World’s greatest festival of democracy concludes tomorrow..

When the world's largest democracy celebrates the month-long festival of democracy, with the largest and most expensive elections ever in the history of mankind, the whole world looks on with awe and wonder .. The festival is concluding tomorrow with great expectations, pomp and splendour..

If the fate of the country is economic progress, development, agricultural prosperity, industrial growth, jobs and social welfare for the next five years,  India will be blessed with a Congress and like-minded party coalition. 

Pic courtesy Timesgroup ..

On the other hand if the fate of the country for the next five years is insecurity, majoritarian communalism, war mongering, despair, crony capitalism and economic mismanagement, we will be blessed with a RSS / BJP led government.. 

Did we exercise our franchise sensibly ? Is it the fight of nationalists against the anti-nationalists and divisive forces ?? 🙏🙏

Provided that the anti-national forces have not corrupted the system, we can expect the longings and aspirations of the 900 million electorate and the collective wisdom of the people to dominate over the divisive agenda of the communal forces.  

During the month long election process, the entire 1.32 billion population of the country got into a festive mood, from sanyasis to teachers, to govt servants to farmers and industry workers, all were energised into the process. Thanks to the spurt of communication media like TV and the Internet social media, the people had a great time listening to leaders, analysing policies, agendas etc before making a decision to decide whom to give their vote to.

Right from family politics to the damage over demonetisation, massive unemployment, farmer suicides, spurt in energy sector, Swach Bharat, Balakot encounter, GST and regional issues, the election has aroused (and polarised ??) the population as never before.

With an 8000 year old civilization to back, the Indian people will not allow divisive politics to divide the country or polarise the population, lest the sacrifices by the founding fathers of this great nation over 200 years fighting the  Portuguese, Dutch, French and British colonial forces and socially repulsive religious customs and traditions, are brought to naught and lost for ever !

God bless India !! 🙏

George ..

Understanding the dynamics of Internal Carbon Pricing

Every human activity has got a Carbon footprint. Organising a lunch feast may have a lower carbon footprint than running a chemical plant in the city subsurbs.  As part of the Paris Climate convention 2015, internal Carbon Pricing has been accepted as a pricing mechanism by organisations to plan to cover the costs of pollution of environment.This helps organisations to bring in environmental discipline in organisations to help reduce their carbon footprint to achieve the global target of containing the temperature rise to within 1.5 deg C by 2099.

What is Internal Carbon Pricing ?

Internal Carbon Pricing is the price an organisation pays for the carbon gases it releases into the atmosphere as a result of it's business operations and value chains. Across the world already 1389 corporations have already started this practice of pricing their Carbon emissions. In india, 27 companies are developing plans to implement Internal Carbon Pricing (ICP). (click here..)

Why do companies go for Internal Carbon Pricing ?

In future organisations are forecasting a situation where the companies will be taxed according to the pollution it creates on the environment. At that time to prevent being taken aback at the extra costs that have crept into their manufacturing costs, companies are in the process of incorporating those costs into their pricing mechanisms. It also helps the organisations or corporates to be more environmentally aware of the damage the organisation does on the environment helping them take preventive actions.

How can it be applied ?

It can be applied as

• Shadow price refers to future Carbon emissions while Internal carbon tax is charged for present Carbon emissions. Shadow price helps to understand the importance of green initiatives or technologies and its impact on the environment and is used as a management tool to support decision making. 
• Internal carbon tax collected on carbon emissions is used to fund carbon reduction projects with long-term payback periods. Arvind Textiles applies shadow pricing on its electricity usage thus controlling electricity usage while Dalmia Bharat Cements used internal carbon tax to generate funds through the internal tax structure to invest in low carbon technologies.
• Internal cap and trade is used by corporates and conglomerates among their sister companies in which some of them may be low Carbon spewing companies while others may be heavy carbon spewers. As long as the Carbon emissions are within the upper cap limit, it is of no concern as sister companies can trade between themselves with or without financial obligations etc. Tata Sons can use this to fix a total internal upper cap on Carbon release and allow companies within the group to trade between each other so that the total carbon emissions are never exceeded.
• Implicit carbon price is set by companies after they implement the carbon reduction project and from the total costs and Carbon generated till then, fix an interim cost for each tonne of carbon generated on future emissions.  (click here for more details)

How is it going to help companies ?

It will help the companies to measure exactly their carbon impact and strategise on measures to reduce it. 

George..

Challenges and promises of EV technology in the country ..

Basic elements of an electric vehicle.

India is presently going through an electric vehicle revolution. The present government has done good things to the electric vehicle industry in the country. Of the 175 GW renewable energy capacity target for the country by 2022 (raised from 100 GW) , 100 GW is proposed to be renewable energy through solar means.

Most of by now are well versed with the electric vehicle (EV) terminology and technology. It runs on Lithium-ion batteries which provide the power for the vehicle. These are the ones with the highest energy capacity per unit weight (specific capacity or specific energy) in the industry of approximately 70-250 Wh/kg. An EV has barely 20 moving parts compared to 2000 for a car running on spark ignition (petrol driven) or internal combustion engine (IC, diesel driven) engine. The earlier complex mechanisms and drives in spark ignition engines is missing in the new electric vehicles.

Here is an Autocar doc (click here..) which is a good Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) in the EV technology .. A must read for all EV enthusiasts ..

Why is it that EV technology and electric vehicles around the country and the world has not progressed fast ? Here we are listing some of the important issues and challenges faced by the electric vehicle industry in India.

1. Costly batteries, accounting for almost 50% of the cost of EVs. The high costs of Lithium and Cobalt oxide as the anode in these batteries (click here for the Cobalt mining in Africa Congo Republic) are responsible for the high costs as these Lithium-ion batteries are imported from China in most cases. The Suzuki-Toshiba-Denzo battery plant coming up in Gujarat can bring the costs to affordable levels in the future.

Globally Li-ion batteries which cost $600/KWh in 2012, cost $250/KWh in 2017 and is likely to cost $100 in 2024, on increase in demand due to economies of scale. Just like the cost of photovoltaic panels have come crashing down due to surge in demand from China and arouns the world, a boss in demand for EV will surely bring down the high costs of batteries and hence the cost of EVs.

Automobiles transition to Lithium based electric cells

2. Range anxiety - when we enter an EV, the first thought which comes to our mind is whether we will be able to complete the journey, ie. how far will the electric charge in the batteries last. The average range across the world for EVs is about 250 kms or 150 miles.

The best TESLA vehicles can go upto 500 km in one charge. BMW has already experimented with cars with ranges of upto 850 kms. Better energy storage technologies, lighter batteries and more frequent charging points spread across the urban and rural landscape can help address the range anxiety question to a greater degree among EV owners.

3. Breaks in availability of electricity in rural areas / inconsistency in availability - power cuts are characteristic of Indian rural towns and could be a major demotivator for rural folks taking to this technology.

4. Power surge often in the electric line can damage batteries while charging - these surges can damage the sensitive charging circuits in the charging systems and batteries resulting in costly repairs and replacements.

5. High costs of EVs, in the range of INR 10-12 lakhs - though there are fewer parts in an EV compared to a petrol engine driven car, the high battery costs jack up the vehicle costs. The Energy Efficient Services Ltd (EESL) triggered demand for EV across the country by floating a tender for 10,000 EVs , which was won by Tata Motors Ltd.to be supplied by 2030. On a similar cost, Mahindra has also been given a similar contract for a limited number of vehicles, 2000 nos.

Major Indian manufacturer, Mahindra (former Reva), e2o is withdrawn

6. Low economies of scale, entering a vicious circle of costs and demand. Like the chicken and egg story, when costs are high, there are less customers, since there are less customers, the costs remain high .. It is to break this jinx that EESL has provided the demand for the EV manufacturers in the country for about 10,000 cars to be used by the Government to be supplied by 2030 or even 2025.

7. Higher tax : The present 12% tax should be reduced for the time being to bring in more customers. Norway gives besides tax deduction, toll waivers, registration fee waivers, free parking for EV etc,,

8. No firm and stable government policy on EVs, though the government has said that all government vehicles will be EV driven by 2030. Will the new government have the same commitment to promote EV as the previous governments ? Will the tax structure change ?

9. Less dealer interest - automobile dealers get their maximum returns on investment through maintenance activities at the workshop. In electric cars, since maintenance is less, the revenue stream from maintenance activities is reduced. This is a de-motivator for dealers to selling EVs. They are not very enthusiastic to set up charging stations and maintenance stations for EVs across the country with the same rigour as for SI engines.

10. Poor service network and long service delays : Due to low penetration of EV in the population, the service network is also very sparsely located across the country. The same chicken and egg story repeats here too. Unless thereare more EVs on the road, the service stations do not get vehicles for maintenance and they are unable to meet their expenses.  My friend talks of the extreme delay of almost a week when he used to give his electric car in Mysore for repairs, the reason being the maintenance guy does not stock enough spare parts and orders it when needed, which takes time to deliver.

11. The absence of a reliable EV charging network across the country at a very reasonable cost.  The present high expenses / costs for setting up a charging network of Rs 2 lakhs should be reduced to Rs 1 lakh so that more charging stations can come up.

12. Polluting potential of existing energy plants : EV fuel cells store electricity which has been generated by either coal based plants, or by hydel, wind, solar, nuclear route etc. Coal based power generating plants continue to pollute the environment. Nuclear plants have still to prove their risk potential given the long lasting environmental damage nuclear plants could do to the environment as the examples in Chernobyl and Fukushima of late testify.

Solar powered car developed by Indian Space co. (ISRO) 2017

13. With research into solar charging improving across the world, from the present low rates of 18-20% energy conversion rate of solar energy to useful electric energy (lab results point to even 45%), if the conversion rates improve to 25-30%, the charging times could be fast and smaller batteries will come to the market with low weights. The demand for EV will then rise in the country.

ISRO has developed a car which runs entirely on solar energy and they have used highly efficient, space grade solar panels for the car. They are working over-time to help release this technology to commercial EV industry as a spin-off of the country's space research activities.

14. Battery swapping or battery charging option - an automobile battery if it is to be swapped will result in  at least 10-15 battery packs to be swapped every time or every twenty four hours, depending on the demand. This is impractical in the present setup across the country. Over time, we hope battery swapping will be more common place as batteries get smaller, more portable and efficient.

15. Lithium ion batteries work on a Lithium Cobalt oxide electrode. Globally 70% and more of Cobalt comes solely from Congo in Africa, the only major global producer. Congo already is in the grip of a bloody civil war over the metal Cobalt, accelerating the situation further, limiting the availability of Cobalt globally. Unless technological research is able to bring another metal electrode as a more efficient metal to substitute for Cobalt, Cobalt and Lithium ion batteries are going to a great challenge for the world, putting a great stress on the Cobalt supply chain from Africa to China and to the rest of the world.

16. Sourcing and Disposing / refurbishing end-of-life batteries - The sourcing of batteries given the scarcity of Cobalt-Lithium oxide from Africa and the resultant refurbishing and disposal of used batteries can be a major challenge for the modern world as waste processing is becoming expensive and waste disposal is getting more and more challenging for the modern day factory employees.

The Promises of EV :

• The greatest contribution of EV is going to be the reduction of pollution and smoke in the cities. Better and cleaner air to breathe translates to healthier individuals and less drain on the healthcare system of the country.
• Reduced dependence on oil (solar energy generation) - reducing our BOP crisis. Foreign exchange can gainfully be used for import of medicines and technology that can be used for the development of the country.
• As EVs are more suited for autonomous cars, we can expect in future with EVs on the roads, more orderly traffic, fast movement of traffic and less pollution and congestion.
• The shift in the geopolitics of oil from western countries and South East Asia and Africa will help transform many of the poorer areas of Africa to pursue oil based growth and development.
• Shift of global economic power from the oil rich Arab states to the west

Click here for an Economist video which states that the future of transportation is electric vehicles ..

Heavy Commercial electric vehicles : EVs have penetrated not only the personal transportation market, but the commercial vehicles market too. Click here for a link on Electric trucks market in the world. As per a March '18 HBR article, FedEx and UPS have a couple of thousands of hybrids or EVs already on the roads, while Ford has 150 Ford hybrids on the road, which is a good sign.

Benefits :

• Mileage : An ordinary 18 wheeler would give about 6 mpg, while an average 10 wheeler truck gives a mileage of app 10 miles per gallon (mpg). Operating an EV truck is equivalent to getting 52 mpg. Combined with the benefits of lower operating costs, this is going for the kill
• High starting torque : Higher starting torque helps these vehicles to move from 0-30 mph in as short time as possible making the deliveries fast and reliable. 
• Ability to add digital controls to the electric propulsion yields more precision in driving.
• Smart routing - where routes and cargo are combined or split leads to smart routing and this has added $ 400 million profits to UPS in recent years. A km not run through smart routing is the greenest km ..
• No sound and no pollution adds great brand nenefits to the operator and showcases the company's commitment to sustainability

It is hoped in the coming years, these challenges will be overcome by the government and a proactive policy encouraging widespread use of EV (click here for benefits of EV technology) will be adopted across the country.

George ..

Bangalore Composting - managing wet waste ..

Karnataka Compost Development Corporation plant

The other day I was very excited to visit a wet waste composting unit of Brihut Bangaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) near HSR Layout Bangalore with my old colleague Prof. Raju Gundala. This neatly kept wet waste processing plant has a processing capacity of about 500 MT per day even though there is capacity utilisation of only a fifth, ie. 100 MT per day.

Click here for a pdf copy of this case ..

The wet waste from homes is collected on a daily basis by BBMP and is processed at this plant and converted to compost which is totally organic and can be added to plants as fertilizers. The organic fertilisers are beneficial to the plants as well as to the farmer and others handling it. It is being sold to the farmers at the rate of Rs 200-300 per Tonne. If it is to be supplied to farmers at their site, the costs are Rs 800 per tonne.

The plant is one of the largest in Bangalore. Very neatly kept. Felt really proud to see this plant and the committed employees. It is one of the seven plants run by the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation in Bengaluru with a total capacity of handling about 2500 T wet waste daily. Bangalore produces almost 4300 T garbage daily, of which a cool 70% is wet waste.

One of the biggest problems faced by urban dwellers and urban governing agencies like BBMP is how to treat household and commercial garbage.  About 70% of our garbage is wet waste, organic which can be composted and used as manure etc. Was really happy to see that BBMP was taking the lead in carrying out this very important civic activity.

Great work .. One of the compost pits inside the campus .

It is this organic wet waste which if left untreated, on the bacterial activity of decomposing causes over growth of harmful bacteria, viruses, releasing a bad stench and odour, often causing great health hazards to the population living near these dumping areas. In the premises we could get very little odour and it appeared very neat and tidy.

The proactive Karnataka government is about to bring in a legislation that wet waste will have to be processed at home by the public for first time ever in the country. This single step will  daily take out about 3000 metric tonnes of wet waste, roughly 70%, of the 4200 tonnes of garbage produced daily in Bangalore (third populous city in the country after Delhi and Mumbai). 

This otherwise would have gone to landfills in the city, subsequently leeching down to the water table causing irreversible damage to ground water resources .. A bold move if legislated !!👍   Click here for the link ..

Imagine the great business opportunity this opens to the unemployed and semi-skilled people of this country. Rag pickers are the first point of contact for this garbage and if this garbage processing can be made a commercially viable and profitable activity with enough avenues to earn enough income, through classification, segregation and safe reprocessing and disposal, this can definitely contribute to nation building.

Of the 377 million urban residents of the country living in about 7935 cities and towns in the country generate about 62 million tonnes of municipal solid wastes annually, of which only about 43 million tonnes is collected back, about 12 million tonnes (20 percent) are processed and the rest 31 million tonnes (50 percent) is dumped in landfills, causing great environmental problems, health issues and future ground water contamination threats due to leeching from the surface land. (click here for www.downtoearth.com link for more details).

Large blocks of recovered metal at a Japanese waste plant

On closely looking at the data, we find presently in India, only 20% of waste is treated, 50% is dumped in landfills and 30% is lost forever !! Effectively speaking we can convert 80% of this 63 million tonnes, about 50 million tonnes annually into wealth for the country. This opportunity is presently lost for our country.

If we can just concentrate on being able to effectively treat this 50% of waste collected by the municipal authorities, but not processed effectively and dumped in landfills, it can solve a great portion of our unemployment problems.

The promise waste disposal and treatment can also give to the people of the country a healthy and hygienic living environment free of diseases and other natural threats. The potential is great and can contribute in great ways in increasing the employment potential across the country. Public-private participation in these ventures as has been done in Bengaluru, is the solution as government agencies alone can do very less in issues affecting the population.

Turning garbage into gold, the Americas ..

We need to learn from other countries how they have managed to handle their waste and trash. Foe example, how Tokyo manages its garbage most effectively (click here for a report)  and America (click here ..)
 
There is a gold mine in the wastes in India, 63 million Tonnes generated annually, only 12 million treated rest forgotten conveniently by the civic authorities, the government and the people.. What a CRIME !!

George .. (image courtesy Japan Times)

Japanese technology for Traffic decongestion on Bangalore roads .

Anything related to Bangalore traffic decongestion is news . We all know traffic takes away 50% of our commute time.

The Queue Length Measurement (QMS) sensors measure vehicular density at distances of 50, 100 and 150m from each heavy traffic junction. Based on this data traffic management is carried out across the city at the 29 points where these sensors are located. It is expected to reduce traffic congestion by 30%.. 

Silk Board traffic in the morning, courtesy  NIE

The method works on identifying high traffic density junctions in real time spatially across the city at any point of time.

The traffic is regulated by giving green signals simultaneously at subsequent two forward junctions on the road, for example on Hosur Road Silk Board junction, the forward junctions of Bommanahalli and Hosa Road junctions are simultaneously given green signals.

The advantage this offers is that it enables free traffic flow on this stretch. This is the technology intervention by which this Japanese traffic decongestion technology has helped other countries decongest traffic by as much as 30% .. 

Click here for the link ..

When we did a role play in the class trying to understand the Silk Board traffic congestion problem ....

A 2015 Brainstorming study by Alliance University students to decongest Silk Board junction ..

George..

Electric car technology-FAQ

Interesting EV FAQ .. For any student and a new comer to the technology of Electric vehicle, this FAQ adds lot of value. Thanks to Autocar magazine..

How do electric cars work  ? Click here ..

Click here for the FAQ from Autocar .

1. How do electric cars work ?

Parts of an electric car ,, courtesy US Dept of Energy

2. What are the different components of an EV? 

3. How do you compare the different EVs ? 

4. What are the important parameters to look out for ? 

5. Why are EVs costly now ? 

6. Will costs come down ?

7. Why is range important ? 

8. How are EVs classified ? 

9. What are the different charging standards ?

10. Does efficiency differ with other petrol engine cars ?

11. Do we use green energy for EV ?

12. Can solar charging be used for EV and many more .. 

Simple  explanation of the technology and components of how future mobility will be like .. 

Click here for the FAQ ,,

George..

World population map - relationship between area and population ..

World population map - each colour signifies geographical area covering quarter of the world's population, 1.9 billion people .. 👍

This picture tells us the strain on the urban and rural traffic, living conditions, rich-poor divide, competition for jobs and resources etc..

In this world map, there are more people in this circle than outside of it !! 😳😳 Most densely populated regions of our world 😊

Courtesy zerohedge.com

South and South East Asia constitute the most densely populated areas of the world.We need not take this as a threat to the world.If you look at this circle, you find for the next two centuries, the world will be dominated by countries in this circle. For example China and India would dominate global politics and economy for the next two centuries.

The next picture is about population density. Mumbai has the highest population density among the cities of the world, ie about 71,000 people per square mile or 28,160 people per sq km. (data - worldpopulationreview.com).

If the whole world were to live like an ordinary Mumbaikar, we would just need a country the size of Germany (360,000 sqkm) at about 18,000 people per sq km.

The basic premise of giving the above three charts is to sensitise the people of the world on the relationship between population, area and standard of living. What has been the reason ahy popuilation has boomed in these countries of the world from South and SE Asia. Probably it was favourable living conditions, like land, water, rain, lack of climate extremes like cold, earthquakes, natural calamities etc.. availability of resources, rich cultural heritage of sharing resources more equitable across the sections of the population,