Friday, June 16 2006 13:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Indian enterprises have won two of the five Ashden Awards for sustainable energy for 2006, popularly known as the 'Green Oscars' and a cash prize of 30,000 pounds each.

The organisations which have won the award include Appropriate Technology Institute (AARTI), Pune, for the design of a revolutionary biogas system that generates gas for cooking from food waste and other sugary and starchy material.

The other is International Development Enterprises of India (IDEI) which has been behind the manufacture and distribution of 510,000 treadle pumps - a simple device that uses human power to pump water from wells, streams and lakes up onto the fields allowing farmers to grow crops all year round.

Besides, Vivekananda Kendra and Nardep, bagged the second prize of 10,000 pounds for making a series of advances to biogas designs which generate gas for cooking and developed effective ways of using slurry as a powerful fertilizer using a combination of new and traditional techniques.

Lord May of Oxford, a former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and former Head of the UK Office of Science and Technology presented the awards to Anand Karve of AARTI and Amitabha Sadangi, Executive Director of IDEI at a largely attended function at the Royal Geographical Society here last night.

Prominent among those present on the occasion was David Cameron, MP, Chief of the Conservative Party.