Livelylawry alive elsewhere

Hi Folks,
This is a message for those of you who knocked at my door and wondered where have I wandered away leaving aside three blogs! Since 2009, I have been a regular writer for Caleidoscope, an online cultural magazine. So please check my latest blogs there - http://www.caleidoscope.in/author/livelylawry

These days, i am rooftop organic farmer, eager eco enthusiast, sustainable economist wandering on a middle path to find world peace amidst global chaos!
https://plus.google.com/117338567932681665725/posts?partnerid=ogpy0

regards

Levine

Nude on the Economist

Economist magazine is a highly respected international magazine which is known for its sober outlook. When we suddenly find that there is a nude, we should be concerned. However, thankfully the news is very good for environment and this nudity will not contribute to the global warming!

On your bike

Sep 22nd 2008
From Economist.com

Bicycle and car production since 1950

FAT-BUSTING but not wallet-busting, the humble bicycle is an increasingly popular choice of transport. Around 130m bikes rolled off production lines in 2007 and even more are set to be made this year. Bicycle and car production grew pretty much in tandem in the two decades beginning in 1950. But since 1970 bike production has nearly quadrupled while car production has roughly doubled. Much of the recent growth has been driven by electric bikes; production has doubled since 2004, to 21m.

Being Quizzical

Recently, i had been to a quiz event which has now become the most wanted annual event for corporate firms across india. Led by the renowned 'Pickbrain Giri', Tata Crucible Business Quiz has even surpassed the much older Brand Equity Quiz. around 380 teams participated in the event and 6 teams went to the final which had a nail biting finish between Yahoo! (the defending champions of Bangalore) and ITC.

After coming back from the event, i was wondering what makes a better quiz... How do we ask a good question which enthralls the audiences... my beloved friend Srini who partners with me for our team 'Exquizitives', sent me a mail which answered my query perfectly.

What is a good quiz?

A good quiz has a set of questions of which not even a single one goes unanswered. In addition, the questions should be answered by different teams and the quiz should not be monopolized by one single team.

To do this, the quiz master must have a prior knowledge of the target audience. The questions must also cover a wide range of topics. But still, the QM can have a signature set of questions (though it means that the quiz could be skewed towards people specializing in the signature).

A quiz initiates a journey of quest for knowledge. When one walks out of the room or hall after the quiz, one must definitely know much more than when entering the room. The quiz must make the quizzers go back to their systems and google or wiki or whatever. It must initiate a thrilling journey of discovery. One fact will lead to another and when it all the clicking and turning (of books) is done, the quizzer should be smarter and brighter and enriched.

What is a good quiz question?

There are different kind of questions. One kind is the “You know it or you don’t”. Other is the “let me guess” kind.

But the best kind of question that involves connecting the dots and logical reasoning. The question should send the quizzer thinking on different facets of the topic and sometimes even unrelated or weird facet. And the question should produce a “WOW” movement when you hit on the conclusion.

Seems like to give a huge applause when a QM get a good question like this. But every quiz should also have questions of other kind to achieve balance.

And when it comes to ours…

Quizzes needs to be spread across different fields with a skew towards “let me guess’ kinds. And we love Quizzers who replies to the same.

Beijing Olympics and Munnabhai's Babuji

Just after any big sporting event, the biggest past-time for all Indians is to debateing about our achievements. How an island country like Jamaica has performed far better than us in Beijing Olympics, how corrupt are our sports authorities, why we Indians lack the killer instinct, what should be done to improve the situation, so and so forth.

However, none of us ever discuss how much sporting culture we individuals have. How many of us have played a game of cricket, or badminton or atleast chess or carrom recently! do we have a membership at any of the sports clubs... do our children take sports as seriously as studies... or do we let them do that!

Let me narrate yet another tragic story of Indian sports

In 2005, renowned actor and Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Sunil Dutt passed away after a heart attack at his home in Mumbai. The whole nation paid tribute to this noble soul who was not only an eminent actor, but also a social activist admired by even his bitter rivals. Though he has been MP from Mumbai for five times, he became a union minister for the first time in this UPA govt. As a sports minister, Dutt not only had time to hear the plight of sports persons, he also made a concerted effort to improve the standard of Indian athletes.

But his death seems to be a bigger tragedy for some athletes in particular. Two weeks before his death, the Ministry for Sports and Youth Affairs sent an open invitation to all current national and international champions to personally meet the minister to present their training needs and get financial assistance. This Champions Promotion Initiative was supposed to be held on 26th May 2005 in New Delhi, but tragically Dutt passed way just one day before.

In reel life, Munnabhai didn’t finish his MBBS as per Babuji’s wishes, but in real life champions did live upto expectations, but Babuji couldn’t!

Coal Crisis could prove to be good news!

While the whole world was obsessed with crude oil prices and other commodity prices, a silent crisis is brewing on the coal front with far-reaching consequences for the power sector and, ultimately, the Indian economy.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Guest_Writer/Rationalising_coal_prices/articleshow/3382080.cms
http://www.businessworld.in/index.php/Interviews/Coal.html

Did you know that our state electricity boards have been paying around Rs.7000-7500 per ton!?! If this price looks truly shocking please read the news about the Karnataka state energy secretary issuing statement on coal shortage. He has stated that the govt is importing coal from Indonesia at Rs.7899 per ton! (Check the news report in Deccan Chronicle | 7 August 2008)

It is not just Karnataka but many other states are coal deficient. even NTPC has stated about the shortage in its coal reserves. now i am wondering whether these high prices bring back the spotlight on Energy Conservation?

We see that the common man, the corporate world and the govt is quite apathetic about power saving since they all enjoy subsidised power supply. Lets hope that the present coal crisis can cure this ignorance illness soon and help in building awareness on EC.

Clean energy- Lot of Hot Air?

Recently I had been to a workshop on Clean Development Mechanism in power generation and transport organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). There were serious deliberations about the arrival of Kyoto Protocol and impending carbon trading where developed world will pay for renewable energy projects in developing countries. It was stated that India despite all its shortcomings in other industry sectors, has been the leader in implementing renewable energy projects like wind, biogas, biodiesel, mini-hydel and solar power.

While coming back I was pondering about these issues and was stuck in yet another traffic jam. But this time it was different. Numerous autorickshaws waiting for filling up gas on Residency Road, had jammed up the junction. The issue is simple; despite ONGCs and Reliances exploring trillions of gas reserves, the supply at the retail end is just a trickle. While the common man is willingly taking up eco-friendly fuel, there is nobody to supply! Is our beloved government waiting for the New Delhi kind of crisis where the public transport came to a stand still in 2001 due to the lack of CNG gas supply…

Fuelling innovation

A private firm getting praised for innovation is an everyday occurrence, however a public sector organization focusing on innovative processes is still a rare event. Recently at the TERI seminar on Clean Energy Development Mechanism, KSRTC’s innovative process in cleaner energy was brought to light. Ananda Rao P S, Environmental Officer, Karnataka State Road Transport Corp., presented an enlightening session of a diverse set of innovations under implementation. For a company with 4706 buses carrying 22.50 lakh passengers everyday, every drop of fuel saved matters; so KSRTC has made concentrated efforts to improve fuel efficiency.

To begin with a noteworthy innovation to improve thermal efficiency of the internal combustion engine has been developed. The idea is to inject water into the combustion chamber to react with diesel and air, inturn lowering the combustion chamber temperature and burn the air/fuel mixture more efficiently thus helping avoid engine knocking. The water entering the cylinder with the compressed air will work to cool these surfaces and reacts with Carbon Monoxide converting it into less harmful CO2. After it completely releases the energy in the fuel, it comes out as super heated steam.

The second innovation was to mix 10% blend of Biodiesel extracted from Honge oil. Since the huge fleet of KSRTC buses consume an enormous amount of fuel everyday, a little saving can go a long way. Right now the KSRTC Doddaballapur unit is utilizing nearly 8000 liters of Biodiesel mixed with regular fuel, which not only gives better mileage, but also acts as a engine lubricant due to its viscose nature. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/nov172005/state17222020051116.asp

The most spectacular innovation which is being implemented in KSRTC is an international patented design done by Somender Singh and the TIFAC Lab of RVCE College. Somender Singh is an innovator par excellence who has dealt with bikes, microlight aircraft and diesel engines. He has innovated upon an existing diesel engine to get nearly 15-20% fuel efficiency which could prove to be revolutionary change since the advent of internal combustion engine.

Known as Groove Technology it is about carving few grooves in the insides of combustion chamber so that the fuel-air mixture is churned well resulting in complete combustion. Though till now no manufacturer has come forward to adopt this novel idea, Somender has went ahead completing his prototype at the TIFAC lab. If everything goes well KSRTC will be the first company to take up this futuristic idea in fuel efficiency. http://www.somender-singh.com/

Energizing our way to the future!

I have recently joined an interesting group of professionals called 'Indian Association of Energy Management Professionals' (IAEMP). This is an active group of professionals who are working on energy issues and Renewable Energy. They are a group of electrical and electronic engineers, marketing professionals, researchers who have come together for the cause of energy efficiency. Apart from aiming to implement the great Vision 2020, they are doing a great job in energy audits in India. They are highly active on the net - http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/iaemp/
This was the mail sent to them after I observed that there is a need to build an energetic movement.

Hi Fellow Energizers,
I have been observing that a lot of despair and negative energy is built up among IAEMP members. Fighting with the inefficient govt authorities, lethargic public sector managers, inconsiderate private sector executives, apathetic public, it is obvious that we conscience keepers would lose our energy and enthusiasm.

In this present gloomy scenario, it is very hard to convince anyone about energy efficient measures, be it at home or at work place. But thankfully the skyrocketing crude oil prices have come as a saviour to all of us. As we can see, everyone is only bothered about their bottomline economics. http://www.businessgyan.com/content/view/4561/468/

Crude oil prices will certainly a crushing blow on all aspects of Indian economy. Be it a corporate firm's profit margin or govt agency working in a non-profit domain, every organisation will feel the pinch. We need to realise that this high price is not a temporary phase; we are indeed entering a hyperinflationary era. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_23/ b4087026916906.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories

Have you observed that people do not bother about their electricity bill? Do not worry, now they will surely do. In this scenario, instead of aggressively looking for alternative energy, the govt is more worried about how to cut tax or introduce oil bonds, etc. we as the conscience keepers need to take up the role of promoting Renewable Energy.

simple ideas like Turbo Ventilators which run without any power, Petrol from plastic waste, Biodiesel from non-edible oils are not getting enough publicity.
http://www.businessgyan.com/content/view/1631/460/
http://biodiesel.nedfi.com/media/download_gallery/pongamia.pdf
http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/11/15/quiet-revolution-wind-turbine/

Lot of such good innovative ideas are emerging, but very few projects have been implemented in India. money is no more a constraint. willingness seems to be in short supply. Lets hope some of you will take up the responsibility to evangelise clean energy.
regards

Levine