According to the implementing body, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), there was a lone licence for Godrej's Ezee liquid detergent. However, Procter & Gamble's Tide Water Detergents, which bought the marketing rights, has since surrendered the licence. An application of SPIC Fine Chemicals LTD, Karikal, for household detergent powders is pending. That is all.

What went wrong? Why did Ecomark fail to catch the fancy of the industry and the consumer? Of course, claims continue to be made by manufacturers and retail outlets flush with herbal cosmetics, natural medicines, organic foods and fertilisers, non-toxic soaps, eco-friendly detergents from MNCs, CFC-free refrigerators and washing machines, biodegradablepesticides and cleaning solutions. Their authenticity, however, is anybody's bet, coming as they do without the official Green seal. Is the Colour Green just not viable?

From its chequered history, it is clear that the Ecomark is caught in a familiar whirlwind of half-hearted policy measures, profit-minded corporates and ill-informed buyers. The MEF blames the industry for choking a socially relevant policy, although a green label would have been good for the image of any product and would have boosted its sales.``The Ecomark is all about good housekeeping and social accountability on the part of the manufacturers. There are any number of spurious products taking gullible buyers for a ride by claiming they are clean and green. In reality, nobody wants to actually own a eco-label,'' says an MEF official.

The industry's defence is that it is not willing to make the effort unless the market, the returns and the incentives are in place. After all, the scheme is voluntary and cannot be imposed onmanufacturers. Both government and industry are, however, unanimous in passing the buck on to the consumer.

Says CII's environmental advisor, K P Nyati, ``How many of us behave in an environmentally responsible manner? In a market-driven society, how many ask for the eco tag? If eco-branding has not taken off, then first blame the consumer who is not ready.'' You cannot thrust the environment responsibility pill through the industry's throat alone, he contends.

The Federation of Indian Chambers and Commerce and Industry (FICCI) secretary general, Dr Amit Mitra, affirms that the market is not yet mature enough to absorb the high costs of eco-labelled products. The industry, according to him, fears that if a product is priced even 1 per cent higher, its demand will slide proportionately.

Also, he says, the industry fears for brand inequity. ``Out of 10 products, if the company gets the green label for one item, then it means the other nine aren't eco-friendly and that's some adverse propaganda a companycan do without,'' Mitra points out.

The standards and licensing procedures set up by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for qualifying for the label, Nyati says, are high and too complicated. CPCB officials contest this claim. Says Dr S K Ghosh, director, CPCB, ``We are evolving criteria most democratically. The Technical Committee has representatives from the industry, individual manufacturers in that segment and consumer groups. The draft criteria for each product are notified 60 days in advance to get responses from the public and industry before they are finalised.''

Nyati also argues that the Board has not assessed the cost burden of upgradation that the industry would have to bear to meet these standards and the eventual cost price of the product. The cost of getting an Ecomark is anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh, depending on the company's turnover. ``If it cannot get commensurate prices, why would any industry float an Ecomark that nobody will buy?'' he asks.

Mitra agrees thattesting and certification should be made available even to companies with low volumes of production and this should be supported by awareness drives among the users. Government officials, however, say a total testing bill of Rs 5 lakh means nothing to a big industry. Besides, they aver, the licence fee is linked to turnover. For small industries, there is the promise of some sops.

Nyati says that nobody is buying the label because BIS does not enjoy the confidence of companies. ``We have had the ISI mark for decades, but how many of us look for it before buying any product? People have not started asking for an Ecomark, but BIS insists that companies first get an ISI before getting the Ecomark. Why link the two?'' he asks.

The CPCB is against the ISI being compromised. Says Ghosh, ``We felt that under the existing scheme, any product subscribing to the Ecomark should also obtain the BIS certification for safety, quality and performance standards. The objective of the Ecomark is not to divest from ISIspecifications at all.''

He, however, agrees that a streamlined procedure needs to be developed whereby manufacturers can expeditiously obtain BIS certification along with the Ecomark without incurring sizeable expenditure.

``In the absence of market pulls, there should be some kind orchestration by the government to develop a demand for such products,'' suggests Pradeep S Mehta, general secretary of the Jaipur-based Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS). The government, says he, can offer props by buying eco-labelled products such as paper, soap, detergents and toothpaste through bulk users like the Railways and the Services.

CUTS has been a prime mover in the Ecomark process and has conducted a market survey for the MEF along with ORG on the attitude of buyers and corporates towards the Ecomark. Mehta says that though the Indian market is big, the awareness of the goodness of an Ecomark is limited, thanks to ``sterile publicity'' by the DAVP. Mehta also attributes the delay to the fact that theministry rushed the scheme with too many standards at once for too many categories.

There might yet be a silver lining for the Ecomark initiative in the form of international trade demands. Says Dr A Damodaran of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Plantation Management, ``It makes good sense for the industry to go for the Ecomark because of trade ramifications.'' Organic tea and spices, he says, will be the surprise front-runners in the scheme. Tea has to reckon with pesticides, packaging and heavy metal residues, while spice exporters are plagued by microbial presence and constantly face the West's enforcement of sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS).

The Ecomark goes beyond product safety and is a healthy mix of quality, environmental safety and performance. Thus, the Ecomark will soon be an attractive reality for the spice industry, which is facing increasing pressure from Codex, which deals with SPS measures, says Damodaran. The Ecomark criteria for spices, however, are still to be workedout.

Nyati feels the Ecomark initiative is not yet a write-off. ``There is nothing unusual about the delay. Such schemes take time. Look at an environmentally conscious society like Germany, the first country to take up eco-labelling almost 20 years ago. It took them some years before the first product emerged,'' he points out. Till then, the matka is fated to lie unused in a corner.