Conference on trends in energy engg

Dehradun, March 23
A two-day All India National Conference on ‘The emerging trends in energy engineering’ began at the Dehradun Institute of Technology (DIT) here today. The conference aims at providing a common platform to researchers, academicians and industrial experts to share their knowledge and expertise in the field of energy engineering and formulate recommendations for the implementation by stakeholders.
The conference is being jointly organised by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, and the Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST). The event would witness participation of experts, researchers, scientists, professors and students from all across the country.
Dr Krishna Kumar, Executive-Director, DIT, said, “Modern world is unimaginable without energy. It is of paramount importance that adequate efforts should be made to increase the generation of energy to cope up with the rapid expansion of the industrial sector. Research in the field of generation and management of energy is the need of the hour. Therefore, we are organising this conference to provide a platform to experts and researchers in the multidisciplinary fields to meet and discuss the related issues and challenges,” he added.
Dr JS Raini, an expert in thermal energy and a faculty at DIT, asserted that the conference would draw excellent response from researchers from all over the country. “35 research papers out of 100 have been selected to be presented at the conference. These research papers are related to engineering areas, including energy resources, energy efficiency and management, heat transfer and fluid flow, energy storage and many others. The convention would serve as a useful forum for the exchange of ideas and views of technical experts and students,” he emphasised.

‘Weather watch group to benefit farm sector’

Dehradun, March 23
Setting up of mandatory crop weather watch group will greatly benefit Uttarakhand in increasing its agriculture yield in the state. This was stated by Director, Dehradun Meteorological Centre, Dr Anand Sharma, while interacting with the The Tribune on World Meteorological Organisation Day today.
He said several states of the country had the mandatory crop weather watch group that was proving useful for the agriculture sector.
The group that comprises stakeholders linked to agriculture like irrigation, power, seed resources, weather and others, holds regular meetings in order to have a look at all factors that affect the agriculture and take necessary measures. “The state needs to have such groups for strengthening its agriculture sector,” said Dr Sharma.
Referring to the role of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in the country, he said the IMD was providing services in almost every sector of the economy such as food security, transport, health, tourism, management of water energy and other resources in environment monitoring and protection, disaster management and in the sustainable development. “We have to make judicious use of the climate information and services to maximise benefits and minimise risks”, he said, adding that timely forecast in the state had helped prevent hazards from turning into disasters.
Dr Sharma also held that the centre had been receiving appreciation for its services from all quarters. “Very recently we received a letter of appreciation from Uttarakhand Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi for the weather forecast details provided to the commission in the recently concluded Assembly elections in the state,” he stated. He said even the External Affairs Ministry and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force had lauded their services linked to weather forecast during Kailash Mansarovar Yatra every year.
Meanwhile, the meteorological centre was open today for students and general public as a part of the day. Students who visited the centre in big numbers were informed about various issues related to atmospheric sciences. They also had a look on the meteorological instruments.

Koteshwar hydro project synchronised with Northern Grid

Dehradun, March 23
The fourth unit (100 MW) of Koteshwar Hydro Electric Project (HEP) has been successfully synchronised with the Northern Grid. Koteshwar HEP will now add 400 MW of power to the Northern Grid. This 400 MW of power has come as a big relief for Northern India, which is already facing power shortage ahead of the summer season. The commissioning of all units of KHEP was scheduled in March 2012, and the same is achieved well in time with the synchronisation of this unit. Before this the third unit was also commissioned in January 2012 in line with the commissioning of Unit I and II in March 2011 as per schedule.
Energy of 581 Million Units (MU) is already generated from three units of KHEP against the target of 564 MU up to March 2012. It is expected that 600 MU of energy will be generated by the end of this month. With the successful commissioning of all four units of KHEP, the total installed capacity of Their Hydro Development Corporation India Limited (THDCIL) has now increased to 1400 MW.
With this (1000 MW), Tehri Hydro Power Project and (400 MW) Koteshwar Hydro Electric Project are fully operational and the work on (1000 MW) Tehri Power Station Project (PSP) is in progress. It is a run-of-the-river scheme which will generate 1234 MU of energy annually. The reservoir created by Koteshwar Dam having live storage capacity of 35 MCM will also function as lower (balancing)reservoir for Tehri PSP. This project will also regulate water releases from Tehri reservoir for irrigation purpose.

2 booked for hacking kin’s facebook account

Chandigarh, March 23
The UT police has booked two residents of Karnal for hacking the facebook account of a person and posting obscene comments and pictures on it. Sahil Pandhir and Neeraj Pandhir, both residents of Old Housing Board Colony, Karnal (Haryana), have been booked for hacking the account of the complainant’s son and posting obscene comments of her daughter on it.
A case under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act has been registered in the police station of Sector 17.
The hacking came to light when the brother of the woman in Sector 22 started receiving dirty phone calls and then noticed comments of facebook visitors on his account.
Neeraj Pandhir is the husband of the woman.
The police said a matrimonial dispute between Neeraj and his wife was already pending with the crime against women cell (CAW) of the Chandigarh police. Though Neeraj is pursuing his engineering in a private institute at Rohtak, co-accused Neeraj is studying in Chandigarh. Police sources said the suspects had hacked the his brother-in-law’s facebook account from their computer in Rohtak. 

Liquor to remain cheaper in chandigarh

Chandigarh/Mohali, March 23
Chandigarh would continue to be favourite with boozers, as according to the proposed Excise Policy 2012-2013 of the UT, liquor in the city will remain cheaper than that sold in Mohali.
Though the UT is yet to come out with its new excise policy, Punjab’s decision to increase the excise duty by 15 per cent and increase the quota of liquor would see bacchus lovers from the region heading towards the city.
The difference in the liquor prices at the two cities, varying between 10 per cent and 20 per cent, would remain despite the UT proposing to generate more revenue from the sale of liquor vends by basing the last year’s highest quoted price of each vend as the base licence fee of the respective vend. Last year, at least three vends on the outskirts of the UT had fetched over Rs 2 crore as licence fee.
By doing so, the department would do away with the prevailing system of fixing a uniform licence fee. The new Excise Policy of the UT is expected to be out next month.
On the other hand, the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department, in its new policy 2012-2013, has announced to continue with the prevailing system of draw of lots. For the draw of lots to be held on March 28, the excise department had formed 25 groups with maximum concentration of vends along the Punjab border with the UT.
UT Finance Secretary VK Singh said various issues related to the new excise policy were today discussed at a meeting. “Nothing has been finalised yet,” he said.
“The increase in the licence fee will certainly have an effect on the liquor prices but it will still be cheaper than liquor sold in Mohali as the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department has not only increased the excise duty, but has also increased the liquor quota,” said a senior official.
Though the UT officials are tight-lipped on the excise policy 2012-13, it is believed that the proposed move to substantially increase the licence fee would fetch a much higher revenue than the last year’s projected revenue of Rs 127 crore. The exact tax structure would be known once the UT comes out with excise duty. Sources reveal that the department was also seriously considering to lower the fixed liquor quota from the existing 27 lakh liquor cartons, as the traders had not been able to lift 13 lakh cartons.
With over a month still left for the start of the new policy (May 2012), the traders had yet to lift around 9 lakh cartons. The Punjab excise officials said after fixing the quota, smuggling of liquor from the UT had come down.
To further curb the menace, Punjab had doubled the fines under the excise laws. Regular checks on the border had also been proposed by Punjab. By rough estimates, the price of popular brands of the IMFL were expected to increase by around Rs 15 per bottle, a bottle of beer is expected to cost around Rs 60. On the other hand, the price of IMFL would increase by anything between Rs 30 and Rs 50 per bottle while a bottle of beer would cost around Rs 70 per bottle.
No opinion on social aspect
A few years ago, former Adviser to the UT Administrator Lalit Sharma had constituted a committee of experts from the police, health and social organisations to analyse various aspects of the liquor policy. Issues like location of vends at spots prone to road accidents and public nuisance were discussed. But this year, no such public opinion has been sought by the UT.