The Energy and Resources Institute
Encyclopedia
The Energy and Resources Institute, commonly known as TERI (formerly Tata Energy Research Institute), established in 1974, is a research institute
based in New Delhi
focusing its research activities in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development.
, a remote town in Gujarat, where a TATA engineer, Darbari Seth, was concerned about the enormous quantities of energy his factory spent on desalination
. He proposed the idea of a research institute to tackle the depletion of natural resources and energy scarcity. J. R. D. Tata
, chairman of the TATA Group
, liked the idea and accepted the proposal. TERI was setup with a modest corpus of 35 million rupees. On the invitation of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
, TERI registered in Delhi in 1974 as the Tata Energy Research Institute. As the scope of its activities widened over a period of time, it was renamed The Energy and Resources Institute in 2003.
TERI began operations in Mumbai in Bombay House
, headquarters of the house of Tatas. In 1984, it moved to Delhi. After being shunted from one premise to another, including the India International Centre
, TERI moved to the India Habitat Centre
. Today TERI has a global presence with many centers both within India and abroad.
is also the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
awarded Nobel Prize
2007. TERI's Executive Director is Dr Leena Srivastava, who was recognized by the Prime Minister of the French Republic and received the Knight of the Order of Academic Palms in 2007 (Ordre national du Mérite
).
TERI has about 20 divisions and some important divisions are:
Decentralised Electricity Solutions
Earth Science and Climate Change
Educating Youth for Sustainable Devpt.
Energy EnvironmentTechnology Development
Environmental & Industrial Biotechnology
Human Resources
Industrial Energy Efficiency
Information Technology and Services
Knowledge Management
Modelling and Economic Analysis
Resources, Regulation & Global Security
Social Transformation
Sustainable Development Outreach
Sustainable Habitat
Tech. Dissemination & Enterprise Devp.
Water Resources
Twenty-eight projects have been registered so far including the following:
(DSDS) and the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). The DSDS attracts worldwide thinkers and practitioners, coming from governments, business and industries, multilateral and bilateral organizations, research and academia and civil societies. Following this success, TERI has established the World Sustainable Development Forum (WSDF), which aims to emulate the DSDS, applying its talks and research worldwide, to monitor worldwide industrial development associated environment and sustainability analysis, and to provide interesting solutions to local industries and governments, to meet the MDGs.
was established on August 19, 1998, and was recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as a deemed-to-be University in 1999. Set-up as the TERI School of Advanced Studies in 1998, the institution was subsequently renamed TERI University. TERI University
is the first of its kind in India to dedicate itself to the study of environment, energy and natural sciences for sustainable development.
Research institute
A research institute is an establishment endowed for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research...
based in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
focusing its research activities in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development.
Introduction
TERI is an independent, not-for-profit, research institute focused on energy, environment and sustainable development, devoted to efficient and sustainable use of natural resources.Origins
The origins of TERI lie in MithapurMithapur
Mithapur, Gujarat is a census town in Jamnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat.Mithapur in various languages:In Gujarati - મીઠાપુરIn Hindi - मीठापुरIn English - MithapurIn Marathi - मिथापूरIn Urdu - مٹھپرIn Tamil - மிதபூர்In Bangali - মিঠাপুর...
, a remote town in Gujarat, where a TATA engineer, Darbari Seth, was concerned about the enormous quantities of energy his factory spent on desalination
Desalination
Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from saline water...
. He proposed the idea of a research institute to tackle the depletion of natural resources and energy scarcity. J. R. D. Tata
J. R. D. Tata
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was a pioneer aviator and important businessman of India. He was awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 1992 and the Legion of Honour from the French government in 1954.-Early life and education:J. R. D...
, chairman of the TATA Group
Tata Group
Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Tata Group is one of the largest companies in India by market capitalization and revenue. It has interests in communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy,...
, liked the idea and accepted the proposal. TERI was setup with a modest corpus of 35 million rupees. On the invitation of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
, TERI registered in Delhi in 1974 as the Tata Energy Research Institute. As the scope of its activities widened over a period of time, it was renamed The Energy and Resources Institute in 2003.
Locations
Bombay House
Bombay House is a historic privately owned building in Mumbai that serves as the head office of the Tata Group.Situated near Flora Fountain it was completed in 1924 and has been the Tata Group's headquarters ever since...
, headquarters of the house of Tatas. In 1984, it moved to Delhi. After being shunted from one premise to another, including the India International Centre
India International Centre
The India International Centre is a well known non-official organization situated in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1958, and inaugurated in 1968...
, TERI moved to the India Habitat Centre
India Habitat Centre
The India Habitat Centre, located in New Delhi, India, was conceived to be a catalyst relationship between individuals and institutions working in habitat related areas to increase their effectiveness...
. Today TERI has a global presence with many centers both within India and abroad.
- Headquarters at the India Habitat Center, New Delhi.
- Southern Regional Centre, BangaloreBangaloreBengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
- Western Regional Centre, GoaGoaGoa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
- North - Eastern Regional Centre, GuwahatiGuwahatiGuwahati, Pragjyotishpura in ancient Assam formerly known as Gauhati is a metropolis,the largest city of Assam in India and ancient urban area in North East India, with a population of 963,429. It is also the largest metropolitan area in north-eastern India...
- Himalayan Centre, MukteshwarMukteshwarMukteshwar is a town and tourist destination in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand, India. It sits high in the Kumaon Hills at an altitude of 2286 meters , 51 km from Nainital, 72 km from Haldwani, and 395 km from Delhi....
- TERI Japan, TokyoTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
- TERI North America, Washington D.C
- TERI Europe, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
- TERI South East Asia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Staff
TERI has about 900 employees, with research professionals from various disciplines pertaining to issues of environment and energy. The Institute's Director General Rajendra K. PachauriRajendra K. Pachauri
Rajendra Kumar Pachauri has served as the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 2002, during which his tenure has engendered controversy. He is also been director general of TERI, a research and policy organization in India, and chancellor of TERI University...
is also the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...
awarded Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
2007. TERI's Executive Director is Dr Leena Srivastava, who was recognized by the Prime Minister of the French Republic and received the Knight of the Order of Academic Palms in 2007 (Ordre national du Mérite
Ordre National du Mérite
The Ordre national du Mérite is an Order of State awarded by the President of the French Republic. It was founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle...
).
Activities
TERI is a leading Indian non government organization (NGO), a global think tank conducting research and analysis in the genres of energy and environment, is a university with a vast focus, which ranges from micro organisms to global climate change and everything in between. In its 30 years of existence, TERI has completed more than 2600 projects.TERI has about 20 divisions and some important divisions are:
- Biotechnology & Bioresources
Decentralised Electricity Solutions
Earth Science and Climate Change
Educating Youth for Sustainable Devpt.
Energy EnvironmentTechnology Development
Environmental & Industrial Biotechnology
Human Resources
Industrial Energy Efficiency
Information Technology and Services
Knowledge Management
Modelling and Economic Analysis
Resources, Regulation & Global Security
Social Transformation
Sustainable Development Outreach
Sustainable Habitat
Tech. Dissemination & Enterprise Devp.
Water Resources
Awards and achievements
- Bio technologists at TERI developed a new technique for the revival of sick oil wells called Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR). It has helped in recovering 5% to 15% of crude oil from the wells that have been declared `sick' after secondary treatment with chemicals that recovers 20% oil.
- TERI Southern Regional Center in Bangalore was awarded Best Energy Auditor and Best Performance Improvement from the Petroleum Conservation Research Association two consecutive years in 2003 and 2004.
- TERI was awarded The Economic TimesThe Economic TimesThe Economic Times is an English-language Indian daily newspaper published by the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.. The Economic Times was started in 1961. It is the most popular and widely read financial daily in India, read by more than 8 lakh people...
Corporate Citizen of the Year in 2008-09. - In 2006, TERI developed a technology to mass-produce a consortium of mycorrhiza bio- fertiliser. The technology is the first of its kind globally. The bio-fertiliser has applications in agriculture, horticulture, economic plantations, forestry and bio-fuels, and enhances nutrition and yield increment up to 50% and curtails chemical fertiliser inputs by 5%.
- TERI in 2003, developed a non-pathogenic pesticide-munching bacteria in the form of a powder that can biodegrade endosulfanEndosulfanEndosulfan is an off-patent organochlorine insecticide and acaricide that is being phased out globally. Endosulfan became a highly controversial agrichemical due to its acute toxicity, potential for bioaccumulation, and role as an endocrine disruptor...
, a widely used pesticide. - While visiting TERI RETREAT in 2004, Prince Charles lauded energy efficient technologies at TERI.
- TERI initiated the Lighting A Billion Lives Campaign in 2007 to light energy starving rural villages.
- By March 2005, TERI's micropropagation technology park had supplied over 14 million plants raised by tissue culture.
- TERI developed Oilzapper, a mix of bacteria that destroys crude oil sludge. More than 30,000 tonnes of soil contaminated with oily sludge have been treated, and more than 5000 hectares of farmland contaminated with oil spills have been reclaimed.
- TERI designed a cylindrical furnace for refining metals called Cupola which has enabled workers in small scale metal foundries literally breathe easy. The Cupola brought down the amount of fine soot and dust in the surrounding air from an average of 2600 micrograms per cubic meter to about 50, and which reduced air borne sulphur dioxide from 300 micrograms per cubic meter to about 40.
- With the aim to create a common platform for local communities of Supi in UttarakhandUttarakhandUttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...
, TERI launched 'KumaonKumaon DivisionFor Kumaoni/Kumauni People see Kumauni PeopleKumaon or Kumaun is one of the two regions and administrative divisions of Uttarakhand, a mountainous state of northern India, the other being Garhwal. It includes the districts of Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat, Nainital, Pithoragarh, and Udham Singh Nagar...
vani', a community radio service on March 11, 2010. Uttarakhand Governor Margaret AlvaMargaret AlvaMargaret Alva is the Governor of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Alva became Uttarakhand's first woman governor in July 2009...
inaugurated the community radio station, the first in the state. The 'KumaonKumaon DivisionFor Kumaoni/Kumauni People see Kumauni PeopleKumaon or Kumaun is one of the two regions and administrative divisions of Uttarakhand, a mountainous state of northern India, the other being Garhwal. It includes the districts of Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat, Nainital, Pithoragarh, and Udham Singh Nagar...
Vani' aims to air programmes on environment, agriculture, culture, weather and education in the local language and with the active participation of the communities. The radio station covers a radius of 10 km reaching out to almost 2000 locals around Mukhteshwar.
GRIHA
The national rating system for green buildings in India, GRIHA has been developed and operationalized by TERI. GRIHA is an acronym for Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment. It was conceived by TERI and developed jointly with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to the Indian Government. It is a green building design evaluation system and is suitable for all kinds of buildings in different climatic zones of the country.Twenty-eight projects have been registered so far including the following:
- Earth System and Environment Science Engineering Building, IIT Kanpur
- Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi
- 2010 Commonwealth Games Village2010 Commonwealth Games VillageThe 2010 Commonwealth Games Village was the athletes' residence for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. The village is spread over an area of 63.5 hectares .- Residential Zone :...
, Near Akshardham TempleAkshardham (Delhi)Akshardham is a Hindu temple complex in Delhi, India. Also referred to as Delhi Akshardham or Swaminarayan Akshardham, the complex displays millennia of traditional Indian and Hindu culture, spirituality, and architecture...
, New Delhi - Hindustan Lever LimitedHindustan Lever LimitedHindustan Unilever Limited is India's largest fast moving consumer goods company owned by the European company Unilever. The Anglo-Dutch company Unilever owns a 52% majority stake....
, Andheri(E), MumbaiMumbaiMumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
Delhi Sustainable Development Summit
The Institute is closely related to the annual Delhi Sustainable Development SummitDelhi Sustainable Development Summit
Delhi Sustainable Development Summit is an annual summit organised by The Energy and Resources InstituteDelhi Sustainable Development Summit is an annual summit organised by The Energy and Resources InstituteDelhi Sustainable Development Summit is an annual summit organised by The Energy and...
(DSDS) and the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...
(MDGs). The DSDS attracts worldwide thinkers and practitioners, coming from governments, business and industries, multilateral and bilateral organizations, research and academia and civil societies. Following this success, TERI has established the World Sustainable Development Forum (WSDF), which aims to emulate the DSDS, applying its talks and research worldwide, to monitor worldwide industrial development associated environment and sustainability analysis, and to provide interesting solutions to local industries and governments, to meet the MDGs.
TERI University
TERI UniversityTERI University
TERI University was established on 19 August 1998 and recognized by the University Grants Commission as a deemed to be University in 1999. Set-up as the TERI School of Advanced Studies in 1998, the institution was subsequently renamed the TERI University...
was established on August 19, 1998, and was recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as a deemed-to-be University in 1999. Set-up as the TERI School of Advanced Studies in 1998, the institution was subsequently renamed TERI University. TERI University
TERI University
TERI University was established on 19 August 1998 and recognized by the University Grants Commission as a deemed to be University in 1999. Set-up as the TERI School of Advanced Studies in 1998, the institution was subsequently renamed the TERI University...
is the first of its kind in India to dedicate itself to the study of environment, energy and natural sciences for sustainable development.
See also
- Rajendra K. PachauriRajendra K. PachauriRajendra Kumar Pachauri has served as the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 2002, during which his tenure has engendered controversy. He is also been director general of TERI, a research and policy organization in India, and chancellor of TERI University...
- Delhi Sustainable Development SummitDelhi Sustainable Development SummitDelhi Sustainable Development Summit is an annual summit organised by The Energy and Resources InstituteDelhi Sustainable Development Summit is an annual summit organised by The Energy and Resources InstituteDelhi Sustainable Development Summit is an annual summit organised by The Energy and...
- Centre for Research on Energy SecurityCentre for Research on Energy SecurityThe Centre for Research on Energy Security is an Indian research center focusing on Indian relations to energy and consequences on itself and the world, diplomatically, economically, etc. The center was created the 31 May 2005....
(CeRES) – (Indian) Centre for Research on Energy Security - TERI UniversityTERI UniversityTERI University was established on 19 August 1998 and recognized by the University Grants Commission as a deemed to be University in 1999. Set-up as the TERI School of Advanced Studies in 1998, the institution was subsequently renamed the TERI University...
- GRIHA
- Sustainable developmentSustainable developmentSustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
- Energy securityEnergy securityEnergy security is a term for an association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led...
- Energy lawEnergy lawEnergy laws govern the use and taxation of energy, both renewable and non-renewable. These laws are the primary authorities related to energy...