New Delhi: Diversified global major, General Electric Company (GE), has announced the signing of a MoU with Air India that will see GE delivering eco-friendly engines for aircraft currently on order by Air India. GE also announced the signing of a MoU for a green building project with Haryana Technology Park. GE said that the MoUs mark the launch of its ecomagination initiative in India.

The value of the Air India orders, GE said, is over $2.2 billion at list price.

The ecomagination initiative was launched in New Delhi by John Rice, GE vice chairman and president & CEO, GE Infrastructure as well as Lorraine Bolsinger, vice president, ecomagination in the presence of Kapil Sibal, minister for science and technology, Government of India.

A global major, GE is made up of a broad range of primary business units, in areas of technology, media and financial services, each with its own number of divisions.

According to GE, the first-of-its-kind partnership with Air-India will see GE delivering aircraft engines from its ecomagination portfolio including GE90-115B engines for the Boeing 777-300ERs and the GEnx engines for the Boeing 787-800 aircraft ordered by Air India.

Beyond aircraft engines, GE will partner Air India in other areas such as green building, in-flight content creation, co-branding etc.

GE also announced the signing of a MoU for a green building project with Haryana Technology Park. Under the MoU, GE India and Haryana Technology Park will collaborate in a number of initiatives to create a truly green building project of world standards specifically in the areas of utility services like power generation and distribution, lighting, water treatment, security, sensing equipment and other environmentally friendly solutions.

The Haryana Technology Park is Government of India approved integrated IT Park, supported by Paharpur Business Centre & Software Technology Incubator Park, New Delhi.

On the occasion, Kapil Sibal said, "Ecomagination is an initiative whose time has come, an initiative that will enable the business community to move away from the trodden path onto a new road of discovery and invention through the use of environment-friendly technologies. I commend GE for taking this initiative and hope others will follow."

"With nearly US$ 2 billion in revenues in India today and a target of US$ 8 billion by 2010, GE's commitment to India is deeper and stronger than ever before. Advanced energy, infrastructure and environmental technologies bridge our company and India to a horizon of immense potential growth," said Rice.

GE also said that it was targeting over $1 billion per year in revenues from ecomagination products in India by 2010. In a related announcement, GE also said that it would invest up to US$150 million in "eco-related" research & development funds at its technology centre in Bangalore over the next five years. In this regard Rice said that India was home to some of the company's finest research capabilities, as well as its most creative and dedicated employees.

On the occasion, GE showcased a number of ecomagination products including eco-friendly aviation and locomotive engines, cleaner coal technologies, efficient gas turbines, sustainable and renewable energy solutions for rural areas as swell as water treatment solutions and technologies to meet some of the most pressing needs in the automotive and industrial sectors.

The ecomagination products already introduced by GE in India include products from aviation, energy, plastics and water. Through the GE rural electrification program, GE Energy is providing Malavalli Power Plant Private Limited (MPPL) with 30 Jenbacher JMS320 engines, which will be used to generate combined heat and power to meet electrical, refrigeration and heating needs within rural communities.

The Jenbacher engines operate on a variety of alternative or specialty fuels including biogas, crop residue, municipal solid waste, landfill, coal mine methane and industrial waste gases.

GE has also developed a solar-powered fresh water purification system, which combines solar technology with salt and particulate-reducing water purification systems.

For the interiors of railway coaches, the Indian Railways have chosen GE's Lexan 953R, pre-coloured Blue, because of its re-cyclability, aesthetics, high strength and conformance to the flame retardant, low smoke emission standards.