Terry Macalister

Oil companies at the centre of the tar sands revolution in Canada are facing a backlash from members of the ethical investment community determined to bring a halt to these operations for environmental reasons.

A joint report from Co-operative Investments and the wildlife charity WWF released on Tuesday will be followed up in September by a meeting of the UK Social Investment Forum (UKSIF) to press for an end to this carbon-intensive activity.

Increased industrial use of diesel and preference for diesel vehicles has caused the demand for this fuel to accelerate. Subsidies are largely to blame. Three experts debate the fallouts.

I S S U E S

What are the socioeconomic consequences of the increasing consumption of diesel?
Is relative price of diesel or better technology driving the dieselisation of the economy?
How can rapid dieselisation be arrested?

SUBIR RAHA

Former Chairman, ONGC Group of Companies

Bloomberg / Dearborn (Michigan) July 25, 2008, 0:45 IST

The company will shift focus from money-losing trucks to fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ford Motor Co, the world's third-biggest automaker, posted a record quarterly loss of $8.7 billion and accelerated a conversion to fuel-efficient vehicles to wean itself from money-losing trucks.

Rajat Guha NEW DELHI

IN ORDER to fix stricter fuel economy standards, the government has mooted a calibrated duty structure for cars based on their fuel efficiency. The less fuel efficient a car is, more would be the excise duty

Energy bureau to give star ratings to cars as per fuel efficiency, five stars for over 25.6 km per litre

New Delhi, July 18: Your new set of wheels is going to get its stars.

In a first of its kind venture, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is embarking on a fuel efficiency labelling programme, in which cars will be assigned star-rating according to fuel efficiency.

A voluntary start will be made this year. A similar programme of star-ratings is currently on for marking energy saving efficiency in electrical goods like refrigerators.

I fully endorse the views in the editorial, "Tax luxury'. Hiking the excise duty on big cars, multiutility vehicles and sports cars was overdue. Several other initiatives are required to tide over the oil crisis. Petroleum companies can absorb the oil shock by tightening their belts. There is no justification for public sector units like the HPCL and the BPCL to squander away lakhs on advertisements.

A rapidly changing global automotive scenario means new opportunities and new challenges. Chandrika Shah explores the new strategies of the global biggies.

ON THE BRINK Bloomberg / New Delhi July 09, 2008, 0:12 IST Italy's biggest carmaker, will close four of its six auto plants in the country for three weeks between September and November because of slumping sales. The closures will affect factories in Mirafiori, Termini Imerese, Pomigliano and Melfi, a company official said today. The sites employ a total of 22,000 people, or about three-quarters of Fiat Auto's Italian workforce.

Bindu Shajan Perappadan NEW DELHI: Greenpeace on Tuesday launched a campaign demanding mandatory fuel efficiency for the car industry in India and organised a demonstration at Connaught Place here to send out a reminder that increasing carbon dioxide emissions were contributing to climate change. As part of the campaign, Greenpeace has launched a nationwide awareness and petitioning drive for consumers to pressurise the Bureau of Energy Efficiency to draft the fuel efficiency legislation.

PREMIUM BIKE: H. S. Goindi, Head, Marketing, TVS Motor Company, launching Apache RTR FI motorcycle in New Delhi on Monday. NEW DELHI: TVS Motor Company on Monday unveiled the advanced version of its bike