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Renewable energy has never been so relevant in this age of rising energy costs and increasing environmental damage. More so in a country like India with 80000 villages still unconnected to the power grid and with millions of people still depending on kerosene lamps for lighting and firewood for cooking. While successive governments at the centre have been crying hoarse and praising themselves over the number of villages that have been electrified during their tenure, solar energy has been slowly relegated to the background. While electricity does not generate harmful emissions in its final form as power, the means to produce it,majorly by coal devouring thermal powerplants does generate a lot of pollution. So, why not Solar energy in a country with 300 days of bright sunshine. Though the ministry of new and renewable energy has tried to make the solar cooker available to villages, the slow cooking time and the lack of awareness among villagers has resulted in the solar cooker not being widely accepted, though it comes with a hefty subsidy in excess of 50%.
Since then, Solar energy in Rural India has not been given the required push. Considering the huge amount of capital the government can save by adopting solar energy in rural India, it is time for the government to take another shot at popularising and subsidising solar energy.
Enter the Lifepod? Well almost.what does a structure which has 15 preassembled steel pieces with each weighing less than 75 pounds and an array of solar panels which serve as the roof of the structure got to do with India.
This solar structure manufactured by the american environment technology company envision technology has the relevance to change the Indian ruralscape with it’s not so innovative although versatile but pricey solar structure which can be used for a plethora of purposes ranging from a car shed to a store room. Lifepod’s high estimated price of $20000 for a 120 sq ft structure is, in my opinion the only and biggest deterrant in the context of the Indian ruralscape. Now, what exactly is the lifepod.Old wine in a new bottle.The lifepod is a light,chic steel,hollywood celebrities endorsing structure with solar panels for roofing with a 1.7kwh rating which has a capacity of generating 7kwh per day and this power can be stored in a battery for use as and when required. Thus solar energy can be used to generate electricity, albeit a clean one at that.
But India, still a land with millions below the poverty line with many among the rural poor having access to less than $1 a day surely cannot afford the lifepod with it’s massive,atleast for the rural poor, $20000 estimated price tag. The people of the villages will be more content to make do with their kerosene lamps and firewood Chulla’s than this flashy,costly lifepod. Now, does this make the lifepod completely irrelevant for India’s ruralfolk?...Well almost...But not if this concept, though not entirely new but which will in all probablity get popular with hollywood stars endorsing it at the oscars 2008, filters through to India. To India’s hinterland,where there is a huge opportunity for the Indian government to revitalise solar power in the process saving huge energy capital outlays and for the now rising India inc’s innovative business tycoon’s who can electrify India’s hinterland with clean renewable solar power at the same time make some money. But,the existing design will have to undergo a sea change, a la tata nano, retaining the concept while tailoring this idea to suit the dusty rugged Indian villages.
More than a new steel structure with solar panelled roofing,the rural folks of India, most of them who already have a roof over heads need only the solar panels and the resulting power harnessed from them.
For this some company, tata bpsolar, for example can devise a way to mount these panels onto the houses of the village’s and link these panels to rugged batteries that can store this energy for use as electricity. This calls for ingenuity, innovation and an understanding of rural India and it’s people which places indian solar energy companies like tata-bpsolar at a distinct advantage as compared to their foreign counterparts. But a la tata nano, the cost of solar panels, which is still prohibitively high has to be sufficiently reduced to enable high acceptance. But as Ratan Tata and his engineers demonstrated with the tata nano, India inc can do a tata nano with solar energy as well.The Indian government too can do it’s bit,it is doing some stuff already in this regard-cheers to it,but it has to popularise solar energy on a war footing this time and make sure India is fully electrified,electrified the solar way.The opportunities are endless.Going Green is the best way of going anywhere.Photo courtesy:autobloggreen,climateactionprograme,renewing india
YEAH you heard it right.Though it sounds a little harsh,thats the way volvo buses,especially the older ones -the Volvo B7R’s are on bangalore’s traffic jam infested roads.Being a biker,i have had the hellish nauseating experience of riding behind these buses on my everyday 20km commute to engineering school only to have thick black smoke being emanated from the tail pipes of these so called “VERY ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY and EFFICIENT”
buses,straight into my helmet.
This black carcinogenic diesel smoke is more apparent and very distinctly noticeable,especially when the Volvo’s accelerate in the lower gears,which is what they do all day in the city as they stop frequently at the various bus stops and also due to the fact of them being stuck in crawling bangalore traffic whose average speed is 20-30 KMPH.I do admit that their tail pipe emissions are much cleaner,atleast that’s what they appear to be at higher speeds when they get into the cruise mode .But this cruise mode is rarely encountered in a traffic prone city like bangalore which again brings us back to square one.VOLVO BUSES DO POLLUTE AND THEY DO IT WITH ALARMING LEVELS OF CARCINOGENIC BLACK DIESEL SMOKE ESPECIALLY AT LOW SPEEDS.
Now I do think this has to do with the KSRTC/BMTC’s lack of good maintainance as the buses get older and rake in the miles,and along with it profits for the bus corporation than volvo’s emission control technology.Although i have seen Volvo’s newer buses to have cleaner emissions at low speeds while accelerating,i have a strong feeling that this will soon lapse into the ways of the polluting older volvo’s as the new volvo buses age.What baffles me is the lack of public protest or awareness about this serious issue of pollution.I believe the BMTC/KSRTC’s maintainance department has to take most of the blame since Volvo need to adhere to the indian emission norms which are second only to Japan’s.*we have beaten everybody in the world hollow including the american’s except the japanese on that*a reason to cheer about*
But in India,since rules are just rules and because of lacksadasial enforcement the resultant grim situation.
So,since Volvo can release their buses into the Indian market after confirming to the tough BHARAT STAGE emission norms,it is upto the bus fleet operators like the BMTC-KSRTC not to mention various private bus operators to maintain their Volvos well and reduce carcinogenic emissions.Also the pollution department must get it’s act together and fine the erring buses very heavily to deter them from polluting our already polluted and fragile atmosphere.It would do our cities a lot of good if the volvo and the other buses have quarterly emission testing.
Apart from this,most of the volvo bus driver’s consider themselves to be a cut above the rest as they drive these powerful buses which produce about 260 bhp and 1200nm torque which puts the buses of the indian makers look humble with their power outputs of 120-160bhp.
This combined with the Superior Braking and handling abilities of the volvo’s,the drivers tend to drive very rash and a hurtling volvo behemoth at insane speeds in the city is a very very dangerous proposition as the chances of things going haywire are very real.More than just using speed governors,a proper restraint and adherence to road rules on the part of the volvo drivers is the underlying need as the volvo’s with their enormous weight carry a huge amount of inertia which can be fatal at speeds as less as 10KMPH.
I have experienced travel in volvo buses on many interstate routes and on intra city travel in bangalore and i indeed admire the volvo’s for the good comfort levels and insulation from the irregularities of Indian roads.But the Volvo’s which have set benchmarks in Passenger safety and comfort levels fare very poorly in the exterior engine noise which is a real pain for the fellow road users and the engine with the AC’s compressor running at full chat creates quite a ruckus and recently volvo buses have been in the dock in london’s suburbs for the high engine noise levels.Also the seatbelts are the least used fixtures in the volvo buses.Also,in a particular incident when i rode in a volvo from coimbatore to bangalore,i was sitting in the first seat diagonal to the driver and i had many a hairy experience as the driver merrily drove with gay abandon at breakneck speeds missing many other buses and lorries by inches leving me and the other passengers clutching the armrest’s with a few of us saying a prayer or two to reach bangalore in a single piece.Not that other buses are driven sedately but the higher power and speeds achieved by the volvo needs more restraint and safer driving.Though the volvo’s in the cities haven’t causes too many accidents yet,there have been many whispers about many accidents on the highways involving Volvo’s.And before these whispers turn into a full throated scream,the errant drivers need to be curbed before many more innocent lives are lost.
It is high time we look at volvo’s shortcomings than just singing paens about it’s comfort and safety and quicker journey times.Why volvo is the butt of this critical artical-Because it is the priciest bus brand in india currently and we as indian consumers deserve a better deal from a brand which other Indian brands seek to emulate.Also we Indians used to rattly tata’s and leyland’s,new to these kind of high end buses should not be carried away by big names and we should expect the best and the most stringent regulations..Tata,Ashok leyland,MAN,Mercedes Benz,etc are about to enter the indian high end bus market and problems like should not become a regular feature or in a lighter vein “original equipment” with the high end buses.Volvo has a reputation to protect and a precedent to set.Hopefully good ones.
So what if it a Volvo?
Cheers
CARBON EMISSIONS have been the talking point of most of the so called developed worlds’ leaders at innumerable environment conferences.
BIOFUEL-The so called MIRACLE SOLUTION that is expected to solve most of the carbon emission problems from the developed countries since they hope to use it to run their automobiles,which is a major emitter of carbon.Thus biofuels are being made out to be the miracle solution to our Earth’s environmental issues which might not be the case afterall.
But a hard look at the ground reality does present a not so rosy picture of the very BLING BIOFUELS.The primary concern is that of the poorest of the poor subsidising the grave environmental mistakes of the world’s rich.Ofcourse RICH is a relative term.
Consider the people of Ethiopia,one of Africa’s poorest country, grappling with various issues of which poverty and malnutrition are at the forefront.
The impoverished Ethiopian people cultivate CASSAVA,their chief food crop to fill their stomach’s.Their current Dictator Meles Zenawi
has conveniently exported the Ethiopian people’s food crop,millions of tonnes of cassava,to developed nations like the United kingdom to name one,enriching his coffers while leaving millions of very hungry ethiopian people starving and in worse cases causing hunger death’s.The United Kingdom for it’s part has imposed tougher legislation to prevent such imports.But what happens to the million’s of hungry ethiopian’s?. Nobody Knows.
Now the impact on the U.S economy.
Another case worth examining is the Plan of the United States to replace 15% of gasoline consumption with biofuels.Corn,being a major crop used to make ethanol,one of the constituents of biofuel is being sold to biofuel manufacturing companies instead of ending up as food for people or even as food for farm animals.This has led to food companies like tyson foods,Kraft foods,etc downsize their workforce leaving thousands unemployed.
The price of corn also has rapidly shot up leading to higher inflation since food comprises about 20% to the US inflation costs.Thus the already reeling U.S economy is being pushed closer to a possible recession.
Now a few startling facts exposed by Princeton university’s researchers led by Timothy Searchinger reveal that greenhouse gases will actually rise with ethanol demand.The study has predicted that the U.S farmers will use more land for ethanol production thus forcing poorer countries to cut down on rainforests to produce food crops for the U.S market thus increasing the Greenhouse emissions rather than reducing it which defeats the very purpose of biofuels.Although,a few have said that the study has used a flawed model and overestimated how much landis needed.
Critics apart, the time has come to seriously reconsider the Benefits of BioFuels vis-a-vis it’s serious drawbacks and a stricter legislation for cultivation and export of biofuel before any major damage is done to our already very fragile Earth.
All along,the word terrorist connoted burly bearded men somewhere in the afghan-pakistan border and closer home in the kashmir valley.Now the word has taken an all new meaning with youth from Indian metro’s and small cities being lured into terrorism,some lured by the money,others by misleading ideology and religion.Though cities like India’s capital Delhi and Economic capital Mumbai have borne the brunt of terror attacks,the relatively “SAFE” Bangalore,India’s IT capital has found itself dragged deeper and deeper into the vicious terror web.
Once known as the pensioners paradise with salubrious weather,lush greenery and a peaceful life,the 90’s brought the IT boom into the city which catapulted bangalore into INDIA’s IT Capital which brought along prosperity and development at a frenetic pace.Old timers began to complain about the growing traffic and pollution levels and Bangalore’s Infrastructure was crumbling,unable to keep pace with the rapid expansive development the city was undergoing.Amidst all this,on 28th december,2005,1900hrs,Bangalore’s calm was shattered by a terrorist attack on Indian institute of science,bangalore.The institute,one of India’s Premier Research institute was hosting an international conference on operations research whwn two gunmen entered the campus and started firing indiscriminately from a chinese made ak56 rifle.Prof Munish Chandra Puri of IIT,Delhi succumbed to bullet injuries enroute to hospital and many others were injured seriously.The gunmen fled before anybody could bat an eyelid.Incidentally the shooting took place less than 200m from the sadashivanagar police station which is located very close to the Sprawling IISc campus. 
Investigative agencies were quick to name Lashkar e taiba among other mujahideen groups among prime suspects.Bangalore went on high alert with IT companies,Government offices and the now mushrooming shopping malls adopting security measures and tightening the security.Bangalore’s tryst with terror had just begun.9th july,glasgow.Two men in a blazing jeep cherokee laden with explosives drove into the glasgow airport and crashed into a doorway.Fortunately,the jeep didn’t explode.But the men were badly burnt,one man was critical and was batting for life and the other was arrested for questioning.
Bangalore was shocked yet again to learn that the two men involved in the glasgow bombing’s were Bangaloreans.Both the men,Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed,were highly qualified post graduates from educated upper middle class backgrounds from respectable families.Yet,they chose to give up their promising careers for the Barbaric world of internatonal terrorism.What would have motivated these young qualified people to take life of Innocent people.Not money ofcourse.It is here where the international terror web comes in to misinterpret Islam.To sow seeds of violence and hatred among young people and to brainwash them into joining the terror ring “to protect” ISLAM not to mention “avenge the west”.Hard disks recovered from kafeel ahmed’s computer pointed out to a long correspondence with the terror groups and a carefully co ordinated attack over a fairly long period of time.Bangalore was stunned.India too.
And now the Triple whammy.Enter terror camps in Karnataka.The South of India which though was more than a little perturbed at the previous incidents in Karnataka was never prepared for something of this magnitude.
FEb 2nd,2008.The karnataka anti terrorist wing unearthed a terror camp deep into the jungle off the university town,Dharwad,North karnataka.This chilling evidence came to light during the interrogation of three Islamist radicals arrested recently - Riyazuddin Nasir alias Mohammed Ghouse, Asadullah Abu Bakar and Mohammed Asif,the SIMI activists arrested earlier.Just two days later another terrorist camp in the same jungle was arrested.Terror camps right here at home.Days later,on feb 22nd,2008,Mohammed yahya Kammakutty,
a computer engineer and a SIMI activist from the prestigious regional engineering college of calicut,kerala and a former employee of GE software was arrested from his house in gurrappanapalya,a bangalore suburb bear the IT belt.The terror web is getting deeper and deeper.
But what is worrying most,is the growing trend of young qualified professionals joining the terror network.This trend hasn’t been new to other islamist countries,but is indeed new unknown territory for India and the Indian investigative agencies.More than money,the misguiding,hatred inducing Ideologues of banned organizations like SIMI,JAMAAT E ULEMA,etc are inducting more young people into the terror web.This spells a huge problem,for,india is a country with the most number of youth in the world.The location of the terror camps off dharwad,a university town,also points out to students being regularly recruited.We,indians are a secular bunch of people encouraging and tolerating a diverse range of religions to co-exist with India’s primary religion,Hinduism.Now,this religious tolerance has been misused by terrorist element to start organisations like the now thankfully banned students islamic movement of india(SIMI).Terrorism,being funded by the rampant piracy industry,if unchecked has the potential to be an industry in itself since money is available in plenty to the terrorist orgaisations.A stronger government at the centre which comes down heavily on any kind of religious extremism is the need of the day.Also,The exponential growth of technology has forced the terror groups to hire highly skilled technology professionals to help grow their killing networks.Law enforcement agencies,though are doing their best to curb terrorism are more often than not,years behind the new generation terrorist who now operate with various new technologies and the world wide web which is very difficult to track and the new gen terrorist is not a rifle-toting bearded male somewhere in the kashmir valley but is a smart,sauve professional sitting somewhere in a BPO or a Technology company.Bangalore’s growing disparity between the have’s and havenot’s is prime hunting ground for new recruits or foot soldiers as they are commonly called,for the terrorist groups.Bangalore,being a cosmopolitan city,with horde’s coming in from all over India to make thier living riding on the economic boom is creating huge problems for the investigative agencies as it is getting tougher to monitor the newer younger population who are more mobile.Identification cards and screening of all new settlers in Bangalore might be a viable solution if handled sensitively and enforced stringently.Also,while Bangalore is growing each day,the smaller towns are not.Lesser opportunities and more unemployed or underemployed dissatisfied youth means more time for them to kill.This time can be harnessed by the sleeper cells of terror groups to use these youth to collect intelligence information and prepare plans for future terror strike’s.IT is moving to smaller cities like mysore,mangalore,etc.More cities of karnataka need to prosper to tackle terrorism.At the same time Bangalore’s premier status of being internationally recognised and respected as an IT capital puts it under tremendous risk as the terrorist’s want for a high visibility can be easily achieved by attacking Bangalore.The future ofcourse will depend upon improving various factors ranging from economic prosperity to better intelligence and investigating by the anti terrorist squad.
IT IS UPTO US TO SAY NO TO ANY KIND OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISMTHAT IS THE EASIEST WAY TO FIGHT TERRORISM
HINDU,MUSLIM,SIKH,ESAHI,SAB AAPAS KE BHAI BHAI.
Since then, Solar energy in Rural India has not been given the required push. Considering the huge amount of capital the government can save by adopting solar energy in rural India, it is time for the government to take another shot at popularising and subsidising solar energy.
