A consent to operate runs out in March. Nobody notices, because the plant keeps running and no one comes to check. In August a customer’s audit team asks for the current consent copy, and there isn’t one. Now you’re operating without valid consent, the renewal will be processed as a late application, and the customer wants an explanation in writing by Friday.
EHS obligations don’t fail loudly. They lapse.
Transparian keeps them from lapsing, as your EHS consultant for the statutory side of the work: pollution control consents, hazardous waste authorisation, EPR filings, environmental and safety returns, fire NOC renewals, and the legal register that tells you what applies to your site in the first place.
Most manufacturers are dealing with three separate regulatory streams that nobody manages as one thing, the ehs statutory requirements for factories running production, not offices.
Consent to establish before you build, consent to operate before you produce, and renewal on a cycle that depends on your category and state. Underneath sit hazardous waste authorisation, water and air cess, effluent and emission monitoring, and the annual returns that go with each.
From the Factories Act and now the OSH Code: a safety committee at 250 workers, a dedicated safety officer at 500, on-site emergency plans, statutory testing of pressure vessels and lifting equipment, and mandated safety audits for factories running hazardous processes.
Plastic packaging, e-waste, batteries and tyres each carry EPR registration and periodic filing on the CPCB portal. EPR compliance has grown from a niche obligation into a substantial one, and it catches brand owners and importers who don't think of themselves as manufacturers at all.
They’re regulated by different authorities on different calendars, which is exactly why they fail independently of each other. Put together, this is what environment health and safety compliance services India manufacturers need actually has to cover.
The dates that get missed, in one place. Applicability depends on your category, process and state.
| Requirement | Authority | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Consent to establish | State Pollution Control Board | Before construction begins |
| Consent to operate | State Pollution Control Board | Before commencing production; renewal cycle varies by category |
| Hazardous waste authorisation | State Pollution Control Board | Validity per grant; renewal application well ahead of expiry |
| Annual return on hazardous waste | SPCB | By 30 June, for the year ending 31 March |
The two highlighted returns are the ones we most often find missing entirely. They aren’t demanded by anyone month to month, so a plant can go years without filing them, and it surfaces during a consent renewal when the board asks for the previous years’ submissions.
Before anything can be tracked, someone has to establish what actually applies to your site. That’s what an EHS legal register is: a documented list of every environmental, health and safety obligation that binds you, mapped to your specific process, category, location and headcount, with the responsible person named against each.
Institutional memory. The plant head knows about the consent, the safety officer knows about the testing schedule, someone in accounts knows the cess payments. It works until one of them leaves.
A document that shows you know what applies to you, with current status against each item — a different conversation from producing files one at a time on request during an inspection or a customer audit.
Every EHS statutory requirement that applies to your site, documented, with owners and due dates. Reviewed as your process, category or headcount changes.
Consent to establish and consent to operate — applications, renewals, amendments where your process or capacity changes — plus hazardous waste authorisation and fire NOC compliance.
Hazardous waste annual returns, Environmental Statement Form V, cess returns, monitoring submissions and EPR filings, all on a published calendar with acknowledgements retained.
A documented review of your consents, authorisations, returns, registers, testing certificates and consent conditions, returned as a prioritised gap register. This is a statutory compliance audit rather than a technical safety audit.
Show-cause notices, directions, consent conditions that haven't been met, and closure notices. We prepare the response, coordinate any technical input needed, and see it through to closure.
Legal compliance evaluation for your management system, which is the clause internal auditors most often raise findings against, plus documentation support ahead of certification or surveillance audits.
A note on scope, so there’s no confusion: we handle the statutory and documentary side of EHS. Technical work that needs engineering competence fire safety audits, electrical safety audits, hazard studies, HIRA; we coordinate with specialist firms rather than claiming ourselves. Most sites need both, and knowing which is which saves you time.
Plant-level obligations under the Factories Act sit with factory compliance services; contractor safety documentation runs through vendor compliance services.
Worth separating, because the terms get used interchangeably and they buy different outcomes. What we offer isn’t generic safety compliance audit services or ehs audit services in the broad sense, it’s the legal-compliance half specifically.
Assesses how well your systems and site practices perform against good practice and standards. It's broader, often technical, and it tells you where your risk actually sits.
Narrower and more literal. It establishes what the law requires of you, checks whether you've done it, and keeps you doing it. It's the one that determines whether your consent survives renewal and whether an inspection goes badly.
Most manufacturers need both. Our work is the second, done thoroughly, with the first coordinated where your operation calls for it.
Day 1
Map applicability, build the register
Day 2
Audit current status across consents, returns, testing
Day 3
Gap list with priorities, regularise anything lapsed
Day 4
Renewals initiated well before expiry, not at it
Day 5
Returns and monitoring tracked as rules change
We're an accounting and compliance firm, so approvals, returns and renewals sit on the same tracked calendar as your labour, factory and PF obligations, and the costs — cess, monitoring, waste disposal, EPR fees — reconcile to your books.
For most mid-size manufacturers the EHS problem isn't a lack of technical knowledge. It's that nobody owns the calendar.
❌ Consent renewals treated as an annual formality until the year one gets rejected.
❌ The whole thing tracked by one experienced person with no written register — which works perfectly until the day it doesn’t.
❌ EPR obligations nobody realised applied.
❌ Consent conditions accepted at grant — monitoring frequency, effluent parameters, waste quantities — and never checked against actual operations.
❌ Hazardous waste authorisation covering categories or quantities the plant has since outgrown.
❌ Safety thresholds crossed without the corresponding appointment.
Meeting the environmental, health and safety obligations that apply to your site: pollution control consents, waste authorisations, statutory returns, workplace safety requirements under the Factories Act and OSH Code, and producer responsibility obligations where they apply.
Consent to establish is obtained before construction and covers what you propose to build. Consent to operate is obtained before production starts and governs how you run. Both come from the state pollution control board, and the second carries conditions you have to keep meeting.
The hazardous waste annual return is due by 30 June and the Environmental Statement in Form V by 30 September, both for the year ending 31 March. Monitoring submissions follow whatever frequency your consent conditions specify.
You're operating without valid consent, which carries penalties and can lead to closure directions. It also complicates customer audits and any expansion approval. Renewal is usually still possible, and the gap needs documenting alongside the corrective action.
If you produce, import or brand-own plastic packaging, electronics, batteries or tyres, very likely yes. It catches a lot of companies that don't consider themselves manufacturers.
At 500 workers under the OSH Code, with a safety committee required at 250. State rules can vary, and hazardous processes bring additional requirements regardless of headcount.
We support the legal compliance side — the register, the compliance evaluation and the evidence your auditor asks for. Certification itself runs through an accredited body.
Those need specialist engineering firms, and we coordinate with them rather than doing them ourselves. The statutory documentation around them — NOCs, testing certificates, records — we handle.
Most sites we review have one approval expiring within 90 days that nobody has started on, and at least one annual return never filed. We’ll map what applies to your site, check current status against each item, and give you a calendar you can actually run.
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