Vol no. 15 Issue No. 89

Expert Panel

Prithvish Nag

Vice Chancellor, MG Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi

Ajit Tyagi

Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Former DG, IMD, New Delhi

B Meenakumari

Deputy Director General, Fisheries, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi

Saraswati Raju

Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Sachidanand Sinha

Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Rasik Ravindra

Former Director, NCAOR, Goa

Inside this issue

Coal Driven

Discovering Coal

By: Sulagna Chattopadhyay

The plant inhabitants of prehistoric swamps serve as a source of coal. Peat, lignite, bituminous and anthracite are the major varieties of coal found.

The Coalgate Concern

By: Staff Reporter

Coal blocks were allotted to private companies for captive mining through a 1993 amendment to the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act (1973). However, the CAG found that the blocks were not allotted in a transparent manner, neither had the companies begun production.

Coal Dependency in India’s Energy Needs

By: Abhijit Sarkar

Domestic coal production has been falling behind demand. Allowing private merchant miners and removing the ‘electricity’ and ‘non-electricity’ differentiation could serve to strengthen the sector.

Coal Auction in India

By: Rittwik Chatterjee and Srobonti Chattopadhyay

E-auctions can ensure transparency, prevent discrimination among buyers or favouritism, and let consumers have the coal of their choice.

Coal-based Economy in India: Post 2030

By: Nitya Nanda, and Saswata Chaudhury

Abundant and cheap availability of domestic coal led India to follow a coal centric development path in the past. Given the current trends in production and consumption, India is expected to exhaust its coal reserves within the next four decades.

Can coal ever be eco-friendly?

By: Staff Reporter

Notwithstanding its polluting nature, coal remains the cheapest and most convenient fuel for meeting India’s energy needs. Since hydro power and nuclear power have safety issues, and green energy remains expensive, the answer lies in working towards cleaner coal-based technology.

Coal Seam Fires

By: Rina Mukherji

Sanitation Perspectives

Decentralised sanitation

By: Rina Mukherji

Space constraints prevent Indian cities from laying sewerage lines for new or underserved pockets. DEWATS systems can help here.

Subsidies Can Improve Sanitation, Shows Study

By: Staff Reporter

A new study in Science found that subsidies may be the key policy.

Disaster Management

Urban Flooding in India

By: C Ramachandraiah

Of late, flooding in urban areas has increased due to changes in land use and recurrent extreme event episodes. Although advances in forecasting and relief operations have minimised the loss of lives, yet the damage to property continues to be severe.

India's outdoors

Singalila

By: Shreya Sikder and Sumit Chakraborty

A high altitude escapade that stole my heart. It is indeed perfect for those who seek quiet getaways.

In brief

Editor's Note

Previous Issue Next Issue

Vol no. 15 Issue No. 89

Articles...

COAL DRIVEN

Discovering Coal

The plant inhabitants of prehistoric swamps serve as a source of coal. Peat, lignite, bituminous and anthracite are the major varieties of coal found.

By: Sulagna Chattopadhyay

COAL DRIVEN

The Coalgate Concern

Coal blocks were allotted to private companies for captive mining through a 1993 amendment to the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act (1973). However, the CAG found that the blocks were not allotted in a

By: Staff Reporter

COAL DRIVEN

Coal Dependency in India’s Energy Needs

By: Abhijit Sarkar

COAL DRIVEN

Coal Auction in India

E-auctions can ensure transparency, prevent discrimination among buyers or favouritism, and let consumers have the coal of their choice.

By: Rittwik Chatterjee and Srobonti Chattopadhyay

COAL DRIVEN

Coal-based Economy in India: Post 2030

By: Nitya Nanda, and Saswata Chaudhury

Term Power

What is ...

A generic name for air pollution equipment which uses a range of filter bags/fabric types to separate particulate (dust, ash, powders, etc.) from the exhausting air stream. It is a required equipment as per the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure that all industrial exhaust gasses are particulate (dust) free.

A device found in power plants for generating steam for power, processing or heating purposes, or for producing hot water for heating purposes or hot water supply. Heat from an electrical combustion source is transmitted to a fluid contained within the tubes in the boiler shell.

A federal law in the US that defines EPA's responsibilities for protecting and improving its nation's air quality and the stratospheric ozone layer. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 were the last major change in the law, enacted by Congress.

A type of substance, either liquid, solid or gas, that is manually added to coal for some altering purpose. Some additives are used to even out coal, alter emissions, improve furnace operation and a variety of other purposes.

The process of retrieving energy from the burning of fuels in the most efficient way possible. To maximize combustion efficiency, it is necessary to burn all fuel material with the least amount of waste.

An electrostatic precipitator (ESP), or electrostatic air cleaner, is a pollution control device that removes particles from a flowing gas (such as air) using the force of an induced electrostatic charge. ESPs are highly efficient filtration devices.

Substances that are released into the air from power generating plants among other sources. Major emissions that are regulated by the federal government are nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and mercury. Carbon dioxide is also a major emission, but is not regulated.

A gas that exits into the atmosphere via a flue, which is a pipe or channel for conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, oven, furnace, boiler or steam generator. Quite often, it refers to the combustion exhaust gas produced at power plants.

Finely divided particles of ash entrained in gases resulting from the combustion of fuel. Approximately six million tonnes of flyash are used each year in the US in major projects such as highway construction.

A metallic element that is toxic to human beings whose emission into the environment through the combustion of coal has come under increasingly tight restrictions.

Letters

India’s education scenario

G’nY ran a debate about India’s education scenario between April 12 and 13, 2015 on ‘Geography and You-Facebook’. Readers were asked to respond to the need and quality of education in India in the backdrop of a parallel education system, especially coaching that operates bereft of a degree. Despite the fact that coaching institutes may have a good method of teaching and often can impart more education in a short span of time than many other ‘reputed’ institutes, yet the fact that these places do not have any authenticity and at the same time charge heavily, is what the debate is about. The respondents were asked whether this parallel system should continue, or whether governmental aided educational institutes should work harder to fill the gap.

GnY

January-February 2015

Let me first congratulate the entire team of G’nY for bringing out such an important and topical issue pertaining to the livelihood of majority of India’s population. The Land Acquisition Act 2013 passed during the UPA regime duly supported by the BJP was perfectly all right. The BJP leaders have not been able to defend their change of stand on the Bill so quickly. The promulgation of Ordinance twice has placed the government on a slippery wicket. The reaction of the government through its senior ministers does not hold water. For example, Ravi Shanker Prasad questioning the lack of legal understanding of Rahul Gandhi, said on television that government requires land for making canals for improving irrigation and land for making hostels for tribal students. It is ridiculous to hear that from a senior minister of the government. First of all, there was never a bar on acquiring land for public purposes viz. laying railway lines, making roads, making canals for irrigation etc. — you do not require a new law for acquiring such land. As far as the construction of hostel for tribal students is concerned, it can’t be constructed in fields. State governments allot hundreds of acres of land to universities, most part of which remain unutilised. The state governments can easily earmark 10 per cent of this land for making hostels for tribal students. Further statistics show that large tracts of land already acquired and allotted are lying unutilised. The government should take all these facts in to account and not insist on changing the laws unnecessarily.

RAJENDRA PRASAD, Patna

I AM A REGULAR reader of G’nY

I AM A REGULAR reader of G’nY and through your magazine I want to express my views on the Land Acquisition Bill and government’s stand on it. I can see an eerie similarity with the Lokpal movement and the Opposition’s stand against the Land Acquisition Ordinance. The movement against the Congress gave birth to the Aam Aadmi Party. The fall out of the re-promulgation of the Ordinance has already made many parties come together and this will have a significant impact on the Bihar elections, which is not far away.

SHAMS IQBAL, Gwaliar

Indian education system

Year after year, the Indian education system tries to aim at quantity instead of quality; perhaps because quality of education is difficult to measure as compared to quantity. This results in the mass production of graduates armed with degrees, yet lacking basic skills for the job market. This is where the parallel education system steps in. They try to bridge the knowledge gaps of a student by charging obnoxiously high fees and offering quick fix solutions. This parallel education system is not a disease but the symptom of a disease. The main problem is our sick education system. Students enter schools and colleges not to learn but to get degrees. This needs to be reformed by allocating more funds for the education sector and improving it in terms of quality with better teacher- student ratios, infrastructure, skill training, and the like. We need to act fast as we are on the cusp of demographic dividend. The youth of this great nation is waiting for an education revolution.

SAM JOE

Skills and Jobs

Our educational system needs to be geared toward skills. There is no match between skills and jobs offered. Graduates in geography, such as me, are unfortunately, offered only teachers’ posts by the Kerala Public Service commission in our State. Is there no other opening?

ASWIN UNNIKRISHNAN

Indoctrination is what goes

Indoctrination is what goes by the name of education today. A student is stuffed with facts and expected to be ready for a job. There is no development of personality or modification of behaviour for the better, with values that can nourish an individual.Producing good quality economists can certainly lift our declining economy, but only if it is propped up on quality education that provides the right values and ideals to every individual.

ASHFAQ AHMAD MIR

Vocational courses

The Government needs to put vocational courses in place. It should remain facilitating such education with proper funding, infrastructure and policy making. All vocational and specialised higher education and research should be handed over to industry, so that students are imparted the right skills needed for jobs in the commercial sector. It can confine itself with general education in science, commerce, arts, culture, and mass schooling.

N C MEENA

There is a policy paralysis

There is a policy paralysis in implementing and imparting education. Significant amounts are spent on fetching good grades and not on quality education. Morals and ethics are compromised and never paid heed to, without realising their significance for a civilized nation. At the primary and secondary level, education is merely a lucrative profit-making business. Students need to be trained in conceptual understanding to gain command over their subjects. For employment, job-oriented training institutes or industry–oriented institutes for skill development at the college level run by the state are the need of the hour.

Vol no. 15 Issue No. 89

Expert Panel

Inside this issue

Coal Driven

Sanitation Perspectives

Disaster Management

India's outdoors

In brief

Vol no. 15 Issue No. 89

Articles...

Term Power

What is ...

Baghouses

Boiler

Clean Air Act

Coal additive

Combustion

Electronic Precipitator

Emission

Flue Gas

Flyash

Mercury

Letters

India’s education scenario

GnY

January-February 2015

RAJENDRA PRASAD, Patna

I AM A REGULAR reader of G’nY

SHAMS IQBAL, Gwaliar

Indian education system

SAM JOE

Skills and Jobs

ASWIN UNNIKRISHNAN

Indoctrination is what goes

ASHFAQ AHMAD MIR

Vocational courses

N C MEENA

There is a policy paralysis

PRABHAKAR PRASAD