The problem of e-waste management warrants greater attention in India due to the increasing volumes of e-waste dumps, particularly computer waste, by developed countries. Of late, a number of SMEs have also woken up to the gravity of the situation. In order to dispose the e-waste dumps, these SMEs are implementing environment friendly e-waste management technologies for minimising the waste volume. India, one of the leading countries in the global IT and telecom domain, generates huge volumes of electronic waste (e-waste) every year. According to industry estimates, electronic equipment manufacturers and assemblers in India generate around 1250 tonnes of electronic waste annually. As formal waste recycling and disposal technology is still in a nascent stage in India, it has aggravated the problem of toxic pollutants that are disposed in open environment. Kurian Joseph, Associate Professor, Center for Environmental Studies, Anna University, says, “In India, waste recycling and disposal have been performed through informal techniques, which has given rise to serious environmental hazards.” United against e-waste generation Speaking about the initiatives taken by the government to alleviate the problem of e-waste generation in the country, Prof. Joseph says, “A recent legislation passed by the government mandates e-waste generators to collaborate with licensed waste management firms to bring down wastage volume and recycle it safely.” In addition, a slew of small and mid-sized firms are seen entering into tie-ups with various international firms to exploit green technologies for reducing e-waste. K Vijaya Lakshmi, VP of Development Alternatives, shares, “A Bengaluru-based NGO has recently brought together several SME sector firms to initiate community programmes aimed at e-waste management”. Innovations leading the way Innovations such as green data centres and virtualisation can play a significant role in e-waste management. In addition, these technologies can optimise the use of space and power in the IT and telecom sector. Furthermore, manufactures should strive for waste minimisation by using non-hazardous materials during their production process itself rather than managing the wastes later. “Along with implementing green technologies, both SMEs and bigger firms should ensure proper waste handling across their supply chains, and waste recycling should only be performed by licensed firms”, says Dr Lakshmi. Dr Lakshmi also emphasised that waste management is the responsibility of both consumers and Manufacturers, who should reduce the use of hazardous substances and dispose waste properly. For more detail on Jewellery Directory log on to http://www.bizxchange.in

The small-to-medium-businesses pie is beginning to look more and more delicious as biggies like IBM, Hitachi and Dell enter the fray. With SME being the latest buzzword among big IT companies, there are technologies galore available for the owners of small organisations to solve their business problems. “The Indian marketplace boasts of more than 35 million small and medium businesses and is now competing globally,” says Ramesh Narasimhan, Director, General , IBM India/South Asia. “They will need to gain a competitive edge to win amidst global competition and technology provides them this edge.” Ever since the economic downturn started, the IT sector has been in near-dire straits, with lay-offs and cost-cutting in several companies. Also, with overseas projects drying up, several employees find themselves on the bench. Prashanth GJ, Regional Sales Director-South, Hitachi Data Systems India, adds, “In this market condition where global companies and large enterprises have been hit due to their global exposure, we are seeing that most of the SME business segments are not affected to that extent.” While small businesses are being bombarded with several technologies, there have been reports of them being reluctant to invest in them in an attempt to ‘play safe’ in these trying times. Agrees Narasimhan, “While this is partly true, we are seeing a lot of SME customers accepting the fact that technology is becoming a key business enabler as well as a differentiator for them in the market place.” He further adds, “Cloud computing, virtualisation or SaaS are jargon. These tend to be overused by technology vendors and therefore scare away SMEs.” The solution, he says, is to break these terms down into easily understandable business value propositions to the stakeholders within the organisation. Vendors hit pay-dirt with SMEs Here are a couple of examples of businesses that have utilised solutions provided by IT vendors and benefitted tremendously. The first one is Kusumgar Corporates. A mid-sized company with 200 employees, it manufactures a variety of military, industrial, geosynthetics and recreational fabrics. Kusumgar maintains a lean IT staff and sought an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that it could easily manage and maintain. The company selected IBM Smart running Infinite’s Textile Integrated Manufacturing (TIM) ERP application. “Kusumgar chose to run TIM on Smart because it would be simple to procure, install and maintain,” says Siddharth Kusumgar, President, Kusumgar Corporates. “Now we have a complete, low-cost, integrated infrastructure that we expect to provide us a low total cost of ownership while supporting all of our business needs,” he explains. The other is Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd (MKCL) for their IT infrastructure development programme, who utilised NComputing’s virtualisation software solution, allowing sharing of hardware and software resources that would have otherwise been wasted. Danny Nagdev, Sr. System Administrator and Programme Coordinator, says, “We have recommended Ncomputing Products to our 3600+ learning centers in Maharashtra. The solution has significantly helped in decreasing the onetime cost/investment as well as the power consumption for each learning centre.” For more detail on Suppliers in India log on to http://www.bizxchange.in