On 'Mann Ki Baat', PM Narendra Modi stresses recycling of e-waste

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 29

Noting that a United Nations (UN) report said 50 million tonnes of e-waste is being generated every year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said has if the weight of all commercial planes built so far is combined, it would not equal the amount of e-waste being released.

Time for ‘techade’

Domestic patent filings have outscored the country’s foreign patent filings. India’s dream of ‘techade’ will be fulfilled on the strength of its innovators. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

“It is like every second 800 laptops are being thrown away,” he said during ‘Mann Ki Baat’, calling for judicious disposal of electronic gadgets.

Modi said if people didn’t properly dispose of e-waste, it would prove detrimental to the environment.

“Every household has electronic devices. Today’s devices is tomorrow’s e-waste. Therefore, proper disposal of electronic devices is a must,” said the PM.

He called for recycling e-waste and said doing so was no less than making wealth from waste. “In all, 17 precious metals, including gold, silver, copper and nickel, can be extracted from e-waste. At present, only 15-17 per cent of the e-waste is being recycled,” said PM Modi in his first “Mann Ki Baat” of the year.

The Prime Minister also lauded the rising acceptance of yoga and millets, saying that it was on India’s proposals that the UN adopted June 21 as the International Day of Yoga and declared this year as the International Year of Millets.

“Milletpreneurs” of Sundargarh district in Odisha are in the limelight these days, he said, mentioning a self-help group of about 1,500 women producing several delicacies made of millets.

Citing several other developments in different states related to millets growing popularity, he said meals prepared from there were being served at various G20 events being held across the country.

In his address, Modi noted that this year’s Padma awards, described by him as “People’s Padma”, included a number of tribal people or those working for the community besides those who have strengthened the world of music.

Lauding a book titled “India — The Mother of Democracy”, the Prime Minister said Indians were proud of the fact that their country is the “mother of democracy”.

Modi also said domestic patent filings had outscored the country’s foreign patent filings as he expressed confidence that India’s dream of “techade” — his call for Indian technologies to dominate the decade — will be fulfilled on the strength of its innovators.

Modi has in the past used “techade” to describe the decade being dominated by homegrown technologies.

He said India’s rank in patent filling was seventh globally while it was fifth in trademark registration.

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