Eco mark is given to a product which is

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Environment friendly. The Ecomark is India's official eco-labelling scheme, instituted by the Government of India in 1991 through the Ministry of Environment and Forests and operated as a certification mark by the Bureau of Indian Standards. A product earns it by meeting prescribed criteria for environmental performance across its life cycle — the raw materials it consumes, how it is manufactured, what it emits, how it is packaged and what happens when it is discarded — in addition to meeting the ordinary Indian Standard for quality and safety in its product category. The label is therefore an environmental claim and nothing else: it certifies that the product does less environmental harm than others of its kind, not that it is cheaper, purer or more nutritious. The logo makes the same point visually — an earthen pot, chosen because it is made from a renewable material, takes little energy to produce, carries no toxic residue and returns harmlessly to the soil when broken.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The Ecomark makes no statement about cost, profitability or value for money. Eco-labelled goods are frequently dearer than their conventional equivalents, because meeting life-cycle environmental criteria adds to production cost; the scheme's premise is that consumers can be persuaded to pay that difference for an environmental benefit. Economic viability is not assessed at any stage of the certification.  (b) Nutritional content is regulated in India by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India through labelling rules, and no certification mark of any kind is awarded for carbohydrate content. The Ecomark also covers far more than food — soaps and detergents, paper, paints, plastics, textiles, cosmetics, batteries, wood substitutes and packaging materials — so a nutrient claim could not be its basis.  (c) Purity and freedom from adulteration belong to other marks. Agmark, issued by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection under the Union Ministry of Agriculture, grades agricultural commodities such as spices, honey, ghee and pulses for quality; the BIS Standard Mark (the ISI mark) certifies conformity to an Indian Standard; food safety generally is enforced by the FSSAI. The Ecomark is the environmental label in that family, and is the only one of them that asks what a product does to the environment rather than what it contains.

Concept: India runs several distinct certification marks, and each answers a different question about a product. The BIS Standard Mark, popularly the ISI mark, answers 'does this conform to the relevant Indian Standard?' — and is compulsory for a notified list of goods such as automotive tyres and tubes, cement, LPG cylinders and packaged drinking water. Agmark answers 'what grade is this agricultural commodity?' and is administered by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection. Hallmarking answers 'what is the purity of this gold or silver article?'. The Ecomark, launched in 1991, answers 'is this the environmentally better choice within its category?' It is an eco-label of the kind found worldwide — Germany's Blue Angel, the Nordic Swan, the EU Ecolabel — and works on the same logic: a government-backed mark that lets an ordinary shopper act on environmental information they could never verify themselves, thereby creating a market incentive for cleaner production.

State PCS 2022 Q65 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q65 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer