Frequently Asked Questions
Find clear answers to common questions about our compliance services, registration processes, and corporate advisory.
The Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the apex Government agency for the food business. An applicant is required to visit the FSSAI official website and submit the login ID and password, that he/she received during the online application of FSSAI food Business Registration. The applicant is then required to go to the compliance section of the FSSAI portal and enter the required details in the website.
There is no Government fee for submission of FSSAI compliances. If an agency is hired for this purpose, it may charge you Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 for yearly basis compliance submissions.
Biomedical waste is the waste generated from the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of diseases. The bio-medical waste is generated in hospitals, health clinics, nursing homes, emergency medical services, medical research laboratories, offices of physicians, dentists, veterinarians, home health care and morgues or funeral homes. Bio-medical waste include discarded blood, sharps, used bandages and dressings, discarded gloves, needles, scalpels, lancets.
- All persons or entities which generate, collect, receive, store, transport, treat, dispose of or handle bio medical waste in any form, including hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, dispensaries, veterinary institutions, animal houses, pathological laboratories, blood banks, ayush hospitals, clinical establishments and research or educational institutions, are subject to the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016.
- Every occupier is responsible for taking all necessary steps to ensure that bio-medical waste is managed safely and in compliance with these rules, without causing harm to human health or the environment and provide a safe, ventilated and secure location within the premises for the storage of segregated biomedical waste in coloured bags or containers in the manner specified in Schedule I, to ensure that no secondary handling, pilferage of recyclables or inadvertent scattering or spillage by animals occurs and the bio-medical waste from such location or premises shall be transferred directly, in accordance with these regulations, to a common bio-medical waste treatment facility or, as the case may be, for proper treatment and disposal in accordance with Schedule I.
- Maintain and update the bio-medical waste management register on a daily basis in all bedded health care units and display the monthly record on its website according to the bio-medical waste generated in terms of category and colour coding as defined in Schedule I.
- On or before June 30th of each year, every occupier or operator of a common bio-medical waste treatment facility must submit an annual report in Form-IV to the prescribed authority.
- In accordance with these rules and guidelines issued by the Central Government or the Central Pollution Control Board or the prescribed authority as the case may be, every authorised person shall keep records related to the generation, collection, reception, storage, transportation, treatment, disposal or any other form of handling of bio-medical waste for a period of five years.
- Make the annual report available on its website within two years of the date of publication of the Bio-Medical Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2018 in the case of all bedded health care facilities (any number of beds).
There is no Government fee for annual submission of Bio-Medical Waste Compliances. If an agency is hired for the same, it may charge you for the services rendered. Metacorp charges Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 annually for submission of Bio-Medical Waste Management Authorization compliances.
To assess your home's water consumption, conduct a household water audit. This evaluation helps measure water usage and identify opportunities for conservation. The process involves calculating water usage and identifying simple methods to reduce consumption. It's vital to note that water usage fluctuates seasonally, with warmer months typically seeing increased usage for activities such as gardening and car washing. Even if you conduct the audit during colder months, consider the additional water used in warmer seasons. The American Water Works Association estimates the average daily indoor water use per person at 94 gallons, excluding outdoor activities like lawn irrigation and car washing.
A Water Audit is the analysis of usage of water by a business entity for its operations & for domestic purposes. The business entity could be an industrial entity, an infrastructure or a mining entity. The Water Audit encompasses everything from the start of water delivery to the point where it is recycled and used in various other purposes, such as for washrooms, gardening or any other purposes. The Water Audit is used to establishes the quantity of water being used in the manufacturing process domestic purposes, wastage, leakages & excess usage of water. The audit also identifies areas where consumption can be reduced. It is also used to analyze water treatment systems in place and how to improve efficiency and reduce usage of water.
The final draft of the detailed water audit report should contain the following:
The patterns of water consumption and wastewater generation
Water usage heads and the conservation of water
Complete water balance report of the manufacturing, infrastructure or mining entity.
The areas where water could be saved or conserved.
How the recommended guidelines are to be implemented
Complete description and data for water usage, recycling, reuse etc.
Total Investment required to implement the suggested changes
Water audits act as an instrument to identify areas of higher specific water use, assess wastewater pollutant load and determine techniques for mitigation through the application of the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) principle.
The Green Credit Program (GCP) is a pioneering market-based process under which the Individuals, NGOs, Communities & Business entities could be provided incentives for their voluntary activities for environmental conservation & sustainable development. The Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE) is the designated nodal agency to implement, operate, manage & monitor the Green Credit Program. The Green Credit Program’s main focus in the initial stage is water conservation & afforestation.
As per the Green Credit Rules, 2023, the Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE) will issue methodologies for awarding green credits to applicants. These methodologies are expected to sent the minimum performance standards for each activity or process for their impact on the environment. A portal is to be launched for registration, verification & issuance of green credits to the applicants. Through this portal, the applicant can register after submitting required documents, the administrator of the portal will verify the activity through a designated agency, after which the green credits can be issued to the applicant.
An applicant may get green credits by performing following activities to protect, preserve, or conserve the environment.
Tree plantation— The applicant can claim Green Credits by performing activities resulting in the increase in the forest/ green cover in any part of the country
Water management— He/she may get Green Credits for promoting water conservation, rain-water harvesting & using water efficiently or saving water, including usage of treated water and reuse of wastewater
Sustainable agriculture— The applicant may perform activities to promote natural and regenerative agricultural practices & land restoration to improve crop productivity, soil health and nutritional value of food grain, vegetables & fruits.
Waste management— The Green Credits may be obtained by promoting circularity, sustainable and improved procedures for Plastic, Electronics, Battery & hazardous waste management, including collection, segregation, recycling, co-processing etc.
Air pollution reduction— The Green credits may be claimed by promoting measures which may result in the reduction of air pollution along with water & noise pollution.
Mangrove conservation and restoration— The applicant could get Green Credits by creating awareness & actions to conservation and restore mangroves
Ecomark label development— to encourage manufacturers to obtain ecomark label for their goods and services
Sustainable building & Infrastructure— The Green Credits cold be claimed by encouraging the construction of sustainable buildings and other infrastructure using environment friendly technologies and materials.
India's Green Credit Programme and carbon credit initiative focus on Sustainable Agriculture-based Green Credit, aiming to encourage natural and regenerative agricultural practices and land restoration. The goal is to enhance productivity, soil health, and the nutritional value of the food produced.
The types of green credits are as following:
- Forest & Ecosystem Credits.
- Air Quality Credits.
- Water Quality and Access Credits.
- Waste Management Credits.
- Energy Efficiency Credits.
- Renewable Energy Generation Credits, among others.
Any manufacturing activity being conducted by a business entity may or may not involve the generation of any kind of pollution, be it air, water or noise pollution. As per the Central & State Pollution Control Board guidelines, these manufacturing activities are considered white or green category business activities.
Then there are orange & red category of manufacturing activities, which involve generation of air pollution or water, noise pollution. For this, the installation of pollution control devices such as ETP, STPs, Dust collector, besides other pollution control measures are undertaken to mitigate the effect of manufacturing activity.
The Environmental Audit is performed at regular intervals to check whether the pollution control devices & other pollution control measures being undertaken are effective or not, whether more is required to be done to further tighten the grip around generation and control of pollution.
The process of Environmental auditing is an organized, scientific and time interval-based technique to ascertain a manufacturing entity ’s effectiveness & efficiency for:
How the business entity is performing on relevant statutory and internal requirements
Ensuring that top management is monitoring the environmental practices
Creating awareness & promoting good environmental management
Maintaining credibility with the public that our future generations will be free from pollution
Regular training & workshops for staff awareness and enforcing commitment to departmental environmental policy
Continuously exploring improvement opportunities for fighting pollution
Establishing the minimum standards for developing a credible Environmental Management System (EMS)
The process of Environmental Audit consists of following three phases.
Pre – Audit phase
Audit Phase
Post – Audit phase
Pre-Audit Phase
At the pre-audit stage, the business entity desirous of Environmental Audit is required to allot human & other resources for the whole audit process. The business entity is also needed to prepare an audit plan and the documents required for the environmental audit.
Audit Phase
After the pre-audit phase is complete, the business entity may proceed with the actual audit. The audit team is expected to follow the standards & procedures laid down during the pre-audit phase. The audit team in this phase is required to conduct site inspections and interviews, evaluate teams and perform document reviews, as per the guidelines of the Govt. Environment Body. After this is done, the audit lead team is required to prepare thorough Environmental Audit Reports.
Post - Audit Phase
In the Post-Audit phase, the Audit team should reflect on the data generated and reports of environmental audit thus prepared so that the areas of improvement could be found out and steps to mitigate the pollution are undertaken.
There are three main types of environmental audits that a company may conduct. These are as follows:
Environmental compliance
Environmental Management System (EMS) audits
Functional environmental audits
Environmental Compliance Audits
Environmental compliance audits, as the name suggests, determines whether the business entity is compliant regarding those particular pollution control devices and pollution control measures which were delineated during the issuance of the State/ Central Pollution Control Certificate.
Every manufacturing activity is required to get a certificate from State Pollution Control Board. When a Pollution Certificate is issued, the requirements of pollution control device & other pollution control measures are mentioned in the Pollution Board Certificate. The focus of the environmental compliance audit is to ascertain whether the business entity is following all or most of the parameters as mentioned in the Pollution Board Certificate. Other Pollution Board certificate such as Environment Impact Assessment – Environment Clearance (EIA-EC) also includes the conditions which are required to be fulfil during the operation of a particular manufacturing/infrastructure/mining activity.
Environmental Management System (EMS) audits
The Environmental Management System (EMS) Audits is an audit process in which the EMS of an organization, engaged in manufacturing, infrastructure development or mining, is evaluated to ascertain whether the system is effective enough to maintain the benchmark performance of the pollution control devices and other pollution control measures. The EMS Audit is conducted as per the guidelines of Clause 9 of the ISO 14001:2015. This performance is done to ensure:
That the Environmental Management System is proving effective in monitoring & controlling the air, water & noise pollution.
The EMS is properly inspected in terms of its expected performance standards.
The evaluation of objective of the EMS and its targets is undertaken.
To identify new targets or opportunities.
Ascertaining whether the EMS is fulfilling the organizational, stakeholder and legal requirements.
Periodic Review of the EMS for its perpetual suitability, adequacy and effectiveness.
To ensure continual improvement in a particular EMS.
Functional Environmental Audits
Functional Environmental Audit is a process under which specific compliance conditions are monitored and inspected for adherence to the Pollution Control Board Guidelines. For example, if an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) or a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) is installed as a pollution control device to check water pollution, then the functional environmental audit would be focused on whether the treated water from the outlet of the ETP or STP satisfies the limits of concentration of hazardous materials in the treated water, if it is found to be wanting on these parameters, then the functional environmental audit would suggest the measures to be taken to mend this leakage of pollutants in the water body.
The first document required for an Environmental Audit is the site plan, layout plan or key plan. This is required to define the scope of the audit along with any changes done to the premises
The Consent to Establish (CTE), Consent to Operate (CTO), Environmental Clearance (EIA-EC) certificates, along with any EPR certificate, if the Business entity is engaged in plastic, electronics, battery or tyre manufacturing or import.
Previous environmental inspection reports and checklists to ascertain that inspections have been conducted and recorded at regular time intervals. The Hazardous waste manifests, sampling data, and other inspection reports are also required to establish a sound record keeping.
The raw purchase data, units manufactured & distribution, of all chemicals and other raw materials used, their locations, and quantities to find out the environmental regulations applicable to the facility.
The documents about Environmental Plans and procedures, best management practices and other applicable documents to show how the business entity is managing environmental issues and preventing problems. Also required are the EPA Risk Management Plan, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) and written emergency response programs, if applicable.
The training records of technical persons, radiation safety official, chemical handing certificate etc to ensure that the employees are adequately trained to handle their daily tasks. The medical reports of some employees to ascertain whether the work of the employee is any anyway affecting his/her physical health.
- The Batteries Management and Handling Rules were adopted in 2001 with the primary goal of ensuring the safe disposal of discarded lead acid batteries with the participation of all stakeholders. To ensure environmentally sound recycling of used batteries, rules have been established to ensure proper monitoring and record keeping on the selling or import of lead acid batteries, as well as the storage of used batteries for recycling by registered recyclers.
- Improper lead handling and recycling could endanger workers' health and have a negative effect on the environment. As a result, it is critical to ensure that secondary lead processing takes place in facilities that are registered with the Central or State Pollution Control Boards in an environmentally sustainable manner. It is essential to ensure that all recyclables are directed to approved recycling facilities. It is also necessary to put an end to the widespread practice of smelting used lead acid batteries in backyards throughout the Country.
- Manufacturers, importers, reconditioners, and assemblers have responsibilities under the Batteries Rules to ensure that used batteries are collected and routed to Authorized recyclers. Other stakeholders, such as retailers, recyclers, customers, auctioneers, and regulators, including customs authorities, were also assigned responsibilities.