By Anil Mathews

ScrapMonster Author

NEW DELHI (Scrap Monster): Cerebra Integrated Technologies Ltd. (CITL) has announced the opening of a full-fledged e-waste recycling facility in the South Indian state of Karnataka. The new facility at Narasapura KIADB Industrial Area in Kolar district will have an initial capacity to process 36,000 tonnes per annum. According to the company, it plans to expand the facility by adding PGM refining capability in near future.

The state-of-the-art e-waste management facility was inaugurated by R.V. Deshapande, Union Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure. The inauguration ceremony was also attended by Mr. V.R Sudharshan, Former Speaker of Karnataka Legislature. The Union Minister, in his inaugural speech, highlighted the importance of scientific management of electronic waste. According to him, IT sector has led to generation of huge amounts of e-waste. The proliferation of technically advanced new models of mobile phones has led to sharp rise in discarded gadgets, thereby adding to e-waste generation.

Primitive and unscientific handling of e-waste leads to environmental hazards, the Minister noted. As per estimates, the country generates approximately 2.5 million tonnes of e-waste per year. The figure will be much more, if figures from unorganized sector are also taken into consideration. Bengaluru, being the IT capital of the country, is obviously one of the largest e-waste generating cities in the country. The city alone produces nearly 37,000 tonnes of e-waste every year.

V Ranganathan, managing director of Cerebra Integrated Technologies Limited claimed that the inaugurated facility is one of the largest in the entire country. The Narasapur facility will offer a wide range of services including collection, sorting, repair, recondition, refurbish for reuse, re-marketing, data wiping, data destruction & data recovery. The facility, housed in a 12-acre land, occupies a built-up area of 40,000 square feet aims to achieve end-to-end destruction of e-waste through zero landfill. Cerebra will invest nearly Rs 50 crores to build the facility. The construction phase is expected to generate nearly 100 jobs in the region.

Incidentally, data suggests that India’s per capita generation of e-waste was 1.3 kilograms per inhabitant, much lower when compared with those of other countries such as Japan, the US and China. However, technological innovations coupled with high obsolescence rate of electronic and electrical equipment are feared to lead to excessive amounts of e-waste in the near future. An earlier study report released by an UN agency predicts that e-waste generation by India is likely to triple to 52 lakh metric tonnes in 2020, when matched with the current level of 18 lakh metric tonnes. The report states that the country is currently the fifth largest producer of e-waste in the world.

Cerebra Integrated Technologies Limited commenced its business in 1992 starting with the Hardware sector and later expanded to provide software services, IT training and consulting, and today offers Total IT Solutions comprising LPO, BPO and KPO services. CITL is a public limited company and serves its customers through branch offices in India. Its international customers are served through JV's in the USA and UK.