ECONOMY & POLICY

"Reducing Carbon Footprint: Strategies for Environmental Sustainability"

Somewhere in 2006, Swedish pension funds concerned with global warming and environmental degradation were looking to diversify their portfolio to include investments in environment-friendly projects that would not carry additional risk. They could not find any such instruments. This led t...

Somewhere in 2006, Swedish pension funds concerned with global warming and environmental degradation were looking to diversify their portfolio to include investments in environment-friendly projects that would not carry additional risk. They could not find any such instruments. This led them to explore the possibility of creating an instrument like a regular investment product in terms of yield, security, risk and maturity, while addressing concerns related to the environment. After many discussions with stakeholders, the draft of an instrument was prepared. With this, investors approached the World Bank within a month of deliberations, the Bank accepted the concept and worked out the details and the first ‘green bond’ was born in 2008. This bond created the blueprint for today’s green bond in terms of the criteria to be followed to be classified as one. While drafting the product, financial and environmental teams interacted, understanding and addressing their respective concerns, to ensure that the bond meets the objective with which it was designed. This included criteria like opinion from recognised climate research institutions, transparency and impact reporting. This bond established that it is possible to raise funds at competitive rates for environmentally sustainable projects and that there is a large pool of investors willing to invest in such bonds. What are green bonds? Green bonds are fixed-income instruments funding projects related to the climate and environment. However, deciding what should count within that definition can be difficult. The Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), International Capital Market Association (ICMA), European Union and Chinese government have developed guidelines to define green bonds. Broadly, green bonds finance projects aimed at energy efficiency, pollution prevention, sustainable agriculture, fishery and forestry, the protection of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, clean transportation, clean water and sustainable water management.

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Infrastructure Urban

Large-sized Deals Drive 40% of Industrial & Warehousing Demand

With 25.6 million sq ft of gross leasing in 2024, industrial & warehousing demand across the top five cities remained healthy, witnessing a marginal 2 per cent YoY growth. Although, there was a noticeable dip in leasing activity during the last quarter, strong space uptake in the earlier quarters ensured steady leasing levels during 2024. During the year, Delhi NCR led the demand with 26 per cent share, closely followed by Chennai at 23 per cent share. On a quarterly basis, Q4 2024 saw about 5.5 million sq ft of industrial & warehousing demand across the top five cities. Pune, closely followed..

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Infrastructure Energy

Vedanta Aluminium Launches Advanced Operational Dashboard

Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, has launched an innovative operational dashboard at its Jamkhani Coal Mine, Odisha. This state-of-the-art digital platform integrates real-time data, optimises performance metrics and automates routine processes. Developed in-house by a dedicated team, this dashboard leverages the First Principles approach to track mining operations at their most fundamental levels. It delivers actionable insights for achieving operational excellence through the Time-in-Use Model (TUM), which measures planned and actual cut rates, real-time coal expos..

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Infrastructure Transport

PNC-KKR Deal Nears Completion

Infrastructure company PNC Infratech has received in principle approvals from NHAI to transfer 100 per cent stake held by it in two subsidiaries (SPVs) for the Bundelkhand and Khajuraho road projects to the KKR-backed Highways Infrastructure Trust. With this, the PNC-KKR deal is on track for closure by March 31, 2025 as PNC Infratech is in the process of fulfilling the conditions precedents (CPs) for the transaction. One of the major CPs under the deal included change in control approvals from the highway authorities and no objection certificates from the lenders to the projects, according to ..

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