A competent technical panel is vital for the Green Rating Project. Keeping this in mind, cse selected three leading technologists in the pulp and paper sector to form the Technical Consultants Panel ( tcp ) to help in the rating the industry. The tcp members are:

N J Rao , professor, Institute of Paper Technology, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh;

P K Bhattacharya , professor, chemical engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur;

T N Chaturvedi , consultant, pulp and paper sector and expert on agrowaste-based small-scale paper industry.

The tcp became a stakeholder in the entire exercise of rating the pulp and paper sector. Besides, by getting involved in grp, they gave the project enormous technical credibility. The basic role of the tcp was to:

l Guide the grp team in preparing questionnaires;

l Review the information supplied by companies and the company profiles prepared by cse and identify the possible lacunae and technical drawbacks;

l Review the work done by cse on overall rating format, criteria and weightages; and

l Guide cse in finalising the ratings.

Despite the fact that the tcp members were consultants to paper companies, they did not fear any reprisals from the companies and went through the data with a fine-tooth comb. They were excited by the project and kept telling the grp team that it will really give the industry a new perspective (see p58: There is no transparency in the Indian paper industry).