A possible solution for AP like crisis- shifting prime institutions out of the urban cities into far away clusters of rural villages - an engine for geographically equitable growth?

Dr. Jaya Prakash Narayan,  now popularly known in AP as JP, is   a retired senior IAS officer who quit the secure and powerful job with a long career still awaiting  and plunged into active politics with  a new set of ethics and values and is passionate about good governance. He is the head of 'Loksatta',  the new political party  he founded. He is currently not only the lone representatative of Loksatta in AP state assembly, but also one of the very few hopes of Indian politics.
I had the pleasure of discussing these concepts/ideas with him during March 2011 in Hyderabad.
His pointed question was,
            'How would the faculty colleagues respond to the suggestion of shifting, say, IITD to four or six IITD campuses in far flung rural village clusters?'

Well, it is said, 'charity begins at home'.
I would like to know  the responses from my esteemed colleagues, in particular from those who are inclined  to Gandhian model of decentralized development as the best chance for  being sustainable and holistic,  on the concepts presented here.
Here is the note that I had mailed him prior to the face to face over 45 minute meeting.


Dear Sri Jaya Prakash ji,
Jaihind!
First let me thank you for the tele-meeting this morning.

I humbly submit the following points which may aid in resolving the crisis AP is unfortunately going through.

1. Basic Problem/s
   Unbounded  and  cancerous growth of  cities as a result of centralized large production systems based on misplaced over confidence on 'bigger the better' of economics relying  solely on 'square -cube law' as against  'small is beautiful’ , a concept that was proposed/backed  by eminent scientists  much later.
This development model has promoted unholy nexus between  ...
        (unscrupulous) politicians, businesses and mafia gangs including those of land mafias.
Basically many  problems of the above development model have arisen because 'economics of the market' alone is relied up on.


2. Immediate problem:
    Huge hopes and investments in Hyderabad. 
3. Long term Solutions:
Development model  based on decentralized systems with production systems included,
---  somewhat in line with Gandhiji's Gram Swaraj.
100 years ago Gandhiji was ridiculed as ignorant of economics upon his objection to centralized large production systems on grounds of human problems ( relations included) alone.
Today Gandhiji’s  stand is increasingly getting to be vindicated
not only because of human /social problems
but also because of issues like
                  energy, ecology and global warming concerns and sustainability issues.

Once a cost is assigned to each of the above, along with those of human related ones, as per the free market ‘economic’ principles, almost nothing would remain economical –
Certainly not the power/energy from oil, coal and other non renewables,
Certainly not the production of building materials like  steel, cement,  aluminum, plastic composites etc.,
            and the list goes on.

Suggestions for the long term:
#1.  Restrict unhindered cancerous growth of cities/towns/villages by 'statutarily transferring' the governance of the city/town village to the next higher group . For eg., once beyond 'a limit', Hyderabad may be governed by central parliament. 

Local politicians, my may be my naive  presumption, would then prefer to divert business/industry growth to a different city of the AP rather than lose political control.    
            i.e., it would drive a wedge between the vested interests of  local politics and  businesses/industries
                   and this would reduce if not eliminate the role of mafias, in particular land mafias.

#2.  Deposit taxes, direct and indirect, through ‘tagged’ accounts, each representing a policy or opinion.

       Every time any purchase is made, the applicable taxes would be routed through the tagged account of the purchaser's  choice. 
The present IT would make it implementable at affordable costs.

                              It would be a measure of the public opinion that would be  much more efficient  than any other present today.

                              Can end the intensity of violence in the  bandhs being claimed  as public opinion by the unscrupulous.

#3.  Land for any use other than for zero carbon foot print agriculture can only be leased at ‘market’ rates. 
Reason : land is fundamentally different from all other traded commodities. And may remove the possibility of the fly by night operators  making fast buck, the back bone of most vested interests - politics - businesses/industries - mafia gangs.


·         Immediate Solution for AP crisis:
# Disperse the campuses of universities, R&D labs, high end schools and hospitals from  Hyderabad, Vizag, Vijayawada, Guntur,  Tirupathi etc  to at least six clusters of villages, two from each of the three regions, but not less than, as an example, 300 km from Hydrabad and 30 km from the nearest tier 1, 2, 3 cities.
 # Each campus carries its own brand name and sets up its campuses in all six clusters.
                    Much like several campuses of Univ of California. So different university brands get to have a healthy competition in each cluster.

The new campuses are to be in the clusters of villages, as sugar is in milk, without the  bulge/over flow, and  only by leasing out the lands needed.
            And letting the farmers farm their lands except where the roads and buildings come up
               and letting the farmers develop & maintain any particular greenery needed in specific cases.
    The agricultural and other univ campuses in the cluster  can play a pivotal role.


Original campuses vacated in Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam etc., can be used for developing residential/commercial complexes including those related to 'healthy' tourism with at least one mega convention centre in each such campus which,
             would  be owned by the original organization, but professionally managed and
             the income there from credited to all the campuses of the original owner organization.

The lakhs of crores of rupee funds generated would more than finance building of about 5 to 10 new hopefully superior campuses for each campus vacated from the big cities and

would have enough surplus to build fast communication systems including mass rapid rail systems all over the state.

Ultimately the model could be applied to all over the country.
  I would be glad to explain/illustrate  further given a chance over the next few days of the week.
with best regards,

Dr P Sudhakar
Associate Professor
CRDT, IIT Delhi
New Delhi- 16
+91 - 9312323702

A partial solution for avoiding problems such as in AP: A healthy taming of unbounded growth of urban islands bleeding the rural country side

Ramesh Hegde :
1. Pl see Note 1 below, wrt Kautilya's Arthashastra.
2. Do we have in IIT-D a copy of the excerpted -English interpretation with Sanskrit shlokas, pronounciation and transliteration of the Arthashasstra?

Partial Mitigation of the problems of mega cities as islands of 

development amidst neglected/impoverished regions  

A General Solution for the Andhra Pradesh like burning problems in the spirit of Hind Swaraj 

 

 

A solution for mitigation: 

Prima facie, let it be made clear that it is only a solution towards mitigation rather than a holistic cure.

 

    1. The capital city of any state, upon growing  beyond a certain size*, stops being governed by the state and

        automatically goes under the central rule where

            all the (Indian) nationals become 'sons of the soil' and

            all the revenues of the mega city belong to the entire nation, administered by the parliament. 

    

     2. A logical extension down the line  would bring^# 

            any city with in a 'district'  under the governance of the state legislature directly and not the 'district' body;

            any town with in a 'mandal' under the district body and

            any village with in a 'panchayat' under the mandal body.

    3.  Every income tax paying individual or organization to have an option of specifying a cerain region- village, mandal, district or state - to which  a definite part of their tax payments would be allocated  for its development; the particular way in which  the money is to be spent may be decided by the local governing body.

 

* The critical size could be defined by a weighted average of population, geographic size and GDP,  per capita income and carbon foot print etc.     

 

^# Village, Mandal, District and State are the units of regions in 'Indian' context; but it should be equally applicable universally. 

The above would achieve the following:

The first two would bring in the natural vested interests of the local socio-political forces - a tendency to not give up the governing control to 'out-siders' even at the expense of loosing out on the  flow of investments into their area; 

        These natural vested interests would  drive them towards agreeing to  and even encouraging 

        the diversion of the fund flow into a neighbour, but  not too close** a  city, town or village. 

        

        It would be in the best 'vested interests' of the two local bodies, the new and old growth centres, 

        to create a good communication/transport infra structure in between the two local regions.

        The current tendency of the free market forces tending to invest only in the area  that already has been well developed is hither to strongly supported by the local socio-political vested interests. It would then be balanced by the interests of the locals   

In other words, the unholy alliance of the  interests of the current free market elements and socio-political elements in colluding to create a few islands of development and prosperity amidst atrocious poverty all around the country side, a prime reason behind the sad and unfortunate social tensions,  would be broken.

Not only is this consistent with the age old native wisdom in  principles of good governance - Kautilya's 'Artha Sastra', nearly 2000 years ago  suggests  creation of new cities and villages once the same grow beyond some size- but  these constitutional restrictions on the governance of the local regions  may also not be inconsistant with any of the modern world's love for basic democratic rights either.
(Note-1 : (Pl see Architect -Lloyd George's suggestion below))

 

In fact the third item which empowers every individual to exercise one's  will as to where the funds (at least part of one's own contribution) should go,  can play a healthy role in  one's natural urge to do some thing for the development of one's native soil, irrespective of where one has managed to generate the wealth. 

** If they are too close, then the combination would run the risk of merging into one bigger twin city region with the control slipping out of the local body. 

-------------------------------------

-------------------------------------       

 

 

It may not have been apparent at the time of Hind Swaraj, but it becomes increasingly clear  that free market's sole aim of maximising profit  albeit subject to some approved norms of society and governance, leads to mega centralized production in all spheres. More often than not, the famous  'economies of scale' originally guided by the 'square cube law', in practice, seems to suggest that the bigger the centralized production the better it would be for the free market economics.

 

Rapid growth of  Hyderabad as a IT hub in the past decade, almost challenging Bangalore,  is some times seen as a result of the badly planned / managed infra structure of Bangalore and not necessarily out of any  love for Hyderabad on the part of the  MNC giants in IT.

A young well meaning IT professional who has set up shop in Hyderabad,  says with a great  conviction that his decision to return to India from the lucrative silicon valley and choosing  Hyderabad is strongly influenced by the mega investment of Micro Soft in  Hyderabad.

That may be recognised as the power of 'square cube law' even out side its original domain of physical processing.

The mega city would in turn attract the nearly evenly distributed  best talent from the distant interiors. 

Even  the growth of mega cities has its own multitude of problems. 

Providing proper infrastructure, in practice,  eats up a  major part of the entire economic resource of the state to the horribe neglect of the other wise well distributed communities of the state in sevaral cities, towns and tens of thousands of villages. 

And when the consequential social turmoil results in demands for separate smaller states, the problem literally burns not only the state but also the nation.

 

The burning of AP (similar troubles already brewing at other places in the country) is a case in point. The solution becomes intractable with the native community of the mega city region fiercely demanding sole possession of the mega city while the other communities, equally fiercely, fight back to retain what they see as their share in the mega city, that not only generates most of the tax revenues but also offers most of the economically lucrative work (employment/business)  opportunities to the millions.

 

The problem is also  fuelled by the human greed to invest in the  real estate for making a fast buck by being at least in the periphery, if not in the heart, of the mega city.  This is  perceived, and may be rightly so, by the locals of the 'Greater City Region' as being  dominated by the 'out-siders', in the process.

 

The mega cities  no doubt  contribute to most of the tax revenues of the nation, but are also forced to spend most of the its revenue in developing the infrastructure in their own limits, to make life more bearable to the growing  millions  in its cramped city limits. 

The result is not very humane:  

        India(read, some of those in the few mega cities) shining while 

        Bharat(read, majority in  most of the villages) bleeding. 

 

The sad part of the story is that even those  shining in the 'India shining'    hardly get to lead  a healthy life style. 

But that is another story.

NOTE 1: Architect Lloyd George had remarked that once a city's population grows beyond 1.5 million, the cost of supplying utilities (water, electricity, drainage, basic healthservices and the like) and public amenities starts increasing disproportionately to the average cost of providing services for the first million population.  Therefore the new cities like Silvasa (Pune) being established in our country, incorporate some of the principles of Lloyd George and Kautilya.

Depositing Taxes through Tagged/Protest Accounts - An Effective and Democratic Way to record public opinion and expressing protest/dissent peacefully

This is one of a series of five strategies up for discussion. These hold the promise for problems as diverse as,  violence in urban centred growth, people stripped of lands for development, historic injustice on  farmers and environment  in treating land just as a commodity and finally even global climate concerns. All point to decentralized systems of production and small community life styles  or ‘gram swaraj as an optimal solution when holistic economics, which integrates the environmental and human issues,  is considered.It is interesting that all these appear to be consistent with principles of non violence and  democracy including market economics when viewed holistically. 
  

Depositing Taxes through Tagged/Protest Accounts :

A Non-violent,  Effective  and Democratic Way
to voice desires / demands / dissent

A powerful new tool in practicing to non violence in holistic development

Sudhakar Puttagunta

Associate Professor, CRDT, IITD

On leave from Haritha Association for Learning from Environment

Abstract:

Bandhs and rasta rokos have become a way of expressing desires & demands and protests  or dissent. Unfortunately, the media attention to the accompanying violence seems to create a wrong impression that the more violent it gets, the more public support it has. This feeling is increasingly being exploited by the  unscrupulous and the anti socials alike to serve their vested interests, a sad commentary to what was effectively used by Gandhiji as essentially a non violent way to express protest and dissent by the public against the mighty state apparatus. In the extreme case, Gandhiji adopted non cooperation including the refusal to pay taxes.

A new way of measuring  public opinion including protest/dissent against specific policies of state by  paying taxes and yet record protest in a very effective way in line with principles of non violence and democracy is suggested. It proposes that the followers of a support group for a policy or a  practice, current or proposed,   be allowed to deposit their taxes through a ‘tagged/protest  account’ and gradually impose restrictions on the state apparatus in accessing the deposited taxes in the tagged/protest account. Unlike in opinion polls, in this new method  an individual or an organization is forced to make a conscious choice that keeps effecting one's own purse, every time a choice is to be made, and hence this  new way may be more accurate in addition too promoting harmony in dealing with others that may differ.   

Even though, the narrow ‘direct tax’ base of the country may seem to severely restrict its efficacy in representing the majority opinion, a variety of ways in depositing the indirect taxes that have an almost all pervasive base  are suggested. These measures when adopted by the society  have the potential to  clearly reflect the majority opinion in a manner that helps the state apparatus to tune the policies in solving contentious issues without the undesirable consequences of the current methods of mass agitations.

1. Introduction:

Avenues to express desire/demand for or protest against any particular policy/practice  in any society and democracy in particular,  is a vital necessity for a healthy civilization. In modern times, Gandhi led the non-violent way of expressing dissent through Satyagraha. Less than a century later, it has evolved into frequent bandhs and rasta rokos    which turn violent many a times. What is particularly unhealthy and potentially dangerous  to basic tenets of democracy is the following:

The success of a protest or demand as a measure of the support of the majority has unfortunately come to be assessed by  the extent of damage caused during the  ‘bandh or rasto roko’ to the  human lives and property such as vehicles - public or private, shops and other buildings.

It is now  a public secret that more shops down their shutters for fear of violence rather than to express solidarity with the protest group/s and the anti-social elements rule the day totally distorting the true public opinion.

While it is understandable that violence has its roots in the  sense of failed or delayed justice, perpetration of mass violence or even a support to such thoughts can not be an option to  address the problems and can never be good for the society.

It should still be the endeavor of a civilized society to find ways and means of finding effective ways of expressing disire/demand/dissent that

the governments can not ignore on one hand and

helps in accurately assessing the majority support when there are often conflicting opinions/interests of different groups.   

2.  The New way to protest/record public opinion:

We suggest a new and effective way of expressing  protest or record public opinion even while not  causing damage to society through loss of valuable working days or loss of property and avoids human misery-  it can be briefly stated as below:

    2.1. A given group which wishes to voice its protest or record its opinion (on specific issues) can ask its supporters to open a sub account (called a tagged account) in filing the tax returns- whether it be direct or indirect, local or central  taxes such as income tax, professional and service taxes including municipal taxes on properties, sales tax, VAT etc or excise taxes.

    2.2. The cumulative  deposits in a given  tagged/protest account as a fraction of the total tax deposits in the said area /region of conflict can be made available on line:
       it  would be a fair measure of the support of an opinion, including protest  on a particular issue.

    2.3. Whetehr it is a protest or demand, depending on the complexity/nature of protest/demand,  the time to redress/consider and implement the same,  if accepted by the authorities can be decided in a certain pre-determined slabs, each of a certain number of months/quarters, during which time, public and government keep getting updated with the extent of support. How ever, the government - local or other wise - can go on with business as usual in accessing the taxes deposited in the tagged account/s of a given group.

2.4. If the fraction of the tax deposits in any tagged account is substantial at the end of the first mandatory time slab, the relevant authority, local or other wise, may have to mandatorily come out with an action plan to address the concerns of the  group in a another mandatory period of time.

The government - local or other wise would continue to access the taxes deposited in the tagged accounts unhindered.

2.5. If the  group is not satisfied with the results of the action plan in the said time duration, it would continue or intensify its campaign signalling the third time slab of action.

2.6. During the third and subsequent time slabs, the said group may resort to imposing different levels of restrictions in allowing the government to access the tax deposits in its protest account :

the highest restriction would be to let govt apply for a loan against the deposited tax of the tagged account - the loan terms like interest rate - repayment terms may be negotiable.

2.7. Finally when every thing fails and the said group enjoys huge popularity as indicated by corresponding large fractional size  of the tax deposit under its tagged account, it may even resort to completely deny  the unrelenting state apparatus any sort of access to the tax deposit in its tagged account, untill the next government is in. In such a case it may  amount to civil disobedience by refusing the access to the  government for the taxes already paind in the tagged accounts. How ever individuals- persons or corporations would have still deposited their tax dues in a safe account.

And they may face the legal actions for refusing to allow the access to the taxes in their tagged  account. This would amount to the tenet that a satyagrahi, while opposing a bad law or bad enforcement of a law may break some other laws  and willingly and non violently accepts the consequences such as a likely prosecution.
The next round of elections would reflect these  issues and the masses may be empowered in wisely asking the right questions and deciding whom to elect for the next government that would respect and try honestly to implement  the public opinion. In which case, the new government would have access to the tax deposits in the protest account.  Hence it may not amount to treason, even in the extreme measure all in a non-violent manner.

3. Reflecting the majority opinion:

A relevant question would be

    “To what extent can the taxes deposited in  protest account  be taken to represent the public opinion in view of the narrow tax base  in our country?”

The tax base is definitely very narrow in case of direct or professional taxes.

But when indirect taxes such as sales tax, excise duty, road taxes are concerned, the base becomes wider. More over, some measures can be suggested where in a shop that is patronized by a small locality can be used to decipher/reflect the opinion of the local patrons:

For example, the shop can opt for the following :

    a) The shop keeper can publicly display his choice of depositing the taxes due  from his  shop.

b) The taxes due from the shop can be classified into

i) professional/service taxes that the owner of the shop has to pay and

ii) sales tax collected from the clients

One of the  following can be done by the shop keeper  in relation to the sales tax collected form the clients:

1. The clients are asked to indicate their choice of joining the protest group and the receipt  clearly indicates it. or

2. The clients are not given a choice, but the owner displays his/her choice for all the sales tax collected.

An individual client would have a choice to avoid the shop if  its attitude is not to one’s         liking.

And the shop owner takes a principled risk and bets on the best deal that his/her         shop can offer for the services- goods rendered.

Different necessities would pull every individual in different directions and ultimately one’s own  wisdom would have a chance to  triumph.

And a shop owner would have a choice of sourcing his stocks from among different wholesalers / manufacturers who pay duties such as excise, choose his transport company who pays transport taxes etc.

It would soon be a web and most population indirectly  gets covered.

And in any case, we have voting in elections periodically and the above is only to support and strengthen and not replace it.

The power of IT today can make the on-line data streaming possible in every shop.

4. Conclusion:

It would be a great day for a mature democracy and practice of non violence, when an individual can hold his head high and announce  an opinion that differs from the majority - local or global without fearing for one’s  life or property.  

As an example, in the context of ‘separate Telangana vs United Andhra’ movements in Andhra Pradesh,

a citizen living in Telagana region holds up his flag for support of United AP and

a citizen resident  in non Telangana area can hold his flag high for a separate Telangana with out fear of brutal violence. That would be more important as a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.

Unfortunately what is prevailing is more of a ‘demonocracy’ in many conflicts among different groups where  ultimately it is the brutal capacity  of a minuscule minority to terrorise the peace loving majority that is meek and  weak  which is increasingly coming to be perceived as a majority opinion. Nothing can be more dangerous from the growing tribe of unscrupulous and mafia gangs  and ruinous to the society.

Sustainability - some thoughts

Sudhakar, 2nd April, 2011 
It was a wonderful disussion yesterday at NRCVEE with the students and thanks are due to Professors  Dhar, Ravi, Nomesh, Sangeeta and others.
I humbly submit the following as a summary of the various thoughts related to development issues that are necessarily related inextricably with values.
    1. Restricting Land Ownership:
        Land to be owned (and ownership traded)  only for Zero carbon foot print agriculture.
        For any other use, deemed necessary, land should be made available only for lease at the 'market rate'.  
        In addition to the lease that keeps getting updated on yearly or quarterly basis, an additional cess as a certain  % of the lease amount, may be deposited into 'Eco Restoration Fund'.
        A lion's part of the fund  may be accessed only by future society if it  decides to restore the land to zero carbon foot print agriculture or to natural greenery. 
 
  2.  Distributed development: Relocating the prime institutions.
        A logical consequence for institutions like IITs would be to keep paying more and more lease amounts, for the now prime lands that are being used. And some body has to pay for it.
        So the free market economy may opt to shift the likes of  IIT to clusters of rural villages, sufficiently far away, at least a couple of hundred km  from the mega or not so mega needed cities. 
        One thing for sure, the students would still join because of the brand names.
        A cluster of different brand institutions in engg, medicine and  schools (primary to high school levels) may prove to be an incentive to those truly interested in the ideals and mandate of the institutions.
        The barest mini neededmum support organizations as service providers also can only lease and not own the  lands needed.
        The rural community can take care of all the lands without buildings and roads as they wish with in the constraints of zero carbon foot print agriculture.
        Even the wonderful green lawns can be maintained as part of contract zero carbon foot print farming by the natives.
 
       
Sudhakar   31st October 2013
3. A continuous indexing of public opinion on different issues to empower democratic processes

The above three steps would be three primarily new steps towards 'Sustainable Good Governance'.

Implementing the step 2:  The best of the talent may be attracted by the good schooling and medical facilities together with the professional challenges it offers, particularly if the institutions are collectively given the mandate of making the host village/s or the cluster as a whole self sufficient in the four sectors "drinking water, food and housing" using the local renewable resources and the  local  talents by way of skills and knowledge to the extent possible. The government could subsidize the extra cost of the products and services produced in the process of achieving the mandate.
A tangible and continuous index of success on the part of the institutions would then be the extent of 'subsidy and/or the external inputs'  that are done away with over time due to their  innovations. It is presumed that the over a dozen different already established premier (branded) Institutions in any given area,  would bring sufficient diversity in thoughts and actions preventing monopoly or mere copying. These may be given the freedom to collaborate with internally well proven institutions for the specific well defined mandates/purposes.
Reputed International faculty are to be invited with a special fund from the GOI. for the   
The incubation facilities for technology and related businesses should be integral parts right from the beginning. 

The entire relocation process should be taken up on a national Mission mode.

Sure there are going to be many basic issues legal or other wise. But to truly index public opinion on different issues and hence the following suggestion:

  3.   Empowering Democracy: Depositing taxes through 'Tagged Accounts'
        People may route the depositing of all their taxes, direct /indirect, through 'tagged accounts', each tagged account representing one option to be chosen / changed. 
        The issues are likely to be multiple and optimal solutions not necessarily singular and hence,  depositing the taxes including those of the day to day sales tax through multiple tagged accounts may be far more appropriate to referendum.

  

DEC 14 Ramesh Hegde- Dear Prof. Sudhakar, it is not clear whether any revisions were made on 1st Dec?

Ramesh Hegde 18th Sept 2010

Pl see the revisions made in blue for easy understanding.

Sudhakar, 2nd May 2010

sQuba, world's first swimming car!!!

http//groups.yahoo.c om/group/new_fun_and_fun_only

(originally forwarded from  Devineni Madhusudhana Rao)

A request specfically to    

    "Adithya Dahagama" <adithya.31@gmail.com>, s1threddy@gmail.com, <vivek.chn44@gmail.com>, <mdevineni@gmail.com>, 

Pl collect the  info on the capacity of the battery pack, efficiency of the motors,  for use on  land, over water and  under water.

It is indeed a marvelous engineering feet... but

I want this to be compared professionally/academically with the innovation of the  Bihar villager who converted an ordinary  bullock driven cart into that which  goes on land and over water- and used it  to ship medical emergeny cases out of his  village, marooned in flood waters. 

Please look at,  in particular,  the zero emission claim.

I am aware that all the electric vehicles gloat over it, but ....

what about the emissions in charging the battery? and

the carbon foot print and ecological foot print - both non recurring and recurring types ?

Sudhakar

Three decades ago James Bond (then enacted by British star Roger Moore) wowed the world with a car that could 'fly' under water in the movie The Spy Who Loved Me. Only needed, it was animation and not an actual scene.
But Frank M Rinderknecht, the 52-year-old automobile visionary and boss of Swiss automaker Rinspeed, has turned a dream into reality with his 'sQuba.'
Rinspeed sQuba is the most exciting thing at this year's Geneva Motor Show and is creating many a ripple.

sQuba is the world's first real submersible car that can 'move like a fish underwater'.

It can dive up to 32.8 feet (10 mt) below the surface of the water and can move at a sedate 1.8 miles per hour.

The sQuba has an open cockpit for 'safety reasons' (so that people can get out easily anytime in case of an emergency). The occupants of the car have to breathe compressed air through built-in scuba masks.

sQuba is an electric car that uses rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and 3 electric motors for propulsion. It is a zero-emission car as documented by the rotating license plate in the rear. It produces no exhaust emissions.

The 'sQuba's' filling station is the water reservoir.? It is no surprise that the vehicle features powerful yet energy-saving LED lighting technology.

The first car that could drive underwater was Quandt's Amphibicar, built in 1968. Only 3,878 were produced but many are still being driven on roads.

Then Gibbs Technologies came up with Gibbs Aquada in 2004 which Virgin boss Richard Branson used to break the speed record for crossing the English Channel.
However, the sQuba seems to be the most exciting of them all.

To drive on the roads, the sQuba 'relies on a stainless coil-over suspension from KW automotive and large Pirelli tires mounted on custom-made forged light-weight wheels from AEZ with 17- and 18-inch diameters.'

Technical data

Measurements

Length ----- 3'785 mm
Width ----- 1''940 mm
Height ----- 1'117 mm
Wheelbase ----- 2?300 mm
Track front ----- 1?470 mm
Track rear ----- 1?520 mm
Ground clearance ----- 130 mm
Empty weight ----- approx. 920kg

Performances

Top speed ----- > 120 km/h
Acceleration 0-80 km/h ----- 7.1 sec
Water speed ----- > 6 km/h
Under water speed ----- > 3 km/h
Dive depth ----- 10 m

Engines

Street ----- Electric
Power output ----- max. 54 kW at 4'500 /min
Torque ----- 160 NM at 1'500 /min
Water - Stern propellers ----- Electric
Power output ----- 2 x 800 W
Diving - bow jet drives ----- Electric
Power output ----- 2 x 3.6 kW Rotinor
Batteries ----- Lithium-Ionen
Voltage ----- 6 x 48 Volt

Propulsion

Power train ----- Rear wheel drive
Gearbox ----- R - N - F
Suspension
Chassis ----- Steel
Body panels ----- Carbon Nano Tubes
Seating capacity ----- 2
Front suspension ----- Double wishbone
Rear suspension ----- Double wishbone
Dampers/springs ----- KW automotive
Steering ----- Rack & pinion

Tyres

Front tyres ----- Pirelli P Zero 205/40 R17
Front wheels ----- AEZ 7.5 x 17"
Rear tyres ----- Pirelli P Zero 225/40 R18
Rear wheels ----- AEZ 8 x 18"
Miscellaneous
Air supply ----- 1 x 15 liter + 1 x 18 liter ScubaPro
Laser scanner ----- Ibeo
Lubricants ----- Motorex

Sudhakar: 14th November 2009

Talk of  Dr. Stevan Chu, the Nobel laureate and currently Secretary, US Dept of Energy, on 13th Nov 2009.

It was heartening to hear many points that we had discussed: 

        The efforts in batteries with personal transportation vehicles in view

                and the ones  of huge  MWhr storage capacity

        

        Distributed small power generation, including the ones like under 10 kW biomass gasifier IC engine based generator.

            Our efforts in improving the economics by recovering the waste heat from  even such low power ones is a step ahead in this direction in improving the market viability.

        

        60 % efficiency for compressed air storage   points to the potential of small bamboo composite based high pressure air tanks for on the move storage of

                excess available cattle muscle energy that can be harnessed even while the cattle pull  a sub-optimal load on a bullock cart,

                to the extent of a couple of units of energy per day,

                almost enough to cater to the energy part of  the badly needed improvement in our abysmally low  HDI(Human Development Index )

       

        the 75% to 80% efficiency for using high hydel tank  to be viewed in the context of the using mega  power pumps  to pump water  into high level storage reservoirs

                through an extensive canal network that can at least partially mitigate the growing intensity of misery in flash floods such as the recent AP/Karnataka one.

                I think we need to rivisit the environmental concerns of possible  river grid development, and evaluate the efforts in  a holistic manner.

Sudhakar: 11th November 2009

Economic Times 11th Nov 2009 : Bajaj has  decided(?)  to develop their JV Ultra Low Cost (ULC) car using a substantial no of components from their own 2-3 wheelers.

This is a step towards   my dream Universal Personal Transport Vehicle which would be an electric riksha that uses mostly the bicyle and riksha parts. Any takers for that?

Sudhakar: 26th October 2009
Dear Rupesh, and Vikram
Jaihind!

Thanks for your interest in taking up a term paper in the topics that I discussed.
Since I shall be out of station from this evening and is expected to be back only on the  morning of 5th November, I strongly suggest that you choose a suitable set of questions or back ground info from any of the three   broad topics which I shared with you in google doc.
I can be contacted by email though or by phone: 093123 23702.
Wish you the best for your term paper on 14th November.

Regards and best wishes
Sudhakar
Only as a suggestion:
See if you can expand the adage "one man's meat is another man's poison" or "the question of a different way of presenting the facts of housing in the school text books"
or

"the possibility of electric bamboo riksha as a personal transport vehicle" with the batteries getting charged from green sources of energy - biomass/biogas/solar or a hybrid of the same or cattle muscle power."
Try to discuss what could be possible if the state of the art technology is used.
For example the Delft Univ student team made waves in the solar challenge of Australia in which their 'Nuon' three wheeler uses electric motor of 95% to 99% efficiency!!
Look for contests that spur the creativity to meet the ecological challenges.


16th Oct 2009:  Sudhakar
Sorry folks - I have not visited this for some days now. I am pleasantly surprised and a bit worried for a short while: over helmed with so many collaborators wishing to edit(?) and worried that the content may mislead by showing only the latest version containing some ideas or data that may be far from those intended or fact. But it was only momentary because I have immense faith in the collective  wisdom of my young friends. I am reminded of what is quoted from, if I remember well,  Dharam Pal's ''Beautiful Tree" an observation by an English officer some 200 years ago when he saw for the first time, what  popularly came to be known as  'monitorial method' , a group of young children practicing writing on sand and reciting some lessons from mathematics to languages, led by one among them - with no elder let alone any person looking like a teacher: amazed by the method, his immediate concern took the form of a question to the kids which ran some thing like, 'But how do you know if the lead kid says some thing wrong?'.
His sense of surprise only increased  with the immediate reply from one of the kids in the group: which was like, "At least some of us would correct - all of us  couldn't just get it wrong.'  [Haritha's publication, 'Bharatiya Vidya - Aa  Rojullo' meaning 'Indian Education in Those Days' , a  part of  'Samagra Vidya'  meaning 'Holistic Education' - one among the series of Haritha's extensively researched (primarily by my esteemed colleague, Sri Satya Teertha) publications,  that describes the foundation of Haritha's concept of achieving 'Holistic Education' towards which I have devoted the prime of my youth after voluntarily quitting IITD's secure permanent faculty positiion  in CARE plunging myself in to an unfamiliar domain, finacially risky business of setting up a school, Haritha Ecological Institute under the guidance of 'Haritha Association for Learning from Environment'', that we fondly call , 'HALE' ]

 --------------------------------

Debate / Discussion for better Understanding

P. Sudhakar

The following  questions make up  three sections:

    a) climate concerns,

    b) bamboo in housing

    c) cattle muscle power - energy – transportation

The questions are marked with  #  or with ** 

In general, one is expected to collect the information from the media / web.  In particular, the ones with ** need to be answered from literature search and the source  must  be cited.

Most numbers are picked up from literature,  academic or other wise, and only a few  of them are verified  in our own lab / experiments. Those given in bold and italics are by and large  ball park figures only for illustration, though my efforts are to keep them realistic to with in  10% to 20%. Feel free to replace these with other numbers that are considered more appropriate, duly mentioning the reason/source. These  are most  likely to change with more accurate information.

This is a hurriedly put up document and there are bound to be errors, small and  big. Bringing the same to my notice  by high lighting in a different font colour, say in red,  would be greatly appreciated.

For those with the talent and the inclination, any  cartoons, jokes (no obscenity / hurt / derogation / names /   … please ) to illustrate any of the concepts in the back ground info or the questions would be greatly appreciated. And please  let me know where  any  changes one  suggested/made right at the top in a different font with your name. Also kindly use the strike through feature 

 

a) Climate Concerns

# Discuss the relations between Life styles - Carbon foot print - Climate change and Intervention with Mother Nature.

#  What is IPCC?  Explain the essential out come of its recent report(2007). What is the major change compared to its previous one?

# What are the high lights of the  interim reports since IPCC 2007: global warming, rising sea levels, sinking deltas, recent natural calamities ascribable to global warming along with reasons mentioned.

# Explain the terms:  carbon foot print, embodied energy, green house effect, green house gases, carbon credits and carbon trading.

# Grade the major sectors – housing, energy, transportation etc on the basis of their impact on climate change

# A  famous adage from the school of  Hippocrates (ancient Greek and considered father of medicine) is

‘ One man’s meat is another man’s poison’.

If one’s meat is considered as one’s efforts to be happy in choosing a life style or doing just about any thing, when could it become another’s poison? Discuss it at individual, community and national levels with  examples. Would there be any difference if the ‘another man’ also includes life other than human.

Discuss, in particular, how the societies in general reacted to smoking in public over the past four or five decades (in the light of the  adage).

In the light of another of the famous Hippocratic adages, 

    'Desperate diseases require desperate remedies'

examine the following:

# If climate change concern were to be the supreme concern that mankind has to address, grade the hither to ‘universally hailed’ mile stone  innovations of man based on the now recognized relative quantum  of their effects on climate change from prehistoric times down to the current times through the modern preindustrial revolution led by the west.

Discuss which of these could be considered as progress in civilization. Any comments on the eastern thoughts and practice, in general and Indian in particular?

#  Another famous advice from the Hippocratic school,  "Physician should interfere as little as possible with the healing process of nature" is religiously followed by every physician/surgeon with any ethics, even to this day, after nearly two and half thousand years. Medical or surgical intervention  is considered/implemented, that too as  a  last resort, only to avoid the likely hood of an impending disaster by those who follow medical ethics. Discuss, if this should not be adopted as our guiding principle of conduct when it comes to intervention with our own body or with Mother Nature.

More specifically discuss on our interference with Mother Nature with respect  to

            a)  the efforts of the likes of Michael Jackson to change his appearance and his sad demise

            b) taming a river and developing a canal and a system of reservoirs

            c) mega open cast mining, super high ways, super cars/bikes, modern  villas and high rise residences that accommodate just a few which make  the old grand palaces look like humble dwellings and finally, the  private flying palaces.

#In the light of the above, is there a need to reexamine the very basis of our concepts of ‘aesthetics, beauty, ugly, clean, dirty’?

# Do you agree that we, the humans, should be good ‘tenants’ on this earth? Why or why not?  For example, how and on what basis would you classify the long lasting palatial houses of the old and new kinds - as  objects of civilization or other wise?

#  Discuss if there are any major differences between the indulgences in the life styles of the old Indian Maharajas and  the modern Maharajas, the over lords of the modern business / technology empires with reference to the net carbon emissions particularly in food, clothing  and housing (roti, kapada and makan).

# Primary school education seems to have lessons that state some thing like

‘poor live in houses of mud walls and thatched roofs;

some what better off ones live in houses of burnt brick walls and roofs of burnt clay tiles and

the rich live in bungalows of RCC buildings”.

Discuss if the same ‘facts’ can be stated in relation to the carbon foot print and climate change concerns so that at least the future generations become more sensitive to climate concerns and hence would devote matching efforts and resources in addressing the same.

2. Housing

Role of Bamboo

in addressing the dire needs and emerging concerns climate

Back ground:

Bamboo - a tall woody grass that yields structural timber.

Unique  in many ways – some of them:

Grows to its full physical size both in girth  and height in just under 3 to 4 months (after the shoot emerges from the ground during the monsoon)

    and in this initial growth stage is amenable to shaping

Skin matures in its tensile strength in just under one year : the tensile strength matches that of steel and actually surpasses it on a specific strength basis

It takes only 3 to 5 years for the interior to mature as timber.

(Most Hard wood trees take over 30 years to yield mature timber)

Continuously renewable building material almost -on a monthly basis - with   a negative carbon foot print.

During the dry season of every year, 10 to 15 bamboo culms of mature timber can be harvested from each bamboo bush, i.e., almost 1 or 2 can be harvested in every month of the dry season from each bush; it works out to about 250 to 500 mature culms per month per acre of a healthy bamboo plantation. This supports decentrallised production systems supporting even nano level house hold enterprises in transforming round harvested bamboo into ready to install load bearing structural elements for housing, such as beams, coluns, wall/roof panels.

Structure  - a functionally graded composite of high specific strength, the likes of which are only recently being  experimented with. (you know that Mother Nature had done it millions of years ago)  

Can be slived into mm thin strips with no loss of strength with under 20% loss of material (nearly impossible with any  hard wood)

A great eco healer in all aspects - soil, water, air and environmental aesthetics

Quick to establish: just one or at the most two seasons even  in adversity (like any grass)

Bamboo and steel: a comparison of   cost for a given performance in compression and tension

#  Density and 'cost per unit mass' of bamboo are both about a tenth  of those for steel and what are those for steel?

(It follows that

bamboo of a cross section that is ten times that of steel would weigh same as that of steel, lengths being equal and

about ten kg of bamboo can be obtained  for the same money that gets us only one kg of steel.)

#  Units of mechanical strength(Maximum stress)               [Stress = Force/Area]

              MPa = 10⁶ N/m² = ? N/mm = ? kg.wt/cm²

(kg.wt = force equal to that of gravity on a mass of 1 kg and is nearly 9.8N or about 10N; most of the time it is also simply referred to as kg or some times as kgf)

# Estimate  the cross sectional area and mass per m length of bamboo of 50mm and 20mm as OD and ID respectively. (Assume uniform cross section; density 750 kg/m³) Calculate its cost per m length at Rs. 5/kg.

# What are the reported ranges of working tensile stresses for bamboo used in structural load bearing applications? Compare these with its respective ultimate tensile strengths. How does the latter typically  vary in a given bamboo culm, say for dendrocalamus strictus say from bottom to top and from inside to out side?.                           

# Assume that the working compressive stresses in bamboo and steel are 10 MPa and 70 MPa respectively.   

 Compare the performance of the two materials in terms of per kg and per Rs. spent on material with respect to taking on a given compressive load for a given span. Assume that the space for cross section is not a constraint.

# If a compressive load of 20 kN is to be handled, suggest the working cross section of bamboo needed and compare it with that for mild steel. For a given height of the column, find the ratio of  the self weights of the bamboo and mild steel columns and costs. (Neglect the additional weight due to the joinery say ferro-cement  bands in bamboo column.) Assume reasonable prices for bamboo and steel. Assume a permissible  working compressive stress of 12MPa for bamboo.                                                       

# Assume that the working tensile  stresses in bamboo and steel are 70MPa (range 20MPa to 150 MPa)    and 200 MPa respectively. Compare the performance of the two materials in terms of per kg and per Rs. spent on materials alone for taking on a given tensile load through an element of a given length. Assume that the space for the cross section is not a constraint.

# If a compressive load of 15 kN is to be handled by a column in a single level house, suggest the working cross section of bamboo needed and compare it with that for mild steel. Assume a conservative permissible compressive stress of 8MPa

Find the ratio of  the self weights of the bamboo and mild steel columns and material costs. (Neglect the additional weight due to the joinery say nut/bolts, ferro-cement  bands etc., in bamboo column.) Assume reasonable prices for bamboo and steel. (neglect buckling).

If   buckling is a constraint, which is likely to be better and why?

The enormous scope of bamboo and the road blocks in realizing it:

The sheer quantum:

# The waste/degraded lands in India are estimated to be about 120 milllion hectares. If one third of these waste lands in India are greened with  plantation of bamboo of over 100 species, estimate the quantity of bamboo that can be annually harvested.  Assume  a dry bamboo pole  productivity of 2.5 tons/hectare-year in rain fed and unmanaged forest conditions.

# It seems reasonable to expect over 5 ton/hectare of dry bamboo pole productivity under rain fed but appropriately managed conditions from the waste/degraded lands and a bit higher in farm lands of marginal soils. Estimate the annual gross income from a hectare of rain fed but managed bamboo plantation in the farm lands with marginal soils.

Guess how much of the gross income would be available for annual management of the plantation and give an estimate of the livelihoods supported assuming that most of the management expenses would be in the form of 'unskilled' or 'semi skilled' farm labour with man power costs of about Rs.100/man-day. (The central Govt of India is committed to support at least 100 days per year at this rate for every adult from the BPL families in the backward or draught / flood   ravaged districts) 

# In any of the specific questions on the relative load bearing capacities of steel and bamboo in compression and tension, estimate the quantity of steel that can potentially be replaced in structurals by the bamboo poles from a hectare of managed but rain fed bamboo plantation in farm lands with marginal soils and the resulting savings, if any, as per current market economics on material costs alone.

**What is the projected demand of steel for India by 2020? (to be supported by proper references)

Assume that two tons of bamboo structural can replace one ton of steel structural and the projected Indian demand for steel structurals alone is about 50 million tons/year by 2020. 

Find the area of bamboo plantations needed to meet the entire structural demand in the two cases: rain fed unmanaged waste lands and rain fed managed marginal lands.

**What is the extent of farm lands that have partial irrigation support either by canals or by ground water in India? (to be supported by proper references)

# One can reasonably assume that productivity of managed bamboo plantations in such farm lands can be over 40 ton/hectare. Estimate the extent of such farm lands needed  if the bamboo from it were to replace the entire structural steel demand?

The investments:

# Assume that a  typical steel plant currently needs an investment of over Rs. 4000 Crore /million ton of annual capacity. Calculate the investment per ton of annual steel production facility

# There are two national missions of Indian government, the NMBA of DST and NBM of agricultural ministry. Both roughly estimate the investment needed to raise a bamboo plantation to be about Rs. 20000/hectare which would be spread over the four years that the bamboo bushes take to start yielding economically significant returns. With the bamboo productivity to be as assumed earlier find the investment needed per ton of annual bamboo production facility in different types of soils  and management practices. Compare it with that of steel.

The impact on environment:

# Using the total possible bamboo production estimated as earlier, try and guess the potential eco healing impact with reference to

1. reduced CO₂ from the air,
2. reduced soil erosion
3. improved in the moisture and quality of top soil 
4. improved sub soil moisture and ground water
5. arresting the sinking of important deltas

Let us  call all the above together as ecology energy costs; at least three more important issues are not yet included:

a) Improved environmental aesthetics from the magnificent greenery of the massive bamboo plantations and

b) O₂ that the bamboo plantations release into the air

c) Enhanced support to a host of life forms – from the numerable cattle and big animals to the innumerable birds, insects,  and microbes-  their holistic role in human well being is some thing that is only beginning to be appreciated: very limited understanding  and is yet to be explored in the modern scientific era.

The market costs and livelihood issues:

Assume the following:

About 20% of the market rate of steel structurals is from man power costs.

The  average man power cost in steel industry is about  Rs. 400/man-day (all the way from digging ore to conversion to steel and transforming it in to the structural element)

              Current manpower costs of a rural artisan is about Rs. 250/man-day

Art of making bamboo structurals currently requires almost 5 times that of the raw bamboo material costs

eg: Man power costs in making a structural element:

WithSteel :

To make a  100 kg steel structural element at Rs. 50/kg it costs about Rs. 5000/- . The man power component (all the way from digging ore to conversion to steel and transforming it in to the structural element) would be about Rs. 1000/-. At an assumed average of Rs.400/ man-day in the steel sector, it would just take 2.5 man- days for the structure. At 250 man-days per year, per livelihood, about 100 of the 100 kg steel structurals can be made. This would require about 10000kg or    10 tons of steel.

In other words, each  ton of steel structural would support about 0.1 livelihood

                                         

With Bamboo: Assume the same structural element would be feasible with  the same  mass of 100kg. With the raw bamboo at Rs. 5/kg, the manpower costs at five times the former, would be about Rs. 25/kg.   The bamboo structural element if feasible would thus cost about Rs. 30/kg. The total cost of the 100kg bamboo structural (that matches in performance to the 100 kg steel element)   it would be about Rs.3000.

@  about Rs. 250/man-day of the artisanal cost assumed, the structural element would need 16 man- days  of work.

Assuming 320 working days per year per livelihood for the rural artisans for the sake of simpler calculation(and may be with the family help included), the number of structural elements that could be made per head would be about 20. About 2000kg or 2 tons of bamboo would be needed for these structural elements.

Equivalently each  ton of bamboo  structural would support about  0.5 livelihood.

Thus for structurals, the raw material requirements and the livelihoods generated are :

                            for steel              10 ton/livelihood

                           for bamboo           2 ton/livelihood

# Estimate the quantum of the livelihoods that can possibly be supported if the bamboo that can potentially be produced from even from just 20 million hectares  of the available waste lands if the bamboo produced were used for structurals.

If the man power requirement is reduced to a more modest level that is equal to that of the material cost, estimate the rural livelihoods  that can be supported.

# Discuss the major obstacles(social and technical) in popularizing bamboo housing   in India.                                                                                                                             

** What is the targeted urban greenery in hectares by 2020? (to be supported by proper references)

** What is the total length of

1. the  roads and rail tracks of various categories in India as of now and by 2020? 
2. The canals and rivers

(to be supported by proper references)

# It may be recognized that the bamboo bushes could be along the boundaries of the farm lands or on the road side or become part of the urban greenery so very essential for close to half a billion people expected to be in urban areas in the next decade.

Assume about 100 bushes of bamboo per km length on ordinary roads; about three times this figure along major national high ways;  over five  and ten times  on the banks of canals and rivers respectively.

Assuming that  about 400 bamboo bushes along a line or other wise make up approximately one hectare of bamboo plantation, estimate the effective area of bamboo plantation that could be supported along roads, canals, rivers and urban greenery. To protect bio diversity assume that the bamboo of all species would cover no more than some 25% of the above greenery.

# Discuss the relative advantages of bamboo amongst the greenery with reference' to soil erosion control on embankments along high ways, rail tracks and canals & rivers. (Try and find out which features of greenery such as  root systems and their spread,  leaf size and litter quantity covering the soil etc that  can possibly impact the erosion resistance.)

The issues of carbon foot print and scope for carbon credits/trading: Back ground

The recent report of IPCC emphasizes that the global warming is primarily due to  human activities and a large part of it is due to emission of carbon dioxide(the major green house gas).

To reduce the  CO₂  in the atmosphere, we may consider two strategies (many others are being discussed):

    i)   growing a woody material like bamboo which absorbs CO₂ and

    ii)  using it as a structural member in place of steel, there by reducing CO₂ emissions

# Growing bamboo:

A simplified photo synthetic reaction can be represented as below:

              6 CO₂ + 6 H₂O    C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂

Assuming that the glucose constitutes most of the  woody biomass in bamboo, estimate the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere for every tonne of bamboo produced. Where else (and how much) of the CO₂  could possibly go to making the bamboo biomass and for how long would it stay as biomass before returning to the atmosphere. Compare it with the time that the CO₂ in the timber of the bamboo poles remains if used in houses as structural elements.

# Assuming a productivity of 10 tonnes of bamboo per hectare per year, estimate the carbon dioxide that can be removed from atmosphere per year by 20 million hectares of land under bamboo plantation .

Replacing steel by bamboo: Likely impact on climate:

Back ground

The embodied energy of a material is the energy consumed during the manufacture of the material and its transport to the site. For steel it is estimated to be about 32 MJ/kg.

# If the energy consumed in producing and transporting the steel is obtained by burning coal of calorific value about 16 MJ/kg, estimate the coal burnt for every  tonne of steel used.

Assuming coal to be basically carbon (?) and using

C + O₂      CO₂

estimate the carbon dioxide emitted per every tonne of steel used.

# If only  half of the required  energy in making steel  is  from direct burning of coal and the rest through use of electricity or internal combustion engines where efficiency of using the thermal energy from coal  is 30%,  how would the above answer change?

c) Energy - cattle muscle power - Transportation

Back ground:

Many  S&T stalwarts and administrators think that any thought of relying on  cattle muscle power can only take us back in civilization. With due regards and great reverence to their academic excellence and  with all humbleness and humility, I beg to differ.

A couple of years ago, I was challenged into thinking of these issues, in particular the quantitative ones, by some searching questions from my mentor, Prof. PV Indiresan (the founder head of the School of Radar Studies, present CARE of IITD and  later retired as director of IIT Madras) when I advocated the case of   cattle muscle power. He suggested that I should dispassionately compare it with  the traditional technological route of harvesting solar thermal energy.  I am convinced that both the routes are complementary and form a holistic solution to the climate concerns. I am grateful to him for the same. I gratefully acknowledge the inspiring Ph.D work of Mr. Ajit Kumar under the guidance of  Prof. RR Gaur and  Prof. PL Dhar  (Mech engg , IITD)  for their work on harvesting cattle muscle power in the 1980’s.

By 2002, having stayed in the Haritha residences with bamboo arch supported roofs for over 8 years, I considered my forays into bamboo housing as successful. I wanted to explore the harvesting of solar energy through the thermal route, but the greenery in Hariha proved to be  a hindrance and getting rid of it was not an option. But then we were finding it difficult to maintain the cattle for there was productive work for them on our small farm for less than about 100 days per year. Then fodder scam of Bihar hit the head lines and it was then that I wondered why not harvest the cattle muscle power.

We  began our experiments in harvesting the human muscle power through the bicycle operated  wet grinder.

I could do  in 45 minutes what a 0.5 HP electric motor driven wet grinder does in half an hour in preparing the material for idlis as break fast for about  fifty persons.

These more than convinced me that I should pursue the harvesting of cattle muscle power.

A pair of cattle that is more than ten times my weight, can certainly generate more than ten times my muscle energy in stretches of 2 to 3 hours and for a total of about six to eight hours a day averaging the replacement of an electric motor of 2-3 HP(1.5 to 2 kWe) at least for similar mechanical work!

(Incidentally, I found the bicycle grinder  to be a great exercise for legs and the hands- I used to turn the pedals by left hand,

and then the right hand by suitably squatting on the sides and then the normal way by the legs. When turning the pedals by hand, in each turn, the hands go through a  fairly cyclic and smoothly varying   push and pull, exercising virtually all the parts of the hand – all the muscles and the joints: wrists, elbows and shoulders included.)

I  was  then (2002) referred to the 1980’s work at IITD,  got hold of the Ph.D thesis and by late 2003 we operated the mobile bullock cart power generator that charged the batteries in the day time and the inverter lighted up the tubes and operated a PC in the night for a couple of hours for several days as demonstrated in  local fair in Bhadrachalam in the sands of river Godavari.

Some basic numbers:

Solar energy that falls per m² in a sunny region of our country is about 1200 kW.hr per year.

Fodder grasses convert this into energy of the fodder at a photosynthetic efficiency of about  1%

Feeding on this fodder,  cattle can  convert about 12% of the energy in the fodder  into mechanical energy through their muscles.

There are about 40 million pairs of draught animals and about 220 millions of other cattle (about a total of 150 million pairs) in India.

The total peak demand of electric power in India has touched about 1 Lakh MW in the September 2009.

The enormous quantum of available cattle muscle power

# Estimate the mechanical energy that the cattle can generate by feeding on the fodder grass from 1 m² of land over 1 year.

# If cattle generate the above mechanical energy in about  the 2000 hours that there is sun shine over one year, estimate the average  mechanical power (over the 2000 hours) that the cattle can develop from feeding on the fodder raised over one hectare of  land.

(1 hectare = 10⁴ m²)

^{Also estimate the extent of land needed to produce say 100 000 MW (1 Lakh MW) of mechanical power through the fodder grasses and the cattle muscle power route.}

^{# Assume that a 400 kg bullock or ox  can pull at about 12.5 % of its body weight while walking at close to 1.5m/s.  Estimate the mechanical power that the cattle can generate.}

^{# If the above power is available as rotary mechanical power at about 100 rpm  in the rural area, estimate the electrical power that needs to be generated at the central thermal power station to provide the same through a 1200 rpm  electric motor, making reasonable assumptions on the transmission losses (30% to 40% including theft); efficiency of electric motor(80% to 85%) and that of down gearing through a V belt drive(75% to 85%).               (Many  of the applications for electricity in rural areas require conversion of electricity into mechanical power at 100 rpm to 200 rpm such as thrashing, grain grinding, oil extraction etc.,)}

^{# Assume that the muscle power of  all the cattle population is harvested at the average rate of 6 hours /day for the draught animals and 2 to 3 hours/day for the other cattle. Other assumptions are  the same as in above.}

^{Estimate the total mechanical energy available at the field level through the cattle muscle energy and the corresponding electrical energy that needs to be generated in the central thermal power stations. If this cattle muscle energy is spread over an average of 4 hours/day, calculate the average mechanical power  over the same 4 hours. It would be interesting to examine if this could be used to meet the peak load demand of electricity.}

^{Transportation}

^{Back ground:}

^{A state of the art  electric auto mobile, Audi’s R8 e-tron in Frankfurt 2009 auto show is reported to have the following features:}

^{Mass:                                                                                                                1600 kg}

^{Speed:                                                                                                                100 km/hr}

^{Approximate driving distance per charge:                                           250 km *}

^{Max power of the 4 electric motors (for the four wheels):           240 kW}

              ^{Approximate Battery capacity:                                                     40 kW.hr *}

^{*  The actual figures in the report were 248 Km and 42.4 kW.hr}

^{Average cruise speed in good high ways can be taken as about 100 km/hr. In a typical Indian high way the average speed is around 50 km/hr but is rising fast.}

^{The average power for cruise on horizontal level road can be assumed to be  required to over come:}

    ^{a.    Friction, which at these speeds is proportional only to the mass}

    ^{b.    viscous air drag which is proportional to the square of the speed.}

^{In the absence strong winds, it is fairly reasonable to assume that air drag can be ignored for speeds less than 25 km/hr while at about 50 km/hr, it is roughly equal to that of friction.}

^{Power needed vs speed and  mass}

^{# Estimate the cruise time that the battery would allow for one charge in a good high way for the Audi’s R8 e-tron. In a typical Indian scenario, how much would it be?}

^{# Assuming that the total average power needed for the motors would be proportional to   average speed if viscous air drag is ignored (why),  estimate the average power consumed by the vehicle for cruise in an international standard  high way.}

^{How much would it be in a typical Indian scenario? Would it be different if air drag is considered?  Is so, would it decrease or increase?}

^{# If we also assume that the similar motors are fitted on to Tata’s ‘Nano’ that has a mass of about 600 kg, estimate the following needs in Indian scenario mentioned above:}    

    ^{a.    the average power and}

    ^{b.    battery capacity needed if the driving distance per charge is only 60 km}

^{The required average power  changes more than linearly with speed,  particularly when ones considers that the effect of viscous air drag is proportional to the square of speed}

^{# A typical farmer in rural India wishes to have an electric  riksha  with a capacity to carry 1+ 2  or about 200 kg load at about 20 kmph. Repeat the estimates of the above for the said electric riksha. (Assume that the mass of the riksha body along with frame and  the motor, the gear  &  battery needed would be around 60kg (approximately 40 kg +20 kg each (?))}

^{Possible role of bamboo and the cattle muscle power in the rural India’s scenario:}

^{Mass of bamboo based  vehicle:  50 kg.}  

^{An all bamboo - wood frame can typically take a load that is about 100 times that of its self weight. (The 3m span twin bamboo arch, vertically separated by ‘V’ block wooden spacers in the  maiden effort at Haritha, AP  has a mass of under 20 kg and took a load of about 2000 kg.)}

^{Even allowing for impacts and a safety factor, a 30 kg  mass seems possible  for the frame and the body. The total mass of the riksha would then be about 50 kg.}  

^{Average driving distance per charge: 25 km}

^{Local market to sell the produce such as vegetables  or buy the necessities would be less than about 10 km and hence the daily average commute would be under about 25 km.}

^{An average driving speed: 20 km (?)}

^{Even in urban scenario, an electric riksha could have substantial cumulative reduction of carbon foot print per passenger.km travel on account of energy consumed directly and the reduced embodied energy in the roads, tyres and vehicles.}

^{One requires roads of  lesser width and much lesser load bearing capacity  &  wear resistance.}