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

Re-laparotomy in OBG: a clinical study

Background: If laparotomy done within 60 days of primary surgery for the original disease it is called re-laparotomy. Aim of this study was to determine the risk factors causing re-laparotomy, the indications, management and outcomes of re-laparotomy.Methods: The study was conducted in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital, Bellary, Karnataka. It is a 2 year prospective observational study of all the patients with re-laparotomy following operation done for obstetric or gynaecological indications.Results: Total 4105 patients underwent major surgery in two years between October 2013 to September 2015. Re-laparotomy was done in 10 cases. The incidence of re-laparotomy was 0.25% which is mainly for subacute intestinal obstruction, intraperitoneal haemorrhage, burst abdomen, PPH, rectus sheath hematoma.Conclusions: Hemorrhage, burst abdomen, infections are the main reasons for re-laparotomy after obstetric and gynaecological surgeries. Though the incidence of re-laparotomy is low and the outcome is favourable, several measures must be undertaken to prevent re-laparotomy such as careful surgical technique, meticulous hemostasis and strict asepsis should be maintained

The new paradigm for energy

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CASE STUDY OF ELECTRICITY PLANNING IN KARNATAKA

Let us start with two general points before we discuss energy. The first point is that our priority should be development and that energy should come into the picture later as a powerful instrument of development. Such a perspective begs the question: what is development? For almost fifteen years, I have proceeded with a very simple picture of development that has stood the test of time -development is a socio-economic process directed towards three objectives. The first of these objectives is the satisfaction of the basic needs, starting with the needs of the neediest in order to avoid starting off with satisfying the needs of the affluent. The second objective is to strengthen self-reliance so that people take control over their own destinies. Otherwise, a dictator can satisfy the basic needs of the people without allowing them to have any say over their future, and call the process development. And the third objective is that the development process must be sustainable if it is to withstand the passage of time and survive over the long run, and if it is to be sustainable, then the development process has to be in harmony with the environment. The second general point is that we are in the midst of what Thomas Kuhn, the Harvard philosopher, called a "paradigm revolution". I am sure that all of you know this word "paradigm". I began to understand it only when I realized that it was analogous to the "raga" of Indian classical music. A raga is a framework or pattern. Anybody who sings and plays an instrument in that raga has to adhere to its framework and pattern, but within the constraints of that framework and pattern, the musician can extemporize to any extent that she or he wants. Thomas Kuhn pointed out that, at any period in history, there is a particular paradigm that prevails -this is the ruling paradigm and everybody thinks within the constraints of that paradigm. The paradigm works for a period, but gradually a stage is reached when its tenability decreases. Its effectiveness diminishes and it begins to break down. Then, a paradigm revolution takes place and a new paradigm comes into being. It is like changing over from one raga to another raga. The relevance of all this is to our present discussion is that there is at present a prevailing paradigm on energy that dominates virtually all energy thinking in the country. This paradigm dominates the views of the Government, the approach of the official planners, and the thinking of most people on the subject of energy.

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

Studies on genetic variability and relationship of bael (Aegle marmelos (L) Correa) using morphological and molecular markers

Bael (Aegle marmelos (L) Correa) is an important underutilized fruit crop of India. A total of 25 bael trees were selected from 356 bael trees of Sakharayapattana in Chikkamagalur district, Karnataka, India based on the fruit morphological traits (fruit weight, pulp weight, skull thickness, seed weight per fruit, No. of seeds per fruit, No. of locules per fruit, No. of seeds per locule, pulp wt. : seed wt.). These 25 trees were evaluated for phenotypic and genotypic variations using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers. RAPD and ISSR markers showed significant polymorphism among the trees. Jaccard’s genetic similarity value of RAPD and ISSR was found in the range of 0.00–0.95 and 0.06–0.56, respectively suggesting a moderate level of genetic diversity. The present study revealed that molecular markers can be successfully utilized for determining genetic diversity and relationship of bael trees for further varietal improvement

Integrated energy planning: Part II. Examples of DEFENDUS scenarios

The first part of this paper presented an ab initio exposition of the development-focused end-use oriented service-directed (DEFENDUS) approach to energy planning. In this approach, the future demand for any source of energy is estimated on the basis of the energy services required and the efficiency with which these are provided. To meet this demand, the costs per unit of the available energy-supply/saving technologies are estimated and a least-cost mix of options identified. In this second part, some of the energy studies for which the DEFENDUS method has been used are described to demonstrate that its applicability is not confined to a particular region or source of energy. These studies include: electricity for five states of India, petroleum products for the country as a whole, biomass for the state of Karnataka, and a composite energy scenario for Karnataka involving integration of all the currently-used sources of energy. In every case, the energy usage pattern in the commencement year of the plan, i.e., the total energy usage disaggregated between the existing categories of users according to their end-uses, is obtained. Then, depending on the goals selected and the strategies that could be adopted to achieve them, growth rates for each category of users are used to estimate the number of users in future years. Improvement in the efficiency of end-use devices and/or substitution of energy sources are considered, to determine the possible reduction in the category-wise unit energy usage, and the corresponding energy requirement is estimated. The electricity plan for the state of Karnataka comprises future demand estimation as well as the comparative costs of various supply/saving options. For the other states, electricity demand has been estimated in various scenarios. In the oil scenarios for India, the focus is mainly on demand management through modal and carrier shifts, with emphasis on the middle distillates. The biomass strategy for Karnataka includes both demand- and supply-side measures. All these studies show that the DEFENDUS planning procedure is easily amenable to modification according to the particular case under consideration. Further, the integration of worksheets for individual sources of energy demonstrates that this method, though simple, is capable of dealing with composite energy planning. Above all, with the popularity of personal computers and spreadsheet packages, the DEFENDUS method facilitates the democratization of energy planning

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 efficiency from the perspective of developing countries

Energy efficiency improvements are particularly important for developing countries. In most developing countries, the costs of reducing energy use by one kWh with more efficient technology are invariably much lower than the costs of increasing energy supply by one kWh through investments in new energy supply equipment. In fact, if the unit cost of energy supply increases is taken as the reference for comparison, then the relative costs of energy-efficient technologies can turn out to be negative. Thus, capital can be saved by investing in energy efficiency compared to investing in energy supply. Energy needs in the South are different from those of the North because of differences in climate (e.g., space heating is not required in most of the South) and because satisfaction of basic human needs and infrastructure building must be given paramount attention in the South. Consequently, the innovations necessary are also different. For example, innovations in the processing of basic materials (e.g., steel, cement, glass, etc.) are needed in developing countries because these materials are needed for infrastructure-building. Yet innovations in the basic materials-processing industries will come only slowly from the industrialized countries because the infrastructure-building era is largely over there and the demand for basic materials is largely saturated. Because such industries are energy-intensive, innovations would result in less energy-intensive, less costly and cleaner technologies with beneficial implications for energy futures in developing countries. Such opportunities for technological leapfrogging should be identified and utilized. The technical and economic potential for energy saving is 20–50% in the case of efficiency improvements in existing installations and 50–90% in the case of new installations. The potential for further efficiency improvements through continued research and development is large because fundamental physical constraints on efficiency are remote. The pursuit of energy efficiency improvement should be carried out in parallel with improvements in institutions, entrepreneurship management and human resource development. A key policy is to bring more energy-efficient technologies to the market, and to focus market attention on energy efficiency performance. Several successful approaches have been tried. The incentive structures in the markets are fundamental, as illustrated by integrated resource planning and utility demand side management that took off in the US only after the regulations of the power industry were changed to make it possible for utilities to earn profits on demand side energy efficiency investments. There is a need for an integrated view of the concept and role of energy efficiency revealing its structure and interconnections. Energy efficiency should be an integral characteristic of any product or activity. Emphasis on energy efficiency would liberate resources that can then be used for socio-economic development

Studies in biogas technology. Part I. Performance of a conventional biogas plant

This paper gives an account of a conventional 5.66 m3/day (200 cubic ft/day) biogas plant which has been instrumented, operated and monitored for 2 ½ years. The observations regarding input to the plant, sludge and biogas outputs, and conditions inside the digester, have been described. Three salient features stand out. First, the observed average daily gas yield is much less than the rated capacity of the plant. Secondly, the plants show ease of operation and a very slow response to reductions and cessations of dung supply. Thirdly, the unexpectedly marked uniformity of density and temperature inside the digester indicates the almost complete absence of the stratification which is widely believed to take place; hence, biogas plants may be treated as isothermal, 'uniform' density, most probably imperfectly mixed, fed-batch reactors operating at the mean ambient temperature and the density of water