Saturday, May 28, 2011
POLLUTION IN INDIA.....
Air pollution - Courtesy Nasa
The environmental problems in India are growing rapidly. The increasing economic development and a rapidly growing population that has taken the country from 300 million people in 1947 to more than one billion people today is putting a strain on the environment, infrastructure, and the country’s natural resources. Industrial pollution, soil erosion, deforestation, rapid industrialization, urbanization, and land degradation are all worsening problems. Over exploitation of the country's resources be it land or water and the industrialization process has resulted environmental degradation of resources. Environmental pollution is one of the most serious problems facing humanity and other life forms on our planet today.
India's per capita carbon dioxide emissions were roughly 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms) in 2007, according to the study. That's small compared to China and the U.S., with 10,500 pounds (4,763 kilograms) and 42,500 pounds (19,278 kilograms) respectively that year. The study said that the European Union and Russia also have more emissions than India.
India has been ranked as seventh most environmentally hazardous country in the world by a new ranking released recently. The study is based on evaluation of “absolute” environment impact of 179 countries, whose data was available and has been done by researchers in Harvard, Princeton, Adelaide University and University of Singapore 0n January 12, 2011.
India’s environmental problems are exacerbated by its heavy reliance on coal for power generation. "More than 80 per cent of energy is produced from coal, a fuel that emits a high amount of carbon and greenhouse gases." said Bikash. According to him, coal pollution kills more than 300,000 people every year.
River water Pollution
Contaminated and polluted water now kills more people than all forms of violence including wars, according to a United Nations report released on March 22, 2010 on World Water Day that calls for turning unsanitary wastewater into an environmentally safe economic resource. According to the report -- titled "Sick Water?" -- 90 percent of wastewater discharged daily in developing countries is untreated, contributing to the deaths of some 2.2 million people a year from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene. At least 1.8 million children youngerthan 5 die every year from water-related diseases.
Fully 80 percent of urban waste in India ends up in the country's rivers, and unchecked urban growth across the country combined with poor government oversight means the problem is only getting worse. A growing number of bodies of water in India are unfit for human use, and in the River Ganga, holy to the country's 82 percent Hindu majority, is dying slowly due to unchecked pollution.
New Delhi's body of water is little more than a flowing garbage dump, with fully 57 percent of the city's waste finding its way to the Yamuna. It is that three billion liters of waste are pumped into Delhi's Yamuna (River Yamuna) each day. Only 55 percent of the 15 million Delhi residents are connected to the city's sewage system. The remainder flush their bath water, waste water and just about everything else down pipes and into drains, most of them empty into the Yamuna. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, between 75 and 80 percent of the river's pollution is the result of raw sewage. Combined with industrial runoff, the garbage thrown into the river and it totals over 3 billion liters of waste per day. Nearly 20 billion rupees, or almost US $500 million, has been spent on various clean up efforts.
Groundwater exploitation
Groundwater exploitation is a serious matter of concern today and legislations and policy measures taken till date, by the state governments (water is a state subject) have not had the desired effect on the situation.
Groundwater Quality and Pollution is most alarming pollution hazards in India. On April 01, 2010 at least 18 babies in several hamlets of Bihar’s Bhojpur district have been born blind in the past three months because their families consume groundwater containing alarming levels of arsenic, confirmed by Bihar’s Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav on Wednesday, 31st March 2010 confirmed the cases of blindness in newborns in arsenic- affected blocks of the district.
According to the World Health Organization on World Water Day 2011, on March 22, 2011 each year, an estimated four billion people get sick with diarrhea as a result of drinking unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Nearly two million people die from diarrhea each year, and many of them children under the age of five, poor, and living in the developing world.
Plastic Pollution
Plastic bags, plastic thin sheets and plastic waste is also a major source of pollution. A division bench of Allahabad High Court, comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Arun Tandon, in May 03, 2010 had directed the Ganga Basin Authority and the state government to take appropriate action to ban the use of polythene in the vicinity of Ganga in the entire state. Also Plastic Bag Pollution in the country is the biggest hazards. On August 2, 2010, seeking to know whether a fine should be imposed on paan masala or gutkha packet manufacturers for polluting and choking the drainage systems, the Supreme Court has directed the Union government to file its reply in six weeks.
From January 20, 2011 sale of plastic or polythene bags has been banned in the vicinity of rivers or any other water body after Uttar Pradesh Governor B L Joshi gave his assent to an ordinance in this regard. "The Governor has given his assent to UP Plastic and Bio-Degradable Garbage and Waste (Use and Disposal) Ordinance which makes areas around river and water bodies no-polythene zone," he said.
Pollution due to Mining
New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment (CSE) on December 29, 2007 said mining was causing displacement, pollution, forest degradation and social unrest. According to the Centre for Science and Environment ( CSE) report the top 50 mineral producing districts, as many as 34 fall under the 150 most backward districts identified in the country.
The CSE report has made extensive analysis of environment degradation and pollution due to mining, wherein it has said, in 2005-06 alone 1.6 billion tonnes of waste and overburden from coal, iron ore, limestone and bauxite have added to environment pollution. With the annual growth of mining at 10.7 per cent and 500-odd mines awaiting approval of the Centre, the pollution would increase manifold in the coming years.
The mines of Mahanadi Coal Fields and NTPC draw about 25 Cr litres of water per day from the River Brahmani and in return they release thousands of gallons of waste water, which contains obnoxious substances like Ash, Oil, Heavy Metals, Grease, Fluorides, Phosphorus, Ammonia, Urea and Sulphuric Acid, into the River Nandira (A tributary of River Brahmani). The effluents from chlorine plant cause chloride and sodium toxicity to the river Rushikulya – the lifeline of southern Orissa. The Phosphoric Fertilizer Industry discharges effluent containing Nitric, Sulphuric and Phosphoric acids into river Mahanadi.
The Supreme Court on February 25, 2011 ordered a probe by its committee into alleged illegal mining in Bellary and other forest areas of Karnataka. A bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia asked the apex
court-appointed Central Empowered Committee to conduct the probe and file its report within six weeks.The court passed the order on an oral mention made by advocate Prashant Bhushan who said that the report of the Karnataka Lokayukta clearly stated that mining activities were being carried not only illegally but also stretched to areas categorised as forest land.
Despite stone mining’s links to several occupational diseases such as pneumoconiosis, silicosis, tuberculosis, asbestosis and asthma, abject poverty keeps driving villagers in many parts of the Rajasthan state to illegal mining. Rajasthan is the largest producer of dimensional stones in the country. The state produces 5 crore tonnes a year.
An aluminum refinery in Orissa blithely continues to pollute the surrounding villages, despite the recommendations of the Supreme Court's Central Empowered Committee that it be closed since it poses environmental and health hazards. Rengopalli in the east and west cells of the Red Mud pond built for the refinery's alkaline waste disposal. Red Mud, which is the final waste product from bauxite. In the currently operational west cell, a ton of toxic waste is dumped for every ton of alumina produced in the refinery
The most polluted places in India
Vapi in Gujarat and Sukinda in Orrisa is among the worlds top 10 most polluted places, according to the Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based nonprofit group.
Vapi : Potentially affected people: 71,000 -Pollutants: Chemicals and heavy metals due to its Industrial estates.
Sukinda: Potentially affected people: 2,600,000. -Pollutants: Hexavalent chromium due to its Chromite mines.
The most polluted cities in India
As many as 51 Indian cities have extremely high air pollution, Patna, Lucknow, Raipur, Faridabad and Ahmedabad topping the list. An environment and forest ministry report, released on September 14, 2007 has identified 51 cities that do not meet the prescribed Respirable Particulate Matter (RSPM) levels, specified under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). In 2005, an Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) placed India at 101st position among 146 countries.
Taking a cue from the finding, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) formulated NAAQS and checked the air quality, which led to the revelation about air quality in leading cities.
According to the report, Gobindgarh in Punjab is the most polluted city, and Ludhiana, Raipur and Lucknow hold the next three positions. Faridabad on the outskirt of Delhi is the 10th most polluted city, followed by Agra, the city of Taj Mahal. Ahmedabad is placed 12th, Indore 16th, Delhi 22nd, Kolkata 25th, Mumbai 40th, Hyderabad 44th and Bangalore stands at 46th in the list. The Orissa town of Angul, home to National Aluminium Company (NALCO), is the 50th polluted city of the country.
Monday, April 4, 2011
HISTORY OF COCO COLA
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in the stores, restaurants, and vending machines of more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke (a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944). Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century.
The company produces concentrate, which is then sold to licensed Coca-Cola bottlers throughout the world. The bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise Coca-Cola to retail stores and vending machines. Such bottlers include Coca-Cola Enterprises, which is the largest single Coca-Cola bottler in North America and western Europe. The Coca-Cola Company also sells concentrate for soda fountains to major restaurants and food service distributors.
The Coca-Cola Company has, on occasion, introduced other cola drinks under the Coke brand name. The most common of these is Diet Coke, with others including Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola, Diet Coke Caffeine-Free, Coca-Cola Cherry, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Vanilla, and special editions with lemon, lime or coffee.
The prototype Coca-Cola recipe was formulated at the Eagle Drug and Chemical Company, a drugstore in Columbus, Georgia by John Pemberton, originally as a coca wine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca. He may have been inspired by the formidable success of Vin Mariani, a European coca wine.
In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a non-alcoholic version of French Wine Coca. The first sales were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. It was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents[10] a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time due to the belief that carbonated water was good for the health.[11] Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured many diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence. Pemberton ran the first advertisement for the beverage on May 29 of the same year in the Atlanta Journal.
By 1888, three versions of Coca-Cola — sold by three separate businesses — were on the market. Asa Griggs Candler acquired a stake in Pemberton's company in 1887 and incorporated it as the Coca Cola Company in 1888. The same year, while suffering from an ongoing addiction to morphine. Pemberton sold the rights a second time to four more businessmen: J.C. Mayfield, A.O. Murphey, C.O. Mullahy and E.H. Bloodworth. Meanwhile, Pemberton's alcoholic son Charley Pemberton began selling his own version of the product.
John Pemberton declared that the name "Coca-Cola" belonged to Charley, but the other two manufacturers could continue to use the formula. So, in the summer of 1888, Candler sold his beverage under the names Yum Yum and Koke. After both failed to catch on, Candler set out to establish a legal claim to Coca-Cola in late 1888, in order to force his two competitors out of the business. Candler purchased exclusive rights to the formula from John Pemberton, Margaret Dozier and Woolfolk Walker. However, in 1914, Dozier came forward to claim her signature on the bill of sale had been forged, and subsequent analysis has indicated John Pemberton's signature was most likely a forgery as well.
In 1892 Candler incorporated a second company, The Coca-Cola Company (the current corporation), and in 1910 Candler had the earliest records of the company burned, further obscuring its legal origins. By the time of its 50th anniversary, the drink had reached the status of a national icon in the USA. In 1935, it was certified kosher by Rabbi Tobias Geffen, after the company made minor changes in the sourcing of some ingredients.
Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894. The first outdoor wall advertisement was painted in the same year as well in Cartersville, Georgia. Cans of Coke first appeared in 1955. The first bottling of Coca-Cola occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the Biedenharn Candy Company in 1891. Its proprietor was Joseph A. Biedenharn. The original bottles were Biedenharn bottles, very different from the much later hobble-skirt design that is now so familiar. Asa Candler was tentative about bottling the drink, but two entrepreneurs from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead, proposed the idea and were so persuasive that Candler signed a contract giving them control of the procedure for only one dollar. Candler never collected his dollar, but in 1899 Chattanooga became the site of the first Coca-Cola bottling company. The loosely termed contract proved to be problematic for the company for decades to come. Legal matters were not helped by the decision of the bottlers to subcontract to other companies, effectively becoming parent bottlers.
Coke concentrate, or Coke syrup, was and is sold separately at pharmacies in small quantities, as an over-the-counter remedy for nausea or mildly upset stomach.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Lamborghini.... very fast!!!!>>>>>
This Lamborghini facts is about the history behind the making and the man behind the fast, luxury and great looking cars in the world today.....
In 1962, Lamborghini commissioned the engineering firm Società Autostar to design a V12 engine to compete with Ferrari's 3-litre power plant. Autostar was led by Giotto Bizzarrini, one of the famous "Gang of Five", a group of Ferrari engineers who walked away from the company in 1961; among their projects was the famous 250 GTO.
The engine was to have similar displacement to the Ferrari unit, but was to be designed from the ground up for street use, in contrast to the modified racing engines used by Ferrari in its road cars. Bizzarrini created an engine with a displacement of 3.5 litres, a 9.5:1 compression ratio, and a maximum output of 360 bhp at 9800 rpm. The engine came to life for the first time on May 15, 1963, in a corner of the Lamborghini tractor factory.
Lamborghini was displeased with the engine's high revolutions and dry-sump lubrication system (characteristic of racing powerplants); when Bizzarrini refused to change the engine's design to make it more "well-mannered", Lamborghini refused to pay the agreed-upon fee of 4.5 million Italian lire (plus a bonus for every unit of brake horsepower the engine could produce over Ferrari's motor).[12][11] Lamborghini did not fully compensate the designer until ordered to do so by the courts.
In 1963, Lamborghini purchased a property at 12 via Modena, in the commune of Sant'Agata Bolognese, less than 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Cento. A sign at the entranced declared "Qui Stabilimento Lamborghini Automobile" (English: Lamborghini car factory here), boasting 46,000 square metres (500,000 sq ft) of space.
Throughout its history, Lamborghini has envisioned and presented a variety of concept cars, beginning in 1963 with the very first Lamborghini prototype, the 350GTV. Other famous models include Bertone's 1967 Marzal, 1974 Bravo, and 1980 Athon, Chrysler's 1987 Portofino, the Italdesign-styled Cala from 1995, and the Zagato-built Raptor from 1996.
A retro-styled Lamborghini Miura concept car, the first creation of chief designer Walter de'Silva, was presented in 2006. President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann denied that the concept would be put into production, saying that the Miura concept was "a celebration of our history, but Lamborghini is about the future. Retro design is not what we are here for. So we won’t do the [new] Miura.”
At the 2008 Paris Motor Show, Lamborghini revealed the Estoque, a four-door sedan concept. Although there had been much speculation regarding the Estoque's eventual production,Lamborghini management has not made a decision regarding production of what might be the first four-door car to roll out of the Sant'Agata factory.
As of 2009, the current range consists entirely of mid-engined two-seater sports cars: the V12-powered Murciélago LP640, LP640 Roadster and LP670-4 SV, and the smaller, V10-poweredGallardo LP560-4 and Spyder. Limited-edition versions of these four cars are also produced from time to time.
Friday, April 2, 2010
BULLET 350cc bike ...... moves like bullet!!!
Royal Enfield launches its Electra 350 cc model with the new Twin spark, Unit Contruction Engine..
The 350 cc Thunderbird Twinspark was the first model from Royal Enfield to get the Twinspark UCE engine. The Classic 500 and 350 were the next two models to get the Twinspark UCE treatment and launched in India in November 2009.
I am sure that the original Bullet models (with cast iron engine) will now become prized collectors items..!!
Also at the start of 2010, Royal Enfield had made public that the Twin Spark UCE engine would replace the original cast iron engines from the "Bullet Electra 350" and "Bullet Standard 350" models.True to its word, Royal Enfield has launched the Bullet Electra 350 cc with the Twinspark UCE engine
The 2010 Electra retains its original styling and comes with options of a front disc brake and electric start. The exhaust though is a a bit too long. With the long exhaust and the original cast iron engine replaced, the original "Bullet Thump" would certainly be now muffled in these 2010 models.
2010 Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 350, Technical Specifications:
Engine
- Engine: Single Cylinder, 4 Stroke, OHV, air cooled, Twinspark
Displacement: 346 cc
Bore x Stroke: 70mm x 90mm
Compression Ratio: 8.5 : 1
Maximum Power: 19.8 bhp @ 5250 rpm
Maximum Torque: 28 nm @ 4000 rpm
Transmission: Constant Mesh 5 speed
Ignition: Digital TCI
Carburetor: BS29 / UCAL
Dimensions
- Ground Clearance: 140 mm
Width: 810 mm
Wheel Base: 1370 mm
Length: 2140 mm
Height: 1120 mm
Seat Height/Saddle Height: 800 mm
Tyres
- Front: 3.25 x 19"
Rear: 3.25 x 19"
Electricals
- Electrical System: 12v - DC for ES / 12v - AC/DC for KS
Head lamp: 12v, 35/35w
Battery: 12v - 14AH MF for ES, 12v - 5AH for KS
Tail Lamp: 12v, 5w
Brakes
- Front: Hydraulic 280mm Disc
Rear: 153 mm Drum
Suspension
- Front: Telescopic, hydraulic damping, stroke 130 mm
Rear: Swing arm with gas shock absorbers, Stroke 80 mm
Vehicle
- Fuel Tank Capacity: 13.5 ltr (min)
Engine Oil Grade: 15w, 50 API, SL Grade jaso ma
Weight(Kerb): KS: 180 kg, ES: 183 kg
Maximum Speed: 120 kmph