Lighting lives through innovative technology solutions

I came across a very interesting and thought provoking piece of information on newswires and several online news platforms today which can have significant impact on improving the lives of millions of poor and the marginalised in India.

In a research presented at a conference in San Jose, US, , the IBM India researchers have come up with a unique idea of using discarded laptop batteries to power lights, fans and even mobile phone chargers. The research was led by Vikas Chandan, a gentleman who works with IBM’s Smarter Energy Group in Bengaluru.
As I tried to find out more about this simple yet brilliant solution that could bring light to millions of the poor of the country, I was able to find a very well written piece where Chandan himself has explained the journey to reach this solution and discussed a variety of opportunities that could be created . I am reproducing here the complete article aptly titled ‘Powering communities with discarded laptop batteries’. Here is the article by Vikas Chandan (Click here):
“Located right across Bangalore’s Ramaiah College is Chill and Grill, a fast-food joint that is an easy jaunt for students as well as young working professionals who work in the area. The piping hot evening snacks such as wraps and samosas attracts large crowds. And business has been growing for Lalit, 39, who has been running the eatery for more than five years. While business is good, he’s had a persistent worry – the frequent power outages in the neighborhood. He cannot afford inverters or diesel generators to provide back up power, and sans an alternate, business stops until the lights come back on.
Even I go to Chill and Grill with my team, Harshad Khadilkar, Zainul Charbiwala and Deva Seetharam, and Rajesh Kunnath and Deepak Ramakumar, and colleagues from our hardware partner, RadioStudio. We had an idea for Lalit.
By using discarded laptop batteries, we created a device that could power lights, fans and mobile phone chargers. The specific prototype we built was able to provide around 20 Watt-hours of energy. In other words, it can power a 5W DC light bulb for about four hours before running out of charge.

The device, targeted at the Bottom of the Pyramid market (a country’s poorest socio-economic group) made famous by the late management guru,C.K.Prahlad, would be particularly useful for rural or semi-urban populations of developing countries like India – and for those like Lalit, who cannot afford to buy high-end power backup options such as inverters or diesel generators. For example, in villages which only get a few hours of power every day, the device could be charged when power is available through a community charging center. It can then be used to run devices during nights when power might not be available, such as lights for children to study. Road-side vendors, who might not have access to power from the grid, could also charge needed devices before leaving home in the morning, and use them at their shops at night.

The prototype of the device was built with help from RadioStudio. It took four steps:

• Source laptop battery packs through organized electronic waste (e-waste) collectors
• Disassemble the packs to extract individual cells that could still deliver power
• Connect re-usable cells together to build a refurbished battery pack
• Build a box that contains a charging circuit for the pack of refurbished batteries, converters, and other electronics to power the external devices such as lights and fans.

We estimate the bill of material for the device to be about Rs1000 (about $US16.50) each, when compared to conventional backup solutions such as inverters and diesel generators which usually cost upwards of Rs 10,000 (about $US165). The pricing includes the enclosure, electronics, DC fan and an LED light.
Having installed the device at Chill and Grill, we found that it was able to provide about four hours of backup power when the batteries were fully charged.
Our team also believes that several variants of the device are possible depending on economic and technical feasibility, such as inclusion of a mechanical battery rack instead of a small battery pack; a low battery cut-off indicator; dead battery cell indicators; and the use of other types of battery packs such as cellphone batteries. And we’re also exploring solar energy charging.

The device attempts to mitigate the environmental and economic issues associated with e-waste by providing a means to re-use discarded batteries. In particular, if this technology is adopted commercially at a large scale, it can incentivize organized collection of e-waste. A large chunk of e-waste collection in India is still handled by the informal sector consisting of local garbage dealers or kabariwallas, which is currently unregulated and poses safety and environmental problems.

The device offers potential business opportunity for companies engaged in rural and semi-urban electrification missions. It doesn’t require much capital investment and is easy to build. It also provides a cleaner and potentially cheaper alternative than burning kerosene lamps, and is also compact, light weight, and portable. Most importantly, the device can power homes and communities at the “bottom of the pyramid” for whom access to reliable power is still a challenge.

Back at Chill and Grill, Lalit has been happy with the amount of light he can get from his device. My team is confident that the device will be made commercially available and widely adopted."

सरकार की प्रभावी नीतियों से मिला भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था को नया जीवन

मई 2014 में अभूतपूर्व जनादेश के साथ केंद्र में सत्तारूढ़ भाजपा नीत एनडीए सरकार ने प्रधानमंत्री श्री नरेंद्र मोदी के नेतृत्व में जो अथक प्रयास किए हैं उनका फल सामने आ रहा है। यूपीए के दस साल के शासनकाल में मरणासन्न हो चुकी अर्थव्यवस्था को इतने कम समय में ही श्री मोदी और उनकी टीम ने एक सुनियोजित ढंग से जिस प्रकार जीवंत किया है वह अपने आप में एक उदाहरण है।

पिछले छः महीने के मोदी सरकार के कार्यकाल में सेंसेक्स के स्तर में लगभग 18 प्रतिशत का उछाल आया है। मंहगाई की बात करें तो यह इस समय पिछले दो साल के अब तक के न्यूनतम स्तर पर है। निवेशकों का भारत पर भरोसा बढ़ रहा है। प्रत्यक्ष विदेशी निवेश की दर में यूपीए के शासन काल की तुलना में ढाई से तीन गुना वृद्धि दर्ज की गई है। इस साल मई से सितंबर तक हर महीने लगभग साढ़े तीन अरब डाॅलर का प्रत्यक्ष विदेशी निवेश भारत में आया है। क्रेडिट रेटिंग के मामले में भी भारत की साख मजबूत हुई है। जब एनडीए की सरकार ने सत्ता संभाली थी तो उससे पूर्व स्टैंडर्ड एंड पुअर जैसी अंतर्राष्ट्रीय एजेंसी ने हमे नकारात्मक रेटिंग दी थी, अब इसी एजेंसी ने इस रेटिंग को सुधारा है। यूपीए के समय हमारी जीडीपी विकास दर पांच फीसदी से नीचे चली गई थी लेकिन इस वित्तीय वर्ष की पहली तिमाही में मोदी सरकार के प्रयासों के कारण जीडीपी विकास दर में सुधार शुरू हुआ और यह 5.7 प्रतिशत पर पहुंच गई।

अगस्त 2014 से लेकर अब तक सात बार पेट्रोल की कीमतें कम की गईं हैं, पिछले एक महीने में तीन बार डीजल की कीमतों में कटौती की जा चुकी है। रसोई गैस के सिलेंडर की कीमत में हाल ही में सीधे 113 रुपए की भारी कटौती की गई है। रसोई गैस की कीमत अब पिछले तीन साल में न्यूनतम स्तर पर पहुंच चुकी है। स्टील, बिजली, कोयला, रिफाइनरी उत्पाद सहित आठ प्रमुख औद्योगिक सेक्टरों में विकास दर अक्टूबर में बढ़कर 6.3 प्रतिशत हो गई है।

इन आंकड़ों से स्पष्ट है कि भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था में एक सकारात्मक बदलाव आरंभ हो चुका है। यह साफ है कि मौजूदा सरकार की नीतियों और नीयत में पूरा सामंजस्य है जिसके कारण ही इतने कम समय में इतना बड़ा परिवर्तन संभव हो पाया है।

Delhi polls: It's advantage BJP

If we carefully observe the Assembly and Lok Sabha poll results since 2012 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, there has been a paradigm shift in the way Indian voters have been voting. “Hope and aspiration” are the guiding factors for the electorate. One of the reasons it has fuelled the rise of aspirational voter as the "deciding factor" in hard-fought electoral battles is our demographic composition, where the youth comprise a significant part of the population and first-time voters have been playing an important role in BJP’s spate of poll victories.

Young and middle aged voters are flag bearers of the hope and aspiration factor on which BJP is capitalising. Nothing signifies it more than the 2014 Lok Sabha poll results where "hope and aspiration" agenda overrode the traditional agenda of “communalism versus secularism” that was always propped up by the BJP’s rivals. They committed a mistake by doing the same thing without realising that the rules of the game have changed.

The "hope and aspiration" agenda of the BJP is importantly identified with Narendra Modi who has a proven track record as a chief minister and is now setting up new milestones as prime minister. Modi has both style and substance that connects him and the BJP with voters.

We have seen the impact of this hope and aspiration in the Lok Sabha polls 2014 in Delhi where the party doubled its lead over its rivals. The BJP led in 60 Assembly seats in May 2014 compared to 31 in November 2013 assembly polls.

More interestingly, the BJP had lost several of its traditional strongholds to AAP in 2013 Assembly polls. But by May 2014, not only did it retrieve its position but it completely turned the tables. Not only did it win back its traditional strongholds with a huge margin but it also won several AAP strongholds with a huge margin.

To name some of the seats like Shalimar Bagh, Greater Kailash, Hari Nagar and Tilak Nagar which have been traditional strongholds were lost to AAP in November 2013. But in May 2014, the BJP won back Shalimar Bagh with a margin of 25.5 per cent, Greater Kailash by 25.1 per cent, Hari Nagar by 18.1 per cent and Tilak Nagar by around ten per cent. In Greater Kailash, the AAP MLA was a minister in its 49 day government.

In fact, BJP has led by huge margins from the seats represented by the former AAP ministers . The icing on the cake was the BJP’s brilliant performance in New Delhi constituency represented by its party leader Arvind Kejriwal. At New Delhi, the BJP led over its nearest rival party by a 14.1 per cent margin. Similarly on seats represented by former AAP ministers - Mangolpuri, Patparganj, Greater Kailash, Malviya Nagar - the BJP was far ahead of all its rivals in May 2014.

The BJP has gained further since May 2014 when it comes to presenting a credible alternative to realise the hope and aspirations as it is evident from the party’s emphatic victories in Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls. The poll results in these states indicate that the people of the country are endorsing the policies and functioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On one hand we have BJP which, given an opportunity, is endorsed for making an effort to bring development to the doorsteps of the people. On the other hand, people of Delhi experienced a great disillusionment when Kejriwal ran away from his responsibility after creating chaos in Delhi during his 49-day government. Those 49 days busted the credibility of AAP and its leadership and the refection was evident in May 2014.

There doesn’t seem to be any perceptible change in the situation. The verdict in May 2014 was that both AAP and Congress are not at all equipped to cater to the hopes and aspirations of people in Delhi. The recent Assembly poll results indicate growing support for the BJP for its government’s performance. With a fledgling AAP struggling to gain credibility and a completely demoralised Congress due to its leadership crisis at all levels, the writing on the wall is clear: it's Advantage BJP in Delhi.