Green Auditing Training Module can be made Course Module: Prof. C. R. Babu

NEW DELHI: While endorsing the Vivekananda College’s initiative on implementing the proposed ‘Green Auditing Training Module’ as a Course Module that can equip faculties and students in academic institutions to fulfill the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) criteria VI, Prof. C R Babu, has lauded the efforts of the college.

Prof. Babu assured the Vivekananda College that he would take up the proposal with the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University (DU). He also said that he would also propose to make Vivekananda College as the nodal college for this initiative.

Currently, the Professor Emeritus at the University of Delhi and Distinguished Professor of the Environment and Ecology at the School of Human Ecology, Ambedkar University Delhi, Prof. Babu said this while participating in the one-day National Seminar on “Environment and Urban Ecosystem: From Individual to Ecological” on Sep 30, as a Chief Guest.

The Department of Environment and Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of Vivekananda College, University of Delhi had organized this seminar.

Prof. C. R. Babu praised the initiative of Vivekananda College and congratulated Dr. Hina Nandrajog and Dr. Seema Sharma for this initiative. He was responding to the ‘Green Auditing Training Module’ initiative for faculty and students launched by Dr. Seema Sharma who is also the author of this module.

Prof. Babu delivered his talk on “Ecological Integrity: A Key to Urban Environmental Sustainability”.  Prof. Babu talked about Ecological Restoration, Ecosystem Dynamics, and functions with several success stories and on-ground achievements by the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE) team under his guidance and supervision. He also clearly highlighted the significant roles of academia, industry, policymakers, and community members to make the urban spaces a better place to live.

The seminar started with the welcome address by College officiating Principal Dr. Hina Nandrajog followed by a seminar introduction by Dr. Seema Sharma (Convener) and Mrs. Purnima Vir (co-convener). The other distinguished speakers for the event included Dr. Raju EVR, Dr. Reena Sethi, Sanjeev K Ahuja, and Chetan Pathak.

Soon after the keynote lecture, the ‘Green Auditing Training Module’ for faculty and students was launched.

During her presentation, Dr. Seema Sharma emphasized the need, uniqueness and holistic nature of the training module.  She also highlighted the fact that how the training module can equip faculties and students in academic institutions to fulfill the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) criteria VI, and become more resource-efficient and sustainable.

Prof. Sharma also mentioned how academic institutions or faculties can play a role as consultants which is a mandatory criterion for faculties under the NAAC as a result of this module.

Another important outcome of this session was the need and role of environmentalists in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) at the district level, thereby making the NGT more effective and realistic. This was highlighted by Dr. Seema Sharma and the point was also strongly endorsed by Prof. C. R. Babu who assured her he would put forward the concern to the relevant committee and recommend the point raised by Dr. Sharma.

The second session of the event was a panel discussion titled ‘Role and Responsibility of Academia, Industry, Policy, and Media in Current Discourse of Urban Ecosystem and the Way Forward”.

Expert panelists from academia, industry, policy, and media included Prf. C R Babu, Dr. Raju Evr, Domain Expert – Environment and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Coal, Dr. Reena Sethi, Former Director, Minister of Civil Aviation and Specialist – Governance and Change Management, Chetan Pathak, Program Manager, BSES, Delhi, and Sanjeev K Ahuja, Editor, Asian Community News (ACN) Network.

Asian Community News (ACN) Network, the global media agency with a key focus on Indo-Asian affairs and presence in India, Japan, Korea, China, and the USA, was the Media Partner for the national seminar.

Prof. Babu is also the Project Director of the Centre of Excellence Programme of the Ministry of Environment & Forests & Climate Change, Government of India at CEMDE (University of Delhi) and Project In-charge of the Biodiversity Parks Programme of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) at the University of Delhi. He is the Honorary Director of Delhi School of Climate Change and Sustainability at the University of Delhi.

Moderator for this session was Dr. Seema Sharma. A post-graduate in Environmental Studies and a Ph.D. in Industrial Waste Management, she has 16 years of work experience across sectors (Academia-Industry-policy-Community). She was invited by BBC World News for discussions, was nominated by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) to participate in UNCCD-COP14, and is the recipient of One MP One Idea Award, World Ecology Environment & Development Award, and Green Earth Award.

The panel discussion took off with a very interesting question – ‘Is academia playing the role what they are supposed to do?’ Prof. C. R. Babu in his response said that the answer cannot be simple. He raised his concern about the quality of research and teaching-learning processes and gaps which need to fill in order to achieve academic excellence throughout the colleges of the University of Delhi.

Dr. Raju EVR in the response to the question on the role and responsibility of policymakers highlighted the need to understand being a policymaker “is there any plan”. He also mentioned the gaps in the policy and lack of policy execution framework. In his discussion points, he pointed out the communication gaps between the stakeholders and the lack of community connection. He emphasized the need for partnerships with academia for a more inclusive and sustainable policy framework.

While commenting on the role of Media, Sanjeev K Ahuja was all praise for the IQAC, Vivekananda College, for involving media for promoting the environment and ecological concerns. “The IQAC has decided to take up the cause of saving the environment, and at the same time acknowledge the importance of media in promoting this cause and building public opinion around it. I have a strong belief that media can play the role of the primary change agent or as a means to support public campaigns,” said Ahuja.

The panelist Chetan Pathak, emphasized, on the use of renewable energy and how BSES playing an important role in educating the young generation for renewable energy at the school level.

At the end of the session, in the response of several questions asked by the participants from all over India, Prof. Babu stressed on the need of academic excellence, skills, research, and capacity building in academia and urges the participants to focus on these lines for urban environmental sustainability.

The Research Paper Presentation Session (Category I), Dr. Reena Sethi and Mrs. Purnima Vir as a session chair, awarded the best paper award to the Author of the Paper Dr. Arnab Bose (Professor, O. P. Jindal Global University, Haryana) paper titled –“Access, Inclusion, and Sustainability: Making Urban Infrastructure accessible for Persons with Disability (PwD) will also improve sustainability indicators”.

The fourth and final technical session, which was the research paper presentation session (Category II), Dr. Subhash Chandra (Assistant Professor, Vivekananda College and Dr. Chandra Prakash Kapoor (Assistant Professor, Vivekananda College) as a session chair, awarded the best paper award to the authors ( Charu Bisht, Hanuth Saxena, Tirthankar Ghosh, Palash Chowdhury           Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh) paper titled—” Aerosol Optical Depth in lieu with Land Surface Temperature”. The paper was presented by Hanuth Saxena.

The seminar ended with a very positive note and expert panelists and participants from all over India appreciated the seminar and effort made by the organizing team members (Dr. Subhas Chandra, Mr. Arunabha Bose, Dr. Raman Singh, Dr. Anjana Kumari, Dr. Amit Kumar, Dr. Vedanidhi) to make this happen online successfully.