How Maharashtra's circular-economy plan aims to get the best out of waste

Key points

• The Maharashtra government is working on a policy to boost the state’s recycling industry and reduce the proliferation of waste.
• The policy, which will be tabled before the state cabinet soon, plans to create a circular economy, reduce pollution, and tackle the mounting challenges involved in handling the various types of waste, such as electronic, municipal, solid, and plastic.
• The government’s flagship industrial policy, approved in 2019, seeks to augment the manufacturing ecosystem of Maharashtra.
• This policy for a circular economy is part of the government’s larger push for sectoral policies, with those for industries and verticals such as MSMEs, electronics, aerospace and defence, apparel and garments, and media and electronics being in the pipeline.
• The Devendra Fadnavis government has already approved an artificial intelligence (AI) policy that targets investments of Rs 10,000 crore, creation of around 150,000 jobs in AI and AI-enabled domains by 2031, and...