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Report of the Expert Group on Washing of Thermal Coal is vital for India
No full textOn 21st May 2020, the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC)
issued a notification negating its own notification of 2nd January 2014 doing away with
the use and supply of washed (and blended) coal of ash content not over 34% to power
plants located 500 km from the supply sources and also for those located in urban and
ecologically sensitive locations, and allowing coal of any ash content to be supplied to
the power stations.
The new notification of MoEFCC dated 21st May 2020 is based on inaccurate
representations and baseless arguments put forward by Ministries of Coal, Power and
NITI Aayog. Therefore, on the face of it this notification is a retrograde step as this
would lead to irreparable damage not only to coal-red power plants but also to the
ecology in and around power stations. This will also have adverse impact on India's
ability to meet the commitment made at the Paris Climate Treaty of reducing the GHG
emissions to pre-2005 level, by 2030.
In view of the wide ranging adverse impact of the Notification dated 21st may 2020
issued by MoEFCC, the Coal Preparation Society of India (CPSI) - a professional body
with members from coal, power, iron & steel, cement and allied industries and subject
experts got all the aspects of washing of thermal coal and use of washed coal in power
plants studied in detail through a group comprising of highly experienced experts
having in-depth knowledge of coal mining, preparation, transportation and use in
thermal power stations
Sustainable Development and Community Aspirations: The Case of Chadong
Get PDFThe Brundtland report of the World Commission on Environment Dr Jeebanlata Salam
and Development conceives of sustainable development as a
blueprint of promoting social justice for all keeping in mind each
of the matrixes—social-economic and environmental
sustainability with an overriding focus on the poor and vulnerable
sections of community. With the pledge that ‘no one left behind’,
all United Nations Member States adopted 17 Sustainable
Development goals (SDGs) in 2015 to be achieved by 2030. The
SDGs are functionally interrelated that performance in one goal
will affect the outcomes in others. Having played a prominent role
in the formulation of the SDG agenda, India is expected to play a
pro-active role in effective implementation of SDG
NIAS Doctoral Programme: Rules, Regulations and Guidelines
Get PDFThe PhD programme at NIAS draws on, and is shaped by, the research pursued by the institute’s faculty members. The overall orientation of the PhD programme is multidisciplinary research carried out within the broad framework of conflict and security studies, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. More specifically, research at NIAS revolves around global scientific issues viz sustainable development goals, education, societal inequalities and conflicts, energy and environment, economic development, climate change, blue economy, science diplomacy, conflict and peace research, strategic and security studies, conservation biology, human-wildlife conflict, consciousness studies, philosophy, and culture and heritage.
The broad interdisciplinary structure of the PhD programme also reflects the institute’s vision and mission laid out by the late J.R.D. Tata. As stated out in the mission statement of NIAS, the confluence of different traditional academic disciplines of inquiry needs to be explored in the spirit of understanding the complex nature of contemporary problems facing the society. In particular, NIAS is committed to public education, civic engagement, mentoring of junior scholars, and scholarship in support of public interest and decision making
Computational study of performance of cascaded multi-layered packed-bed thermal energy storage for high temperature applications
No full textContinued effort towards decarbonizing the power sector has attracted enhanced research interest on the ideas revolving around different Coal-Concentrated Solar Power hybrid plant concepts. A few pre-feasibility studies indicate the importance of high-temperature (> 600 °C) latent heat packed-bed energy storage systems to ensure operational flexibility of the power plants, especially during the peak demand. In this study, a tractable and computationally fast numerical model comprising of two simplified non-equilibrium energy equations for the working fluid and the phase change material (PCM), respectively, is developed to account for the radiation effects at the high temperatures in the cascaded multi-layered packed bed latent heat thermal energy storage (PBLTS). The PBLTS is filled with spherical capsules of different diameters, containing PCMs having different melting temperatures, while air is chosen as the heat transfer fluid (HTF). The arrangement of different capsule diameters is found to affect the thermal performance of the storage significantly during the charging and discharging process. Equal bed heights with the capsule size arrangement of 10, 20, 30 mm from the inlet towards the oulet of the storage tank showed enhanced thermal performance during discharging operation. An aspect ratio between 4 and 4.5 leads to a better discharging performance of the storage, maintaining a stabilized high temperature at the storage outlet for a longer duration. It is found that the radiative heat transfer plays a significant role at high temperature (> 650 °C) in dictating the performance of the thermal energy storage system during the charging operatio
Education for Confidence: Political Education for Recasting Bahujan Student Selves
No full textFocusing on a personality development camp conducted by social justice activists in Bengaluru and the conversations it generated among young women students, this paper unpacks the interactions between confidence conceptualised as self-respect by anti-caste movements, and confidence as a soft skill required for service sector employment. The camp urged young people to cultivate confidence through an understanding of the contemporary caste economy and histories of valour amongst oppressed caste groups. The exercise occurred in the specific context of Indian higher education and the shaming of ‘reserved category’ students. The positing of confidence as a resource against social denigration questions generic critiques of personality development as neo-liberal
Frontier Towns in the Spatial Dynamics of Trade, Capital and Conflict: From Look East to Act East
No full textCoal Mining and Environment: A Case Study of Dorli Opencast Coal Mines (NIAS/NSE/EEP/U/RR/06/ 2020)
Get PDFCoal continues to fuel more than 72 percent of the country’s electricity generation and is also a vital input for other core industries like steel and cement. However, the coal sector must incorporate social and ecological sensitivities into the mining process from the planning stage up to final mine closure. In this report, the authors present the results of a study on the water and air environment spread over an area of 163 km2 in and around four opencast coal mines in the Dorli - Bellampalli coalfield located in the State of Telangana. This study is based inter alia on the ambient air concentrations and water quality data extracted from the half-yearly compliance reports submitted by SCCL’s four opencast coal mines between June 2012 and September 2019. In this study, the variations in airborne concentrations and water quality before and after stoppage of coal production from these opencast coal mines have also been compared in order to develop policy recommendations as well as areas for future research. In general, the particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) concentrations in the buffer zone around the opencast coal mines in the study area are slightly higher than the corresponding CPCB standards (60 and 40 µg/m3, respectively) when these mines are in operation. Therefore, opencast coal mines must implement more effective dust controls during all phases of the mining and mineral transportation processes and also maintain a suitable thick green belt to separate the core and buffer zones. The pH, electrical conductivity, and total dissolved solids values in the water samples exceed the pre-mining values but are within the prescribed BIS/CPCB limits. The dissolved oxygen values indicate optimal levels of aeration in the surface water. Pit lake systems evolved from open-cast coal mine voids have the potential to be a more cost-effective, environment-friendly and beneficial option for coal mine closure as opposed to the current mandate of backfilling the final void by re-handling the previously excavated and vegetated overburden dumps. According to the designated best use classes specified by the Central Pollution Control Board, the water quality around the opencast coal mines studied indicates the probable use of water for drinking (Class C) after adequate tertiary treatment, Class D for propagation of wildlife and fisheries, and Class E for irrigation. Therefore, it is possible to transform these final voids into water reservoirs for the benefit of the local communities by implementing a scientific approach to the design and management of pit lakes
Reliability of Macaques as Seed Dispersers
No full textSeed dispersal is an ecological process crucial for forest regeneration and recruitment. To date, most studies on frugivore seed dispersal have used the seed dispersal effectiveness framework and have documented seed‐handling mechanisms, dispersal distances and the effect of seed handling on germination. In contrast, there has been no exploration of “disperser reliability” which is essential to determine if a frugivore is an effective disperser only in particular regions/years/seasons or across a range of spatio‐temporal scales. In this paper, we propose a practical framework to assess the spatial reliability of frugivores as seed dispersers. We suggest that a frugivore genus would be a reliable disperser of certain plant families/genera if: (a) fruits of these plant families/genera are represented in the diets of most of the species of that frugivore, (b) these are consumed by the frugivore genus across different kinds of habitats, and (c) these fruits feature among the yearly staples and preferred fruits in the diets of the frugivore genus. Using this framework, we reviewed frugivory by the genus Macaca across Asia to assess its spatial reliability as seed dispersers. We found that the macaques dispersed the seeds of 11 plant families and five plant genera including at least 82 species across habitats. Differences in fruit consumption/preference between different groups of macaques were driven by variation in plant community composition across habitats. We posit that it is essential to maintain viable populations of macaques across their range and keep human interventions at a minimum to ensure that they continue to reliably disperse the seeds of a broad range of plant species in the Anthropocene. We further suggest that this framework be used for assessing the spatial reliability of other taxonomic groups as seed dispersers