Mumbai: A total of 850 types of industries will now be largely exempt from routine environmental clearances after the state govt on Friday issued a new classification list adding 628 industries to the ‘White Category’.According to a press note issued by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), the newly added industries are considered to have negligible environmental impact and will not be required to obtain consent to establish or operate under pollution control regulations. The activities include IT and software offices, data processing and back-office centres, garment stitching and tailoring units without dyeing, bakeries and confectionery units not using fuel-fired ovens, dry cleaning units using non-hazardous solvents, assembly of electronic and electrical goods, book binding and printing units without chemical processing, and light engineering or hand-tool assembly units.Sanjay Bhuskute, public relations officer MPCB, said the move was aimed at promoting ease of doing business. “Companies will now only have to submit a one-time, single-page application, after which they will receive an online response. There will be no continuous inspections and no need for regular reclassification. With this expansion, Maharashtra will be the state with the highest number of industries classified under the White Category,” he said.The classification of industries into different colours was introduced by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2016 as part of a nationwide system of classifying industries based on pollution potential. Under this framework, Red Category industries include highly polluting activities such as chemical manufacturing and large power plants, which require strict clearances and regular monitoring, orange covers moderately polluting industries, while Green Category includes relatively low-polluting units that still require basic environmental permissions. In Feb 2025, the Centre had identified only 54 industries under the White Category. The MPCB subsequently expanded the list to 222 industries, and with the latest notification issued on Friday, the number has now risen sharply to 850, significantly reducing regulatory oversight for a wide range of activities.Bhagwan Keshbhat, founder and CEO of environmental organisation Waatavaran, said the expansion appeared to be based on a considered assessment. “The list seems carefully curated, with industries correctly identified as having very low emissions. It should help simplify processes for small-scale industries,” he said.However, environmental groups flagged concerns over implementation and enforcement. Nivit Yadav, programme director of the industrial pollution control unit at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said regulatory capacity remained a major challenge. “We need to talk about how these guidelines will be implemented and enforced. Officers need to understand an industry properly before laying down guidelines, but pollution control boards across the country are severely short-staffed. They are barely able to understand these industries, let alone enforce norms, and this appears to be an easy way out,” he said.Yadav also cautioned that waste management needed closer scrutiny. “Many of the industries that will now have very limited oversight will need to manage their waste responsibly. For several industries this may be inconsequential, but for others — such as CFL bulb manufacturing, which has been included in the new list — the waste generated can be toxic,” he said.
