workshops, meetings
and symposia. However, industry in India
still needs to make significant improvement
from the environmental point of view. A
majority of industrial R&D there is mainly
concerned with cost efficiency rather than
eco-effective methods.
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