Technolgies useful for Indian problems

[Sanjay M]

A new updated 3-wheeler for modern times:

http://www.physorg.com/news65163995.html

much greater fuel efficiency with 108mpg (runs on LNG)

[Sanjay M]

New process for converting coal into gas is more efficient and less polluting:

http://www.techreview.com/read_article. ... ch=biztech

[ramana]

Any one seen the :

www.irrigationindex.com ?

[Sanjay M]

I thought this was a very clever design for a baby stroller:

article here

India is of course still primarily a two-wheeler economy. More people get around on bicycles than with automobiles. A mountable stroller like this could enable parents to carry their children safely on their bicycles, and yet still push them around once they've dismounted.

Perhaps they should also build a canopy onto it that could also act as a crash protector for the baby's skull.

[Vipul]

Indian designed TATA Super Computer.

This computer when developed will have Huge implications as India wont be dependent on other countries for Computers to do Complex Scientific Calculations or even do Lab Simulations of Nuclear/Hydrogen/Neutron explosions.

[Sanjay M]

Apparently, famous NRI and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Vinod Khosla has launched some company to reduce manufacturing costs for pre-fabricated housing down to $10/sq.ft, so as to fulfill housing needs in the underdeveloped world. (Consider that in the West, ultra-modern prefabricated homes can cost between $200-$300/sq.ft.)

Here's a brief summary I found in an article on CNN's Business2.0 site

Article Here

(Note: You have to click the 'Next' link, since it's the 2nd story in the showcase.)

Anyhow, I think that even though this may primarily and initially be targetted at the underdeveloped poor and also Katrina homeless, it could eventually move upscale, and be applied to the mainstream housing market and even to luxury homes.

IMHO, this approach could work for more than just shipping-container-homes, and could eventually be used to bring down the cost of much larger dwellings.

Comments?

[Sanjay M]

Gee, this looks like a simple but useful gadget:

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001229.php

http://www.forearmforklift.com/home.htm

The gadget is basically a set of straps utilized to bypass the human forearm, which is the weakest section of the body. They also allow good posture to be maintained. The muscles in the rest of your body are actually much stronger than those in your forearm and hand. Likewise, the joints of the wrist and the spine are the most vulnerable, so by avoiding having to bend those, and purely relying on the stronger joints and muscles in your body, your lifting capacity is increased.

[Sanjay M]

Some small company is claiming that their wind turbine concept gives most bang for the buck:

see link here

I dunno -- they're claiming 3 cents/kilowatthour, but it's just a bunch of unsubstantiated claims. But I do like the fact that their rig is an array. Seems to me that an array is naturally going to be cheaper than just having one or two small turbines independently mounted, like you see for typical wind microgeneration solutions.

And an array would tend to be more scaleable. If you need more power, then just add more turbines to the array. And if you look at how huge those giant 1-megawatt wind turbines from GE are, then I'd imagine that it'd be much easier to ship over and assemble an array of smaller turbines, than to transport and erect something as tall as a damn lighthouse.


Why don't Indians build stuff like this? This doesn't look too high-tech for rural villages. But then I guess Shahrukh Khan wouldn't be able to dramatically swim up the pipe to unclog it for the cheering onlookers.

[Raju]

This article gives an idea of investments and potential of large-scale Solar Power...

World's biggest solar farm planned for New Mexico
Thu Apr 27, 2006 8:14 AM IST
Printer Friendly


By Bernie Woodall

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two start-up companies and New Mexico plan a $1.6 billion solar power farm that would be 30 times the size of the world's biggest one now, with enough power for 240,000 homes.

They also plan a factory to make photovoltaic panels for the farm, near the Mexican border in New Mexico, developers said on Wednesday.

Once the panels are spread out over 3,200 acres near Deming, New Mexico, they will be able to generate about 300 megawatts of electricity while the sun shines, said lead developer Ed Balch of New Solar Ventures, a private company.

New Solar Ventures and another start-up company, Solar Torx, both based in Phoenix, will operate the joint venture.

Balch said New Solar Ventures is the technological arm and Solar Torx runs the financial -- fund-raising -- end.

"It depends on the greenbacks," Balch said when asked if the $1.6 billion project will get off the ground. The factory to build the panels will cost about $650 million and the farm of solar panels will cost about $950 million, Balch said. He would not disclose names of any investors.

The New Mexico State Land Office on Tuesday agreed to lease the first 640 acres in the first of several phases of leases. The total could climb to 3,200 acres, but one state official said that much expansion will be sticky as federal as well as state land is involved.

"If this is built, it would be the biggest solar farm in the United States by an order of 60," said Noah Kaye, spokesman for the Washingon-based Solar Energy Industries Association.

The biggest solar farm using photovoltaic panels like the ones to be used in the proposed farm near Deming, New Mexico is in Springerville, Arizona and can make 5 megawatts of electricity, Kaye said.

The biggest one in the world is in Bavaria in Germany, and can produce 10 megawatts.

A megawatt can power about 800 homes.

Balch and a half dozen others are all the staff that New Solar Ventures has now, but that will expand to between 300 and 400, most working in the factory that will make the photovoltaic panels. He said he has about 70 advising engineers helping on the project from around the United States.

It could take up to five years to have the full 300 megawatts on line and connected to the grid, Balch said. But the farm could connect to grid sooner. It will take about 18 months to build the factory and construction on the solar farm is to start in about two years Balch said.

The panels will be 10-feet by 5-feet and will stand on pedestals about six to eight feet tall, Balch said.



© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[Vriksh]

A novel water treatment technology developed by IITB called SBT (Soil Bio Technology) has much promise in improving the sanitatory condition of Indian Cities. The method has been successfully implemented for sewage water recovery.

The chief advantage of this technology seems to be the following

1. Adaptive ecology that can handle diverse input loads (from sewage to alcohol distillery spent wash)
2. Green and aesthetic environment of treatment plant
3. Ability to handle heavy metals (Arsenic can be safely removed)
4. Far lower (~1/10th) power consumption as compared to Activated Sludge processes as used world wide
5. Profitable (if treated water is sold commercially)
6. Scalable (Treatment plants can be of any size, allows safe treatment at source)


There are now many sewage water recovery projects using SBT in places such as Mumbai (Naval Colony Kanjurmarg, Presidency Golf Course Chembur, BMC Lovegrove Worli, ) , Agra (Mughal Sheraton Hotel), Hyderabad (UNiversity of Hyderabad Campus).

The BMC Worli plant of 3 Million Litres per Day has been setup and is now commercially providing water for construction purposes.

Here is a dated article in the Hindu about this technology.

SBT Waste Water Treament Technology by IITB

[bala]

Homoeopath invents environment-friendly car

A 52-year-old homoeopathic physician here has successfully tested a multi-purpose environment-friendly car `Surya' that is powered by a combination of solar energy, battery, petrol and LPG.

The vehicle has four forward gears and one reverse. The four-stroke engine is of 1.5 HP.

Plates of photovoltaic cells on the roof and bonnet aid `Surya' in harnessing solar energy and the car can travel at a maximum speed of 50 kmph. The cells have to be recharged after about 80 km but if the journey is on sunny days then the vehicle can go up to 100 km without a recharge.

An electric charger enables the user to even `tank up' `Surya' at home. The petrol and LPG are contingency resources in case the other two sources are unavailable. The car, Dr Kumawat claims, gives a mileage of 50 kmpl on petrol and 75 km per kg LPG.

The inventor has even made the vehicle capable of generating half a kilowatt for domestic use, through its plates and step-up unit, while stationary. If more power is needed, the petrol/gas engine may be started up and 2 KW generated by converting the Permanent Magnet Direct Current Motor into a dynamo.

[Saral]

Apparently it was Vinod Khosla who got Bush talking about Ethanol as a practical route to energy independence.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12676374/

includes a 15 minute video

The white paper is at

http://www.khoslaventures.com/presentat ... v3%203.doc

[krishnan]

Dunno where to put this , thought this would be proper thread


Cloudstat

[Paul]

The Indian Ocean Climatology & Oceanography (IOCO) Gateway

[Kakkaji]

Now, sip sweet sea water

[quote]“Excellent,â€

[Kakkaji]

Rural hubs roll out on info highway-Remote villages in state caught on the Web via DakNet

[quote]Satasankh, April 22: A cybercafe is a distant dream at Satasankh, a village in Puri famous for its coir-woven mats and handicrafts. Still, Susmita Sethi, an intermediate student and a resident of the village, can’t stop smiling after placing an order of gifts over e-mail to her elder brother working in Chandigarh.

“I plan to order some cosmetics later on, when I save up some money,â€

[chilarai]

Now, gather power from rumble strips
Next time you drive on the highway, don't regard a rumble strip or speed-breaker as a nuisance. It could be running your air conditioner or water heater back home.

Kanak Gogoi, a small-time supplier turned property dealer, has given concrete shape to this incredible sounding idea. Inspired by his daughter Riya's birth eight years ago to innovate, Gogoi unveiled his latest gizmo on Riya's birthday — the rumble strip power generator.

"Like most people, I have often found the speed-breaker an impediment to the free flow of traffic," said Gogoi. "But one day the idea of converting the potential energy of vehicles into kinetic energy struck me."

Gogoi began working on the idea last year. Instead of the conventional bitumen-and-stone-chip rumble strip, he welded a five-metre long speed-breaker with three identical movable metal plates in the middle. He then approached IIT, Guwahati for specific calculations and scientific inputs.

"The plates, inclined by a spring-loaded hydraulic system, are pushed down when a vehicle moves over them, bouncing back to the original position as it passes. As the plates come down, they crank a lever fitted to a ratchet wheel type mechanism. This rotates a geared shaft. The output of this shaft is coupled to a dynamo to generate power," explained Gogoi.

The IIT's Department of Design calculated that a vehicle weighing 1,000 kg moving up an inclined plane of 10 cm produces approximately 0.8 kw power. Continuous flow of traffic and storage of electricity generated from their movement will ensure a steady flow of electricity, said departmental head AK Das.

The cost of generating such power would work out at below Rs 1 crore per MW, the IIT estimates. Comparatively, thermal energy and hydropower cost Rs 5-8 crore per MW.

[m_bose]

Now, gather power from rumble strips
Next time you drive on the highway, don't regard a rumble strip or speed-breaker as a nuisance. It could be running your air conditioner or water heater back home.

Kanak Gogoi, a small-time supplier turned property dealer, has given concrete shape to this incredible sounding idea. Inspired by his daughter Riya's birth eight years ago to innovate, Gogoi unveiled his latest gizmo on Riya's birthday — the rumble strip power generator.

This isn't a new idea. Matter of fact, one of my college-mates did this for his final year Mech. Engg. project, way back in 1994 (design + working prototype.) Only difference is that his speedbump generated compressed air instead of electricity. His idea was to put his speedbump in front of a gas station, so that they could use it to inflate tires.

[Sanjay M]

Indian Solar Power Loans:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6600213.stm

[Vidyarthi]

Is it a solution to the clogged drains in Mumbai and other cities, and flooding of low lying areas?


Alka Zadgaonkar wrings plastic waste for profit.


Alka's is the world's first continuous process for all manner of waste plastics.

Reference:
http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/ ... ory/alkaZ/

[Vidyarthi]

Foks is there a cheap and simple way to get rid of arsenic in ground water ?

there is a layer of arsenic between the deep acquifier and the ground level under bangladesh and parts of NE and people are suffering badly. surface water is there in plenty but is contaminated by organic matter and again no cheap way to purify it in villages.

maybe boiling surface water after passing it through a sand , gravel and charcoal tank is better than drinking tube well water ?

http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9803/19/arsenic/

Folks!

Nanotech has promises.

Don't know, if it is already reported.

Quote:

Researchers Find Method for Reducing Arsenic Levels

By BARNABY J. FEDER
Published: November 9, 2006

Reference:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/scien ... 0c&ei=5070
Unquote

[Sohum]

A video news report about India's thermal-gradient powered desalination plant @ Kavaratti: http://www.sciencemag.org/multimedia/vi ... lination1/

and the accompanying article entitled DESALINATION:
Turning Ocean Water Into Rain by Yudhijit Banerjee (posting in full due to subscription requirement)

With its coconut palms and white-sand beaches, this coral island in the Arabian Sea seems like a tropical paradise--until you taste the water. For decades, the 11,000 people of Kavaratti have had to drink the brackish water from their wells, supplemented by a modest supply of monsoon rainwater. Now, however, the islanders are quenching their thirst with fresh water distilled from the turquoise expanse that surrounds them--thanks to a novel desalination method that's being held up as a model solution for water shortages along India's teeming mainland coast.

Most desalination plants either boil seawater and then condense the vapors (thermal distillation) or pump seawater at high pressure across a salt-retaining membrane (reverse osmosis). Both methods are energy-intensive and expensive to maintain. But the plant at Kavaratti, part of the Lakshadweep archipelago, is exploiting a third strategy that has been known for half a century but rarely implemented: using the ocean's own thermal energy to desalinate water.
The concept is simple. Water at the ocean's surface is warm, with a temperature that's typically between 26° and 30°C in the tropics. At a depth of 350 meters, it drops to a chilly 13°C or so. At the plant, surface water is pumped into an onshore vacuum chamber where the low pressure causes some of the water to vaporize. In another chamber, cold water drawn from the depths condenses the vapor into fresh water. "We are simply mimicking how nature makes rain," says S. Kathiroli, director of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in Chennai, which built the plant.

Known as low-temperature thermal desalination (LTTD), the technology is an offshoot of a more ambitious idea: to convert the ocean's thermal energy into electricity, first proposed by French physicist Jacques d'Arsonval in 1881. Competition from cheaper energy sources has prevented ocean thermal energy conversion from taking off, although experimental plants in Hawaii and Japan have shown that the concept works. LTTD has fared better--a plant in Italy operated commercially during the 1990s--but the technology has largely remained on the margins.

The Indian venture is a bold attempt to bring thermal-driven desalination into the mainstream by massively multiplying production. NIOT admits that the year-old Kavaratti plant, which produces 100,000 liters of fresh water a day, is not as energy-efficient as rival technologies: It consumes 30% more energy per unit water than a reverse-osmosis plant, for instance. But scaling up the technology 100-fold, officials believe, will unlock its potential.

To test that idea, NIOT has built a plant with a capacity of 1 million liters per day on a floating barge 40 kilometers off the coast of Chennai, on the opposite coast of India. Last month, NIOT engineers completed a 60-day trial of the plant, giving away drums of fresh water to passing ships. The institute is now inviting investors to help ratchet up the operation to 10 million liters a day by installing more condensers and evaporation chambers, which officials say would halve the cost to less than $1 per 1000 liters. That would be 25% cheaper than seawater desalination using reverse osmosis, says Kathiroli. There's a lower environmental cost too, he points out: Concentrated brine left over from reverse osmosis is often flushed back into the ocean to the detriment of local marine organisms.

Experts in India and abroad are watching the project closely. "It's a strategy worth pursuing," says Luis Vega, who designed an ocean thermal energy plant that produced electricity and desalinated water for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority in the 1990s. But Vega doubts that scaling up will reduce costs much. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, a water-policy expert at the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata, says the government is right to experiment with desalination but must also invest more in low-tech solutions such as rainwater harvesting.

When NIOT researchers began working on ocean thermal energy a decade ago, electricity, not drinking water, was the prize they were after. But after multiple failures to install a deep water pipe at sea to draw cold water from a few hundred meters below the sea's surface, the government in 2003 pulled the plug. Kathiroli, who took over as NIOT director the following year, revived the project with the simpler target of desalination. This requires a smaller temperature differential than the 20°C needed to make electricity, and therefore water can be drawn from a shallower, more manageable depth. "We were driven by our ego," says Kathiroli. "We wanted to show that we could do it."

The government approved the proposal, and after completing a pilot project, NIOT engineers in 2005 began building the Kavaratti plant. The steep bathymetry of the island--the seabed plunges several hundred meters a short distance from shore--enabled accessing deep water without venturing far from land.

Since coming online in late 2005, the plant has pumped fresh water to a network of public taps for 2 hours every morning and evening. Islanders say they now use groundwater--which many have been drinking all their lives--only for washing and cleaning. "This water tastes better, and food cooked in it tastes better too," says M. Qasim, a schoolteacher.

Another benefit has been the prevention of waterborne diseases, once rampant on Kavaratti because of the many septic tanks near the shallow water table. P. S. Ashraf, superintendent of the island's only hospital, says he and his colleagues have witnessed around 50% fewer diarrhea and dysentery cases since the plant was commissioned.

Buoyed by the success, officials plan to build similar plants on Lakshadweep's 10 other islands. They expect that the Kavaratti experience will help make the new plants more cost-effective. "We are confident of streamlining the process considerably," says NIOT engineer Purnima Jalihal.

Although thermally driven desalination may be a good option for islands, it must pass a bigger economic test on the mainland, where the coast's gradual slope requires going several kilometers offshore to access deep water. NIOT's barge plant near Chennai will have to compete with a reverse-osmosis plant with a 100-million-liter capacity being built nearby onshore by a Spanish waterworks company, Befesa. The Chennai plant will have the added expense of transporting fresh water from the barge to the mainland, says Ravi Bondada, a business manager for Befesa in Chennai: "They are making a good attempt, but the economics will have to be proved."

Kathiroli agrees that the government should continue to pursue conservation strategies such as better river management and improve rainwater collection for drinking water. Nevertheless, he emphasizes that the need for fresh water is enormous; the shortfall for Chennai alone is 300 million liters a day. Hopes for ocean thermal technology are running high because it is young: "Reverse osmosis has been fine-tuned for over 40 years or more," Kathiroli says. "We are just starting out."

[Sanjay M]

WatAir extracts water from the air, even in arid regions, without using power:

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/04/16/wat ... nto-water/

[Sanjay M]

Cyclean is a Bicycle-powered Washing Machine

[Sanjay M]

I liked this interesting Vertical Wind Turbine design:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06 ... ne_des.php

Sustainable Wind Turbine

It looks quite compact and simple in its construction.

Its geometry can also be adjusted to match wind conditions.

You can see that it has 3 prongs at the top, and those prongs are bent downwards using a tension cable. These then form the blades.

[Sanjay M]

duplicate

[Gaurav_S]

Nitin Das, an IIM graduate left his corporate career for filmmaking. His eight-minute film is an inspiring story about a Buddhist boy who finds the solution to global warming.

http://youtube.com/thenitindas

TOI

[joshvajohn]

Most of the television and other printed media focus on the film or television or political personals and their lives. Why none of the media focuses on the innovative technology between young engineers or some competition between them?

I think the Government should annouce many awards in relationship to the technological innovation and particularly in relationship with the process of making technology relevant to Indian context.

I understand that there are such awards by the IT companies but only in relationship with IT innovation not mechanical, civil or any other relevant side of science or engineering.

Media should also be told to find similar programmes that would promote the innovation and competition among our young bright Engineers and resaerch scholars.

[Sanjay M]

Filtration bottles can clean dirty water in seconds

Note that it can even filter out viruses, because of its tiny filtration size of 15 nanometers

[gopal.suri]

US and India agreement for low cost medical tech

[rgsrini]

This isn't a new idea. Matter of fact, one of my college-mates did this for his final year Mech. Engg. project, way back in 1994 (design + working prototype.) Only difference is that his speedbump generated compressed air instead of electricity. His idea was to put his speedbump in front of a gas station, so that they could use it to inflate tires.

Is your friend's name B. Kumar by any chance? I studied with him in Chennai upto 10th grade. He did the same project during his engg. and it was published in some magazines in Chennai. He used air compression technique for his project as well. But I thought the year was 1991 though...


I have lost touch with him and I would love to get in touch with him again.

[Sanjay M]

Potatoes have been used to make utensils that look as if they've been made from plastic:

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/10/13/spu ... -potatoes/

The advantage of this is that they can biodegrade in about 6 months.

Indians are complaining about the buildup of plastic trash and landfill dumps everywhere, but this is an example of a solution to the problem of plastic trash buildup.

[Sanjay M]

DARPA Makes Bionic Arm for Amputee Soldiers

Hmm, a little bit more sophisticated than the Jaipur Foot

[bala]

A picture of the Tsunami Early Warning Centre in Hbad, India.

[Sanjay M]

Where is the asteroid early warning centre?

You know the leftists will clamour for one afterwards, if we ever get hit.

[gashish]

Hotbed of innovations

Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi, dean-planning, also part of the TeNet group, talks about achieving great things in a very short time.


"The idea is to find out how technology can play a role in improving rural GDP. Migration from rural to urban areas in a country like India could be a major problem 10 years from now," he says.


TeNet's mission is to improve rural per capita income from the present level of Rs 3,500 (Ramamurthi's estimates) to Rs 7,000 in the next 10 years. One product of this mission is the setting up of a rural business process outsourcing company called DesiCrew Solutions, run by a woman entrepreneur, Saloni Malhotra.

Prof Bhasker is also key person of CEWiT, established to develop wireless 4G standard.

[Sanjay M]

Take a look at this:

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1112/

The Helix Wind Turbine can generate more power with lower wind speeds.
Peninsular India seems to have generally lower windspeeds than northern India, and so perhaps turbines like this would be particularly beneficial there.

It has a power rating of 2 kilowatts, which is quite significant.
If you visit their website, you'll see they have a 5kW model, too. Why can't Indians try to economically manufacture things like this, instead of cursing the power utility provider half the day?

The thing seems to have quite a lot of surface area on it, too. I wonder if that surface area could be further used to collect solar power? Just a thought.

[bala]

Indian-origin scientist pioneers 'green' steel technology

Millions of tonnes of waste plastic will be recycled into steel. The breakthrough Australian 'green' steel technology, which cuts coke and coal demand and reduces emission, has been invented by a Mumbai-born University of New South Wales (UNSW) materials scientist, Veena Sahajwalla.

Sahajwalla, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur, told IANS: "Plastic is simply another form of carbon. In making steel there's essentially no difference between the polyethylene plastic in shopping bags and a natural resource like coal."

Polyethylene plastic contains carbon, an essential raw material in electric arc furnace (EAF) steel making, which recycles steel from scrap metal and accounts for 40 percent of the world's steel production. Annual steel production is around 1.1 billion tonnes globally.

The technology currently substitutes about 30 percent of coke and coal in EAF steel making with polyethylene waste plastic, which would otherwise have ended up in landfill.

Commercial production of this world first 'green' steel is underway at the Sydney furnaces of OneSteel, following a global licensing agreement between the Australian steel maker and UNSW's commercialisation arm, NewSouth Innovations (Nsi).

OneSteel's commercial manager (rod and bar), Adrian Howard said, "Patents for this technology have been filed in major steel-making countries including India, China and the US."

Howard said: "Trials to date have proven the technology will deliver benefits such as reduced energy consumption and reduced material requirements while increasing steel making capacity."

In EAF steel making, scrap is melted at around 16000 degrees Celsius and converted into high quality steel using high-power arcs. As the scrap melts, a layer of gaseous slag foam forms on top of molten steel.

The new process speeds this slag-foaming process, reducing power-on time and total power use. Total savings include lower power bills and a commensurate drop in green house gas emissions from coal-fired power stations, net savings on coke and coal usage and a longer electrode life span.

"The new business deal is gratifying because what would otherwise become waste is recycled to become a raw material for EAF steel making," added Sahajwalla.

Equally significant is the reduction in the power required to run the furnaces using the new waste plastic injection technology. The process promises significant environmental benefits in one of the world's most essential, but energy and resource intensive industries.

Sahajwalla said, "Getting industry to take up 'good science' is a key driver. I am passionate about creating concepts and solutions which might sound radical, but could provide a foundation for developing novel pathways into the future."

Both industry and the environment will be big winners if the world's 300 EAF steel makers embrace the technology.

Australians recycle just 13 percent of the 1.2 million tonnes of plastic they use annually. Sahajwalla said, "Growing up in India, we used and recycled just about everything. Our dinner table conversations always centred on science."

She recalls IIT Kanpur as being one of the most technically challenging places. "The four years prepared me to face the world and provided a new perspective into engineering and life in general," she said.

"By converting waste into a value-added resource we are promoting sustainability of materials industries. There are so many materials that should be recycled and if we can't, we ought to develop products that can be re-used at the end of their life cycles," she added.

Today, she leads the research on Sustainable Materials Processing at UNSW in Sydney. Along with her research team, she works with many companies across the globe, including Mittal Steel, Nippon Steel (Japan), Ruukki Steel (Finland), Techint (Italy) and US Steel (US), that support her research focusing on sustainability of materials processing.

A recipient of many international and national awards, most recently she won the 2006 Environmental Technology Award from the Association of Iron and Steel Technology in the US and the 2005 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research.

[Sanjay M]

Interesting:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international ... 57,00.html

Roads have been built in Japan which are laden with grooves. Each section of grooved road causes the car to emit a tone. By spacing out these road sections appropriately, music can be played when traveling along the road.

Given that Indians hate to follow speed limits, this type of approach could be used to control their driving speed, based on musical tempo.

Cute!

[ramana]

From Rediff

Rat trap brings prosperity in rural India

Seema Hakhu Kachru in Houston | November 29, 2007 16:18 IST
Last Updated: November 29, 2007 16:19 IST

Better rat trap seems to have improved the lives of many people in rural tribal area of India, as it has opened doors for more money, access to better health care and schools, and improved social status.

That is what a researcher from the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University found when she visited and wrote a case study on the Irula tribe of southeast India whose main source of income and food comes from catching rats in farmers' fields.

The case study -- Building a Better Rat Trap: Technological Innovation, Human Capital and the Irula � by Siri Terjesen of TCU in Fort Worth, will appear in the next issue of the academic journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

"It's hard to believe there's a whole group of people that still catches rats for a living," says Terjesen, an authority on entrepreneurship, strategy, and international business.

"Until I visited the project, I was skeptical such a dramatic change in people's lives could be achieved. The Irulas are a great example of how bringing technology to the rural poor can help them improve their lives one step at a time."

Sethu Sethunarayanan, founder and director of the Center for the Development of Disadvantaged People, an organisation dedicated to aiding the Irulas, enlisted the help of a mechanical engineer to make a rat trap that is effective 95 per cent of the time compared to the old method which was successful only 40 per cent of the time.

The results: Irulas using the new traps have doubled or tripled their incomes, greater numbers of Irula children are going to school, and more Irulas are receiving health care.

The tribe may also be enhancing its social status, as other Indian peoples see the success the Irulas are reaping from improved rat-catching technology.

The Irulas' main source of income and food lies in catching rats in farmers' fields, on which they have barely been able to survive. In fact, some Irulas have starved to death over the years. But now assistance in the form of a more efficient rat trap is helping some tribal members to help themselves.

Traditionally, the Irulas catch rats by lighting a fire in a clay pot, then using their mouths to blow air through a small hole on the bottom to force the smoke into a rat burrow.

The Irulas then dig out the stunned rat, along with any grains the rat had accumulated. The rats and grains are primary food sources for the Irulas.

Farmers, who can lose up to 25 per cent of a crop to rats, pay for every rat removed. However, the clay-pot method of catching rats is successful less than half of the time, and the average rat catcher makes the equivalent of $15 to $30 per month, below the USD 35 deemed necessary for basic needs.

Rat catchers also suffer from health problems, such as burned lips and hands, and smoke inhalation resulting in respiratory and cardiac illness.

Upon seeing the hardships of the tribe, Sethu and the CDDP sought to develop a better rat trap. Sethu and a mechanical engineer designed a steel trap, with a wooden handle to prevent hand burns and a crank to eliminate smoke inhalation and lip burns. He then requested feedback from the Irulas, to make sure the design met their needs.

Sethu and the CDDP then applied for and received a $98,500 grant from the World Bank to help the Irulas make the new rat traps. After identifying the neediest Irulas among 170 villages, the CDDP selected 1,500 participants to make, earn, or purchase the traps.

The CDDP set up a small factory in an Irula village and hired 50 young women to run it. Since men and boys were expected to catch rats, and married women were expected to take care of domestic duties, hiring unmarried women was the best way to avoid disrupting their culture. The factory operates without electricity, utilizing hand tools, and has produced some 2,000 traps so far.

The traps are sold to the Irulas for approximately $25 apiece.

"In the past, the Irulas were given things for free by higher-status social groups and non-governmental organisations. But they found many of these things were useless to them and developed the view that unless they work for what they receive, the item doesn't have value," says Terjesen.

With the new traps, the rat-catching success rate is 95 per cent, and the Irulas are proud of their first use of mechanised technology. Also, participating Irula families can afford to send their children to school, a promising development for a tribe that has 99 per cent illiteracy.

"Many Irula children now go to school instead of catching rats," Terjesen says.

This is all just the beginning, however. Approximately 3 million Irulas live in India, and only a relative few have been helped so far. Sethu and the CDDP hope to expand the project, says Terjesen.

"As India becomes more globalised, it's important that large portions of its population not be left behind," she says. "So many more people could eventually be freed from the cycle of poverty."

Is this for real? The guys in India did the work and this scholar is getting all the limelight.

Is this another psy-ops story?

She is from Brisbane, Australia.

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