Classification of Industries for Consent Management

Classification of Industries for Consent Management was introduced in 1989 by MOEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) to restrict or control certain types of industries to protect the environment. In that notification three categories of industries for consent management were introduced as “Red”, “Orange” and “Green”. The earlier process to classify any industry in above categories was based on size of the industries, man power and consumption of resources.

Need of Classification of Industries for Consent Management

The notion of categorization of industries has evolved regularly. Pollution control boards of all states have contributed to this process resulting different interpretation of rules. Hence there was need to harmonize the concepts of categorization of industries for consent management.

As per recent (Apr’2015) national level conference of environmental ministers of states held in delhi called as the “working group” has come up with criteria of categorization of industrial sectors based on their Pollution Index.

What is Pollution Index?

Pollution index is nothing but a number range from 0 to 100 with increasing degree of pollution. In pollution index major factors considered are as follow:

• Air pollutants – emissions
• Water pollutants – Effluent
• Hazardous waste generated
• Consumption of resources

Weightage of 100 marks is based on Three criteria’s which are Air pollution score (40), Water pollution score (40) and hazardous waste score (20).

Parameters are decided to measure pollution index based on industry.

In case of industry is not generating hazardous waste, score will be normalized wrt 100.

We offer Services in obtaining consent to establish and Consent to operate

Classification of Industries for Consent Management

As we all are aware that there were three categories, but recently working group has created a new category after various brainstorming sessions i.e. White.

Categorization of industries by CPCB

Category	Criteria (range of Pollution Index)	No of sectors
Red	60 and Above	60
Orange	41 to 59	83
Green	21 to 40	63
White	Upto 20	36

White category introduced to categorize industry sectors which are almost non-polluting industry. It include industries such as assembling, packaging, scientific instruments manufacturing, solar power generation, wind power etc.

Red category of industries cannot be permitted in environmentally delicate area or protected area.

In case any industry is not present in sectors defined by working group, decision with regard to their categorization will be taken by committee at head.

Read here How to get consent from MPCB

Duration of MPCB consent by category

Consent provided to each category has different validity period. Please refer to below table for more information:

MPCB Consent Category	Duration
Red	5 Years
Orange	10 years
Green	15 years
White	No necessity of consent

List of Industries under categories of consent

Lets see major list of industries covered by categories of industries decided by CPCB.

Red Categories industries by CPCB

There are total 60 industry sectors are categorized under red categories. Major ones are mentioned below:

• Chemical, Paint, Pesticides, fertilizers, Petrochemicals & Pharmaceuticals industry
• Automobile, battery manufacturing
• DG Set (> 5MVA)
• Nuclear, thermal Power generation plant
• Sugar industry
• Fire crackers industry
• Airports and commercial air strips
• Cement industry

 Orange Categories Industries by CPCB

There are total 83 sectors are categorized under orange category by CPCB. Major industry sectors are mentioned below:

• Automobile Servicing and repairing
• Ayurvedic and homeopathic medicines
• Raw food processing
• DG Set (> 1MVA but < 5 MVA)
• fermentation
• Fish feed, poultry feed and cattle feed
• Fish processing and packing
• Glass Ceramics and earthen potteries and tile
• Tyre industry
• Printing ink and press
• Tobacco products including cigarettes

Green Category Industries

There are total 63 industries are categorized under green category.

• Small bakeries
• Carpentry and wooden furniture
• Dal Mills, flour mills, Oil mills, Rice mills, Saw mills
• small cotton spinning and weaving
• handling and storage of food grains
• Packing materials
• Cement products
• Soap manufacturing
• Spice blending and grinding
• small hotels
• Mineralized water

White Category Industries

There are total 36 industry sectors categorized under white category. lets see the important ones mentioned below:

• Air coolers / Conditioners
• Bio fertilizers
• Blending / Packing of tea
• chalk making
• electric lamp and CFL and other electrical item
• Leather cutting and stitching
• Repairing of electric motors
• Solar power generation through solar photovoltaic cell, wind power and mini hydel power (less than 25 MW)
• Scientific and mathematical instrument
• Organic manure

Objectives of Categorization of industries

Objective of classification of industries for consent management is to create clean and transparent working environment in country and reduce hurdles in doing business.

Government is also promoting installation of continuous online emissions/ effluent monitoring systems for polluting industries, assessment of high polluting industrial areas, revising of pollution standards etc.

Please feel free to contact us in case of any queries.

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