Bharat Rakshak

Finds of Radioactive Steel on the Rise in Germany

German authorities in recent months have found a disturbingly large amount of radioactive steel in factories across the country. Much of the contaminated metal is thought to have originated in India.

Nesoj wrote:http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 40,00.html

Finds of Radioactive Steel on the Rise in Germany

German authorities in recent months have found a disturbingly large amount of radioactive steel in factories across the country. Much of the contaminated metal is thought to have originated in India.

Strange

Nesoj wrote:http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 40,00.html

Finds of Radioactive Steel on the Rise in Germany

German authorities in recent months have found a disturbingly large amount of radioactive steel in factories across the country. Much of the contaminated metal is thought to have originated in India.

Strange

....... ASN ( France's Nuclear Safety Authority ) found that the contaminated material, which had arrived in August and was used by Otis Elevator Co, contained faint traces of cobalt 60, a radioactive form of the metal cobalt in its elevator buttons.

The radiation had exposed 20 of the 30 workers at Mafelec, which had supplied the buttons to Otis, to a dose of between 1 and 3 millisieverts, an incident which is marked at level 2 on a scale of 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, due to the exposure of more than 10 people to doses exceeding the legal safe limits.

Investigations conducted by the Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board at the request of the French embassy, had named Bunts, Laxmi, SKM Steels, Vipras Castings, and Pradeep Metals as suppliers of products contaminated with cobalt 60 to many countries.

The investigation found out that Bunts and Laxmi Electronics, who had sold the buttons to Mafelec, had sourced the steel from SKM Steels, which in turn had obtained the raw material containing radioactive material from a foundry called Vipras Casting, which has its factory in Khopoli, the outskirts of Mumbai.

Vipras Casting recycles scrap, purchased from dealers who import steel scraps from Europe and the US and sells it to various steel companies in India.

As it had sold 10 tonnes of steel to SKM Steels, which was used it to manufacture the elevator buttons, it was unable to tell at the moment where this lot of scarp came from.

The 20 workers at Malafec who were exposed to radioactive radiation have not reported any sickness but have been hospitalised for tests.

Mafelec Gilles Heinrich, the chief executive of Mafelec underplayed the incident, saying there was nothing toxic and there was no need to panic and added that many companies do receive such parts but do not detect them.

The French arm of the US elevator maker Otis said that it would replace all buttons in 500-600 elevators repaired between August and October throughout the country.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and labour ministry is now trying to identify Indian workers who could have been exposed to the radioactive material right from the source of the raw material to the finished product.

In India, factories that handle imported steel scraps are not required to install radiation detectors to check scrap, but the government has a programme to put radiation monitors at ports to check cargo. Vipras, shaken by the incident, has installed radiation monitors to check radioactive emission on the steel scraps that enter its premises.

Experts believe that the cobalt 60 could have come from different countries, which supply scrap metal to Indian firms for recycling.

These included parts from decommissioned nuclear reactors, hospital radiation equipment, foreign ships sent to Indian ports for dismantling or the hulls of foreign nuclear submarines.

One commentator said that some western countries have been dumping their toxic wastes in India, with the Indian government having turned a blind eye. This time, the material has gone back to the western country.

India does not have strict enforcement to check radioactive hazardous waste from entering the scrap market and also lacks facilities for the decontamination of scrap.

Recycled steel was in great demand till a few months back as steel prices rose in the international market. The Indian steel scrap recycling business is estimated $50 million and Indian recycled steel is in great demand in the West following the steep rise in international prices.

The ship-breaking industry in India is another source of radioactive contamination entering the country. Alang in Gujarat, the second biggest such yard in the world, regularly dismantles hundreds of ships with more than 30 ships in the range of 3,000 to 15,000 tonnes having arrived at Alang for dismantling in the past two months.

Areva has invested nearly 9.5 billion rupees ($188.1 million) to build the plants for producing transformers and other power equipment. Four of the plants began operations earlier in the day at Baroda, in the western state of Gujarat. The remainder are in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Newly-appointed CII president, Venu Srinivasan, today met West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to discuss issues relating to contract farming.

We are keen to work with West Bengal to promote its image among other states and also bring back the manufacturing industry in the state. We will also advice the chief minister to allow private sector investments in agriculture,” Srinivasan said addressing the press here.

The share of MVA in India’s GDP stands at around 15% at present. India ranks among the top 12 producers of MVA across the globe. It ranks 4th in textiles, after China, USA, and Italy. It is ranked 5th in electrical machinery and apparatus. It holds the 6th position in the basis metals category and is 7th in chemicals and chemical products; 10th in leather, leather products, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel; twelfth in machinery and equipment and motor vehicles.

Nitesh wrote:Report: India to pursue homegrown microprocessor design

With 6.8% rise, July IIP backs up revival

12 Sep 2009, 0135 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Industrial output as measured by the index of industrial production (IIP) clocked an annual growth rate of 6.8% in July, making it the

second consecutive month of buoyant industrial growth after a weak show that started last October, data released by the Central Statistical Organisation on Friday showed. The provisional IIP figure of 7.8% for June was revised upwards to 8.2%. ...................

ET

"There are taxes on goods manufactured locally, but none on imported products (from China). This is an unfair situation for Indian goods. This is why there should be 25 per cent anti-dumping duty on Chinese products," Naik said.

Sheffield-based, heavy engineering concern DavyMarkham has been acquired by India’s leading engineering procurement and construction company, Hindustan Dorr Oliver (HDO) Limited, a subsidiary of IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects Ltd, which is involved in engineered solutions, technologies and EPC installations in liquid-solid separation applications. The acquisition provides HDO with an entry into the Heavy Engineering sector.

June 4 (Bloomberg) -- ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, Posco and five rivals may spend a combined 1.42 trillion rupees ($30.4 billion) to build plants in southern India, after investments were stymied in other states.

ArcelorMittal India expects Karnataka to be the mainstay of its India plans and expects the state's pro-industry policies, and faster mine allocation procedures, to push its long-awaited projects off the ground. But the world's largest steel manufacturer will continue to pursue its plans in Jharkhand and Orissa simultaneously, as the company wishes retain its alternative options, said a senior company official.

"Compared to other states, land acquisition is more systematic in Karnataka as the state government has in the past, done a good job of rewarding farmers in large industrial projects," said the senior official who asked not to be named. The suspension of mining in the iron ore-rich districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur has not impacted ArcelorMittal India's plans as it expects the issue to be resolved soon.

ArcelorMittal intends to build a Rs 30,000-crore, six million-tonne steel plant in Karnataka in two phases, in line with a revised programme of setting up smaller steel mills in multiple locations.

The company needs about 4,500 acres for the project of which 4,000 acres has already been acquired by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board.

India's cabinet has approved a major new policy to develop national manufacturing.

The policy aims to create a 100 million jobs in the next 10 years and allows for a series of special new zones to support manufacturing growth.

At the moment, that sector only accounts for about 16% of the country's gross domestic product.

That has barely changed in the last three decades and is seen as well below India's potential.

It is also far lower than other Asian countries at a similar level of development.

India has done an impressive job in developing hi-tech and service sector industries - which have given new opportunities to its well-educated middle class.

But that is little comfort to a growing number of rural unemployed who have at best a basic education and few opportunities for work beyond agriculture.

Now India is trying to learn from China - with an ambitious plan which aims to boost manufacturing and deliver factory jobs.

Cutting red tape
The target is for manufacturing to account for a quarter of GDP by 2022 - creating 100 million new jobs.

The government also plans to train the young rural generation so they can take advantage of these jobs.

Special economic zones will be set up - again, following China's model. Seven sites have already been identified.

Their development will be led by the private sector. They are described as self-governing townships.

Companies using the sites will be offered tax incentives.

One of the obstacles for manufacturers in the past has been endless government bureaucracy and red tape. This too will be streamlined.

There is no doubt that India desperately needs a more vibrant manufacturing sector to even out its growth and absorb future workers.

The test will be how successfully this plan translates from paper to the real world.

Vipul wrote:India starts hunt for fab-building chipmakers.

A committee recently set up by the Indian government to help drive the establishment of semiconductor manufacturing in the sub-continent, has conducted its first meeting and has started approaching chip companies to ask them to set up wafer fabs there.

The meeting discussed a number of issues related to the setting up of wafer fabs, local reports quoted Sam Pitroda, leader of the committee, as saying. Pitroda is also an advisor to Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on IT and communications infrastructure and innovation.

"We need to talk to principals who can invest in setting up facilities," he is quoted saying after the initial meeting of the committee, before adding "We will talk to them one-by-one in the next few months." Pitroda is also reported to have said that he has been in touch with "global semiconductor associations."

Pitroda reportedly said that India needs to make chips because otherwise its annual hardware IT import bill will grow to exceed its fuel import bill by as soon as 2020. "At this rate our import bill on IT hardware will touch $200 billion by 2020," he is quoted as saying in a Business Standard article. The import bill including telecommunications in 2020 – and Indians are big users of mobile phones – could be as high as $400 billion.

As semiconductors make up a significant part of the bill of materials value of electronic equipment, being able to manufacture chips locally not only relieves that import burden but can also be part of a domestic manufacturing supply chain to further reduce the import position in IT products.

The committee, set up in April, is chartered to help set up at least two wafer fabs at a cost of about $5 billion. Along with identifying technologies and potential investors, the committee will recommend the level of government support for the project and the mix of grants and subsidies. The panel's recommendations are scheduled to be delivered to the Indian government by July 31.

Two earlier commercial initiatives, SemIndia and Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. failed to materialize. As yet there is no indication as to whether the Indian government has any preferred locations where it wants wafer fabs to be built.