History of Steam Engines – Thomas Savery

Thomas Newcomen, a Devonshire blacksmith, developed the first successful steam engine in the world and used it to pump water from mines. His engine was a development of the thermic siphon built by Thomas Savery, whose surface condensation patents blocked his own designs. Newcomen’s engine allowed steam to condense inside a water-cooled cylinder, the vacuum produced by this condensation being used to draw down a tightly fitting piston that was connected by chains to one end of a huge, wooden, centrally pivoted beam. The other end of the beam was attached by chains to a pump at the bottom of the mine. The whole system was run safely at near atmospheric pressure, the weight of the atmosphere being used to depress the piston into the evacuated cylinder.

 Newcomen’s first atmospheric steam engine worked at conygree in the west midlands of England. Many more were built in the next seventy years, the initial brass cylinders being replaced by larger cast iron ones, some up to 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter. The engine was relatively inefficient, and in areas where coal was not plentiful was eventually replaced by double-acting engines designed by James Watt. These used both sides of the cylinder for power strokes and usually had separate condensers. James watt was responsible for some of the most important advances in steam engine technology.

In 1765 watt made the first working model of his most important contribution to the development of steam power, he patented it in 1769. His innovation was an engine in which steam condensed outside the main cylinder in a separate condenser. The cylinder remained at working temperature at all times. Watt made several other technological improvements to increase the power and efficiency of his engines. For example, he realized that, within a closed cylinder, low pressure steam could push the piston instead of atmospheric air. It took only a short mental leap for watt to design double-acting engine in which steam pushed the piston first one way, then the other, increasing efficiency still further.

Watt’s influence in the history of steam engine technology owes as much to his business partner, Matthew Boulton, as it does to his own ingenuity. The two men formed a partnership in 1775, and Boulton poured huge amount of money into watt’s innovations. From 1781, Boulton and watt began making and selling steam engines that produced rotary motion. All the previous engines had been restricted to a vertical, pumping action. Rotary steam engines were soon the most common source of power for factories, becoming a major driving force behind Britain’s industrial revolution.

By the age of nineteen, Cornishman Richard Trevithick worked for the Cornish mining industry as a consultant engineer. The mine owners were attempting to skirt around the patents owned by James Watt. William Murdoch had developed a model steam carriage, starting in 1784, and demonstrated it to Trevithick in 1794. Trevithick thus knew that recent improvements in the manufacturing of boilers meant that they could now cope with much higher steam pressure than before. By using high pressure steam in his experimental engines, Trevithick was able to make them smaller, lighter, and more manageable.

Trevithick constructed high pressure working models of both stationary and locomotive engines that were so successful that in 1799 he built a full scale, high pressure engine for hoisting ore. The used steam was vented out through a chimney into the atmosphere, bypassing watt’s patents. Later, he built a full size locomotive that he called puffing devil. On December 24, 1801, this bizarre-looking machine successfully carried several passengers on a journey up Camborne hill in Cornwall. Despite objections from watt and others about dangers of high pressure steam, Trevithick’s work ushered in a new era of mechanical power and transport.

How do we measure distances in space? Light years

In the 1800s, scientists discovered the realm of light beyond what is visible. The 20th century saw dramatic improvements in observation technologies. Now we are probing distant planets, stars, galaxies and black holes where even light would take years to reach. So how we do that? Light is the fastest thing we know in the universe. It is so fast that we measure enormous distances by how long it takes for light to travel them. In one year, light travels about 6 trillion miles. It is the distance, we call one light year. The Apollo 11 had to travel four days to reach the moon but, it is one light second from earth. Meanwhile, the nearest star beyond our own sun is Proxima Centauri but, it is 4.24 light years away. Our Milky Way galaxy is on the order of 100,000 light years across. The nearest galaxy to our own, Andromeda is about 2.5 million light years away.

 The question is how do we know the distance of these stars and galaxies? For objects that are very close by, we can use a concept called trigonometric parallax. When you place your thumb and close your left eye and then, open your left eye and close your right eye. It will look like your thumb has moved, while more distant objects have remained in place. This same concept applies in measuring distant stars. But they are much farther than the length of your arm, and earth is not large enough, even if you had different telescopes across the equator, you would not see much of a shift in position. So we look at the change in the star’s apparent location over six months, when we measure the relative positions of the stars in summer, and then again in winter, nearby stars seem to have moved against the background of the more distant stars and galaxies.

 But this method only works for objects less than a few thousand light years away. So, for such distances, we use a different method using indicators called standard candles. Standard candles are objects whose intrinsic brightness, or luminosity that we know well. For example, if you know how bright your light bulb is, even when you move away from it, you can find the distance by comparing the amount of light you received to the intrinsic brightness. In astronomy, we consider this as a special type of star called a Cepheid variable. These stars will constantly contract and expand. Because of this, their brightness varies. We can calculate the luminosity by measuring the period of this cycle, with more luminous stars changing more slowly. By comparing the light that we received to the intrinsic brightness we can calculate the distance.

 But we can only observe individual stars up to about 40 million light years away. So we have to use another type of standard candle called type 1a supernova. Supernovae are giant stellar explosions which is one of the ways that stars die. These explosions are so bright, that they outshine the galaxies where they occur. So we can use the type 1 a supernovae as standard candles. Because, intrinsically bright ones fade slower than fainter ones. With the understanding of brightness and decline rate, we can use the supernovae to probe distances up to several billions of light years away. But is the importance of seeing distant objects? Well, the light emitted by the sun will take eight minutes to reach us, which means that the light we see now is a picture of the sun eight minutes ago. And the galaxies are million light years away. It has taken millions of years for that light to reach us. So the universe is in some kind of an inbuilt time machine. The further we can look back, the younger we are probing. Astrophysicists try to read the history of the universe, and understand how and where we come from.

“Dream in light years, challenge miles, walk step by step” – William Shakespeare

Why Waves Occur? Waves and Tides

Why do waves form?

A wave begins as the wind ruffles the surface of the ocean. When the ocean is calm and glasslike, even the mildest breeze forms ripples, the smallest type of wave. Ripples provide surfaces for wind to act on, which produces larger waves. Stronger winds push the nascent waves into steeper and higher hills of water. The size a wave reaches depends on the speed and strength of the wind. The length of time it takes for the wave to form, and the distance over which it blows in the open ocean is known as the fetch. A long fetch accompanied by strong and study winds can produce enormous waves. The highest point of a wave is called the crest and the lowest point the trough. The distance from one crest to another is known as the wavelength.

On November 11, 2011, US surfer Garrett McNamara surfed a massive wave (78-foot (23,8-meter)) at Nazaré.

Although water appears to move forward with the waves, for the most part water particles travel in circles within the waves. The visible movement is the wave’s form and energy moving through the water, courtesy of energy provided by the wind. Wave speed also varies; on average waves travel about 20 to 50 Mph. Ocean waves vary greatly in height from crest to trough, averaging 5 to 10 feet. Storm waves may tower 50 to 70 feet or more. The biggest wave that was ever recorded by humans was in Lituya bay on July 9th, 1958. Lituya bay sits on the southeast side of Alaska. A massive earthquake during the time would trigger a mega tsunami and the tallest tsunami in modern times. As a wave enters shallow water and nears the shore, it’s up and down movement is disrupted and it slows down. The crest grows higher and be gins to surge ahead of  the rest of the wave, eventually toppling over and breaking apart. The energy released by a breaking wave can be explosive. Breakers can wear down rocky coast and also build up sandy beaches.

Why does a tide occur?

Tides are the regular daily rise and fall of ocean waters. Twice each day in most locations, water rises up over the shore until it reaches its highest level, or high tide. In between, the water recedes from the shore until it reaches its lowest level, or low tide. Tides respond to the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. Gravitational pull has little effect on the solid and inflexible land, but the fluid oceans react strongly. Because the moon is closer, its pull is greater, making it the dominant force in tide formation.

Gravitational pull is greatest on the side of earth facing the moon and weakest on the side opposite to the moon. Nonetheless, the difference in these forces, in combination with earth’s rotation and other factors, allows the oceans to bulge outward on each side, creating high tides. The sides of earth that are not in alignment with the moon experience low tides at this time. Tides follow different patterns, depending on the shape of the seacoast and the ocean floor.  In Nova Scotia, water at high tide can rise more than 50 feet higher than the low tide level. They tend to roll in gently on wide, open beaches in confined spaces, such as a narrow inlet or bay, the water may rise to very high levels at high tide.

There are typically two spring tides and two narrow tides each month. Spring tie of great range than the mean range, the water level rises and falls to the greatest extend from the mean tide level. Spring tides occur about every two weeks, when the moon is full or new. Tides are at their maximum when the moon and the sun are in the same place as the earth. In a semidiurnal cycle the high and low tides occur around 6 hours and 12.5 minutes apart. The same tidal forces that cause tides in the oceans affect the solid earth causing it to change shape by a few inches.

 

 

Delhi-LSA to break myths regarding health effects of EMF exposure from mobile towers

 Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Delhi License Service Area (LSA) organized an awareness webinar on “EMF Emissions and Telecom Towers” here yesterday. This session was organized as a part of DoT’s public advocacy programme to make the consumers aware about the growing need for mobile towers to build reliable telecom infrastructure and to break myths regarding the health effects of EMF exposure from mobile towers.

The Webinar was addressed by Sh. Nizamul Haq, Advisor, DoT, New Delhi and Sh. Arun Kumar, DDG, DoT, Delhi LSA. Presentation on various aspects of EMF and steps taken by DoT was covered by Sh. Vijay Prakash, Director and Sh. Kamal Deo Tripathi, ADG, DoT, Delhi LSA. Various health related queries and myth about harmful effect of EMF radiations from mobile towers was also clarified by a medical expert, Dr Vivek Tandon, Associate Professor (Neurosurgery), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

Shri Nizamul Haq, Advisor, DoT, Delhi LSA put a spotlight on the importance of telecommunications as an effective tool for socio-economic development of a nation. It has become core infrastructure for rapid growth and modernization of various sectors of the economy. To provide best quality of telecommunication service to the customers, the expansion of mobile network including tower infrastructure are inevitable.

Shri Arun Kumar, DDG and Shri Vijay Prakash, Director, Delhi LSA further addressed that the EMF emissions from a mobile tower, which are below the safe limits prescribed by International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO), have no convincing scientific evidence of causing adverse health effects. Various judgements of High Courts of India on the issues of radiation from mobile tower says that there is no conclusive data to show that radiation from mobile tower is in any way harmful or hazardous to the health of citizens.

Dr. Vivek Tandon, Associate Professor AIIMS Delhi clarified various myth about health related issues due to EMF radiations from mobile towers and handsets. Misconceptions among a section of the population around the health hazards of EMF radiations should not override the factual information made available to us through scientific research. Dr Tandon explained various aspects of health related issues in a simplified way and touched various studies and its impact in real life situation.

Department of Telecommunication (DoT), through its field units has already taken necessary steps and adopted stricter norms for safety from EMF radiation that are emitted from mobile towers. DoT has adopted the radiation norms which are 10 times stricter than the norms prescribed by ICNIRP as recommended by WHO. All the information on Mobile tower radiation is available to the public on DoT’s website: https://dot.gov.in/journey-emf

Till date, 46000 mobile base transceiver stations (BTS) have been tested in Delhi LSA and all sites have been found EMF compliant as per DoT norms.

For tower EMF emission visit http://tarangsanchar.gov.in/EMFportal.

Reality Show: Shark Tank India

Shark Tank is an American business reality series that was started on August 9, 2009. In this show, entrepreneurs make their business presentations to a panel of investors which are known as “Sharks”. These “Sharks” decide whether to invest in their company or not. These sharks often find weaknesses and faults in entrepreneurs’ valuation of companies, products, etc. The “Sharks” are paid as cast stars of the show, but the money they invest is their own. The entrepreneur can make a handshake deal on show if a panel member is interested. And if all panel members opt out, the entrepreneur leaves empty-handed. This show is now worldwide and now also continuing is in different countries. For example, Shark Tank India, Shark Tank Australia, Shark Tank Mexico, Shark Tank Colombia, Shark Tank Nepal.

Shark Tank India is an Indian Hindi language business reality show that airs on Sony Entertainment Television. The first season of Shark Tank India premiered on 20 December 2021 and concluded on 4 February 2022. The first season contained 35 episodes. This show was hosted by Ranvijay Singha. The first season received 62,000 aspirants from India, out of which 198 businesses were selected to pitch their ideas to the “Sharks”.

All “Sharks” in Shark Tank India

Ashneer Grover, Managing Director and Founder of “BharatPe”; Aman Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of “boAt”; Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO of “Shaadi.com”; Ghazal Alagh, Co-founder and Chief Mama of “MamaEarth”; Namita Thapar, Executive Director of “Emcure Pharmaceuticals”; Piyush Bansal, Co-founder and CEO of “Lenskart”; and Vineeta Singh, CEO and Co-founder of “SUGAR Cosmetics are all “Sharks” in Shark Tank India.

The biggest deal ever is done by Piyush Bansal in Sid07 Designs in Rs. 25 Lakhs for 75% equity and 22 lakhs as debt.

Piyush Bansal: Deal for 75% equity

Snapchat: share your every moment

Snapchat Logo

Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app developed by Snap Inc., which is originally called Snapchat Inc. It is a mobile app for Android and iOS devices. The app is often called Snap by its users. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users’ “Stories”. The content is in chronological order, along with “Discover”. It also allows users to keep their photos in the “my eyes only”, which is also protected with a password. It has limited use of end-to-end encryption.

Evan Spiegel, Boby Murphy, and Reggie Brown are the original authors of Snapchat. It was released in September 2011. Snapchat has 82.0 MB size in Android phones and 223.1 MB in iOS. There are total 37 languages available on Snapchat. Some of them are English, Arabic, German, Greek, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Marathi, Chinese, etc.

From left to right: Boby Murphy, Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown

Primarily Snapchat was focused on private, person-to-person photo sharing. But now it is also used for a range of asks, including sending videos, live video chat, messaging. It includes photo sharing, instant messaging, video chat, and multimedia. Other features include the ability to add filters and AR-based lenses to snaps and shows live location on the world map. As of July 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users, having 23% growth over a year. On average, more than four billion Snaps are sent daily.

In September 2015, an 18-year-old was using a Snapchat feature called “Lens” to record the speed she was driving her Mercedes C230 when she crashed into a Mitsubishi Outlander in Hampton, Georgia. Also during the 2020 lockdown to inhibit the spread of COVID-19 in France, the app emerged as a hub for the dissemination of revenge porn of underage girls.

Black Holes – The Hawking Radiation, definition and facts

When a massive star dies, it leaves a small but dense remnant core in its wake. If the mass of the core is more than 3 times the mass of the sun, the force of gravity overwhelms all other forces and a black hole is formed. Imagine the size of a star is 10times more massive than our sun being squeezed into a sphere with a diameter equal to the size of New York City. The result is a celestial object whose gravitational field is so strong that nothing, not even light can escape it. The history of black holes was started with the father of all physics, Isaac Newton. In 1687, Newton gave the first description of gravity in his publication, Principia mathematica, that would change the world. Then 100 years later, John Michelle proposed the idea that there could exist a structure that would be massive enough and not even light would be able to escape its gravitational pull. In 1796, the famous French scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace made an important prediction about the nature of black holes. He suggested that because even the speed of light was slower than the escape velocity of black hole, the massive objects would be invisible. In 1915, Albert Einstein changed physics forever by publishing his theory of general relativity. In this theory, he explained space time curvature and gave a mathematical description of a black hole. And in 1964, john wheeler gave these objects the name, the black hole.

The “Interstellar” black hole was created using a new CGI rendering software that was based on theoretical equations provided by Thorne.

In classical physics, the mass of a black hole cannot decrease; it can either stay the same or get larger, because nothing can escape a black hole. If mass and energy are added to a black hole, then its radius and surface area also should get bigger. For a black hole, the radius is called the Schwarzschild radius. The second law of thermodynamics states that, an entropy of a closed system is always increases or remains the same. In 1974, Stephen hawking– an English theoretical physicists and cosmologist, proposed a groundbreaking theory regarding a special kind of radiation, which later became known as hawking radiation. So hawking postulated an analogous theorem for black holes called the second law of black hole mechanics that in any natural process, the surface area of the event horizon of a black hole always increase, or remains constant. It never decreases. In thermodynamics, black bodies doesn’t transmit or reflect any radiation, it only absorbs radiation.

When Stephen hawking saw these ideas, he found the idea of shining black holes to be preposterous.  But when he applied the laws of quantum mechanics to general relativity, he found the opposite to be true. He realized that stuff can come out near the event horizon. In 1974, he published a paper where outlined a mechanism for this shine. This is based on the Heisenberg uncertainty Principe. According to the principle of quantum mechanisms, for every particle throughout the universe, there exists an antiparticle. These particles always exist in pairs, and continually pop in and out of existence everywhere in the universe. Typically, these particles don’t last long because as soon as possible and its antiparticle pop into existence, they annihilate each other and cease to exist almost immediately after their creation.

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration produced the first-ever image of a black hole

In the event horizon that the point which nothing can escape its gravity. If a virtual particle pair blip into existence very close to the event horizon of a black hole, one of the particles could fall into the black hole while the other escapes. The one that falls into the black hole effectively has negative energy, which is, in Layman’s terms, akin to subtracting energy from the black hole, or taking mass away from the black hole. The other particle of the pair that escapes the black hole has positive energy, and is referred to as hawking radiation. Due to the presence of hawking radiation, a black hole continues to loss mass and continues shrinking until the point where it loses all its mass and evaporates. It is not clearly established what an evaporating black hole would actually look like. The hawking radiation itself would contain highly energetic particles, antiparticles and gamma rays. Such radiation is invisible to the naked eye, so an evaporating black hole might not look like anything at all. It also possible that hawking radiation might power a hadronic fireball, which could degrade the radiation into gamma rays and particles of less extreme energy, which would make an evaporating black hoe visible. Scientists and cosmologists still don’t completely understand how quantum mechanics explains gravity, but hawking radiation continues to inspire research and provide clues into the nature of gravity and how it relates to other forces of nature.

 

The Large Hadron Collider – Most Powerful Particle Accelerator

 The smallest thing that we can see with a light microscope is about 500 nanometers. A typical is anywhere from 0.1 to 0.5 nanometers in diameter. So we need an electron microscope to measure these atoms. The electron microscope was invented in 1931. Beams of electrons are focused on a sample. When they hit it, they are scattered, and this scattering is used to recreate an image. Then what about protons or neutrons? Or what about quarks? The quarks are the most fundamental building blocks of matter. So how did we find such small particles exist? The answer is a particle collider. A particle collider is a tool used to accelerate two beams of particles to collide since 1960s.

The largest machine built by man, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator occupying an enormous circular tunnel of 27 kilometers in circumference, ranging from 165 to 575 feet below ground. It was situated near Genoa, Switzerland. It is so large that over the course of its circumference crosses the border between France and Switzerland. That’s the giant collaboration going on between over 100 countries and 10,000 scientists. The tunnel itself was constructed between 1983 and 1988 to house another particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, which operated until 2000, its replacement, the LHC, was approved in 1995, and was finally switched on in September 2008.

Working of the Large Hadron Collider

 The LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built and has designed to explore the limits of what physicists refer to as the standard Model, which deals with fundamental sub-atomic particles. There are two vacuum pipes are installed inside the tunnel which intersects in some places and 1,232 main magnets are connected to the pipe. For proper operation, the collider magnets need to be cooled to -271.3 °C. To attain this temperature, 120 tons of liquid helium is poured into the LHC. These powerful magnets can accelerate protons near the speed of light, so they can complete a circuit in less than 90 millionths of a second. Two beams operate in opposite directions around the ring. At four separate points the two beams cross, causing protons to smash into each other at enormous energies, with their destructions being witnessed by super-sensitive instruments. But it’s not that easy to do this experiment. Each beam consists of bunches of protons and most of the protons just miss each other and carry on around the ring and do it again. Because, atoms are mostly empty space so getting them to collide is incredibly difficult. It like colliding a needle into a needle, provided that the distance between them is 10 kilometers.

The aim of these collisions is to produce countless new particles that stimulate, on a micro scale, some of the conditions postulated in the Big Bang at the birth of the universe. Higgs Boson was discovered with the help of LHC. This so called ‘God Particle’ that could be responsible for the very existence of mass. If it disappeared, all particles in the universe will become absolutely weightless and fly around the universe in the speed of light, the exact value is 299,792,458 m/s. that mean we can reach our moon in 1.3 seconds from earth.

“When you look at a vacuum in a quantum theory of fields, it isn’t exactly nothing.” – Peter Higgs

Public Relations

When the COVID-19 pandemic situation began and the whole world went into lockdown, the taxi and food delivery services company, Uber, released a video on YouTube called “Thank You for Not Riding” that was part of the campaign #MoveWhatMatters. The campaign was an effort by the company of thanking its customers for reducing travel and maintaining social distancing. They compensated Uber drivers around the world who were not able to work for many months and provided free rides and food deliveries to front-line healthcare workers and citizens. This was Uber upholding the responsibility it has in such a challenging situation. In the last two years, a lot of interesting public relations campaigns have been taken up by companies and organizations across the world.

Public Relations or PR refer to the process of communication between an organization, company, or individual, and the public. It is the art and science of talking to the right audience in the right way. Public relations can influence and shape a company’s image, reputation and brand perception. A PR specialist or PR Officer is responsible for maintaining the image of the company they work for. To ensure the company’s good image, they can formulate communication plans and use media and other direct and indirect mediums.

The primary aim of PR is to maintain a good relationship with the public, their target audience, investors, employees and stakeholders which would help the company get a positive reputation, encouraging people to believe the company is honest and relevant.

If PR is related to maintaining a company’s relevance within the public, how is it really different from advertising? Here is the difference. Advertising is paid promotion while PR is earned. Companies pay newspapers, television channels and other media to display their Ads but PR promotes a brand using editorial content appearing in various media. Audiences usually look at Ads skeptically while PR promotions help in building trust in the audience because it has a third-party validation by the medium in which it is promoted. They are also cheaper compared to advertising and marketing services in the industry.

PR is influential in building brand reputation. A good PR agency can help a company improve its credibility and reputation. They make sure the company is getting proper attention and positive feedback for all of their projects, works and news updates. PR also has a very important role to play in crisis management or situations in which the image of a company may be in danger, which may be due to some miscommunication. It is the PR team’s responsibility to communicate with their target audience and public and clear the possible misconceptions. They have to work to get rid of the negative publicity the company may have received.

Here are two more examples of great PR campaigns in India:

#TouchOfCare by Vicks:

Companies often try to bring attention to compelling public issues with their campaign. In 2017, Vicks released a heartwarming video as part of its campaign #TouchOfCare. The video showed how Gauri, a transgender woman, raised an orphan girl, Gayatri, with all the love and care in the world, even when she faced struggles in society. Vicks believes that everyone deserves to be cared for and receive the touch of care. With this video, they showed how everybody needs someone to care and love them, whether they are connected by blood or not. The video got lots of positive feedback, generating about 4 million views in the first 48 hours in which it was released.

#ItsJustAPeriod by Stayfree

Stayfree launched the campaign #ItsJustAPeriod in 2020 to encourage period-related conversations and remove the stigma associated with it in Indian families, particularly as India went into lockdown and schools closed. A video was released on YouTube with many actors and influencers coming forward in support of the movement. With the majority of the Indian population at home, this campaign was able to get a huge social media outreach, with 10.17 million engagements collectively on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

Why Higgs Boson called God’s particle

In 1964 peter Higgs with five scientists proposed a theory called the Higgs mechanism to explain the existence of mass in the universe. Before 1930s, atoms were considered as the fundamental particles. Then we found electron, protons and neutrons as atomic particles. Later we found that protons and neutrons are made up of even more small fundamental particles called quarks. Quarks are the fundamental building blocks for the whole universe. The key evidence for the existence of these elementary particles came from a series of inelastic electron-nucleon scattering experiments conducted between 1967 and 1973 at the Stanford linear accelerator center. They are commonly found in protons and neutrons. There are six types of quarks, up quark, down quark, top quark, bottom quark, strange quark, charm quark. They can have positive (+) or negative (-) electric charge. Up, charm and top quarks have a positive 2/3 charge. Down, strange, bottom quarks have a negative 1/3 charge. So protons are positive because there are two quarks (+2/3) ups and one down quark (-1/3), giving a net positive charge (+2/3+2/3-1/3 =1). These three quarks are known as valence quarks, but the proton could have an additional up quark and anti-up quark pair.

The Higgs mechanism theory

In the second half of the 20th century, physicists made a developed a theory called a standard model of particle physics. They theorized about twelve fundamental particles that make up all matter, and four particles called bosons are responsible for three fundamental forces of nature. It includes strong force, weak force, and electromagnetism. Gravity is another force, it is not a part of this model but, it can be modeled using general relativity. With these fundamental particles in the standard model and gravity, we can build almost everything in the entire universe. However until 2012, the standard model was an underlying theory. Because all forces carrying particles should be massless. So, although the photons are massless, experiments show that the weak forces bosons have mass. So that was a promising model that could be used to explain our universe. But perhaps, it would need to be thrown out because it had the seemingly fatal flaw in being inconsistent regarding the way the weak force worked in the late 1950s physicists had no idea to resolve these issues all attempts to solve this problem. But indeed it created new theoretical problems. In 1964, Peter Higgs hypothesized that perhaps the force articles were massless but gained mass when they interacted with an energy field that is the reason for the existence of the entire universe.

During the very early moments following the big bang, in the universe, the elementary particles were massless and they were pure streams of energy that move at the speed of light. As the expansion of the universe was proceeding, density and temperature decreased below a certain key value. According to the theory, the Higgs field interacts with particles and can give them mass. It is theorized that different particles interact differently with the field, the particles that interact with it more intensely have greater mass and particles that don’t interact with it that much have lower mass. Just imagine Higgs field as water, pointed shape objects interact lesser with water and cube shaped objects interact more with it. Some particles don’t interact with the field like photons are massless. A fundamental part of the theory was the presence of a specific particle; it’s called the Higgs boson. A boson that would allow the Higgs mechanism to unfold correctly to give mass to all other particles.

CERN’s discovery of a new particle

Even though Higgs theorized it, scientists can’t able to prove that until 2012. The particle accelerators had to possess a huge amount of energy to detect them. Finally, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the CERN’s particle accelerator has been turned on in 2008 and managed to recreate the required energy and temperature conditions in 2012. The Higgs boson was finally experimentally detected and on 4th July, a conference held in the CERN auditorium announced the discovery of a particle compatible with the Higgs boson. The machine accelerates Hadron bundles at close to the speed of light and collides them each other in opposite directions. At four separate points the two beams cross, causing protons to smash into each other at enormous energies, with their destructions being witnessed by super-sensitive instruments. Even if LHC is the world’s largest particle accelerator, it had to work hard to detect Higgs boson. If the Higgs field doesn’t exist, all particles in the universe will become absolutely weightless and fly around the universe in the speed of light. For This reason Higgs boson is often called as the ‘God particle’.

 

 

 

SCHEMES FOR PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIES

 Government of India has continuously been promoting the progress of industries throughout the country through various policy measures/schemes.

Government has taken a number of recent initiatives under the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on industries. Some of the initiatives are: Rs. 20,000 crore Subordinate Debt for stressed MSMEs, Rs.3 lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for Businesses, Rs. 50,000 crore equity infusion through MSME Self-Reliant India Fund, New Revised criteria of classification of MSMEs, New Registration of MSMEs through ‘Udyam Registration’ for Ease of Doing Business and no global tenders for procurement up to Rs. 200 crore for promotion of domestic manufacturing.

Besides above, Central Government has also taken following measures to promote industrial development:- announcement of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme , launch of the PM GatiShaki – a National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity to reduce logistic cost and create world class infrastructure, implementation of various industrial corridor projects to develop greenfield industrial nodes and to facilitate provision of plug and play infrastructure, reducing compliance burden on citizen and business to simplify, decriminalize & remove redundant laws, setting up of Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) and Project Development Cells (PDCs) to monitor investment projects, building a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country with the help of schemes such as Fund of Funds for Startups Scheme (FFS), and Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) schemes, launching of GIS-enabled India Industrial Land Bank, Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI),  Scheme for Promoting Innovation, Rural Industry and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE), Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGTMSE), Micro & Small Enterprises – Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP), National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Hub (NSSH).

State Governments also promote industrial development through various initiatives / schemes.

INVESTMENT IN INDUSTRIAL SECTOR

 Recently Government has taken various steps to boost domestic investments in India. These include Promoting FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and improve Ease of Doing Business, Make in India initiative, National Infrastructure Pipeline, Reduction in Corporate Tax, easing liquidity problems of NBFCs (Non Banking Financial Companies) and Banks, trade policy measures, constitution of Investment and Project Development Cells, One District One Product (ODOP), and PLI (Production Linked Incentive) Scheme for 14 key sectors etc. Government of India has also taken up various Industrial Corridor Projects as part of National Industrial Corridor Programme which is aimed at development of greenfield industrial nodes/regions which can compete with the best manufacturing and investment destinations in the world.

The time taken for completion of a project depends on factors like type of project, number of stakeholders, statutory clearances, various other issues related to project etc.

In order to minimize delays and for timely completion of projects, the Government has institutionalized a monitoring mechanism called Project Monitoring Group (PMG) for various infrastructure and industrial projects above Rs. 500 Crore.  The PMG reviews such projects and resolve issues related to various central ministries as well as State Government.  Private Companies can also upload their issues on this portal and get their issues resolved.  As per available information, out of total 1805 Projects on the PMG Portal, 442 Projects under implementation have reported issues.  Further, 421 projects have been commissioned after resolution of issues. 

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) also has 32 greenfield industrial nodes across 11 Industrial Corridors in the country.  National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) as well as DPIIT monitors these project on regular basis. 

The Government has also developed PM GatiShakti National Master Plan which is supported by a digital platform to enable synchronized planning for providing multi-modal infrastructure connectivity to various economic zones, including industrial parks and clusters.

INDUSTRIAL CORRIDORS

 The status of Chennai-Bengaluru (CBIC), Bengaluru-Mumbai (BMIC) and Hyderabad-Bengaluru (HBIC) is as under:

  1. Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC): Three nodes namely Tumakuru in Karnataka, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Ponneri in Tamil Nadu have been identified for development under CBIC. Status of these Nodes is as under:

Krishnapatnam Node: Project was approved by Government of India on 30th December, 2020. Detailed master planning and preliminary engineering activities for an area of 2,500 acres, as an activation area, have been completed. Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) tendering work for implementation of trunk infrastructure has been initiated.

Tumakuru Node: Project was approved by Government of India on 30th December, 2020. Detailed master planning and preliminary engineering activities for an area of 1,736 acres, as an activation area, has been completed. Environment Clearance has been obtained. EPC tendering work for implementation of trunk infrastructure has been initiated.

Ponneri Node: Consultant has been appointed for carrying out Detailed Master Planning and Preliminary Engineering for an area of 4,000 acres.

  1. Bengaluru Mumbai Industrial Corridor (BMIC): The Perspective Plan of BMIC has been completed. Government of Karnataka and Government of Maharashtra has confirmed availability of land for development of industrial node at Dharwad and Satara respectively. Consultants have been appointed for Detailed Master Planning and Preliminary Engineering for both the nodes.
  2. Hyderabad Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (HBIC): Orvakal node in Andhra Pradesh has been identified for development under HBIC. Consultants have been appointed for Detailed Master Planning and Preliminary Engineering. Site survey, preparation of base map, technical assessment & land suitability, preparation of preliminary master plan, etc. have been completed by the consultant.

Above Industrial Corridors are at different stages of implementation. Out of three nodes to be developed in CBIC, land has been made available in two nodes, – Krishnapattnam and Tumakuru. These are scheduled to be developed by 2026. For other corridors/nodes, since project development activities are going on, the timelines can be ascertained after availability of land and competent approval.

The status of Amount allocated, released and spent on the development of Industrial corridors is as under:

 (Rs. in crore)

 

s. No.

Name of the Industrial Corridor

Node/Project

State

Project Implementation Fund (PIF)

Project Development Fund (PDF) Spent *

Funds Allocated (as per CCEA Approval)

Funds Released by DPIIT to NICDIT
(Equity)

Amount transferred by NICDIT to SPV managed by State Govt.

1

Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC)

Krishnapatnam

Andhra Pradesh

Equity: 621 cr
Debt: 459 cr

533.86

522.10

9.43

Ponneri

Tamil Nadu

Not yet approved

2.50

2.50

0.51

Tumakuru

Karnataka

Equity: 608 cr
Debt: 433 cr

586.74

586.74

7.86

2

Hyderabad Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (HBIC)

Orvakal

Andhra Pradesh

Not yet approved

0.00

0.00

0.38

3

Bengaluru Mumbai Industrial Corridor (BMIC)

Dharwad

Karnataka

Not yet approved

0.00

0.00

4.22

Satara

Maharashtra

Not yet approved

0.00

0.00

 

* PDF are released to NICDIT for Industrial Corridor Project and the same is spent based on the project development activities being undertaken for different projects.

MAKE IN INDIA

 ‘Make in India’ is an initiative which was launched on 25th September, 2014 to facilitate investment, foster innovation, build best in class infrastructure, and make India a hub for manufacturing, design, and innovation. It is one of the unique ‘Vocal for Local’ initiatives that promoted India’s manufacturing domain to the world.

 

‘Make in India’ initiative has significant achievements and presently focuses on 27 sectors under Make in India 2.0. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) coordinates action plans for 15 manufacturing sectors, while Department of Commerce coordinates 12 service sector plans. Investment outreach activities are done through Ministries, State Governments and Indian Missions abroad for enhancing international cooperation and promoting both domestic and foreign investment in the country.

 

In addition to ongoing schemes of various Departments and Ministries, Government has taken various steps to boost domestic and foreign investments in India. These include the introduction of Goods and Services Tax, reduction in Corporate taxes, financial market reforms, consolidation of public sector banks, enactment of four labour codes, improving ease of doing business, FDI policy reforms, other sectoral reforms, reduction in compliance burden, policy measures to boost domestic manufacturing through public procurement orders, Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP), to name a few.

 

The series of measures taken by the Government to improve the economic situation and convert the disruption caused by COVID 19 into an opportunity for growth includes Atmanirbhar packages, introduction of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme in various Ministries, investment opportunities under National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) and National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), India Industrial Land Bank (IILB), Industrial Park Rating System (IPRS), soft launch of the National Single Window System (NSWS), etc.

 

In addition, Government of India is developing various Industrial Corridor Projects as part of National Industrial Corridor Programme which is aimed at development of greenfield industrial regions/nodes which can compete with the best manufacturing and investment destinations in the world. GoI has accorded approval for development of 11 Industrial corridors (32 projects) in four Phases. Under Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Project, 04 greenfield industrial nodes have been developed under Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

 

Further, PM GatiShakti National Master Plan provides a transformative approach for ensuring multimodal connectivity to various economic zones. Minimizing disruptions, ensuring quick completion of works with cost efficiency are the guiding principles for the development of infrastructure as per the National Master Plan. Boost in economic growth, attracting investments and enhancement of country’s global competitiveness, are some of the expected outcomes.

 

The reforms taken by Government have resulted in increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the country. FDI inflows in India stood at US $ 45.15 billion in 2014-2015 and have continuously increased since then, and India registered its highest ever annual FDI inflow of US$ 81.97 billion (provisional figures) in the financial year 2020-21.

 

Keeping in view India’s vision of becoming ‘Atmanirbhar’ and to enhance India’s Manufacturing capabilities and Exports, an outlay of INR 1.97 lakh crore (over US$ 26 billion) has been announced in Union Budget 2021-22 for PLI schemes for 14 key sectors of manufacturing, starting from fiscal year (FY) 2021-22. With the announcement of PLI Schemes, significant creation of production, skills, employment, economic growth and exports is expected over the next five years and more.

 

The activities under the Make in India initiative are also being undertaken by several Central Government Ministries/ Departments and various State Governments. Ministries formulate action plans, programmes, schemes and policies for the sectors being dealt by them, while States also have their own Schemes for attracting investments.

 

Varied Efforts Underway to Further Increase Production

 Owing to Covid-19 pandemic, the subdued demand in power and non-power sectors had adversely affected coal dispatch from the coal companies. The pithead coal stock at Coal India Limited was 99.33 Million Tonnes (MT) as on 1st April, 2021 and 28.66 MT at the Thermal Power Plants end. The coal production got regulated due to high levels of coal inventory and less demand from the consumers.

There is no shortage of coal in the country. Due to increased demand of power, less power generation by imported coal based power plants and some interruption in supply of coal due to heavy rains, the coal stock at the power plants depleted to 7.2 MT as on 8th October, 2021. Subsequently with increased coal supplies, the coal stock has started increasing and has now reached 26.5 MT as on 09.03.2022 with respect to the plants based on domestic coal. In addition, coal stock at Coal India Limited (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) pithead as on 13.03.2022 is 47.95 MT and 4.49MT respectively.

The following action has been taken by Government to further enhance the production and supply of coal in the country:

  1. Commercial Auction of coal on revenue share mechanism: Auction of commercial mining on Revenue Sharing Mechanism was launched on 18.06.2020 by Hon’ble Prime Minister. Under this scheme, total of 2 tranches have been successfully completed and third Tranche is currently under process. From these two tranches total of 28 coal mines have been successfully auctioned for which Vesting order have in signed for 27 coal mines.
  2. Allow sale of excess coal production: The Ministry of Coal has amended Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 with a view to allowing sale of coal or lignite, on payment of additional amount, by the lessee of a captive mine up to 50 percent of the total coal or lignite produced in a financial year, after meeting the requirement of the end use plant linked with the mine. The Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act had been amended in 2021. This is applicable for both the private and public sector captive mines. With this amendment, the Government has paved the way for releasing of additional coal in the market by greater utilization of mining capacities of captive coal and lignite blocks,which were being only partly utilized owing to limited production of coal for meeting their captive needs.
  3. Rolling auction: In order to expedite the process for conducting auction and to carryout more rounds of auction in a year, a mechanism of rolling auctions of coal mines has been planned. Under this mechanism, upon completion of the electronic auction process of a tranche, the next tranche of auction would be launched for following mines:

a. Mines where no bid or only single bid was received in the previous tranche of auction (except for those mines where Ministry of Coal decides to go for second attempt of auction)

b .New mines, if any, identified by Ministry of Coal.

In the current III tranche of commercial auction, total of 48 coal mines have been rolled over from the II tranche of mines.

  1. Single Window Clearance: The Union government has already launched Single Window Clearance portal on 11.01.2021 for the coal sector to speed up the operationalisation of coal mines. It is an unified platform that facilitates grant of clearances and approvals required for starting a coal mine in India. Now, the complete process shall be facilitated through Single Window Clearance Portal, which will map not only the relevant application formats, but also process flow for grant of approval or clearances.

Considering the increased demand as projected by the Ministry of Power, Coal India Limited (CIL) has already taken steps to augment the dispatch & build-up stock at power plants end which is as under:

    • CIL has planned to supply 565 Million Tonne (MT) during 2022-2023 to the power sector to meet the generation requirement of domestic coal-based power generators.
    • CIL has already additionally allocated 11.2 MT of coal from its high stock mines through RCR mode which is to be lifted from different Goods Shed/Private Washeries to build up stock at the plant end.
    • Railways are regularly being requested to give priority in supply of rakes to the power generators.
    • CIL has already started building stock at its railway sidings to facilitate adequate rake loading for power sector.

 The number of functioning coal mines in India as on 31.03.2021 is 442.

The details of production and consumption of coal in the country during the year 2020-21is as under:

(Fig. in MT)

Year

Domestic

Production

Domestic Dispatch

Total Import

Total Consumption (Domestic Dispatch + Import

% Import

2020-21*

716.08

690.88

215.25

906.13

23.75