Virtual Nikethan

Easy Ways to Conserve Water and Save Money

2010-02-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

How many times a day do you give thanks for the clean, potable water that comes flowing out of your faucet? Although we may take it for granted, the fact is that less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use, and over 884 million people in the world lack access to safe water supplies.

This is approximately one in eight people. (Now do you feel lucky?)
Many people are worried about global warming, and the climate change crisis that is occuring all over the globe. However, experts are predicting that soon the number of people without access to clean drinking water will climb past 1 billion. This water crisis will have repercussions all over the globe as different cultures scramble to secure lifegiving water for consumption and agricultural uses.

It's important that we all do our part to make the best use of the resources we have, which means finding ways to reuse water and reduce our daily consumption.

Here are some easy, inexpensive ways that you can get started:

1. If it's broken...fix it!
It might seem like a no brainer, but leaking faucets and dripping shower heads are some of the biggest household water wasters. In fact, just a small drip from a worn faucet washer can waste 75 litres of water per day. Larger leaks can waste hundreds of litres!!!

Don't forget that toilets can leak too, but it's harder to spot. Put a little food coloring in your toilet tank. Don't flush it, and if the color begins to appear in the bowl within 30 minutes, you have a leak that should be repaired immediately.

Take a few minutes to check on all the faucets and toilets in the house, and if you notice a leak, break out your wrench, or call up a plumber.

2. Install aerators
We all take showers and baths to stay clean, and use the bathroom sink to brush our teeth and wash our faces. But have stopped to think about how much clean, drinkable water is rushing down the drain during these hygiene rituals? The average home shower blasts out about 25-35 litres of water per minute, which means even if you're only taking a ten minute shower, you've already waster 350 litres of water before breakfast! If you leave the tap running while you brush your teeth or shave, you could be sending 35 litres of water down the drain.

The good news is that both of these problems can be solved by installing an inexpensive device called an aerator or restrictor into your faucets and shower heads. Aerators work by mixing air into the water stream, which gives you a nice even pressure, even though you're using a fraction of the water.

3. DIY low-flow toilet
If you're shocked about the sheer volume of water you're wasting at the sink and in the shower, get ready to brace yourself. Toilets use about 30 percent of the total water used in a household, and if you're still using a conventional single flush toilet, you might be wasting up to 5 litres of water in one flush.

If you don't have the money (or desire) to replace your conventional toilet with a more efficient one, it's easy to convert your existing throne to a low-flow toilet all on your own.

Put an inch or two of sand or pebbles inside each of two plastic bottles to weigh them down. Fill the bottles with water, screw the lids on, and put them in your toilet tank, safely away from the operating mechanisms. Or, buy an inexpensive tank bank or float booster. This may save 35 litres or more of water per day (from EarthEasy.com).

4. Catch it if you can!
The average Indian uses about 135 litres of water per day, and you might find it hard to believe that a staggering 30 percent of that isn't even used for drinking, cooking or cleaning: it's used to water lawns and gardens, wash automobiles, maintain swimming pools, and cleaning sidewalks and driveways.

It's important to remember that while we can't necessarily drink the water that falls from the sky as rain (air pollution!) we can use it for these other, non-consumptive applications. In order to take advantage of this free, and often squandered source of water, you can install rain hrvesting systems on your roof or rain barrels around your home.

5. Be smart
Even if you can't manage to make any of these upgrades or additions to your home right away, there are plenty of behavioral changes that can be made to reduce your family's water footprint.
•Turn off the water when you're washing dishes by hand, brushing your teeth or shaving.
•Only run the clothes washer or the dishwasher when you've got a full load.
•Avoid baths and take shorter showers.
•Plant drought-resistant lawns, shrubs and plants in your yard, and put down mulch wherever you can to help water from evaporating too quickly.
•If you must water your garden or lawns, be sure to place your sprinklers in such a way that no water will fall on sidewalks or driveways, and only water in the early morning or evening, when the weather is cooler.
•Use a broom, and not a hose to clean your driveway and sidewalks.
•Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Dispose of tissues, insects and other such waste in the trash rather than the toilet.
•Use the garbage disposal less and the garbage more (or better yet compost!) and you could save 200-500 litres a month.

- Anand Varadaraj
As Mark Twain said "Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody."

Roll on 'em, babe !

2009-06-19T04:16:00.000-07:00

Sainsbury "rolls out" Kinetic energy plates in their store to capture energy from moving vehicles. "Energy will be captured every time a vehicle drives over "kinetic road plates" in the car park and then channelled back into the store."

Now you can drive in to your store and still feel good about it.
Oh wait a min ! "....the energy generated by the devices is not totally "free". Rather, they capture a tiny amount from each car that passes over them, increasing each vehicle's fuel consumption by a tiny
amount." !!

Better Place ~ Building build infrastructure for electric car

2009-05-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

Better Place, a company working to build infrastructure for electric cars, has released a video showing how its technology for swapping spent car batteries works.

Swapping stations, the company said, would facilitate longer trips for battery-powered cars — say over 100 miles or so — by allowing drivers to roll up and swap out a spent battery for a freshly charged one. (For shorter distances – commuting for example – the cars can simply be recharged at home or at work.)

The video, taken from a demonstration on Wednesday in Yokohama, Japan, shows a white Nissan electric crossover sport-utility vehicle driving onto a ramp in a tidy, covered white station. Machines remove the battery from the bottom of the car and click in a replacement, amid whirring and clinking sounds.

The company says that the entire process takes 80 seconds, though that’s difficult to verify from the slickly cut video.

Better Place plans on beginning construction of more battery swap stations, which it calls “Switch Stations,” later this year — though unlike in the video, ramps will not be used in the future deployment of the swap machines, according to a Better Place representative.

One hundred of the stations — which cost around $500,000 apiece — will be rolled out in Israel by 2011, with additional stations slated for Denmark and later, Australia, California, Hawaii and Ontario.

Though it uses a sport-utility vehicle for the demonstration – not the greenest choice – the company said that it can recharge the batteries using solar panels, “creating a truly zero-emission solution,” according to an e-mailed comment from Sidney Goodman, a Better Place vice president.

“It will be as quick (if not quicker) than refueling a traditional gas-powered vehicle,” Mr. Goodman said, “but will be much cleaner and convenient, allowing consumers the opportunity to either get out of the vehicle during battery switch or remain inside the vehicle while the operation is completed.”

~ Anand Varadaraj

Wireless power for your laptop

2008-08-22T23:46:00.000-07:00

Wireless power has been on the news ever since Tesla, but recently Intel hit a breakthrough. Intel claims advances in lighting wireless power in their developer forum - wirelessly powered 60-watt bulb

NYTimes gives background on Intel's improvement to the 'wireless resonant energy link' technology pioneered at MIT, where researchers achieved 50% efficiency of power transmitted several meters via magnetic fields. Intel reached 75% efficiency. Now they just have to make those coils a lot smaller.

What makes up the price of Gasoline?

2008-06-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

Consider the game of chicken that plays out every day across Pennsylvania Highway 441. In Marietta, where the road hugs the Susquehanna River, a Rutter's Farm Store gas station stands on one side, a Sheetz gas station on the other.

Kelly Bosley, who manages Rutter's, doesn't even have to look across the highway to know when Sheetz changes its price for a gallon of gas. When Sheetz raises prices, her own pumps are busy. When Sheetz lowers prices, she has not a car in sight.

She calls Rutter's headquarters to report the competition's new price and wait for instructions.

"I call a lot of times and say, 'They went down, hurry up! Hurry up! Call me! Call me!' Or it could be where theirs goes up, and I'll say, 'Take your time! You know, I like being busy.' But I have no control over that."

You think you feel helpless at the pump?

Bosley makes a living selling gas -- and even she has little control over what it costs.

So how exactly are gas prices set? What determines the hair-pulling figure you see displayed in large electronic or plastic numbers? Why is a gallon of gas, say, $4.11 -- not $4.10 or $4.12? Why is the price different across the street?

It all starts with oil.

The biggest factor in the skyrocketing price of gasoline is the historic ascent of crude oil, which has surged from $45 per barrel in 2004 to more than $135 last week, setting new record highs all the while.

In the first quarter of this year, based on a retail price of gas that now seems like a steal -- $3.11 a gallon -- crude oil accounted for all but about a dollar, or 70 percent, of the cost, according to the federal government.

The rest is a complex mix of factors, from the cost of turning oil into gas to taxes to marketing costs to, sometimes, nothing more than the competitive whims of gas station owners.

Not that understanding the breakdown makes it any less cringe-inducing to fill 'er up.

Step by step

First a primer on how gas gets to your tank:

Once oil is pumped from the ground, it can be sold on the spot market, a last-minute trading arena where oil companies and distributors buy and sell to each other, or straight to refiners. After it's brewed into gasoline, the product can again be sold on the spot market, or directly to wholesalers, who in turn can supply their own stations or sell it to other retailers.

Each step of the way, buyers and sellers negotiate a price.

At the starting point of all this is the price of oil -- which, like the oil itself, is nothing if not crude.

The knee-jerk villains are the oil companies, fat with multibillion-dollar profits, frequent targets of populist anger. But wait: The oil companies don't set the price of oil or the cost of gas.

Prices are a function of the open market, the result of futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and other exchanges around the world.

Buying the current July crude oil futures contract means you're buying oil that will be delivered by the end of July. But most investors who trade futures have no intention of ever accepting the underlying oil: Like stock investors who frequently buy and sell their holdings, they're simply betting prices will rise or fall.

Lately, oil futures have been rising.

Why? Blame the falling dollar. Oil is priced in U.S. dollars, and the weaker the dollar gets, the more attractive dollar-denominated oil contracts are to foreign investors.

The rush of buyers keeps pushing oil futures to a series of new records, and the rest of the energy complex, including gasoline futures, has followed. That pushes up the price of gas that goes into your tank.

"Crude is the driver," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. "As long as it stays up there, gasoline's not going to be able to decline much at all, even if demand slips. That's just the way it is."

There is some evidence Americans are buying less gas as the price marches higher, and common sense suggests they would cut back even more if gas rose to $4.50 or $5 a gallon.

Lower demand should mean lower prices -- but it takes time for that to happen, given the enormous scale of refining operations that produce gasoline.

"Once demand begins to slow, that needs to translate into inventories, then you get some price weakening," Ritterbusch said. "But it takes a while."

Oil and gasoline prices often move in the same direction, but they aren't linked directly. In fact, while oil prices have more than doubled in the past year, gasoline is only up about 19 percent during the same time.

Oil prices often fluctuate with production decisions from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies about 40 percent of the world's crude, or when conflict in the Middle East or Nigeria threatens supplies.

As for gasoline prices: They're closely tied to demand from U.S. drivers and how efficiently refineries are operating. Falling production or inventories often send prices skyrocketing.

Those prices can vary greatly depending on the region.

The Gulf Coast is the source of about half the gasoline produced in the United States, and areas farthest from there tend to have higher prices because of the cost of shipping gas via pipeline and tanker truck all over the country.

Beyond oil

It's not only about the price of oil. Other costs are a factor -- though they've remained relatively stable.

For example, federal and state taxes added 40 cents to a gallon of gas in the first three months of this year, roughly the same amount as they added four years ago.

California's 63.9 cents of tax is the nation's highest, Alaska's 26.4 cents the lowest. (Iowa's is 40.1 cents; Illinois, 57.9; and Missouri, 36.0 cents per gallon.) How the money is used varies from state to state, though the federal take helps to build and maintain highways and bridges.

Marketing and distribution costs -- the tab for delivering gasoline from refiner to retailer -- were 27 cents to start the year, only 6 cents above the cost four years ago.

The cost of refining added 27 cents to a gallon in the first quarter of this year, a nickel less than what it added in 2004, according to the Energy Information Administration.

That refining occurs at sprawling industrial complexes across the United States, with most of the biggest along the Gulf Coast. Barrels of crude arrive each day by pipeline, ship and barge. The refineries, by heating, treating and blending the raw oil, turn out products like diesel and lubricating oil.

And, of course, gasoline.

Maintaining a balance

What happens when that gasoline makes its way to your neighborhood gas station?

Major oil companies own fewer than 5 percent of gas stations. Most are owned by small retailers -- and many of them say they're struggling these days to turn a profit on gas. That's because wholesale gasoline prices have risen sharply in recent months -- again, blame it on crude -- but station owners have been unable to raise pump prices fast enough to keep pace.

And you can't keep jacking up the price when drivers are buying less.

Gas station owners face a balancing act: They must try to maintain a price that allows them to afford the next shipment of gasoline but not give the competition an edge.

Stations pay tens of thousands of dollars for each gas shipment before they see a cent in the register. Eventually, many make only a few cents on a gallon of gasoline, a margin that can disappear altogether when credit card fees are added in.

Thank goodness for beef jerky and sodas.

Most gasoline retailers long ago got past any illusion they can make money selling gas. They rely on gas sales to drive traffic to their shops, where they hope auto repairs or food and drink sales will help them turn a profit.

"You're always out there competing with the guy next door -- literally with the guy across the street -- and worried too about how you're going to pay for your next supply," said Rayola Dougher, a senior economic adviser at the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's trade association.

In the Philadelphia suburb of Havertown, Pa., earlier in the week, Sunoco station operator Steve Kehler received a load of gasoline -- 9,000 gallons -- which, at a wholesale price of $3.729 a gallon, cost him 4 cents more than the previous load.

That left him in a sticky situation: Should he raise prices right away to recoup some of his higher gasoline expenses, or should he hold off for a couple of days in hopes his competitors also will have to raise their prices?

"I'm surrounded by $3.89's, and I'm already at $3.91," said Kehler, referring to his prices and those of some nearby competitors. "I'm going to play a little waiting game right now."

The $33,600 Kehler must pay for his overnight gasoline delivery won't be debited from his bank account for a few days. That gives him a little breathing room, time to hold prices steady. Hiking prices too quickly will hurt sales.

"I'll probably change it tomorrow night, at closing," Kehler said. "I'll go up 4 cents."

That will put Kehler at a gross margin of about 20 cents a gallon. After paying credit card fees, labor and rent, Kehler will be lucky to break even on his gasoline sales.

Of course, the plight of retailers is little consolation for drivers.

Mayra Perez said she works two jobs to help support her family, and gasoline is becoming harder to afford.

She was filling the tank of her car in Miami last week to the tune of $3.89 per gallon.

"This is horrible," she said. "On the weekend, my husband and I use only one car to save on gas.

"But then there's the cost of food, milk, eggs, the rent."

As William K. Whiteford quotes “Smell that! That's gasoline you smell in there. You can't buy any perfume in the world that smells as sweet.”

...Anand Varadaraja
Source: By JOHN PORRETTO and JOHN WILEN - The Associated Press

General Gyan

2008-06-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

More & more stores are encouraged to use bags made of recyclable paper, cutting down on plastic bags. Customers are also encouraged to get their own bag.

Facts:

Plastic bags cost about a paisa 50 each, paper costs about a Rs.2 and compostable bags can run as high as Rs.10 each.
The bags also must be segregated from regular plastic, making recycling efforts more difficult.

Meanwhile:

Paper bags generate 70 percent more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags, according to the Environmental Agencies.
This is because four times as much energy is required to produce paper bags and 85 times as much energy is needed to recycle them.
Paper takes up nine times as much space in landfills and doesn't break down there at a substantially faster rate than plastic does.

Public education campaigns about littering and recycling can help more than ineffective bans on products that are used every day by billions of people worldwide.

...Anand Varadaraja

Concentrating solar power

2008-06-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

Read an interesting article on Concentrated Solar Power & this technology has been overshadowed by photovoltaic solar energy.

A brief on Concentrating solar power
Concentrated sunlight has been used to perform useful tasks since the time of ancient China. A legend claims Archimedes used polished shields to concentrate sunlight on the invading Roman fleet and repel them from Syracuse. In 1866, Auguste Mouchout used a parabolic trough to produce steam for the first solar steam engine, and subsequent developments led to the use of concentrating solar-powered devices for irrigation, refrigeration and locomotion.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated light is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. A wide range of concentrating technologies exist; the most developed are the solar trough, parabolic dish and solar power tower. These methods vary in the way they track the Sun and focus light. In all these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage.

The SEGS plants in California and Acciona's Nevada Solar One near Boulder City, Nevada are representatives of this technology.

A parabolic dish system consists of a stand-alone parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned at the reflector's focal point. The reflector tracks the Sun along two axes. Parabolic dish systems give the highest efficiency among CSP technologies. The Big Dish in Canberra, Australia is an example of this technology.

A solar power tower uses an array of tracking reflectors (heliostats) to concentrate light on a central receiver atop a tower. Power towers are less advanced than trough systems but offer higher efficiency and better energy storage capability. The Solar Two in Daggett, California and the Planta Solar 10 in Sanlucar la Mayor, Spain are representatives of this technology.

Please click here to read more on this amazing technology

Ralph Nader quotes ~ “The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.”

...Anand Varadaraja

Source:Wikipedia, Leonardo Energy

Talentnow - Recruitment with a Eco Touch

2008-06-19T23:06:00.000-07:00

Talentnow - A recruitment group is a privately held company and is supported by the Vora Group, a highly successful group with 11 companies and 2100 employees world-wide.

But why are they featured here? :-)

Talentnow has taken a pledge for World Environment Day that they will plant a tree for every resume or job that gets registered with us during the month of Jun 08. Each of these trees they believe would symbolize growth and well-being of all of us.

Lets salute them in this effort.

As an Englinh Proverb says "If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.”

...Anand Varadaraj

SexInfo - Awareness Messaging Service

2008-06-18T04:02:00.000-07:00

Youth, and in particular young African Americans, are at an alarmingly high risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STD). The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 25%, or 3.2 million teenage girls in the U.S. have at least one STD, with the highest prevalence is among African American teen girls, 48% of which have at least one STD.

Where can youth go for accurate health information? With 85 percent of San Francisco's youth owning a cell phone , providing health resources and STD-prevention information via cell phone simply makes sense. Through mobile technology, health care advocates can reach youth with the technology they use most often, and for youth text messaging is confidential and easy.

SexINFO is an innovative text messaging pilot public health program that allows youth to access health information via their wireless device. By providing basic health facts along with contact information for health care clinics, SexINFO aims to decrease rates of STD transmission among at-risk urban youth. By texting "sexinfo" to 61827, youth can interface with a helpful set of answers to key questions about safer sex, HIV, STDs and pregnancy.

Launched in 2006, San Francisco's SexINFO program is the first program of its kind in the U.S. This pilot has the potential to influence the way public health advocates throughout the country connect at-risk youth to health care services.

SexINFO was designed by health educators at I.S.I.S., Inc. with funding from the San Francisco Department of Public Health's (SFDPH) STD Prevention and Control division, and programmed by Hip Cricket.

...Anand Varadaraja

Sources:
Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use (PDF), Sheila Kinkade and Katrin Verclas, UN Foundation–Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership, 2008

Telecommuting - The Sun Micro way

2008-06-17T20:11:00.000-07:00

More than half of Sun Microsystems’ employees work from home or in a flexible office, and a study of some of those employees found big savings in vehicle expenses and energy use.

The company’s Open Work Energy Measurement Project studied more than 100 participants in the company’s flexible work program to see how much energy they used at Sun offices, at their homes and when commuting to and from work.

Employees saved more than $1,700 a year on gas and vehicle upkeep by working from home an average of 2.5 days a week. They also saved an average of 2.5 weeks of commute time.

Office equipment in Sun offices used twice as much energy as home office equipment, the study found. And commuting accounted for more than 98 percent of the employees’ carbon footprints.

About 19,000 Sun employees are in the flexible work program, accounting for 56 percent of the company’s workforce.

According to a telecommuting survey recently conducted by Dice, a technology career resource website, about 37 percent 1,500 technology professionals said they would be willing to cut their salary by 10 percent or less to telecommute. Thirty-six percent said they wouldn’t take a pay cut, 19 percent said they would take any job, and seven percent already telecommute.

Many companies in India have started Work from Home option. Genpact is implementing this in a big way.

As the quote goes "I am the King at my Home"

....Anand Varadaraja

China - Rowing ahead on Wind Power

2008-06-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

China plans to triple its wind power capacity over the next two years in line with the central government's goal of promoting clean energy and more sustainable economic development.

China's total wind power capacity now stands at 6,000 megawatts, but by end 2008 this would have reached 10,000 Mw. And by 2010, the central government will have boosted wind power production to 20,000 Mw, estimates China's Energy Research institute (ERI).

China's rapidly expanding economy -- its average annual GDP growth has been surging at around ten percent over the past five years -- has made it a major energy consumer.

China depends primarily on coal, an abundant and cheap indigenous energy resource. In the next 20 years, as China's economy continues to rise, the Energy Information Administration forecasts that the demand for coal will grow at an annual rate of 3.5 percent. But coal-fired power plants boost carbon emissions that hasten global warming. The World Bank reports that China has 20 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, largely due to high coal use.

Global warming and consequent climate change are taken seriously by the Chinese government. Already, the melting of glaciers in Tibet and Xinjiang and increased temperatures in western China threaten to reduce the rain-fed rice yields. China's coastal areas have also suffered from extreme storm surges in the past few years that have been attributed to climate change.

Compared to leading wind energy producers and consumers such as Germany, Spain and the United States, China's installed capacity is still low.

As the proverb quotes “If there is no wind, row.” China is all set to row in wind power.

- Anand Varadaraja

Gravity Lamp

2008-02-21T00:16:00.000-08:00

"A lamp power by gravity has won the second prize at the Greener Gadgets Conference in NYC. From the article, "The light output will be 600-800 lumens — roughly equal to a 40-watt incandescent bulb over a period of four hours. To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour glass-like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gentle glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp ... Moulton estimates that Gravia's mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year."mmm..Interesting !! But I might just need a little more weight to power my laptop....

"20 rupees extra madam..." ???

2008-02-11T00:57:00.000-08:00

HELLO WORLD!!!
My first words in the virtual space....
Yes.. It was the output of our first programs too written in BASIC, PASCAL, C etc etc
etc...
Surprisingly, but not so surprisingly, it seemed quite appropriate here too!!!
OK.. enough PJing... hope this article will be read further ahead too...

Again, late but not soooo late posting... The blog still exists!!! :D
(Repeating:- Better Later Than Never!!! )
I always thought its better we wrote on some matter that we knew about quite a lot, or even better, what we have experienced... so that it comes out not as a movie script... but more as an issue/problem that needs to be thought about and dealt with appropriately n I never felt "qualified" enough as these other guys to comment/write on the serous issues discussed. I finally felt today, I could write on something.... infact I should... whatever be the outcome...
What inspired me to do what I am doing now is what happened today mornin... n whats been happening for quite some time now (sadly)...

I miss my 7:20 AM Volvo.... Not sure if I missed it because I was 2 minutes late... or because the driver wasn't in a mood to wait...
After waiting for more than 45 mins, (BTW, the Volvo Buses are supposed to come every half-hour, 30-earth-minutes...), took an auto till silk-board, in hopes to find another reasonably empty bus. But the buses at Silkboard again were not in a "boardable" state... (By boardable... i dont necessarily mean even sit... a reasonable place to rest both my feet wud be good enough...)
Again, after looking at my watch for 50 times in 2 mins pushed me to another auto guy... asked him if he wud take me to the destination... the response:
AUTO GUY: "OK... 20 rupees extra"
ME: "WHY???"
He just shakes his shoulder and nods head...

I walked off in fury... to another set of auto guys... again, the same response...n the reason they give... are not new to anyone who is reading this I am sure...
"Allinda khali barbeku madam..." which translates to "We must come back empty from there..." (Oh yeah??? May be we should charge extra we we r on bench @ ofc...)
"You are IT people madam..." (What??????)
The next auto guy thankfully took me to the destination without an unpleasant word or expression... inspite of the Marathon Monday Morning Traffic... in the end... I paid him 6 bucks extra... just becoz he returned even the last buck change he
is supposed to...
My friends who aren't from here, kept tellin me about the sad state of autos in B'lore.. but I never really understood them.... until after my recent trip to Mumbai...
Now, I got some thing else to compare them with... :)
There are times when those demanding auto guys are taken to the police... and not much help if offered... infact they are mostly backed by everyone... "Afterall 20 rupees na sir... It is nothing big for you.." (NEVER MIND!!!!)
After that, I realized how much we so-called "IT" people (This term enrages me as much as the term "Bollywood enrages Aamir Khan") are literally harassed...
This, by-the-way has been happenning for quite some time now... before and after the auto price hikes... n ofcourse not only to me..
Infact it has sadly become a common topic of discussion @ cofi and lunch at
office... "How I dealt with the auto guy today..."
There was in-fact even a Citizen Journalist report on CNN-IBN about this issue recently... This made me realize how big of an issue this must be...
It is always believed that you shouldn't act in a state of extreme emotions.... (n for a good reason... I am sure :D )
But there are times... when you have to act at the moment.... So.. here is my act.... a virtual act tho'...
This is an almost everyday issue we face.... and I have some simple questions I ask myself when I face these situations... (m sure all of us do... )
- Can I call it a social issue?
- How can I deal with this problem?
- Are the reasons these guys give (even remotely) reasonable enough???( Trust me...n Call me crazy if you wish... I have stood n argued about this to auto guys
themselves... )
I believe every problem has a solution (Like all of us do...)
And this is a problem... for which I realized, I cannot find the solution alone...
It would be great if people suggested the actions that needed to be taken...
What I am going to do next?
- Ofcourse, eagerly await for suggestions...
- I will too try to look into this Citizen Journalist forum... I even save the web-page as a Favorite site now... :)
- Will try n approach one of the police stations... n try talking to one of them.... Will update this article then....
So long fellas.... :)

The Water Pyramid

2007-11-26T18:47:00.000-08:00

I was shocked to read the Newspaper Headline "Fill your water buckets today". The Bangalore water supply is shutting all valves to link the new water supply to provide 100 million liters of drinking water to the Bangalore city.

The Big Question is "How far can we survive like this?". It was then I stumbled into Acumen Fund's monthly report & the projects they support.

Aqua Aero Water Systems (AAWS) is project supported by Acumen, that has patented a technology the “Water Pyramid".

Aqua-Aero WaterSystems has developed the WaterPyramid concept for tropical, rural areas. The WaterPyramid combines state of the art technology, capacity building and local entrepreneurship in order to achieve a long lasting (financial) sustainable situation. The WaterPyramid makes use of simple technology to process clean drinking water out of salt, brackish or polluted water. Most of the energy needed to clean the water is obtained from the sun. The application is designed for tropical or subtropical regions around the world, where flat ground space is available together with abundant radiation from the sun.

Benefits:

Drinking water made easily available
For remote and local application
Low operational/maintenance costs
Can be used for income generation
Workforce can be locally recruited and trained
WaterPyramid can be locally produced
Based on Appropriate Technology

Read the Aqua Areo Watersystem BV website for more information.

As Benjamin Franklin Quotes “When the Well's dry, we know the Worth of Water”

...Anand Varadaraja

Garbage City to Garden City: NGO's on a mission

2007-11-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Huff, finally I have managed to post my first blog after innumerable reminders from Anand and co :) Let me add on to what Anand has already made a point about waste management and the efforts of various NGOs.
It really hurts to realize that Bangalore, what was once termed as the Garden City is now being termed the Garbage City. What hurts even more is the attitude of the so called educated people with absolutely no civic sense. Even when there is a trash can in plain sight (outside fast-food restaurants, for example), no one bothers to use it. Wrappers are strewn on the sidewalk, banana peels fly out of rolled-down widows of cars, straws are dropped nonchalantly on the streets as are plastic drinking cups, empty sites are promptly co-opted to be garbage dumping sites ("flip that garbage over the fence, no one is watching").It's definitely not the case that Bangaloreans are not clean. They all keep their houses clean, the fronts of their houses clean, their backyards clean. But this attitude towards cleanliness just doesn't translate to keeping the streets clean, keeping the community clean, not dumping garbage in the neighbor's empty site, not dropping garbage on the streets wherever one feels like it. And here I'm talking about people with education and with good jobs. The ones that are supposed to know better.
You speak to them, and they hit back “Why should we bother? The Municipal Corporation will take care of it”. Let’s not debate about whether it’s possible to change the mindset of such irresponsible … (Use whatever term for such people.).
Well, I do agree that there’s a sizable population who do care about the surroundings, the environment, and have civic sense. Most of us know the difference between bio-degradable and non-degradable substance and the ill-effects of non-degradable substances like plastic. What lacks among people is the awareness of how to safely dispose the garbage we generate. The simplest solution is to hand over the garbage to the doorstep garbage collectors. As responsible citizens, we should know that the waste we throw adds up to huge piles outside our cities and therefore polluting our surroundings. Most of the waste is just burnt - expelling toxic waste into the air, or just strewn around at certain places, which are far off from the city - but with current pace of development how far is it gonna go is anyone’s guess! Its time we make a difference – starting from home.

There are a lot of NGO’s, individuals who have put in a tremendous amount of effort to make a difference towards waste management. Below mentioned are just a few of them.

SAAHAS
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Anand has already mentioned about this organization in the previous post.

DailyDump
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http://dailydump.org/us.htm

A novel concept of composting your kitchen waste at home. Hats off to Poonam, the Brain Child of this product, for the amount of effort she has put into this. DailyDump offers a variety of compost pots named Gamla, Patta Kamba, Leave-it pot, Kamba etc for various needs of your home.

The compost that results can be directly added to the plants. No other fertilizer can substitute this manure. You can enjoy watching your plants bear fruits like never before.
I picked up one of the kambas last week and I must say each and every one must pick up one of these. These terracotta pots are so well designed; they can be used as a decorative piece!! Priced at Rs 500 for a non-painted and Rs 600 for a painted, it’s definitely worth it.
All you have to do is put the kitchen waste into these pots and leave them to decompose.

KK Plastics
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Everybody knows the ill-effects of plastic. But what do we do with it? How do we dispose it? Well, Mr K Ahmed Khan has the perfect solution to end this menace. He has come up with the concept of mixing plastics with bitumen to lay roads.
His company KK Waste Management Pvt Ltd [KKWM] now offers Rs 6 per kg of plastic!! Barring rigid plastics, they accept all manner of film waste without the need for sorting. Considering that Bangalore generates 30 MT of waste per month, the potential of the idea to clean up the city is clear. Also, the money will be going into the pockets of our game rag-pickers and housewives. In fact, needing almost 2 MT per km of road laid, KKWM would be running short of waste!!
More on this.. http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/plastics-recycling-is-out-in-the-streets/P0/

So what next??

Now that we are aware of some of the organizations that work towards waste management, it’s our turn to do our bit. Segregation at source (home) is one of the most important and wish will be followed at every household. Waste can be segregated as
1) Bio Degradable and
2) Non Bio Degradable.

Bio Degradable waste include organic waste, e.g. kitchen waste, vegetables, fruits, flowers, leaves from the garden, and paper.

Nonbiodegradable waste can be further segregated into:a) Recyclable waste – plastics, paper, glass, metal, etc.b) Toxic waste – old medicines, paints, chemicals, bulbs, spray cans, fertilizer and pesticide containers, batteries, shoe polish.c) Soiled – hospital waste such as cloth soiled with blood and other body fluids.Toxic and soiled waste must be disposed of with utmost care.

Lets just make a rough analysis of the kind of waste generated from a household and how we can handle this:
1) Kitchen waste: (Organic and bio degradable).
Kitchen waste contributes more than 50% of the daily waste. Bangalore produces about 3000 tonnes of waste everyday. The centralized government composting plant is capable of handling only about 500 tonnes per day. The rest reaches dumps that are illegal. If each one of us has a composting pot (dailydump) at home, I’m sure there would not be any need for an alternate solution. If you cannot buy one, atleast separate this waste and hand it over to the door-door garbage collector.

2) Newspaper
Now I’m sure nobody would throw away their daily newspapers!!Every1 would definitely find some space, under the cot, on an attic, cupboards, you name it and there will be space to store your old newspapers. This is cos, we have paid for these newspapers and we can gain back at least part of it by selling it to the kabadiwalas or the man who buys old newspapers.

3) Milk/ curds packets
When you can find place to store your newspapers, it should not be hard to store your milk and curd packets too. These too fetch decent money.

4) E-waste like dry cell batteries, electrical wires, non functional electronic/electrical items.
Saahas has a solution to manage your e-waste. They have placed recepticles at various locations in Bangalore. Find one closest to your place and drop them there. (http://www.saahas.org/ewasteprogramme.pdf Page 9).

5) Plastic covers ( Food packaging covers, Shampoo packets etc)
KK plastics pays Rs 6/Kg. If you cannot give it to them atleast hand it over to the nearest kabadiwala.
6) Bottles
PET bottles, glass bottles do fetch money. Hand it over to the nearest kabadiwala.

Apart from these I cant think of anything else that can add to the waste substantially. I really don’t see any reason why one should face problem in segregating their wastes. Now if you are wondering why you should take all this pain in segregating, when the pourakarmikas, or the people who collect the garbage door-door can segregate and in turn sell what ever is valuable, well the truth is they pick up only those items which are of high value and can fetch some decent money (Like PET bottles etc). Most of the other low value wastes which still can be recycled are not picked and find a place in the landfill.
Its time for each one of us to be responsible citizens and spread the word about these NGOs and ACT NOW.

Nanosolar - The Sun power at your Doorstep

2007-11-19T19:17:00.001-08:00

Sun always has been the most energy provider source for Earth & Nanosolar is tapping the right source. Nanosolar is a developer of solar power technology. Based in Palo Alto, CA, Nanosolar is developing and commercializing an extremely low cost printable solar cell manufacturing process. Nanosolar coatings are as thin as a layer of paint and can transfer sunlight into power quite efficiently.

Nanosolar was started in 2001 by Martin Roscheisen and Brian Sager, who met through their friend Reid Gershbein, and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company has received financing from a number of technology investors including Benchmark Capital, MDV, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google. Nanosolar received the largest amount in a round of Venture Capital technology funding, amongst United States companies during Q2 2006, with 100 million USD of new funding secured.

Solar powered buildings and homes might just become standard in the future, thanks to this innovative technology by Nanosolar Inc. Nanosolar has developed proprietary process technology that makes it possible to produce 100x thinner solar cells 100x faster. The underlying technology for these solar cells is nothing new, having been around for decades, but Nanosolar has created the actual technology to manufacture and mass produce the solar sheets. The solar cells are produced by a solar printing press of sorts rolling out these aptly named PowerSheets rapidly and cheaply. The machines apply a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil reducing production costs to a mere tenth of current solar panels and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute. The first commercial cells for consumer use are scheduled to be released this year.

These solar cells successfully blend the needs for efficiency, low cost, and longevity and will be easy to install due to their flexibility and light weight. In order to compete with the energy produced from coal solar has been in need of finding a way to shrink its costs down from $3 per watt to $1 per watt. Nanosolar's cells use absolutely no silicon as is the standard for current solar production and the efficiency of the PowerSheet cells are competitive with the traditional systems as well. The golden kicker, the cost to produce these solar coatings is a mere 30 cents per watt!!

Nanosolar has built what is soon to be the largest solar plant in world in San Jose and once full production begins early next year the facility is capable of producing a whopping 430 megawatts per year, more than the combined total of every other solar manufacturer in the U.S. The biggest problem for Nanosolar is keeping up with the impending solar boom. California recently launched the Million Solar Roofs initiative providing tax breaks and rebates to encourage the installation of $100,000 solar roofs per year for a solid decade. Thanks to the innovative approach Nanosolar is poised to launch the solar revolution and we the consumer stand to benefit greatly as the result.

More Read on Nanosolar:
http://www.nanosolar.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanosolar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4riNlqZHCTQ

As Ralph Nader quotes “The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.”
It's time the Sun shines real bright!!!

...Anand Varadaraja

Saahas - The Waste Management People

2007-11-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

As you drive around Bangalore you get to see lot of things – Beautiful Trees, Buildings under construction, heavy traffic & above all lots of garbage.

Talking about garbage we still see rag pickers segregating the waste to pick up the best of the scrap, however in this exercise they spread the garbage more. Some years ago many localities decided to adopt home garbage pickup model – where the garbage is collected from the doorstep instead of the person throwing it in the garbage bin. This works fine for a residential locality but the commercial or the areas where the pickup is not adapted still suffers. Bangalore generates 3,000 tonnes of waste everyday from households and commercial establishments. Around 50% of this waste is organic. The balance is accounted for by inorganic and hazardous waste.

Bangalore City Corporation has come up with a new scheme where they will pay plastic waste Rs.6 per kg directly to whoever gives it at their collection point. The plan is to set up around 120 collection points.

Saahas is a Bangalore based voluntary organisation are committed to finding solutions to problems related to solid waste management in the city. Saahas is ready to adopt one of the 120 collection points with the support of the Bangalore City corporation to make JP nagar 6th phase a plastic free zone. The initiative plan is being drafted & is being presented to the Bangalore City commissioner soon.

Saahas also work with Corporates on waste management. Project Satyam – they are composting their organic material in the same campus. They also work with Lalbagh Botonical garden on the same purpose.

Citizens E-Waste Recycling Initiative
Over the last two years, Saahas has worked closely with the Hazardous Waste Management, Programme Karnataka (HAWA), to study the various issues related to generation of e-waste as also its flow, recycling and final disposal.

Bangalore generates around 4,00,000 dry cell batteries from households and commercial establishments. Earlier there was no possibility of recycling this material safely. However, E-Parisaraa has come forward to ensure safe recycling and disposal by retrieving the metal and plastic components which in turn are recycled into secondary products. The hazardous content is then extracted and stored for disposal in the hazardous waste facility which is currently being set up close to Tumkur, near Bangalore.

Saahas is working in partnership with WeP Peripherals and E-Parisara. They have setup the first ever city wide collection programme for household e-waste like batteries, cds & floppies. One of the centers is in the State Bank of India branch. They have also setup these collections points in more than 20 schools around Bangalore. Hope this effort really pays of in making a bangalore a better place.
For more information check www.saahas.org

As Imelda Marcos Quotes “People say I'm extravagant because I want to be surrounded by beauty. But tell me, who wants to be surrounded by garbage?”

... Anand Varadaraja

The COMPOSTABLE Water Bottle.

2007-11-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

At last my first post on this blog :-)

Water: A common chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life. We all know the importance of it, I need not explain more.

I still remember 10 years ago people used to talk “who will buy water? When we get it for such a cheap price”, but life has changed today. Day in & out we buy water without a second thought. Quality is what we look at. The supposed to be corporation clean tap water is made to run through all kinds of Water purifiers before drinking at homes. But the point I am driving today is not about water it the way it is sold.

Packaged water in India is sold in Plastic bottles in all kinds of sizes starting from ½ liter, 1 liter & 2 liters.

Municipal solid waste in India contains 1-4 per cent by weight of plastic waste. India’s rate of recycling of plastic waste is the highest (60%) in the world as compared to other countries (China 10%, Europe 7%, Japan 12%, South Africa 16% and USA 10%) but is a much unorganized sector.

Today I want to talk about this wonderful organization called "Belu Water". This is a UK company providing mineral water in the UK. They are first company to provide UK's first COMPOSTABLE bottle made of corn and their profits go to clean Water projects in UK, Mali & India right now. They plan to take up projects similar to this around the world. They are also a Penguin Approved - They are anti-Global Warming.

To talk about their Bio-bottles - they are made from corn but could equally well be made from potatoes, rice, beetroot, bio-mass or pretty much any carbohydrate or sugar. The corn goes through a fermentation and distillation process similar to making corn whiskey and is reduced to a monomer called lactic acid (which you can also find in ice cream and pickles). This lactic acid is then spun, linked into polymer chains and molded into bottles.

Even though their bottle is compostable their cap is not. They request to reuse the same.

Read more about them on http://www.belu.org/

I wait for their launch in India & hope it makes a difference.

As Ed Rendell quotes “Bottled water was, at best, a temporary solution for this community,” but we have made it now a permanent solution.

...Anand Varadaraja

OmAshram: Hope in twilight of life

2007-10-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

I visited OmAshram, an old age home in Bangalore run by a charitable trust, this Sunday along with Janani. To the surprise of both of us the Ashram was just in front of Janani’s home in Bilekahalli, OmAshram has rented two houses in a radius of a km, just behind IIM Bangalore.

As we enter one of the houses, a poster of Mother Teresa greets us; the place is scrupulously clean and two old ladies are sitting on the sofas in the hall. One among them was a freedom fighter, Mr. Mohan, the manager of the old age home tells us; she used to stick nationalistic posters from a horse back for the freedom struggle, she refuses to take the freedom fighter’s pension even to this day, arguing that she fought for her country not for money. She is eager to speak to us and asks us some questions, but her hearing aid has gone for repair and she can hardly make out our answers, she complains to Mohan about it twice or thrice, disappointment evident in her voice.

OmAshram

The house is a 3 BHK with eight occupants, a nurse and the cooking staff, we are showed around the place but most of the inmates are sleeping. We walk towards the second house, as we enter the house we hear people cheering, the India Aus. match is going on and Australia have just had a run out. This house is a 2 BHK with around 10 occupants; some of them are well over 90.

We sit in the hall which has four beds arranged in a line, three old ladies are sleeping on the beds, there is a poster on the wall with a picture of a mother holding her baby tightly to her bosom, ‘Mother’s Love’ the poster declares, what an irony, I think, to have this poster in an old age home. We start talking to Lawyer Uncle,who has been living in the Ashram for past one year now, he is the youngest of the lot he tells us and we burst out laughing.

His heart is very weak he says, having suffered heart attacks thrice, hospitals had given up on him, but then he came to the Ashram and the Doctor couple that frequents the Ashram treated him. He has been on alternate medicine called Kellison since then, the medical facilities in the Ashram are excellent he tells us, “If you need a minor operation the Doctors will come and operate you right here.”, he says pointing to a bed. The idea of an operation taking place in this very room scares me.

Lawyer Uncle, ever cheerful.(though he looks a bit serious in the pic.)

Lawyer Uncle had his one leg amputated due to the uncontrollable growth of gangrene, but that hasn’t dampened his spirit a wee bit. He laughs as he tells us about his operation; his experience wasn’t all that good but there is no bitterness in his voice. Another lady who had been sleeping all along gets up; she was completely paralyzed we are told, not even able to speak, in the words of Lawyer uncle “Like a piece of vegetable.” But now she even manages to take bath on her own, the doctors had specified a massage routine for her and some exercises.

She was a TV serial addict it seems, but they don’t allow her to watch serials any more, watch anything they tell her, Discovery, News even WWF anything but the serials, they’ve experienced everything in their life, serials offer them nothing new. As the talk moves to serials, Lawyer Uncle says that a serial could very well be based on the Ashram, there are so many stories here, so many experiences that will leave you shocked, a whole world resides in the Ashram he says. He tells us about another inmate who is 97 year old, but still she is so spirited that she wants to bring her daughter, who is 75 years old, to the Ashram and look after her, me and Janani are humbled.

Auntie can even eat on her own now

We keep talking thus, laughing and chatting and we don’t realize that we’ve already been talking for more than an hour. It's lunchtime and they invite us to have lunch with them, but both Janani and me have had a late breakfast, and so we politely refuse. The nurses give them food, Lawyer Uncle says that they are very strict about food, he points to the nurse and says, “She hits me sometimes if I don’t eat food, which is absolutely necessary.” I realize now that they’ve found loving and caring people here in the Ashram; the Ashram is like a big joint family with facilities similar to a hospital. As we make to go, thanking everyone for talking to us, Lawyer Uncle asks us to visit again, bring your friends along, he says, they’ll enjoy it here, we’ll play cards and chess. Strange though it is, a visit to an old age home might not always be depressing, as we know now after having thoroughly enjoyed our visit to OmAshram.

P.S.- Do get in touch with OmAshram if you want to help in any way or just want to visit the place, their number is +91-80-26581682.

Notebook Distribution in Kanakapura- a photoblog

2007-09-23T22:54:00.000-07:00

Sagar in the first post addressed me as ‘the feather-weight photographer’, that’s the first time someone else has called me a photographer, I was a self-proclaimed one before that, and to tell you, I would like to be addressed so more often, though the truth is that right now I have no credentials for being called one except for a camera.

I would kick start my blogging journey on Virtual Nikethan through a photo blog of the trip to Kanakapura me, Anand, Gireesh, Shubha and Pratima made last weekend.

We were there to distribute the notebooks collected from the notebook collection drive in Anand’s office. As we reached the school I was taken aback to see the almost the whole school assembled in the courtyard. Anand being a seasoned volunteer, made his way to the make shift stage where he was joined by Shubha and Pratima, whereas I suddenly pretended to be busy clicking pictures and Gireesh preferred to look on from behind.

Siddaraju introducing us to the kids.

Siddaraju, the field worker from VN in Kanakapura introduced all of us to the kids, and told them why we were there. Anand started interacting with the kids and advised them to make proper use of the notebooks and study well. On being asked that what they wanted to do when they grew up, one of the kids answered that he’ll do social service, it was heartening to know that the seed for doing good to the society was already planted in such a young heart.

Anand lighting up the ceremonial lamp along with two kids.

There were looks of absolute glee on the kids’ faces as they received the notebooks and shook hands with Anand. Some parents, with pride on their faces, looked on the proceedings as the other kids enthusiastically clapped for their friends.

A girl claps on enthusiastically

As Pratima, Shubha and Gireesh went on to distribute the notebooks mingling with the kids as they did so, I sat among the kids clicking pictures and showing them their pictures. Kids become excited so easily, amazed to see themselves in the lcd display, having a camera certainly is a compensation if you don’t know the local language, you can at least interact through the pictures.

You see with your eyes, I dream. A shy kid, after receiving the notebooks.

He was talking to his friends laughing and smiling, after realizing that I was clicking him, he gave me this charming smile.

After distributing the notebooks to students from all standards and even some to college students, as we made to go, a horde of students wanted to shake hands with us, overwhelmed and feeling like celebrities we obliged As we headed for Chunchi falls after a yummy cuppa coffee at Siddaraju’s place, we were already feeling satisfied at having spent the day well.

P.S.-My liaison with photography started a few months back when I bought the Canon S3 IS, I enjoyed clicking away to glory and the camera became a constant companion to my trips and excursions. I recently attended a photography workshop, which has stimulated me to take photography seriously, I need to buy a DSLR soon, but till then I’ll try make the best use of what I have. The idea, as Anand the ‘excel’lent volunteer suggested, is to start profiling NGOs in and around Bangalore pictorially.

Will we ever learn ?

2007-09-23T05:02:00.000-07:00

Much has been talked about the nuclear agreement signed by the Indian government with the United States administration. Nevertheless, the talks concentrate on the political aspects of the deal, much less on the technical side. I have to admit that the more I read about the deal, the more I get confused.

As I try to understand more on the need of the deal, bigger questions pops up in my mind. Not being a political expert, I couldn’t fathom the ‘political mileage’ and ‘strategic advantages’ the country could gain from the deal, but the mere argument that the deal would revolutionize India’s energy sector makes me suspicious.

It wont take much brain to understand the need for some radical steps to address India’s growing power needs. To beat up China or to prop up the 10 percent growth much need to be done in the energy sector. But is nuclear the way to go ? I feel the propaganda is far from true.

Going nuclear way can only help us to generate more electricity, but that won't address all our energy requirements. Presently, only a small percentage of electricity generated in India comes from nuclear resources. A little more than 4000 Mwe produced makes the figure to just 3.4 percent of the total electricity generated. With the deal, we are just trying to increase that percentage. Atomic Commission admits that “Hydro potential and renewables must be exploited to the maximum possible extent and in as short a time-frame as possible” and it concludes by saying nuclear resources need to be exploited to address the long term requirements.

Understanding the truth that the worldwide nuclear energy generation is a minuscule 2% will give us some hint on how feasible these plans are. United States who pushes aggressively for the deal generates only 4 percent of its electricity requirement through nuclear resources. Apart from France, who invested much on the nuclear technology in the 70s and generates about 78 percent of its electricity which accounts to 16 per cent of its total energy consumption, none of the nuclear majors are interested in investing in this field. America, on the other hand, is betting big on bio fuel. Europe goes the wind and solar way and Russia thinks about coal and gas. Even China is reluctant in investing much on nuclear energy. The commercial potential of nuclear energy is identified way back in 50s, but still none of the biggies are interested in the energy. Are there any fundamental reasons behind their aversion to nuke power ?

Left front rightly pointed out the cost of nuclear power. Even with the best available technology, energy generated through nuclear means can be 8 times costlier than that generated through conventional means. It can cost more than thrice that of renewable energy. Do India still believe that we can maintain the competitive advantage given we give in that big on our energy needs ?

Several countries in the west, particularly Germany and Spain, are on their way to close down plans because nuclear energy is not considered as ‘clean’. One side, there are risks of accidents – the infamous Chernobyl - and on the other, there are waste disposal issues. In 1999, Germany bought law to shut down all plans and ban new ones from starting.

The bigger issues are with the decommissioning of the plants. In January this year, seven nuclear reactors have been decommissioned in Europe, four in UK, two in Bulgaria and one in Slovakia. To decommission its four plants, it will cost British taxpayers 103 billion Euros. If France - with its 58 reactors - decides to decommission the reactors, the bill will be at least five times higher. India may not face this problem immediately, but this definitely is worth a consideration.

A safe and easy way to waste disposal is not yet found out. France tries to bury its nuclear waste in a site near Beure, but the fact that the soil and aquifers will be contaminated for next ten thousand years makes France plans questionable.

Europe is heading in the right direction. The European Council takes nuclear energy out from the list of renewable sources and directed its members to produce 20 percent of its energy through renewable means.

Despite all the protests, the deal might go through. But still, we cannot call this the ‘energy of the future’. An increase in renewable energy and reduction of consumption through energy-efficient industry, habitat or life style might be a head straight solution for the future, but does anyone here care much about it ?

Swalpa blog maadi...

2007-09-19T14:02:00.001-07:00

"You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings".
- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein.

A seasoned and 'excel'-lent volunteer. A feather-weight photographer. A tarzan-ish nature-lover. An alternate energy-driven 'classical' singer. A thoughtful online tutor. A 'buy'-cycle rider. A 'Harry'-ed newcomer. An 'edgy' blogger. And a couple of Houdinis. What happens when such a motley crowd gets together? Nope. Not a recipe for disaster. But an enthusiastic and fun-loving group of volunteers.

We are a bunch of young and not-so-young volunteers in Bangalore, who work for an NGO called Vidyanikethan. Under the 'excel'-lent guidance of Vidyanikethan's oldest volunteer, Anand, we have so far volunteered for teaching and 'sponsor-a-child' programs at Vidyanikethan. But, we think it is time to take this volunteering to the next level. We brainstormed last week, under the influence of cheesy pizza, aerated drinks and Prarthana's snacks, at iVolunteer's Bangalore office in Koramangala and came up with a set of ideas that we now want to implement.

The first idea that has been implemented is this blog. Our 'light' wonder, Sur, came up with this idea of hosting a group blog and here we are, a week later, already posting. Good going, I should say. Well, you aint seen nothin! Fasten your seat belts people; we are about to take off on an exciting journey, taking up new projects on the way. We believe that together, we can make a difference in the society.

A few basic terms to familiarize yourselves with the Vidyanikethan life:

'The Song' - Gireesh's soulful rendition of a classic Hindi song on the way to Bandipur.
'The Sighting' - The spectaculr sighting of a jungle fowl in Bandipur, courtesy our new age tarzan, Nisarg.
'The bike' - Adarsh's bicycle. Need I say more?

Virtually yours....The VN Volunteers.

Virtual Nikethan

Easy Ways to Conserve Water and Save Money

Roll on 'em, babe !

Better Place ~ Building build infrastructure for electric car

Wireless power for your laptop

What makes up the price of Gasoline?

General Gyan

Concentrating solar power

Talentnow - Recruitment with a Eco Touch

SexInfo - Awareness Messaging Service

Sources: Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use (PDF), Sheila Kinkade and Katrin Verclas, UN Foundation–Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership, 2008

Telecommuting - The Sun Micro way

China - Rowing ahead on Wind Power

Gravity Lamp

"20 rupees extra madam..." ???

The Water Pyramid

Garbage City to Garden City: NGO's on a mission

Nanosolar - The Sun power at your Doorstep

Saahas - The Waste Management People

The COMPOSTABLE Water Bottle.

OmAshram: Hope in twilight of life

Notebook Distribution in Kanakapura- a photoblog

Will we ever learn ?

Swalpa blog maadi...

Sources:
Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use (PDF), Sheila Kinkade and Katrin Verclas, UN Foundation–Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership, 2008