ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

By Dr. J. R. Meshram, Scientist ‘F’, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, New Dehi, and Gargi Malik, Assistant Director, Press Information Bureau, New Delhi

New Delhi, Feb 1, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio / PIB India) Think of a sugar mill, not only producing sugar but also generating power as a by-product. Bagasse, a residue of crushed sugarcane used in sugar mills is the principal fuel used to raise steam in sugar mills. With the technological innovations, the high pressure steam generated in boilers can in turn be used to rotate the turbo generator blades to produce electric current. The process employed here to generate power is called cogeneration which essentially implies the production of two forms of energy, electricity and heat. The power thus generated can be used for meeting the requirements of the sugar mill and the surplus can be fed into the grid.

NEW DELHI, January 24, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio) This Indian Republic day, Veecon music creates history with the biggest ensemble of artiste’s rendering the iconic "VANDE MATARAM" epitomising India’s unity in diversity by bringing together as many as 21 of India’s finest singers and musicians to celebrate a fresh new version of India’s national song.

By V. K. Gupta

The author is Senior Advisor and Director, TKDL, CSIR, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research,  Ministry of Science &Technology, Govt. of India

New Delhi, Jan 17, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio / PIB India) TKDL is a collaborative initiative between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, and Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and a maiden Indian effort to prevent misappropriation of traditional knowledge belonging to India at International Patent Offices. TKDL has overcome the language and format barriers by scientifically converting and structuring the traditional medical knowledge of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha in 34 million A4 size pages of the ancient texts in languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Tamil into five international languages, namely, English, Japanese, French, German and Spanish, with the help of information technology tools and a novel classification system - Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC). Today, India through TKDL is capable of protecting about 2.5 lakh medicinal formulations similar to those of neem and turmeric. TKDL access has been given to eight International Patent Offices which are European Patent Office (EPO), Indian Patent Office, German Patent Office (GPO), United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKPTO), United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), IP Australia and Japan Patent Office (JPO) under Access (non-disclosure) Agreement. Based on the evidences of prior art submitted by the TKDL team on the basis of the information present in the TKDL database, so far 88 patent applications of the pharma companies of United States, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, China, etc. have been either set aside or withdrawn/cancelled or declared as dead patent applications at no cost and within few weeks of submission of prior art evidences, whereas cancellations of patents have been known to take 4-13 years of complex and expansive legal battle. Considering the novelty, utility and its effectiveness in preventing the grant of wrong patents several countries and organizations have expressed their keenness in replicating the TKDL model for their own countries. World Intellectual Property Organization including the global IP community has recognized India’s leadership in the area of Intellectual Property Rights and Traditional Knowledge and an International Conference on utilizing India’s TKDL as model for protection of Traditional Knowledge was held by CSIR and WIPO in March, 2011 at New Delhi where 33 developing countries participated.

By Gargi Malik
Assistant Director (Media & Communication)

New Delhi, Jan 17, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio / PIB India) Agriculture continues to be the main source of livelihood for a large part of   population in the country. Biomass, thus, is readily   available widely across the country, thereby, overcoming regional limitations. Biomass, which implies biological material from living or recently living organisms, can be used as an important source of energy. It is a renewable and carbon natural source of energy.

Biomass resources in India are estimated to be about 565 million tonnes per year. It includes agriculture residues and forest residues. Agriculture residues result from crop harvesting and processing. They include rice husk, bagasse, sugar cane tops and leaves, groundnut shells, cotton stalks and mustard stalks. Forest residues result from logging and wood processing. They include small trees, branches, tops and un-merchantable wood left in the forest.

The surplus biomass resources available for power generation annually are about 189 million tonnes, which could support roughly 25 GW of installed capacity. Further, co-generation plants provide both heat energy, used in the mill, and electricity, which is typically sold to the grid. It is estimated that about 15 GW of electricity generating capacity could be achieved through adding cogeneration capabilities in various industries including sugar mills, breweries, textile mills, distilleries, fertilizer plants, pulp and paper mills, and rice mills. In addition, there exists a potential of setting up 12 million family type biogas plants.

Types of Biomass

Biomass includes three distinct categories

·         Solid Biomass, which includes tree, crop residues like rice husk, bagasse, coconut shells, jute waste, etc. and animal and human waste.

·         Biogas which is obtained by anaerobically digesting organic material to produce combustible gas methane.

·         Liquid biofuels which are obtained by subjecting organic materials to one of various chemical or physical processes to produce usable combustible liquid fuels.

Biomass Conversion To Useful Energy

A number of technological options are available to make use of a wide variety of biomass types as a renewable energy source. Conversion may release energy directly in the form of heat/electricity or, may convert it into another form such as liquid biofuels or combustible biogas. There are basically three types of conversions:

·         Thermal Conversion- A process in which heat is used to convert biomass into another chemical form.

·         Chemical Conversion - A range of chemical processes may be used to convert   biomass into other forms so that fuel may be used more conveniently, transported or stored.

·         Biochemical Conversion- It involves anaerobic digestion fermentation and composting.

Benefits Of Using Biomass

·         It reduces air pollution as biomass emits less Sulphur dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide than fossil fuels. Further, biomass fuels recycle atmospheric carbon, minimizing global warming impacts since zero net Carbon dioxide is emitted during biomass growth phase. Amount of carbon dioxide emitted is equal to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed from atmosphere during growth phase of biomass.

·         Using biomass decreases animal and municipal waste. Through anaerobic digestion process biomass in the form of waste is converted into useful energy.

·         Using biomass  as  fuel  reduces  the  landfill  space  required  to  dump  the    woody biomass, lumber  mill waste, etc.

·         It helps in creating local jobs in a rural areas.

Presently, biomass contributes to around 30% of the total primary energy supply in the country. The major source of energy for cooking for 85% of households in rural India includes firewood, chips, dung cake, etc.  Moreover 20% of urban households still rely primarily on traditional fuels to meet their cooking needs. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has initiated various  schemes  and  also  promoted  various  NGOs  to  work  in  the field of energy from biomass. The initiatives can broadly be classified into two categories:

·         Rural  Areas  Initiatives: National  Biomass  Cookstove  Initiative(NBCI); Family  Type  Biogas  Plant; Biomass  Gasification  System.

·         Urban  Areas  Initiatives: Programme  for  Energy  Recovery  from  Urban  Waste; Biomass  Gasifiers  and  Biomass  Cogeneration (Non-Bagasse) Projects.

Rural Areas Initiatives

National   Biomass  Cookstove  Initiative(NBCI): In  rural  areas  a  large  percentage  of  population  continues  to  depend  on  biomass. Clean  and  efficient  energy  is  provided  for  energy  deficient  section  of  population  through  smokeless  chulha, where  different  types  of  fixed  and  portable  cookstoves  are  made  available  to  rural  household. In a  case  study  on  various  Dhabas  and  roadside hotels  in  Andhra  Pradesh,  it  was  observed  that  fuel  efficient  stoves  installed  were able  to  conserve  about  50-60%  of  fuel  as  compared  to  traditional  stoves.   There  was  reduction  of  smoke  and  thus  increase  in  productivity  with  a  positive  impact  on  environment.

Smokeless Chulha

Image via Wikipedia

New Delhi, Jan 16, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio / PIB India) As one of the oldest and greatest civilizations of the world, India indeed has an incredible story to tell about its rich and glorious past. The treasures of its golden past are kept in its museums for the mankind to see, enjoy and cherish. There are over a thousand museums in India, both large and small. Over 90 percent of these are funded and maintained by the Central and State Governments and few renowned museums have also been set up through private efforts. The Archaeological Survey of India itself manages 44 site museums located near important historical sites, some of them in the remotest parts of the country like Dholavira and Lothal in Gujarat and others at well-known World Heritage Sites such as Agra.

Some of the oldest museums were established by the British and their collections were a combination of natural history and antiquarian remains like the 197 year old Indian Museum, Kolkata (which will be celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2014) Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai.

Museums have always played an important role in our society by bringing us closer to our roots and making us aware of our glorious past. Museum visits as an integral part of school life were important events, which shaped our understanding of the growth of human life on earth.

It is in this context that Jay Winter, American Historian has said that, “Museums are, in a way, the cathedrals of the modern world, places where sacred issues are expressed and where people come to reflect on them. A museum is also a kind of bridge between the academy and the public.”

However, of late museums across the country have suffered a down-turn, both in terms of their working and their public image as they have not been able to keep pace with the international best practices in the field. There is a severe shortage of museum professionals in the country because of which the museum sector has suffered a setback. This is amply clear from the fact there is a high vacancy rate in almost all the National level museums in the country. Due to the unavailability of dedicated professionals many of the museums in the country today are in a state of neglect, being managed by staff with little or no knowledge or professionalism in their business.

The need for modernization and up-gradation of museums in India has been felt and expressed for several decades. In the light of much needed reforms in the field the Ministry of Culture has proactively pursued a path of initiating museum reforms. After brainstorming with Museums Experts and Directors, The Museum Reforms Programme was instated by the Ministry of Culture, to address 14 key concerns in the Museum Sector. These concerns are: