Green and Eco-Friendly Measures Award under State Awards to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Puducherry

What is the Green and Eco-Friendly Measures award?

Green and Eco-Friendly Measures is one of the State Awards to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises conferred by the Industries and Commerce Department, Union Territory of Puducherry. The award sits within the umbrella scheme "Motivation of Entrepreneurs to Start Industries and Fiscal Assistance to Industries", and the State Award schemes as a group were formulated under the New Industrial Policy 2016, introduced on 4 October 2016, to recognise the best outstanding entrepreneurs and enterprises in the Union Territory.

The award is conferred upon industries that are green and eco-friendly as per the standards of the Department of Science, Technology and Environment (DSTE), Puducherry, and the awardee receives a cash award of Rs 2,00,000 and a citation.

The design of the award is worth noticing. Puducherry could have judged environmental performance through its own industrial officers, but it chose to anchor the test in the standards of a separate technical department. That makes the award harder to win on presentation alone: the benchmark is DSTE's, not the Industries Department's.

Who is eligible for the award?

Your enterprise can be considered if:

• The industry is green and eco-friendly as per the DSTE standards. This is the substantive test the committee applies.
• The unit gives at least 60 per cent of its employment to people of the Union Territory of Puducherry out of its total employment strength. This local-employment condition applies across the whole Puducherry industrial package, awards included.
• The unit is a micro, small or medium enterprise located in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
• Applications are open, the Director of Industries invites them by wide publicity rather than accepting them throughout the year.

You are not eligible, and cannot apply, if:

• Your unit does not meet the DSTE green and eco-friendly standards, or cannot evidence compliance. Intention and future plans do not substitute for a record.
• Your unit's local employment is below 60 per cent of total strength.
• Your industry is located outside the Union Territory of Puducherry, even if the promoter is resident there.
• You are an individual, an NGO or an environmental group rather than an industrial enterprise. The award is conferred on industries.
• Applications have not been invited in the current period. There is no rolling application route for the award.

What the award gives

Unlike the subsidy components of the Puducherry package, the award is not tied to a specific investment or bill. It is a competitive recognition, so meeting the eligibility conditions makes an enterprise a candidate rather than a recipient.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Green and Eco-Friendly Measures award

1. Wait for the call and note its terms. The Director of Industries invites applications for the award by wide publicity; check the Directorate's notices, the department's website and local press announcements.
2. Assemble your environmental record first. Consents to establish and operate, effluent and emission monitoring results, water recycling and waste management records, renewable energy installed, and any energy or water audit findings. The DSTE benchmark is the test, and this file is what answers it.
3. Download or collect the prescribed form published on the website of the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Puducherry, and fill in every mandatory field.
4. Attach self-attested copies of all supporting documents, including the employment statement showing at least 60 per cent local employment and the unit's Udyam registration or Entrepreneurs Memorandum Part-II.
5. Submit the duly filled and signed application with the documents, either in person or by post, to the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009.
6. Retain a complete copy and the acknowledgement, since the committee may seek clarification on the measures claimed.

What happens after you apply?

The department publishes the selection sequence:

1. The Directorate of Industries and Commerce scrutinises the applications on a merit basis for the grant of state awards and places them before the award committee.
2. The award committee goes into the merits of each case for granting the award.
3. The list of selected enterprises is notified, and the Director of Industries informs them to receive the awards.

Key dates

No standing annual last date is published for the State Awards. The award opens in rounds announced by the Director of Industries, so an enterprise that wants to be considered should keep its environmental documentation current rather than assemble it after a call appears. Consents and monitoring reports take time to obtain and cannot be produced retrospectively.

Why applications fail

• No documented compliance with DSTE standards, a general statement that the unit is environment-friendly, with nothing behind it.
• Lapsed or missing consents from the Pollution Control Committee.
• Local employment below 60 per cent, or an employment statement that does not break out the local share.
• Green measures claimed but not measured, for example, water recycling described without any record of volumes recycled.
• Application filed outside the call window.

Related support for going green in Puducherry

An enterprise investing in environmental performance can draw on the fiscal side of the same package rather than relying on the award alone. Puducherry grants a subsidy on pollution control equipment at 25 per cent of cost up to Rs 5 lakh, reimburses 50 per cent of the fee for an energy or water audit up to Rs 25,000 where the unit achieves a saving of at least 10 per cent of its previous 12 months' average monthly consumption, provides technology acquisition assistance at 50 per cent up to Rs 10 lakh, and supports quality certification at 50 per cent up to Rs 2 lakh for up to three certifications. Those are claim-based and can be filed against your own unit's milestones, independent of any award round.

The companion award in the same series is Outstanding Entrepreneur, which carries the same Rs 2,00,000 cash award and citation and requires three years of profitable functioning.

Help and contact

• Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009 — +91-413-2248476, 2248168, 2248320
• Secretary to Government (Industries and Commerce): +91-413-2336115
• Grievance redressal, industry.py.gov.in/grievance-redressal-mechanism

Applying for a state award is free, and selection rests with the award committee on the merits of the application.

How to check your application status

The Green and Eco-Friendly Measures award has no online portal or dashboard where an applicant can log in and track a case number. The application is filed offline, in person or by post, to the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, and status has to be followed up the same way.

What to do after you submit:

1. Keep your acknowledgement. When you hand in the application at the Directorate's office at Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009, ask for a dated receipt or an acknowledgement stamp on your office copy. If you send the application by post, keep the postal receipt and, if you used registered post or speed post, the tracking number. This is the only proof you have that the application reached the department, and you will need to quote it whenever you follow up.

2. Call the Directorate of Industries and Commerce for a status update. The Directorate can be reached at +91-413-2248476, 2248168 or 2248320. Quote the date of submission and, if you have one, the acknowledgement or diary number the office assigned. Since the award moves through internal scrutiny and then an award committee rather than a fixed processing timeline, phone follow-up is the normal way applicants learn whether their file has moved from initial scrutiny to committee consideration.

3. Escalate to the Secretary to Government (Industries and Commerce) if the Directorate cannot give you an update. That office can be reached at +91-413-2336115 and sits above the Directorate in cases where a file appears stuck or a query has gone unanswered for an unreasonable period.

4. Use the grievance redressal mechanism for unresolved delays. The department runs a grievance channel at industry.py.gov.in/grievance-redressal-mechanism. This is the appropriate route if repeated calls to the Directorate do not produce a clear answer on where your application stands.

5. Watch for the public notification of selected enterprises rather than an individual rejection letter. Because this is a competitive, merit-based award rather than an entitlement, the department's practice is to notify the list of selected enterprises once the award committee has decided, and to inform selected units directly so they can receive the award. An applicant who is not on that list should treat the absence of contact as the outcome, but should still follow up with the Directorate directly to confirm rather than assume, since notification timing and channel are not fixed by any published rule.

There is no SMS-based or email-based tracking system published for this award, so a phone call or an in-person visit to the Directorate remains the most reliable way to check where an application stands between submission and the committee's decision.