Spotlight

New Delhi, 1 May 2007

POWER FROM SEWERAGE SYSTEM

NEW DELHI, May 2 (INFA): Rapid urbanisation is putting a severe strain on the basic resources of cities the world over. One of the main problems plaguing these metros is the absence of an effective waste disposal mechanism. Thankfully, a few cities are waking up to these problems and devising measures to tackle them.

Vietnam’s largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, plans to use a new technology to generate power from wastewater. According to the Japanese company, “Tsukishima Kikai”, which has developed the technology, organic waste from the sewage system would be used to generate power.

The system consists of an aeration panel and an innovative air diffuser with high oxygen transfer efficiency. The waste would be treated in an anaerobic container for 20-30 days, after which it would be turned into biogas.

The technology reduces pathogens and unpleasant odours, stabilizes waste quality and improves treatment performance. The biogas which is obtained as a by-product is used to generate electricity.

The city officials are confident that the technology would be beneficial for the city which every day dumps over one million cu.m of domestic wastewater, 400,000 cu.m of industrial wastewater, 4000-5000 tonnes of household garbage and seven tonnes of untreated non-hazardous garbage into its rivers and canals.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah state in western US is exploring a pilot project to convert sewer waste into energy to run a heating and cooling system in a downtown 8000 square foot building.

According to the city officials who are partly funding the project, the heat will come partly from solid waste, and mostly from warm water that runs in sewage pipes after draining out of toilets, showers, and sinks.

The sewage temperature---between 55⁰C and 60⁰C – combined with a constant ground temperature of about 55⁰C provides a viable ground source for a heat-pump system.

Through the pilot system is expensive and costs $20,000 more than traditional systems, it holds promise because of its environment-friendly nature. And the city officials believe that if it works well, it could eventually be used on a mass scale. ---INFA

BHEL’S PLAN FOR R&D

HYDERABAD, May 2 (INFA): The Hyderabad-based Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) has drawn up plans to spend Rs.1,000 crore by the year 2012 on research and development.

It may be added that its expenditure on R&D rose from Rs. 124 crore in 2004-05 to Rs.238 crore last year, recording a 91 per cent increase in the last two years.

The focus would be on the power sector keeping in view the increasing demands in the future.---INFA

Spotlight

New Delhi, 30 April 2007

CRORES OF EDUCATION FUNDS SWINDLED

HYDERABAD, May 1 (INFA): The latest scam in Hyderabad relating to the swindling of education funds amounting to Rs.40 crore is causing great embarrassment to the powers that-be.

The mastermind of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) scam is allegedly 45-year-old Sarasa Devi, a former School teacher, who developed close contacts with the Telugu Desam Party, Congress leaders and bureaucrats.

In collusion with an Assistant Accounts Officer, V. Subramanyam, in the SSA Project Director’s office, she allegedly siphoned off unutilized SSA funds remitted back to the project office from the districts in an organized manner since December 2004.

It is amazing that top bosses in the Education Department remained oblivious to the swindling of crores of rupees under their very nose. On a tip-off from the Central Government, they woke up from their slumber and unearthed the scam.

Sarasa Devi has reportedly flaunted her alleged proximity to a personal security officer to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in a bid to overawe the police officials investigating the scam.  The Opposition parties---the TDP, TRS, CPI-M, and the CPI are out to capitalize on the scam to put the CMO in the dock.  They have made demands varying from a judicial inquiry by a sitting Judge to a CBI probe.

The State Government promptly entrusted the case initially to Central Crime Station and then to the CBI-CID, even while ordering a Departmental inquiry by a senior IAS official.

The Chief Minister has assured stern action against the guilty once the investigation is completed. 

This swindling episode is nothing new. During the TDP regime, two scholarship scams surfaced in 2002 wherein the accused floated bogus colleges and claimed scholarship amounts in the name of fictitious students for several years. They misappropriated Rs.41 crore.---INFA

HIGH SEA FISH DEPLETES: FAO

NEW DELHI, May 1 (INFA): Several species fished on the high seas outside the reach of national jurisdictions are in danger of over-exploitation, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

Twentyfive per cent of all fish stocks monitored by the agency are either over-exploited, depleted or are recovering from depletion, according to a report. More than half of highly migratory oceanic sharks and two-thirds of high-seas fish stocks, including hakes, Atlantic cod and halibur orange roughly, basking shark and bluefin tuna, are either depleted or at high risk of collapse, the report, State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, said.

While these stocks represent only a small fraction of the world’s fishery resources, they are key indicators of the state of massive piece of the ocean ecosystem, according the FAO’s report. Of particular concern are ‘straddling stocks,” or species which frequently navigate between national maritime boundaries and the high seas.

The report said that the global trade in fish and fishery products, the most traded food in the world, has reached a record high, with an export value of $71.5 billion, up 23 per cent from 2000.----INFA

Spotlight

New Delhi,16 April 2007

A HISTORIC COMEBACK

HYDERABAD, April 17 (INFA): In a first-of-its-kind event in the country, the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council has been revived, 22 years after it was abolished by the Telugu Desam Government in 1985.

In no other State has the Council been resurrected once it was scrapped.  In all, 64 newly-elected and nominated members, took oath as the members of the Council on April 2 last.

No doubt, the revival of the Council has taken a tortuously long time due to political vicissitudes in the State. To fulfill the Congress poll promise in 2004, the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre enacted the AP Legislative Council Bill in 2005 and it became an Act in January, 2006.

However, it took over almost a year for the Election Commission to complete the preliminary steps for the conduct of elections to the Council, which has a total strength of 90 members.

Elections were held in March for 75 out of 78 elected seats. Polls to three seats from Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy local authorities quota have been put off in the absence of elected civic bodies in Hyderabad and adjoining municipalities.

The conduct of polls was not a smooth affair, with the Opposition parties, led by the Telugu Desam Party kicking up controversies, initially, on the delimitation of graduates and teachers constituencies and the enrolment of voters and later on the “open ballot” system followed by congress members in eight districts in elections from local authorities.

Results of the polls to eight seats each from graduates and teachers’ Constituencies, 31 seats from Assembly quota and five from local authorities have been recently announced.  The Opposition alleged that instead of nominating distinguished personalities in various fields, the Governor accommodated mostly Congressmen. In fact, the Congress picked up ex-ministers, former MLAs, ex-MLCs and former MPs as its candidates from the Assembly, local authorities and nomination quotas. The ruling party is, thus, poised to gain effective control of the Council with a two-thirds majority.---INFA

GOOGLE GOES SOLAR

NEW DELHI, April 17 (INFA): The internet search leader ‘Google Inc’, is converting its headquarters in Mountain View, California, to run partly on solar power, hoping to set an example for corporate America.

The ambitious project which would be the largest solar project proposed in the State will require installing more than 9200 solar panels on the 1 million square foot Googleplex campus. The panels are to be installed by Pasadena-based ‘EI Solutions’, a large scale solar power systems provider.

Spotlight

New Delhi, 13 April 2007

NEW GREEN REVOLUTION

NEW DELHI, April 14 (INFA): Agricultural Extension programme is being revived by the Union Government to herald what the Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy describes as the “new green revolutions.”

Simultaneously, steps are also afoot for the Government to ensure that the credit to the agricultural sector is stepped up. Already the three-year target for doubling the credit has been achieved in two years. The target of Rs.1.75 lakh crore for 2006-07 is expected to reach Rs.1.90 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, the Centre is also turning its attention to the state of municipalities in various States.  The Union Government has recently released Rs.214.15 crore for infrastructure projects for the cash-starved local bodies in Andhra Pradesh.

The amount will be distributed among thirty-one Municipalities Corporations under urban infrastructure Development Scheme for small and medium towns. Drinking water supply and allied schemes will be taken up with the GoI grant.

Andhra Pradesh is turning out to be the biggest beneficiary under the proposed venture in the country.

In this context, a question has gone up: How green is Hyderabad? If one were to go by the statistics reeled out year after year by officials, then the city’s green brigade should be left with no fodder at all.

The official version insists that the green cover over Hyderabad is not depleting. On the contrary, it is on the rise. In fact, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority says the extent of greenery in Hyderabad has gone up in the last ten years from 18 per cent to 24 per cent in 2006.

The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has claimed every year, more than 2.5 lakh saplings are planted across the city.---INFA

TWIN ENGINEERING DEGREES

Since the software industry has become one of the most lucrative sectors in the country, most engineering graduates end up in a software job.

In an attempt to make life simpler for these graduates, the Hyderabad-based Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University is planning a dual degree programme from the next academic year 2007-08.

Under this programme, students joining any engineering stream can opt out to study for one more year after their mandatory four-year B.Tech programme and by the end of five years get dual degrees, one in the engineering subject and one in computer engineering. ---INFA