Science and technology for rural India

Though the importance of science and technology for rural India was appreciated in the 1930s by Gandhi, giving rise to the work of the Centre for Science for Villages, advanced institutions of education, science and technology turned their attention to this area only in the 1970s. The most well-known of these efforts was from the Indian Institute of Science with its programme for the application of science and technology to rural areas known by its acronym ASTRA. ASTRA (recently renamed as Centre for Sustainable Technologies) was based on a model of science-technology interactions in a ‘dual society’ like India with a small affluent elite amidst a large economically deprived majority living primarily in rural areas. The model showed that inter alia an extension centre and a mission- oriented programme would be required to develop technologies to address the normally ignored needs of the rural population. While many features of this initial ASTRA model have been validated, it also had several shortcomings that are described. An attempt has been made in this article to indicate some directions along which the model should be updated taking into account the emphasis today on sustainable development. Special attention has been devoted to the failure modes in the generation, commercialization and dissemination of rural technologies. Finally, the barriers to the commercialization and dissemination of rural technologies are discussed

Comparative Analysis of DITC Based Switched Reluctance Motor Using Asymmetric Converter and Four-Level Converter

High torque ripple is the main draw of Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) compared to other conventional motor. Torque ripples can be minimized by Direct Instantaneous Torque Control (DITC) technique. DITC responds against the torque error instantaneously by using hysteresis torque controller and regulate the torque output of the motor within hysteresis band.This paper compares the performance of Switched Reluctance Motor in terms of torque ripples with DITC strategy for both Asymmetric converter and Four-level converter. Asymmetric converter has three states namely magnetization, freewheeling and demagnetiztion states. With four-level converter, fast magnetization and fast demagnetization are also possible. Thus, the current build up and decay time is reduced which improves the dynamic performance. SRM is simulated using DITC scheme with Asymmetric converter and Four-level converter in MATLAB/SIMULINK to analyze torque ripples and it is observed that DITC with four level converter is better than that with Assymetrical converter

Comparative Analysis of DITC Based Switched Reluctance Motor Using Asymmetric Converter and Four-Level Converter

High torque ripple is the main draw of Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) compared to other conventional motor. Torque ripples can be minimized by Direct Instantaneous Torque Control (DITC) technique. DITC responds against the torque error instantaneously by using hysteresis torque controller and regulate the torque output of the motor within hysteresis band.This paper compares the performance of Switched Reluctance Motor in terms of torque ripples with DITC strategy for both Asymmetric converter and Four-level converter. Asymmetric converter has three states namely magnetization, freewheeling and demagnetiztion states. With four-level converter, fast magnetization and fast demagnetization are also possible. Thus, the current build up and decay time is reduced which improves the dynamic performance. SRM is simulated using DITC scheme with Asymmetric converter and Four-level converter in MATLAB/SIMULINK to analyze torque ripples and it is observed that DITC with four level converter is better than that with Assymetrical converter

Kinetics of Inclusion Body Formation and Its Correlation with the Characteristics of Protein Aggregates in Escherichia coli

The objective of the research was to understand the structural determinants governing protein aggregation into inclusion bodies during expression of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli. Recombinant human growth hormone (hGH) and asparaginase were expressed as inclusion bodies in E.coli and the kinetics of aggregate formation was analyzed in details. Asparaginase inclusion bodies were of smaller size (200 nm) and the size of the aggregates did not increase with induction time. In contrast, the seeding and growth behavior of hGH inclusion bodies were found to be sequential, kinetically stable and the aggregate size increased from 200 to 800 nm with induction time. Human growth hormone inclusion bodies showed higher resistance to denaturants and proteinase K degradation in comparison to those of asparaginase inclusion bodies. Asparaginase inclusion bodies were completely solubilized at 2–3 M urea concentration and could be refolded into active protein, whereas 7 M urea was required for complete solubilization of hGH inclusion bodies. Both hGH and asparaginase inclusion bodies showed binding with amyloid specific dyes. In spite of its low β-sheet content, binding with dyes was more prominent in case of hGH inclusion bodies than that of asparaginase. Arrangements of protein molecules present in the surface as well as in the core of inclusion bodies were similar. Hydrophobic interactions between partially folded amphiphillic and hydrophobic alpha-helices were found to be one of the main determinants of hGH inclusion body formation. Aggregation behavior of the protein molecules decides the nature and properties of inclusion bodies

The new paradigm for energy

This article does not have an abstract

End-uses of electricity in households of Karnataka state, India

This paper describes the results of a survey of electricity consumption in a sample consisting of 1,165 households in four districts of Karnataka state in India. The survey revealed the patterns of consumption of electricity in AEH[1] and non-AEH[2] households, the stock of electrical appliances used by the households, the differences in the consumption of electricity in urban and rural areas, the use of other sources of energy for domestic purposes, and the degree of penetration of energy-efficient appliances/devices. The analysis of electricity consumption of appliances in AEH households showed that the consumption of electricity is mainly due to lighting, air circulation, water-heating and cooking. In non-AEH households, the end-uses accounting for most of the consumption of electricity are lighting, entertainment and air circulation. The survey also yielded the appliance elasticities and the degree of penetration of energy-efficient devices. As a result policy-makers can take corrective actions by promoting efficiency improvements in certain end-use devices so that increases in the penetration of these devices would not significantly affect the overall electricity requirement for the domestic sector

Energy for a sustainable road/rail transport system in India

The main motivation for this study is that the strong transport-energy nexus has not received the attention it deserves, though energy is a crucial constraint on transport, and transport is a major determinant of energy demand. Also, many detailed treatments of the transport sector have not scrutinised the sustainability of the present pattern of development of this sector. Further, the prevailing paradigm guiding the development of the sector is made explicit and critiqued because it is often the root cause of its unsustainability. And, because treatments of transport policy issues tend to proceed without a clear statement of underlying goals and strategies, the entire hierarchy of interventions - from goals to strategies to policies - has been discussed. Finally, an attempt has been made to deal with both the supply and demand aspects of the transport sector. The study is restricted to road and rail transport since air and water (inland waters, and coastal and international seas) transport handle very small fractions of domestic traffic demand. The detailed discussions are preceded by overviews of the main features of the Indian transport system as well as of the energy sector as pertaining to transport. It is suggested that the goal of the Indian transport sector should be an efficient, capital-saving, non-import-intensive, affordable, service-oriented and environmentally sound transport system, i.e., a sustainable transport system. A strategy or broad plan to achieve this goal of a sustainable transport system should consist of several components: (1) minimisation of dependence on petroleum fuels, (2) maximisation of the level of safe, comfortable and time-saving transport services, (3) maximisation of the environmental soundness of the transport system, and in particular, reduction of local and global environmental pollution, (4) minimisation of the capital requirements for the transport modal mix that should also include non-motorised transport (NMT), and (5) minimisation of the energy used by the transport system without a reduction of the services provided. The detailed policies (plans or courses of action) to implement the above strategies for achieving a sustainable transport system fall into the following categories: (1) transport-energy database generation and use, (2) demand management, (3) technological improvements in road transport, (4) improvement of the capacity and quality of road infrastructure, (5) traffic management, (6) improvement of the railways, (7) improvement of urban transport, (8) providing a niche for non-motorised modes of transport, (9) pollution control and abatement, (10) costing and pricing, (11) modal shifts to achieve a least-cost freight modal mix, (12) modal shifts to achieve a least-cost passenger modal mix, (13) solutions to the transport sector's problems through measures in other sectors, (14) alternative fuels. Appropriate policy instruments or mechanisms for initiating and maintaining the policies as well as suitable policy agents to wield the policy instruments have also been identified. The market has the power of being an excellent allocator of money, materials and manpower, but unfortunately also has definite limits - it is not very good at looking after the poor, the environment, the long-term and the infrastructure and national strategic concerns such as self-reliance and external debt, all of which are of crucial relevance to the transport system. Hence, the visible hand of government and the people must complement the invisible hand of the market. In conclusion, both short-term low-cost measures to attract political decision-makers with short time-horizons and long-term measures have been mentioned. The short-term measures consist mainly of better maintenance, better driving practices, optimal routing of buses, dedicated routes for buses with traffic restrictions on these dedicated routes, special lanes for slow traffic, supply constraint on personal vehicles, export orientation to the production of personal vehicles, removal of kerosene and diesel subsidies, no long-haul truck permits, increase of truck taxes and shift of passengers travelling less than 300 km from rail to bus. The long-term measures consist mainly of increases in fuel efficiency, introduction of lower-power bus engines, increases in number of buses and/or suburban trains, investments on mass transportation infrastructure, home electrification, improvement of rail freight operations, truck-rail freight linkage, introduction of CNG for urban fleets, switches to biomass-derived fuels for transportation, biomass-derived fuels as petrol and diesel extenders, silviculture for biomass-derived fuels, and alternative cooking fuels and/or devices to replace kerosene

Green Internet Routing Between Traffic Volume and Power Consumption

We plan a green Internet routing plan, where the routing can lead movement in a way that is green. We contrast from past reviews where they switch organize parts, for example, line cards and routers, into rest mode. We don't prune the Internet topology. We initially build up a power display, and approve it utilizing genuine business routers. Rather than building up a brought together optimization algorithm, which requires extra protocols, for example, MPLS to appear in the Internet, we pick a hop-by-hop approach. It is accordingly significantly less demanding to incorporate our plan into the present Internet. We logically create three algorithms, which are loop-free, substantially reduce energy consumption, and mutually consider green and QoS prerequisites, for example, way extend