Pallavan Grama Bank, a regional rural bank sponsored by Indian Bank, opened its 96th branch as an eco- friendly green branch fully powered by solar energy on Friday. The branch at Ammapettai, under core banking operations with uninterrupted power supply, uses grid power as stand-by. The bank has mounted LED bulbs compatible to solar energy.

Pallavan Grama Bank operates in 15 districts of Tamil Nadu.

With many of its branches in far-flung rural areas hit by frequent power disruption affecting customer service the bank has tried on a pilot basis to run the green Branch at Ammapet. It has planned to subsequently extend the same to a few more branches where power scarcity is acute.

Mr R. Rethinasamy, Project Officer, DRDA, Erode, inaugurated the branch. He appreciated the efforts of the Bank in protecting environment and utilizing solar power for banking operations. He also appreciated the need for such initiative in remote areas for uninterrupted banking operations.

Mr G. Rangarajan, Chairman, Pallavan Grama Bank, explained the bank saves 200- 300 units of grid power per month in this branch. The bank plans to extend the ‘green' concept to 5 more remote branches in the next financial year. He also announced that the bank will encourage financing for 1,000 solar home light applications and solar water heaters for their customers at subsidised rate as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, with the support of Nabard and Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency.

‘Energy-efficient' certification for IDFC data centre

IDFC's data centre is the first in India to be certified as “energy efficient” by TÜV Rheinland, a German group that documents the safety and quality of business and technology systems to establish sustainability in social and industrial development. According to a press release from IDFC, this is the only data centre that has received this certification in India. Auditing and certification are performed on the basis of criteria developed by TÜV Rheinland.

The release quoting Mr Enrico Ruhle, Managing Director TÜV Rheinland, said ‘IDFC data centre has received the premium ‘Energy-efficient IT centre' certificate after fulfilling internationally acknowledged key performance indicators, such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and carbon footprint. We also assessed the energy management system's status and its embedding in the quality management system of the data centre'.

A large proportion of energy consumption in data centres is caused by the cooling of server systems. Using an architectural separation of hot and cold aisles, temporary partition and increasing the temperature based on TÜV recommendations, the IDFC data centres control the cool air to achieve an optimal temperature reduction. This helped significantly reduce consumption levels.

TAUS up and running in OMR

The Chennai-based TVH has launched a six-acre residential project, TAUS, at Navalur on the IT corridor. The project, about 25 km to the south of Chennai on the Old Mahabalipuram Road, positioned as a green residential facility is targeting gold rating under the Indian Green Building Council's Green Homes rating. Over 400 high end residential units of 1-, 2-,3- and 4-BHK ranging in size from 517 sq.ft to about 3,000 sq.ft are to come up. Units will be priced from Rs 16 lakh onward with the basic square foot cost pegged at Rs 2,950 a sq.ft.

This is TVH's sixth project, with the company having so far built over six million square feet of commercial and residential space. It now has seven projects under development and 11 more in the pipeline.

OUR CHENNAI BUREAU

Shree Naman launches mid-scale hotel

The Mumbai-based real estate company Shree Naman Group hasy announced the launch of its first hotel brand ‘Check Inn' in the mid scale segment. The group's subsidiary, Shree Naman Hospitality, has officially launched a 43 room hotel here under the new brand with plans to open similar properties in Mumbai and Bangalore in the next two years. “We are launching the ‘Check Inn' brand of mid scale hotel. We have plans to open more properties under the same brand across India and launch other brands also to expand the portfolio,” Check Inn Hotels Chief Executive Officer, Mr Hemal Modi, told reporters here.

He said the company will not own the new property but will operate it and has also signed up similar agreements with realtors in Mumbai and Bangalore to operate hotels under the same brand.“The properties in Mumbai (65 rooms) and Bangalore (70 rooms) are currently under construction,” he added.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

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