Mangaluru: Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) on Wednesday launched its 26th Chapter in Coastal city of Mangaluru in a formal event at Hotel Taj Gateway in the city in the presence of Council’s National Chairman V Suresh and State Chairman Syed Mohammed Beary and other dignitaries.

The council which offers a wide array of services which include developing new green building rating programmes, certification services and green building training programmes was formed in 2001 and is a part of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The event began with the opening remarks of Syed Mohammed Beary who stressed upon the need to switch to sustainable development to save the environment and planet earth. Adding that the 21st century belongs to India he said “Sustainability is in India's ethos, we need not learn about it from others. Taj Mahal is the best example of sustainability. This is time to rise to the occasion and do it as a duty”.

Syed Mohammed Beary also added that the IGBC has advised the government to convert the smart city projects into green city.

“Green is fashion and it should become passion. And for sustainable development both architect and developer has an important role to play” he said while advising architect students present in the event to work towards sustainable development.

 He also urged the MLAs to help the initiative through government.

Council’s national chairman V Suresh while addressing the event, stressed upon how population rise in India has made sustainability difficult in urban areas.

“Our population has increased more than four folds since Independence and this has made sustainability difficult in urban areas. We are on the urge of running out of drinking water in major cities of the world. Green Building and the role on IGBC in such a scenario is very important” he said.

“We started in 2001 with a road map, and now in 2019 we stand at 6.92 billion sq ft of green print. We are now moving with an aim of having this number at 10 billion by Independence day on 2022” he said while briefing about several of the key achievements of the council.

D B Mehta, Chairman of the IGBC Mangaluru Chapter in his address said that the aim and goal of all the stakeholders of the Mangaluru chapter will be the same as to how we can bring sustainable development in Mangaluru.

“The important challenge in Mangaluru will not be building green buildings but to maintain it and see through how the users take it forward”

“Waste management is also important aspect we need to work on, it’s a poison thats gone into earth and will take centuries to get eliminated” he further noted.

Mangaluru North MLA Dr. Bharath Shetty also addressed the event and said “We are at a stage where we are destroying and exploiting nature to an extent of no return. We are seeing money in everything. We see trees, we see money in it. We see sand, we see money in it. I am really happy that IGBC Mangaluru chapter has been launched”.

Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyadas Kamath also wished luck to the Mangaluru Chapter and promised full cooperation and support from the Government.

Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer, Mangaluru University Registrar Airani Mohammed Khan also spoke about the need of such initiatives.

Student Chapters at various colleges and institutions were also formally launched at the event.

M Anand, Principal Counselor of IGBC compered the event.


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Sydney, Jan 4: Batting great Sunil Gavaskar feels India will struggle to defend even 200 in case premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah is unable to bowl at full throttle on the third day of the fifth and final Test against Australia here on Sunday.

Bumrah had left the field for scans during the second day's post-lunch session after bowling just one over, having experienced some discomfort. However, he returned to the dressing room after undergoing precautionary scans for an unspecified niggle.

India pacer Prasidh Krishna said his skipper had suffered back spasm.

The medical team was monitoring him as India ended the day 145 runs in front with four second innings wickets left on a SCG track which is aiding the bowlers.

"Look, if India scores 40 more runs or they put 185 on the board then they have a great chance but it all depends on Jasprit Bumrah's fitness. If Jasprit Bumrah is fit then 145-150 might be enough. But if Bumrah is not fit then a score of around 200 also might not be enough," said Gavaskar on Star Sports on Saturday.

Gavaskar also said maintaining secrecy around Bumrah's status is not going to help the Australians, who have so far struggled to counter the threat posed by the Indian pace spearhead.

"One thing that I liked was when he came back after the scan, obviously it took a lot of time because the hospital is a bit far, but he looked in good shape and his body language was such that there was no indication of the Australian team and it is very important to maintain the secrecy.

"Because, tactically you do not want to announce whether Bumrah will be available for bowling or not, and even if he is not available and this news goes across the opposition dressing room because till now Australian batsmen haven't found out a way to counter him, they don’t know whether they should attack, defend, or whether they should play on front-foot.

"So to execute this plan it is important to maintain secrecy, so Bumrah and the Indian team management managed it quite well," Gavaskar said.

The pacer has already taken 32 wickets in the series, and had figures of 2/33 in 10 overs before leaving the field, having removed Marnus Labuschagne in the morning session and Usman Khawaja on the last ball of the first evening.