Bharat Rakshak

The trend that surfaced when Tata Motors' tiny $2,200 car, the Nano, hit Indian roads in July, has resulted in a slew of new products for people with little money who aspire to a taste of a better life. Many products aren't just cheaper versions of well-established models available in the West but have taken design and manufacturing assumptions honed in the developed world and turned them on their heads.

For the farmer who wants to save for the future, one Indian entrepreneur has developed what is, in effect, a $200 portable bank branch. For the village housewife, a wood-burning stove has been reinvented to make more heat and less smoke for $23. For the slum family struggling to get clean water, there is a $43 water-purification system. For the villager who wants to give his child a cold glass of milk, there is a tiny $70 refrigerator that can run on batteries. And for rural health clinics, whose patients can't spend more than $5 on a visit, there are heart monitors and baby warmers redesigned to cost 10% of what they do elsewher

But Mr Linklater is literally ploughing ahead, injecting his tractor's fossil fuel exhaust fumes directly into the ground, where they enhance the biochemical interaction between plants and soil microbes. And it seems his home-grown version of carbon sequestration, introduced in 2007, is getting results, with this year's crop, aided by better rainfall, his best since 2001.

"It might not seem that emissions from one tractor could do a lot, but per hectare it emits 1100 kilos of carbon," Mr Linklater says.

Adapting methods developed by Canadian farmer Gary Lewis, of BioAgtive Technologies, Mr Linklater spent $20,000 customising equipment that cools the tractor's fumes to 30 degrees then expels them into the soil as gas fertiliser when he sows his crop.

His trials, which are being replicated in Canada, Britain and South Africa, are gaining global attention and are now the focus of scientific research. ''When I heard about it, I listened and the science of it seemed to make sense, but with fertiliser costs at about $1200 to $1500 a tonne, the economics of it got me into gear,'' Mr Linklater says.

At today's prices it would have cost him $500,000 in phosphorous and nitrogen fertilisers to prepare 3900 hectares for planting. But in the two years since he and his sons began trialling the new technique, no fertiliser has been applied. The saving is enough to wipe a healthy chunk off the debt that he, like many drought-stricken farmers, has racked up through years of meagre rain and below-break-even wheat prices.

beagleboard( 500MHz, 256MB cpu on 3 by 3 inches board, fanless computer) and it runs linux.. looking for a micro projector.. they are all too costly..

It's almost a computer ( mother board + processor + ram + video card).. you can connect a TV and mouse and you have a working computer (with decent GUI). consumes < 2W power while running linux and hence doesn't require a fan. , has an onboard DSP too. its also more powerful than the current smartphones.
has a usb hub through which you can connect any peripherals. all this in a 3 inches by 3 inches board! check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuVwh_VrIxk&feature=fvw

Low cost homes for Laborers in China

http://us.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2 ... using.cctv

Tata Chemicals on Monday unveiled `Tata Swach’, a unique and innovative water purifier. The product requires no energy or running water to operate. The replaceable filter-based product, which is portable and based on low-cost natural ingredients, delivers safe drinking water at a new market benchmark of Rs 30 a month for a family of five.

The Tatas have invested Rs. 100 crore in the project in the last few years and from a production of one million units, the aim is to reach three million units annually in five years, said company Managing Director R. Mukundan. The replaceable bulb is priced at Rs. 299 while two variants of Tata Swach are at Rs. 749 and Rs. 999.

The product will be launched in Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal by the end of the year and the plan is to go national over 5-6 months.

Speaking at the launch, Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata said, ``the social cost of water contamination is already enormous and increases every year. Although the announcement is about giving millions more people affordable access to safe water, it is an important step in the long-term strategy to find a solution to provide affordable access to safe water for all. We have taken a hitherto unorthodox form of filtration and applied modern technology to it and have come out with a product that can provide safe drinking water at affordable price.” ‘Tata Swach’ is a result of years of collaboration between several Tata companies, including TCS, Tata Chemicals and Titan Industries. The product is based on an innovative concept developed by the TCS Innovation Labs – TRDDC and combines low-cost ingredients such as rice husk ash (RHA) with superior nano-technology.

Titan Industries has been involved in the precision engineering for the manufacturing process which was set up at a low cost. “The bulb can purify up to 3,000 litres of water after which the cartridge stops water flow. The efficiency of the product has been tested to meet internationally accepted water purification standards. We have filed 14 patents for the technology and the product,” said Tata Chemicals Chief Scientific Officer Murali Sastry. “The product does not require electricity or running water and has a tamper proof sealed body.” The container has a life-span of 5-6 years.

Water-borne disease is the single greatest threat to global health with diarrhoea, jaundice, typhoid, cholera, polio and gastroenteritis spread by contaminated water. The product will be able to tackle six such bacterial diseases. Mr. Mukundan recognised that certain parts of the country have the problem of water contamination through arsenic and fluoride. ``We are working on different versions to tackle these which will be subsequently launched.”

Because of the way ordinary solar cells work, they can, in theory, convert at most about 35 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity, wasting the rest as heat. Making use of hot electrons could result in efficiencies as high as 67 percent, says Matthew Beard, a senior scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO

Glowing walls could kill off the light bulb
Ben Webster, Environment Editor


Organic LEDs could kill off the light bulb, first created by Thomas Edison

Light-emitting wallpaper may begin to replace light bulbs from 2012, according to a government body that supports low-carbon technology.

it's dual-powered: not only does it pack a rechargeable Li-ion battery, but should that run out you can get an additional hour's worth of talk time from any standard AAA battery. Indeed, this is a pretty sweet deal if you're living / traveling in an area without consistent power. Throw in a decent price point ($37) and we're guessing this would do pretty well in Madhya Pradesh. Get a closer look for yourself after the break.

OT deleted


Last edited by archan on 04 May 2010, 00:29, edited 1 time in total.
why post that in this thread?