Broadband gets Rs 18k-cr push

Govt Plans To Lay 5 Lakh Km Optic Fibre Network To Reach Every Gram Panchayat

Shalini Singh | TNN

New Delhi: Access to broadband services in India has been a failure in the otherwise highperforming telecom sector. To address this challenge, the government is planning to spend Rs 18,000 crore over three years to lay a five lakh km optic fibre cable (OFC) network to reach every gram panchayat.

The formation of a Group of Ministers (GoM) to monitor and review the implementation of this broadband initiative is also being considered. Whether the GoM will invite the private sector to participate in the planning of this initiative and focus on wireless as a means of delivery remains to be seen.

An infrastructure company will be carved out of BSNL to implement the project and work with other PSUs like Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and RailTel. The venture will be supported financially by the Universal Services Obligations Fund (USOF), which holds a large amount of unused resources.

Upon the direction of cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, a committee on broadband connectivity had been formed recently with officials from six ministries — telecom, HRD, rural development, economic affairs, ministry of panchayati raj and information technology — in addition to the Planning Commission. Chandrasekhar also held discussions with senior officials like Trai chairman J S Sarma and DoT secretary P J Thomas.

The committee is tasked with creating a roadmap for extending affordable broadband connectivity to all villages by leveraging existing infrastructure and augmentation of optical fibre wherever necessary. It is also mandated to pull financial resources from various ministries, including finding ways to subsidise consumer premise equipment using the USOF.

While the plan seems ambitious, the two parts that seem seriously missing are private sector participation and using wireless broadband for such connectivity. The work of the committee has been focused on government or government resources despite the fact that the telecom revolution is almost entirely led by the private sector, at least where mobile telephony is concerned.

And, despite its limitations, wireless broadband connectivity is a faster and cheaper way to reach unconnected areas. With 3G auctions being scheduled this year, the Committee might consider it important to include wireless as an equally important, if not superior, mode for connecting rural India.

Growth, The Virtual Way

An infrastructure company will be carved out of BSNL to implement the project and work with other PSUs

The Centre is considering formation of a Group of Ministers (GoM) to monitor the project

It’s not clear if the GoM will invite the private sector to participate in the project or focus on wireless broadband

Engg students do an Aamir

Camera-Mounted Chopper Model Bags First Prize At Aero Event

Shreya Bhandary | TNN

Mumbai: Two first-year students from the Thakur College of Engineering (aircraft maintenance) won the first prize at an aerospace event held at the IIT-Kanpur Aerospace Engineering Centre last Saturday. Their inspiration, say the winners who returned to the city on Wednesday, was the Aamir Khan starrer and student film 3 Idiots.

“Although this machine is known in the aerospace industry, we were inspired to make it after seeing the movie,’’ said Nilesh Rai (19). Named the Quadrocopter, it is replica of the model made by one of the students in the movie. The model has four sets of bracelet motors set in each of the four corners of a wooden frame and it can be flown with the help of a remote control. “We have also installed a wireless camera on it and a thermal detector to read the temperature around it,’’ said Sanjay Singh (18), who along with Rai, built this machine.

It took 20 days to build the machine, and the raw materials used cost both the students a whooping Rs 45,000. “Thankfully, our parents are very supportive. They not just encouraged us, but also funded our project. Even our professors liked our idea and helped us each time we faced hurdle, especially our instructor Subhajit Maity,’’ said Rai. Amidst 200 other participants, these students brought home the winning cup, certificates and a cash prize of Rs 5,000.

Two others from the same institute came up with another model called the ‘Pheizo Electric Runway’ which works on converting pressure into electricity.

“Each time an aircraft lands on a runway, the air pressure is very high and thissame pressure can be converted to generate electricity,’’ said Kaushal Gohil (18), who along with classmate Anuj Chauhan created this model. This model was also among the head-turners at the event.

These kids were accompanied by two of their professors Prakash Pawar and Varun Bhattacharya for the event.

4 IDIOTS: The students with their models which were displayed at IIT-Kanpur. (R) The ‘Quadrocopter’

Soon, a device that writes data directly into brain

Washington: Scientists in Japan are developing electric sensors using nanotechnology that could not only read information from our brains, but also write information to it.

Keiichi Torimitsu of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) says that the technology could have real practical applications in helping sufferers from Parkinson’s disease or stroke.

“Establishing connections between the brain and electrical instruments is important for understanding how the brain works and for controlling neural activity,” Discovery News quoted Torimitsu as saying.

“To develop some kind of devices or interfaces with the brain that would make it possible to transmit our information, sending it through the telecommunication pathways to another person or device such as a computer — that is the goal”, he added.

The brain-reading device would incorporate a nanosized electrode coated with a membrane that would mimic the receptor proteins found on the outside of brain cells.

There is electrical activity when the receptors and neurotransmitters interact, and the nanoelectrode would be able to pick up that activity, which could then be read by external equipment.

Torimitsu also hopes the device would not just be a bystander but be able to interact in the connections between the neurons, known as synapses.

Professor Gordon Wallace, of the University of Wollongong’s Intelligent Polymer Research Institute in Australia, is working with Torimitsu’s team on the device. He said: “People are starting to realize all around the world that there are lots of tools that we can use that we already have at our disposal to make this field progress very quickly.”

The work was presented by Torimitsu, the head of NTT’s molecular and bioscience group, at this week’s International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICONN) in Sydney. ANI

LEARNING WITH THE TIMES

Fuel cells have negligible emissions

What is the conventional method of power generation?
The basic function of any power generation system is to convert energy from any other form into electricity. The most popular energy generation mechanism is based on burning fossil fuels—that is, converting chemical energy into mechanical energy for rotating turbines. The turbine then rotates the rotor of a generator, which finally converts the mechanical energy to electrical energy—electrons flowing in a conductor, like copper wire. These combustion-based power generation systems are subject to the laws of thermodynamics and hence have a predetermined cap on the maximum efficiency defined by something called the Carnot Limit.

How is the fuel cell different?
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen in a way that electrons are produced in a single step. These are then directed outside the cell to do work, like powering an electric motor or illuminating a light bulb or a city and finally return to the fuel cell, completing an electrical circuit as well as a chemical reaction which has water as the byproduct. The energy generation is not based on thermodynamics and hence fuel cells are more efficient in extracting energy from fuel. Apart from this, there are negligible emissions and very little noise and hence these cells are also good for the environment. In simple terms, it’s like the everyday battery. But unlike a battery, which stores the chemical inside it and hence has to be charged again and again, the fuel cell works on a mechanism that allows continuous supply of fuel and hence can work for years.

But why don’t we use them then?
The concept of fuel cells is not new to physics and does not involve any recently developed or discovered principles. Since the 1960s, various countries have been using them for their space programmes. The catch, however, is that they are extremely expensive and a viable design for a fuel cell for commercial purposes has eluded scientists and inventors for years. The conventional methods remain cheaper for generating electricity. Billions of dollars have been spent in the effort to come up with a method of making fuel cells cheaper.

Why is fuel cell technology suddenly in news?
Bloom Energy, a US-based firm researching on eco-friendly methods of energy generation, has unveiled an innovative fuel cell technology called Energy Server priced $800,000, which can be used for generating electricity for big corporate houses. K R Sridhar of Bloom Energy has talked of the concept of refrigerator-sized fuel cells which the firm has named Bloom Boxes.

CLEAN POWER: Bloom Energy CEO K R Sridhar with a fuel cell