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Integrated Techno-economic Multi-objective Optimization Framework for India’s Green Hydrogen Supply Chain
No full textGreen hydrogen has the potential to accelerate India's clean energy transition, but its large-scale deployment depends on an efficient and integrated supply chain. The National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) underscores the need for a coordinated plan across production, storage, and transportation segments. However, these elements are often assessed separately using single-objective metrics, limiting their value for policy formulation and unlocking investment. This paper presents a techno-economic, multi-objective framework for India's Green Hydrogen Supply Chain (GHSC), modelling production, storage, and transport options as an encoded 12-bit binary chromosome covering both dedicated and hybrid pathways. Three objective functions focused on minimizing cost, lifecycle emissions, and energy consumption are optimized simultaneously under constraints for safety, leakage, and renewable energy availability. Using India-specific data, a pilot computational demonstration compares seven states (Gujarat, Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu) to illustrate how variations in renewable energy tariffs and capacity utilization factors (CUFs) shape feasible configurations and Pareto-optimal trade-offs. The results identify regionally differentiated cost-emission-energy trade-offs and the technologies most frequently selected in feasible supply chains. By bridging techno-economic details with regional analysis, the framework offers a replicable tool for Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA)-II and other evolutionary algorithms to inform evidence-based policy, prioritize states for pilot projects, and align long-term roadmaps with the goals set out in the National Green Hydrogen Mission
Nondegradable Waste Incursion, Environment and Ecology: A Case of Densely Populated Urban Settings in India
No full textIndia is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and this rapid economic expansion has been accompanied by significant urbanization. Studies on the evolution of urban agglomerations across India over a period of more than a century (1870–2020) bring forth a strong relationship between economic growth and urbanization in the country. As the country aims for a highly aspirational target of a US$40 trillion economy by 2047 (the hundredth year since its independence), it is intuitive that there will be a rise in the number of densely populated urban settings. This would pose a great challenge to society at large since the rapidly expanding dense urban settings would put pressure on the natural resources due to heavy anthropogenic activities associated with the creation and development of highly dynamic urban habitats. Since this growth is envisaged to be fueled primarily by unabated collective aspiration and economic growth, at times, there may be a departure from sustainable practices. A crucial area requiring greater attention is the careful management of nondegradable solid waste produced in densely populated cities and their surrounding areas. The Municipal Waste Management Rules (2000), implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Forest in the Government of India at the time, required urban local bodies to collect organic (or food) waste, domestic hazardous waste, and recyclable waste separately to ensure the safe and scientific handling and disposal of municipal waste. However, the realization of this noble goal has not materialized to the desired extent. Plastic waste has been a menace to the cities in India. This chapter aims to focus on the trail of plastic waste in densely populated Indian cities, starting from generation to disposal after usage. It also discusses the implications of plastic and other nondegradable wastes on the urban environment and ecology. A pragmatic way forward has been mentioned, which could be used as the baseline toward formulating a strategy to deal with the issue. Evidence has been highlighted to indicate the possibilities of creating a “waste-to-wealth” value chain so that the initiatives can be justified from an investment point of view
Knowledge, Curriculum and Learning: Knowing Why We Teach, What We Teach and How We Learn
No full textQuality, equity, and scale in the Indian School Education System: Large-scale policy reforms
Full text linkThe Indian school system is the largest in the world, with 1.5 million schools and 9.4 million teachers catering to 260 million students. While reforms since the 1990s have successfully expanded schooling to historically marginalized groups, they have been far less successful in retaining them past the primary level. This paper analyses the conceptions of equity and quality that have informed a raft of policies and state reform efforts in India over the past two decades through the ambitious school curriculum reform efforts of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (2005), the subsequent framework for Teacher Education (2009), Right to Education Act (2009) (RTE), the integrated scheme for school and teacher education, and the current National Education Policy (2020). We examine databases on school enrolment, sample-based national assessment surveys, and central teacher eligibility tests to interpret the RTE, using principles of inclusive education in terms of policies, practices, and support structures that enable the presence, participation, and achievement of all students, including from marginalized sections of society. The paper concludes with a reflection on where the country is poised concerning quality, equity, and inclusion in India and the future directions it could take
Decoding the CUF-LCOH Nexus: A State-wise Assessment for India's Green Hydrogen Pathway
No full textGreen hydrogen is progressively being identified as indispensable for decarbonising the dynamic global energy landscape. Since the electricity used to power electrolysers represents the dominant component of green hydrogen production costs, streamlining renewable energy (RE) costs is central to making green hydrogen affordable and accessible. In this context, the Capacity Utilisation Factor (CUF), the ratio of actual output to the maximum possible output at full capacity, serves as a robust metric to evaluate the performance of renewable energy plants in real-time. This study investigates the economic viability of green hydrogen production across select Indian states-Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha-by examining how state-specific solar and wind CUFs influence the overall Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH). Through a comparative, data-driven approach, the study explores the potential of RE availability and plant performance in sculpting the economics of green hydrogen. Additionally, the study highlights the need for targeted state-specific incentives using differentiated solar and wind tariffs, which could drive down green hydrogen production costs through economies of scale. The study aims to support informed policymaking for India's nascent green hydrogen sector, thereby advancing the goals of India's National Green Hydrogen Mission
An Insight into an Ancient Technology (Lost Wax Casting Technique) Through an Ethnographic Approach: Case Study of Mannar, Kerala
Full text linkUnfolding of hen egg-white lysozyme – is there a unique starting point?
No full textProteins can be unfolded in a regulated way by use of different strategies, which include changes of temperature or pressure, addition of chemical denaturants to and/or alteration of the pH value of the solution in which the protein is immersed. It would be of interest to know if the onset of unfolding by these different methods has a common starting point, since protein misfolding that is preceded by unfolding is associated with a number of neurological diseases. We have used the technique of X-ray crystallography to identify onset of unfolding of hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL), which is a relatively small two-domain enzyme with optimal activity at pH 4.3. Here we report high-resolution structures of the protein at the extreme pH values of 2.0 and 12.0. We find that while the overall structure of the protein is native-like, the side chain conformations of two beta-sheet residues ASN46 and ASN59 near the active site are significantly altered. As a consequence, hydrogen bonds involving these side chains are lost suggesting loss of stability. Interestingly, identical conformational change and loss of hydrogen bonds was also observed in structures of HEWL exposed either to denaturants or to higher temperatures. We suggest that this common mode of weakening of the beta-sheet structure through ASN59 is the starting point in the unfolding of HEWL. This observation is in contrast to earlier suggestion that disruption in the hydrophobic interface between alpha and beta domains is the starting point of unfolding in HEWL
Occlusive Narratives: School Textbooks and National Identities
No full textIndia is a country of multiple histories. People of all races were creative subjects of history. In the collective effort to shape the imagined nation of Indians—India, no community or race should be privileged over another. The India depicted by elite historians and academicians in their writings often leans towards what they deem significant in portraying the concepts of ‘India’ and ‘Indian nationalism’. The occlusion of social–cultural–political narratives of the people of North-East India from the grand narratives of nationalised school textbooks has had serious consequences, particularly in shaping the identity of the North-Eastern Indians. The North-East region occupies an important position in India’s political landscape, yet its sociocultural narratives fail to find recognition within the broader conception of the Indian nation. By critiquing the singular notion of ‘India’ and Indian nationalism, this article sheds light on how identity formation based on the essence of being ‘Indian’ and the concept of ‘Indian nationalism’ can influence ethnic and racial dynamics between India’s “mainland” population and the people of North-East India. This scrutiny reveals how such dynamics can lead to instances of racism against North-Easterners within their own homeland
First observation of coexistence of crystalline and amorphous mineral phases in the Bhawad LL6 chondrite: Evidence from Micro-Raman spectroscopic studies
Full text linkWe report here for the first time the detailed spectroscopic investigations on Bhawad meteorite using micro-Raman spectroscopic and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) investigation of the Bhawad LL6 ordinary chondrite, focusing on its mineralogical composition and carbonaceous phases. Raman spectroscopy reveals crystalline silicates including olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase, along with accessory chromite containing ≤20 % of Al. Carbonaceous material exhibits broad ID (∼1336 cm−1) and IG (∼1587 cm−1) bands with an ID/IG ratio of ∼1.04, indicative of disordered graphite and nanocrystalline carbon, reflecting shock-induced metamorphism. High-pressure TiO2 polymorphs are identified by characteristic Raman modes at 146, 394, 446, and 610 cm−1. HR-TEM imaging confirms the presence of nanocrystalline TiO2 particles embedded within amorphous carbonaceous matrices, demonstrating the coexistence of crystalline and amorphous phases. The Raman spectra of the Bhawad meteorite reveal the presence of high-temperature plagioclase phases, characterized by these distinct vibrational features. This observation indicates possible quenching of the melts having feldspar components, representing the complex thermal and shock metamorphic history of the meteorite. This coexistence of crystalline and amorphous phases highlights the complex thermal and shock history of the Bhawad meteorite, revealing insights into phase transitions and structural order–disorder phase transition induced by impact processes