Bangalore, June 6, 2005: On the occasion of the World Environment Day, Mico (a flagship company of the EURO 40 billion Bosch Group, manufacturer of Automotive and Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods and Building Technology) reiterated its commitment towards environment and developing environmental-friendly technologies. Mico has spent nearly
47.22 Mio INR on its environmental initiatives last year.

Environmental awareness has a long tradition at Bosch. Thirty years ago, the Bosch Group published their first binding environmental protection regulation while formally adopting a policy that all future developments in automotive technology would help make automobiles
safer, more eco-friendly, and more economical. This policy originated from the 3-S program, “Sicher, Sauber & Sparsam” (which stands for Safer, Cleaner and Economical), an initiative that the innovations in diesel technology have ably demonstrated today. Bosch filed 2800 patent applications as of the year ending 2004. An essential lot of them have a bearing on the environment with regard to emissions or more directly fuel consumption in its broadest sense and ensure driving pleasure for the end-user.

Talking on this occasion of the World Environment Day Dr. Albert Hieronimus, Managing Director at Mico said “To build a sustainable future and respect for our planet, is the guiding principle of all our activities at Mico. We are poised to leverage emerging opportunities in the Indian automobile market by introducing low emission products that are clean, safe and economical.” The company places its innovations in the interests of the safety of people, the economical use of resources, and environmental sustainability. Mico’s focus on environment, safety and continuous improvement is evident from the related attention given right in the initial stages of product development. Stringent Mico internal norms and guidelines describe basic requirements for product development, processes and design for machinery and equipment related to occupational health and safety, fire and environmental protection. The production process follows an integrated approach to minimize the pollution load getting into the environment.

To mark this special occasion of the World Environment Day, the company has implemented planting of saplings, ‘Clean -up the neighborhood’ campaigns and creating environmental awareness at its plants spread across the country. The company has been successful in minimizing impact of its operations on the environment by eliminating hazardous substances, conserving water, energy, raw materials, reducing waste generation, recycling major part of waste generated and setting internal limits for effluents and emissions which are much stringent than regulatory requirements. As a result, soil and ground water contamination have been completely eliminated.
About World Environment Day:

“World Environment Day” (WED) is the United Nations flagship environment event, celebrated every year on 5th June in more than 100 countries around the world. The purpose of WED is to focus worldwide attention onto the importance of the environment and stimulate political attention and action.

The theme for this year’s observance of WED, “Green Cities; Plan for the Planet!, ”highlights the challenges raised by one of the major trends of our times; the rapidly increasing proportion of people who are living in urban environments.

Factsheet on Mico’s Pioneering Environment Protection Initiatives
Some of the Industry firsts in Environmental Protection activities

• Automated Effluent Treatment Plant:

State-of-the-art automated effluent treatment plants for treating process waste water at Bangalore, Nashik and Jaipur plants, with a total investment of 86 Mio INR. The treatment plant at Bangalore was commissioned way back in 1991 with a cost of 55 Mio INR, setting a
trend for other industries to follow.
Salient features include fully automatic, optimized state-of-the-art water treatment, continuous flow and batch treatment, transportation of effluent through overhead pipelines.

• Ultra filtration plant:

Ultra filtration plants are established in all the Mico plants for separation of oil from emulsion. The process is physical separation using ceramic membranes. Hazardous solid waste are not generated as chemicals and not used in the separation process. The total investment on these installations is about 29 Mio INR.

• Incinerator:

Incinerable solid wastes are disposed through advanced incinerators at Bangalore and Nashik plants. These installations were commissioned at a total cost of 27 Mio INR. Salient features of the incinerators are automated waste handling and loading, optimum process control by oxygen detector and two stage air cleaning system with cyclones, venturi and packed bed scrubbers.

• Hazardous waste disposal:

Hazardous solid wastes generated are stored in concrete bunkers lined with HDPE in Bangalore, Naganathapura and Jaipur plants. Design of the bunker is as per Bosch requirements. It prevents seepage into the soil thus protecting soil and groundwater from contamination. Investment on construction of these bunkers is about 3 Mio INR.

• Water Conservation:
  1. Reverse osmosis and ion exchange plants for treatment and reuse of process wastewater, thus reducing the fresh water consumption.
  2. Complete reuse of treated domestic waste water after treatment in all the plants. About 650 m3/day of treated domestic waste water is reused. Total investment on sewage treatment plants is about 13 Mio INR.

About Bosch Group:
The Bosch Group, a German company, is globally strong in the business sectors - Automotive Technology, Industrial Technology, as well as Consumer Goods and Building Technology. In 2004, worldwide sales were EUR 40 billion. The Bosch Group operates 258
subsidiaries, of which 215 are located outside Germany, and has a total of 2,42,400 employees worldwide.

About MICO:
Motor Industries Company Limited (MICO) is a Bosch Group company present in India for the last 54 years and has catered to the Indian auto market with technology support from Bosch. It is the largest Indo-German company and a household name in the country today.

Mico has developed excellent R&D and manufacturing capabilities. Its strong customer base and the market leadership are a testimony to its technology and quality of products. Mico currently has 4 plants in India including 2 in Bangalore and 1 each in Jaipur and Nashik. All the 4 plants are TS 16949 and ISO 14001 certified. The service network of Mico spans 1,000 towns and cities across India. Over 10,000 employees are currently employed with Mico across its R&D, manufacturing and sales and service network.