Business News Analysis: Free Student Articles

www.internsindia.com-A FREE site for MBA live projects.

E-Waste Management in Indian Scenario

Mail us at articles@internsindia.com for further
Details or to publish your articles on our website.

There is no such perfect definition of e-waste in India. Broadly, e-

waste has been defined as a waste from durable products used for
telecommunications or entertainment data processing, in private
households and businesses.
Early 1990, an era after the first phase of economic liberalization when
the problem of electronic waste started seeding the India’s ground.
This decade witnessed a shift in the consumption pattern as an effect
of swing in economic policy. In India reusability and recycling factor of
computers and peripherals are higher then that in developed countries.
In America & other European countries computer systems are replaced
on an average every three years. In the case of developing countries
like India in the last couple of years affordability of computers was
limited to only a socio-economically advantaged section of the
population. No reliable figures are available till today to quantify the
computers generating as waste. Increasingly, as computers are
becoming more affordable (Supported by companies like Dell) and
generic product, it is widening the electronic channel for greater access
to technology. Apart from the consumer end, another source of more
obsolete computers in the market is from the large software industry
where use of cutting edge technology, greater computing speed and

Copy Right© Protected 2007-2009, www.internsindia.com, Sylloge Corporation

All Rights Reserved by www.internsindia.com
Only to be used for academic purpose.
Business News Analysis: Free Student Articles
www.internsindia.com-A FREE site for MBA live projects.
efficiency necessarily increase the rate of obsolescence. Information
technology with its applicability for business support was changing the
office interiors from file-cabinets to work-stations snaking around the
different departments.
Tracing back the evolution of Information Technology in India since
1998 will reveal most of the facts. This sector has gone up by nearly
23 percent from 1998-99 to 2003-04.The Indian PC industry was
growing at a 45% compounded annual growth rate and there was
nearly 10 million screens in 2003-2004, a survey made by leading
Indian computer magazine Data quest. Changing policies of India
facilitated a business opportunity for multi-nationals as the base for
manufacturing units, R&D facilities and offshore software development.
Exponential growing import of electronic products and components in
India is challenging the e-waste management acumen.

On another hand, increasing disposable income of consumers

reciprocating with retailed price of electronic items had affected the life
cycle of electronic goods. These developments, along with indigenous
technological advancement, have lead to a wider channel of e-waste
churned out from Indian households, commercial establishments,
industries and public sectors, into the waste stream.

Even the developed countries mainly from Western Europe and North
America are dumping their e-waste in developing countries from Asia.
India and china are the first strategic option to dump e-waste as
worker protections and environmental safety standards are weak.
Alone US dumps around thirty million computers every year. The
reasons are crystal clear; increasing unemployment, inexpensive labor
and week legislation. Two-third of the heavy metals in landfills comes
from electrical equipment waste.

Recycling as a business opportunity was recognized when mining

valuable materials like gold, copper, iron and plastic from the circuitry
of computers and cell phones, was discovered much more profitable
than mining the same quantity of ore. The junk that we are throwing
away contains more aluminum, gold and copper than we find in the
ores witnessed by the research. One tonne of PCBs and other internal
components from discarded computers contains more gold than can be
produced from 16.5 tonne of gold ore. E-waste containing 9 to 49
times higher copper content than copper ore of the same quantity. A
cell phone contains five to 9 times higher gold content than gold ore.

Copy Right© Protected 2007-2009, www.internsindia.com, Sylloge Corporation

All Rights Reserved by www.internsindia.com
Only to be used for academic purpose.
Business News Analysis: Free Student Articles
www.internsindia.com-A FREE site for MBA live projects.
Mumbai alone dispose nearly 18,999 tonne of electronic waste per
annum, excluding the contribution of its port as a platform to import
tons of e-waste. The projected growth for the e-waste generation for
India is about 33.9% on yearly bases. The e-waste material all
together should be taken as commodity and should be treated the
same way. Endorsed by the research, Revenue models designed for
recycling business suggest that e-waste, from 183 computers, gives a
profit figure of Rs 1,78,308. -
India already has a few small-scale regional recycling programme that
are employed today. Two such units based in Chennai are in Eparisara
and Trishyiraya. Opting recycle business as an opportunity is useless
in the absence of sufficient resources and quality standards to handle
them. Small scale recycling plants in the absence of quality standards
will create a future problem of health hazards and environmental
issues. It will be purely an addition to more toxic elements like
cadmium, lead-for example in the soil, water, air and above all in
humans. If you look further away from curative to precautive
solutions. I will favor one more angle of a Brand and named it Brand
Ethics. It says that a brand can also be differentiated on emotional or
Nationalism bases as its brand position for not using components
which can harm a non-consumer (poorly-protected workers
dismantling the End-Of-Life product). I suggest a best option if
company is planning to opt Brand ethics as brand position. Value chain
is the best strategy to execute brand ethics.

A company should check that how at each level of value chain from
raw material to finished products a brand follows ethics of not affecting
consumers or non-consumers. Market leader should be the first one to
take such a stance.

Leaving money making businesses apart, we discuss about

government who can influence the PEST analysis of companies by
formulation of strict legislation for e-waste. Someone has suggested
that government should subsidize recycling and disposal industries
.Standing against this suggestion I support government to raise the
entry barriers of recycling industry to discourage small players and
amend company act 1957 to mandate inclusion of recycling unit for
every manufacturer and these recycling units must follow the quality
standards.

I will show you why I favor high entry barriers for recycling industry

Copy Right© Protected 2007-2009, www.internsindia.com, Sylloge Corporation

All Rights Reserved by www.internsindia.com
Only to be used for academic purpose.
Business News Analysis: Free Student Articles
www.internsindia.com-A FREE site for MBA live projects.

I suggestion a few ideas which might sound crazy but I find them good
enough in the absence of resources required for recycling plant.

1) Increase the entry barriers in recycle industry to discourage

local players and mandate it to high corporate.
2) Government should increase the import duties on e-waste
imported from outside.
3) If a company that dumps cheap products ( Chinese products for
example) with less durability then that company should take the
responsibility for collecting back the same quantity of e-waste
from India simultaneously.
4) The quantity of toxic element like cadmium, Antimony, PCBs in
an electronic product should not be more than a certain amount.
The government should design a menu for ingredient in an
electronic product. For example a television should not contain

Copy Right© Protected 2007-2009, www.internsindia.com, Sylloge Corporation

All Rights Reserved by www.internsindia.com
Only to be used for academic purpose.
Business News Analysis: Free Student Articles
www.internsindia.com-A FREE site for MBA live projects.
more then x milligrams of cadmium, y milligram of lead or some
thing like that. It is very much possible by making companies to
come out of comfort zone and do some home work to enhance
ethical qualities of their product.

These were a few suggestions out of my basket rest I have saved for
professional purpose, ☺ kidding.
I am not against of e-waste management until it is really managed and
does not exploit the human rights and brand image of my motherland.

Article Requested by:

Vaibhav Sharma, Riti Aggarwal, Pallavi prabhat,Alok Kumar,Anoop

Kumar (Senior Research Executive, TNS India), Aman Sharma ( GE
Capital ) and guptazonline@yahoo.com

Sources of information
a) BBC News , Friday, 12 December, 2003, 09:23 GMT, Friday, 14
October 2005, 17:20 GMT 18:20 UK
b) Times of India, 8 Jun 2007, 0008 hrs IST.
c) Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, March 2007

Copy Right© Protected 2007-2009, www.internsindia.com, Sylloge Corporation

All Rights Reserved by www.internsindia.com
Only to be used for academic purpose.