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20 Incredible Facts About Indian Railways That You Probably Did Not Know …

August 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Do you know everything about the next train you will catch? Or the next station you will visit? Here are 20 facts about the Indian Railways you might not be aware of.

Indian Railways – the lifeline of transport system in our country, is evidently a huge setup, and an organization with numerous branches. With a dedicated ministry and budget in its name, railways help large portions of the country’s population in running their daily businesses successfully. However, there are a few things you probably don’t know about our trains and how the entire system works. Read on, and maybe you can remember them; or simply be awed every-time you pass by something even remotely related to the railways.

1. Indian Railways is the largest railways network to be operated by a single government and is the world’s third largest network with a total length of 127,760 kms.

Photo Source: able2know

The annual tally is 8421 million passengers on 9991 trains connecting 7,172 stations across the country. The number of daily passengers on the railways is said to be larger than the population of some countries. It also carries 1014.15 million tons of freight annually.

2. Indian Railways owned the longest railway platform in the world at Kharagpur with a length of 2,733 feet. Now, breaking the record, Gorakhpur station has recently taken its place with a span of 4,430 feet.

Photo Source: indiarailinfo

3. Two historical railway elements are included in the UNESCO’ World Heritage site list – the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, and the Indian Mountain Railways.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

The Indian Mountain Railways includes three railways – the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways, Nilgiri Mountain Railways and Kalka Shimla Railway. All three trains have been functional for some 100 years. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is a classic fusion of Gothic art with Indian architecture.

4. Indian Railways has five luxury trains.

Photo Source: Indian Transport Portal

These are:

Royal Rajasthan on Wheels,
Palace on Wheels (Rajasthan),
The Golden Chariot (Karnataka and Goa),
The Maharajas’ Express (begins in Delhi but the itinerary differs) and
The Deccan Odyssey (begins in Maharashtra but itinerary differs).

They are the pride of Indian Railways as they hold an eminent position among the luxury trains of the world. Palace on Wheels is the oldest one of them.

5. The Vivek Express (Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari) travels a distance of 4273 km, which is the longest run in the railways. The shortest run is taken by a few scheduled services between Nagpur and Ajni – a total of 3 kms. –

Photo Source: kochigallan

6. Srirampur and Belapur are two different stations in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. They are both situated at the same point on the railway route, but are located on opposite sides of the track.

Source: Indiarailinfo

7. Mathura junction has the maximum number of routes emerging from it.

Photo Source: snipview

7 of them include – Broad Gauge (BG) line to Agra Cantt, BG line to Bharatpur, BG line to Alwar, BG line to Delhi, Metre Gauge (MG) line to Achnera, MG line to Vrindavan and MG line to Hathras.

8. The resonance frequency of the suspension for the coaches is kept as close as possible to 72 bpm or 1.2 Hz while designing.

Photo Source: rcf.indiangovernment

The human body is most comfortable at 1.2 Hz frequency as it’s one of the most fundamental frequencies of our bodies (normal heartbeat) – which is why people sleep soundly in trains.

9. The railways functions on an operating ratio of 94%, that is, it spends 94 paisa on every rupee that it earns. –

Photo Source: asianeer

The amount of Rs. 4 saved from every Rs. 100 earned is minuscule and the revenues of the railways have been suffering because of the negligible revision of prices.

10. The diamond crossing (dubbed so by railways themselves), in Nagpur, is one-of-its-kind, from where trains go East, West, North and South.

Photo Source: IRFCA

11. The Indian Railways is constructing the world’s highest rail bridge over Chenab.

Source: consumersprotection

The bridge will be 1,315 meters long and will use up to 25,000 tonnes of steel. The idea was initially conceived in 2008 but the project was paused due to safety concerns. The work, however, began in 2010 and it is expected to be completed this year.

12. The longest tunnel in the country is Pir Panjal Railway tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir which is 11.25 kms long. –

Photo Source: Kashmirlife

13. The busiest junction in the country is Howrah junction in Kolkata with as many as 974 trains stopping there daily.

Photo Source: trekearth

14. All the electric appliances (fans, lights) in rail coaches function at 110 volts instead of the Indian standard 220 volts. It is a very effective counter-measure against thieves!

Photo Source: noisypilgrims 15. The mascot for Indian Railways is Bholu, or Bholu the guard elephant, which was designed by National Institute of Design. It was unveiled on 16th April 2002. –

16. The oldest working Indian locomotive still in use is the Fairy Queen, which worked with a steam engine. –

Photo Source: plustoursIndia

It was built in 1855. After retiring in 1909, it was relaunched in 1997 and operates as a tourist train between Delhi and Alwar. It travels at a speed 40 km/h.

17. The Indian Railways is the world’s eighth largest employer with a total of 1.4 million employees.

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Photo Source: Flickr

18. Computerized reservations began in New Delhi in 1986.

Photo Source: Blogspot

19. Indian Railways launched an awareness campaign train on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2007, called the Red Ribbon Express.

Source: Kochiservnet

20. India has eight Railway Museums – in Delhi, Pune, Kanpur, Mysore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ghum and Tiruchirappalli. Out of these, the National Railway Museum in Delhi is the largest rail museum in Asia.

Photo Source: dadstheway.wordpress.com

Source….Surabhi Katyal http://www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

The Bridge at Q’eswachaka….Bridge Building at its Best…

August 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Every year, local communities on either side of the Apurimac River Canyon use traditional Inka engineering techniques to rebuild the Q’eswachaka Bridge. The entire bridge is built in only three days. The bridge has been rebuilt in this same location continually since the time of the Inka.

This video was produced by Noonday Films for the National Museum of the American Indian exhibition, “The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire,” on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., from June 26, 2015,

Picture of the Day ….

August 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Photo credit : Senthil Natarajan , Brisbane , Australia

This lovely photograph is found in his facebook page on 19 aug 2015… World Photography Day.

Natarajan

He could be working at a dhaba, but is now at IIT!…. Meet BrijeshKumar Saroj…

August 20, 2015August 20, 2015Natarajan1 Comment

In a special series, Rediff.com looks at India through the lives of its people.

Today: Brijesh Kumar Saroj, the son of a poor weaver, who overcame every hardship to make it to IIT-Bombay. When he cleared the IIT entrance exam, villagers threw stones at his home because he is Dalit. This has only hardened his resolve to ‘make it in life.’

IMAGE: Impressed with Brijesh’s achievement, Aamir Khan met him after he arrived in Mumbai. The actor has asked him to get in touch if he needs help. Photograph: Kind courtesy, Brijesh Saroj

I heard about IIT (the Indian Institute of Technology) in Class 8. The boys in Class 10 would talk about IIT all the time.

So I asked a senior, ‘Bhaiyya, yeh IIT kis bala ka naam hai? (What is this thing called IIT?)’

He said after you finish IIT you can earn a salary of Rs 25 lakh per annum.

I thought kya baat hai! Pachhees lakh ka package! Phir to hum zaroor karenge. (Wow! A salary of Rs 25 lakh! I will definitely do it).

And here I am and believe me it’s like a Hollywood film.

There are projectors in the classrooms, everyone speaks in English, people look different, they are so open-minded … And you can take second, third helpings of food and even order for eggs in the canteen. The toilet even has a flush.

When I told my father I had got into IIT, he said, ‘Theek hai. Acchha hai (OK, Good).’ He was happy that I would be able to earn money soon.

Mummy is angutha chhap (illiterate). She said you must be doing something worthwhile if you are going so far away to study. I think she was happy just to watch my brother and me being interviewed on TV. (Brijesh’s brother Raju, 18, secured the 167th rank in the IIT entrance exam and is at IIT-Kharagpur.)

My parents may not understand the significance of getting into an IIT, but they have always been supportive. We are five brothers and one sister, all good students.

In Class 5, our teacher in the village school told my father, ‘Eat just one meal a day, wear one pair of clothes, but educate your children.’ That’s the funda my father held out to.

In my entire extended family, only we children are educated. All my cousins, elders in the family… everyone is illiterate.

Going to a Navodaya Vidyalaya was the turning point of my life. I too would have been a Chhotu, Motu, Pinku, working in a dhaba, but for Navodaya and my maths teacher Sunil Mishra.

I was in Class 5, late for class that day. Mishra Sir was solving a Simple Interest problem on the blackboard. The answer was wrong and I told him so. He said I should go to a better school, a Navodaya Vidyalaya, but warned me there was very little time to prepare for the entrance exam.

Most people in the village demotivated me. They would tell my father, ‘Why are you educating them? Kaam pe lagao (Make them work).’

MAGE: Brijesh and his brother Raju (in a white shirt) with their family in Rehualalganj village in UP. Raju also cleared the IIT entrance exam and is in IIT-Kharagpur. Photograph: Kind courtesy, Brijesh Saroj.

My father works as a weaver in a Surat mill and earns between Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 a month which is not enough for us six children, my parents and my grandparents.

I took up a job in a garage in the village as a helper to a mechanic, ‘get the wrench, get the spanner. Yeh karo woh karo (Do this, do that).’ I learned nothing there, but earned Rs 3,000 in two months.

As Mishra Sir suggested, I filled out the Navodaya form and studied hard. I passed. I studied at the school from Class 6 to 10. It was a residential school and it was my foundation.

I got three meals a day. I learnt judo-karate and basketball and I’m a regional level player. I also ate paneer for the first time.

The Navodaya school had 40 students in a class, while the village school had 100 students in a class, different age groups all studying together. The teachers gave each student undivided attention.

People ask me what is the difference between life now and before IIT. Zameen aasman ka fark hai (the difference is as wide as heaven from earth). We had no electricity because we couldn’t afford it. We had no TV, no fan or running water, or a toilet or a gas cylinder.

In Class 10 during my final exams, the thatched roof of our house fell down. We had to spend a few days in the open. It was only because of the BPL card (Below Poverty Line ration card)]and the milk from our eight goats that we could survive.

When the media found our story, the life that we knew changed. As did the life of the village. Five hundred families in the village who had kachcha houses (made out of mud), got pucca ones (made of brick) with toilets, solar lights and hand pumps.

Tarred roads are being built, there are plans for a hospital and an ITI (Industrial Training Institute), as well as a coaching class for IIT entrance exams.

Yet, the villagers threw stones at our house when the results were announced because we are Dalits. They have threatened to throw acid on our family, they said we won’t allow your children to get jobs in this village. And it’s only because our father tried to push us towards the promise of a better life.

I get upset when people use the word ‘higher’ caste to describe these narrow-minded, uneducated, uncivilised people.

Whatever little I have achieved today is because of my opponents. What they said dil pe lagti thi aur jab dil pe lagti thi toh baat ban jati thi (It hurt me and it pushed me to realise my goals). They always told me you won’t be able to do it because you are Dalit.

If there is one thing I want ended in India, it is the caste system.

IMAGE: The family home. Brijesh had no TV, fan, running water, toilet or a gas cylinder. When the thatched roof collapsed, the family lived in the open for 5 days. Photograph: Kind courtesy Brijesh Saroj.

There is nothing like this in IIT or Mumbai. Two weeks ago, I met Aamir Khan. He called me after a newspaper report about us and told me to meet him when I came to Mumbai. I did, for one-and-a-half hours! Just him and me.

You know, 3 Idiots is my favourite film. He told me I should get in touch with him if I ever needed any help.

Sometimes, when I walk around the IIT campus, I can’t believe I’m here. Socho Bombay aaaya aur woh bhi flight se aaya! (Imagine, I came to Mumbai, and that too I flew in!). It was sponsored, of course.

Nobody knew I hadn’t flown before; I just copied what everyone else did. If there is one thing I don’t lack, it is self confidence.

Arre, we don’t even speak Hindi in my village, we speak Awadhi. Everything is padhbya(padhna, studies), jabya (Jana, to go), khabya (khana, to eat). Here everything is in English. People think in English. I understand the language, but never spoke it. I thought I would be embarrassed, but I am not. It’s not my mother tongue, I’ll learn it. It’s just a matter of time.

But I have to get used to life in a city like Mumbai. In the beginning I was shocked to see so many people. In the village, when we went to graze our goats, there is just vast emptiness everywhere. Marathi is a problem.

Once I went and sat next to a woman in a bus because it was the only vacant seat. Another woman came and told me to get up. It was reserved for women apparently and I did read something that said striyam sathim or something (striyan saathi, For Ladies), but I couldn’t figure it out. But these incidents should happen. How will I learn otherwise?

Another thing about this city is that people hardly walk. In the village we used to hop and skip 5 km to watch Shaktiman (the superhero television series of the nineties), here people take a bus or auto for even 1 km.

And it is expensive, a plate of patties costs Rs 60 to Rs 70; do time ka khaana ho jata hai gaon mein (we can eat two meals for the same amount in the village).

But money is not such a problem now. We used to have two bank accounts — my brother’s had Rs 504 and my mother’s account had Rs 2,000. I don’t know about my father’s account since he lives in Surat.

After we got into IIT, the HRD ministry waived off our tuition fees, mess fees, hostel fees. We got funding of Rs 8 lakh (Rs 800,000) from private donors as well as the state government and politicians.

The government has also given us a plot of land. But that land is now under litigation since my neighbours claim it belongs to them. So we are using some of the funds to fight the case.

IMAGE: From the monetary help received, the brothers have set up a trust fund for deserving children in their village. Photograph: Kind courtesy, Brijesh Saroj.

We have received so much love from strangers; we want to return the favour. From the Rs 8 lakh we received, we set up a trust fund of Rs 2 lakh for 10 deserving children between 12 to 13 years from our village.

We will be funding their education and will shore up the money once we begin earning. The rest of the Rs 6 lakh will be spent on the education of my two brothers and sister.

Before I got into IIT, I used to tell people in my village to educate their children and they would brush me off saying, ‘Bade aayen tips dene (who are you to give advice?).’ I want to be able to achieve such a stature that when you help people they don’t question your motives.

I want to help my village, my family, especially my elder brother Rajesh. My brother always pulled me back into the straight and narrow when I strayed. I had started doing drugs in school and my brother found out and beat me up. Thank god for that. He is doing his MSc in Maths and he started giving tuitions to support the family.

After I finish my IIT, I want to do IAS so that I can be part of the system and change it. I idolise Swami Vivekananda and I have tried to follow what he said, ‘Arise and awake and stop not till the goal is reached.’

IMAGE: Brijesh at the IIT-Bombay campus. ‘Everyone speaks English,’ he says, ‘And you can take second, third helpings of food and even order for eggs. The toilet even has a flush’. Photograph: Reuben NV/Rediff.com

People warned me that I will be swept away by the glamour of Mumbai. But I have always been my own guardian. I went to the Navodaya school when I was just 10. If my friends here tell me to go out socialising with them, I will refuse. I don’t have the money, I can’t go out.

I have budgeted a personal expenditure of Rs 500 per month, otherwise I will be depleting the funds. Who doesn’t like going out? I will, when I can.

It was my birthday on August 10. I turned 19. Nobody wished me because nobody here knows it was my birthday. I called my parents and they blessed me. We have never ever celebrated birthdays because we never had the money. Actually I don’t even know what you are supposed to do…

Sometimes, it is a little lonely here. I find it difficult to connect with my batch mates because of the language barrier, so to keep my spirits up, I wrote these lines…

Jab tootne lage hausla
Toh itna yaad rakhna
Bina mehnat ke haasil
Takhto taj nahin hote
Dhoond lete hain andhere me bhi manzil ko
Jugno kabhi roshni ke mohtaj nahin hote

When you lose hope
Remember this thought O my friend
No scepter or crown ever came to one who did not work hard
There are some who find their destination even in darkness
Just like fireflies that are never scarce of light.

I know I will make it.

Brijesh Kumar Saroj, 19, is the son of a daily wage labourer from Rehualalganj village in Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh. He scored the 410th rank and is now doing Engineering Physics at IIT-Bombay.

He spoke to Swarupa Dutt/Rediff.com after his classes at the IIT campus.

Source….www.rediff.com

Natarajan

Amazing footage debunks the 200-year-old theory of how hummingbirds get their food …

August 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Hummingbirds are named for the sound of their rapidly beating wings, but now their tongues have captured scientists’ attention.

These tiny birds can suck 10 drops of nectar out of a flower every 15 milliseconds, researchers at the University of Connecticut recently discovered. For nearly two centuries, scientists have thought the birds used a much slower “wicking” technique, LiveScience reported.

It turns out that hummingbird tongues do not wick – they pump

By capturing video footage of 18 species of hummingbirds drinking from artificial “flowers,” the research team – led by research scientist Alejandro Rico-Guevara, ecology and evolutionary biology professor Margaret Rubega, and mechanical engineering associate professor Tai-Hsi Fan – found that the birds’ tongues have tube-like grooves that rest in a collapsed state, but open and fill with nectar upon contact with flowers.

In previous studies, captive birds sipped nectar from feeders in laboratories containing far more liquid than a real flower. This time, scientists filmed wild hummingbirds feeding from transparent feeders that mimic the shape, nectar amounts, and calorie concentrations of hummingbirds’ favorite flowers.

The study has yielded the largest data set of any hummingbird study to date – the result of five years’ work. Dr. Rico-Guevara told LiveScience that building the transparent “flowers” was a challenging but essential part of the research, since “when the [hummingbird’s] bill goes inside a flower, you don’t see what is happening inside at all.” The design used transparent tubes filled with artificial nectar, with cameras set up nearby.

The next challenge was observing different species of hummingbirds. The only hummingbird found east of the Mississippi is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, so the researchers had to go further afield to gather a broad sample. By setting up shop in a number of locations across the Americas – including Connecticut, Texas, California, Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia – they gathered footage of 32 different birds from 18 different species.

“I tried to get as many different kinds of hummingbirds as possible,” Rico-Guevara told LiveScience. “Not just to get different species, but [also] the crazy ones, the extreme ones, just to be able to generalize what happens.”

The discovery of the micro-pump method of feeding may lead scientists to revisit previous hummingbird research, Rico-Guevara said. Earlier studies indicate that some flowers produce diluted nectar, which would be helpful for hummingbirds feeding using capillary “wicking” as previously assumed, but which is unnecessary for micro-pump feeding.

The new study was published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

“Our research shows how they really drink and provides the first mathematical tools to accurately model their energy intake,” Rico-Guevara said in the news release, “which will in turn inform our understanding of their foraging decisions and ecology

Check out footage of the feeding below:

Source….Sarah Caspari ….www.businessinsider.com and http://www.youtube.com

Read the original article on Christian Science Monitor.

Natarajan

A Green Taxi of Kolkata…”Rooftop Garden on an Ambassador Car.”..!!!

August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Dhananjay Chakroborty, a taxi driver in Kolkata, has decided to use his green hands and transform his taxi into a miniature, mobile garden. A green crusader on the move.

Imagine our surprise when we came across Mr. Dhananjay Chakraborty, a taxi driver in Kolkata, who has created a rooftop garden on his cab and has a mini green cavern in the trunk of his car with potted plants. It was truly an amazing and awe-worthy sight. He calls it the ‘subuj rath’ or the green chariot.

The car has metal containers on the rooftop whose bottom is laid with soil, white sand and stone chips and the original green grass grows up with the aid of those mechanizations. It weighs about 65 kgs and cost Mr. Chakraborty about Rs. 22000 to build. It continues to cost him with the increased fuel consumption because of the added weight. However, Mr. Chakraborty said he does not mind it.

The Kolkata cabbie is 40 years old and works from the taxi stand at Tollygunge Karunamoyee in Kolkata. In fact, he has planted flowers at the taxi stand too.

His Taxi, an Ambassador, apart from having a green grass-bed on the roof, has eight potted plants in the trunk and has a green interior completely to promote the message that trees and plants should be planted and taken care of.

Mr. Chakraborty’s project came to fulfillment in parts. It began three years ago when he potted a money plant in a beautiful glass bottle that a passenger had left behind in the back seat. Mr. Chakraborty took care of it and nurtured it, while keeping it in the Taxi.

The bigger idea of a green garden taxi, came from one of his friends who found something similar on Internet and suggested the initiative to Chakraborty. He, being so much in love with nature and trees, decided to give it a try.

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Making of the green taxi. Mr. Chakrobarty, with help, adjusting the metal tray onto the roof. His inspiration also came from fellow passengers who appreciated the small money plant that he had begun with. –

The painting of the metal tray on the Subza Rath. He has also been distributing leaflets with messages and sketches that he has made to passengers who are curious and delighted by his initiative. –

He has also been distributing leaflets with messages and sketches that he has made to passengers who are curious and delighted by his initiative. –

However, Mr. Chakraborty does not own the Taxi that he has morphed into a mobile awareness masterpiece on environmental preservation and conservation. He had to sell his taxi, about eight years ago, when he required funds for his treatment post an accident.

But the owner, Mr. Amrish Singh, who owns some five more taxis, has stood up in full support of Chakraborty’s efforts. He says that Dhananjay is one of the safest drivers out there, and since this is for a good cause, he cannot do anything but extend his full support

This is how the Taxi looked before it underwent the transformation to become a miniature mobile garden.

Although, it was not an easy ride, some fellow drivers ridiculed him. In fact, most people before looking at it in a deeper perspective thought he was crazy to even think of such a thing. But Mr. Chakraborty did not pay it any mind, and decided to go on with the project anyway.

Mr. Chakraborty gives an added message. According to him, planting trees is not enough; taking care of them and nurturing them is crucial. Because tree planting initiatives keep happening but most of the saplings just wither away due to lack of water. It is time people, all of us, begin doing our bit.

Apart from being an eye opener on environment, there are other benefits of the plants and the grass in the car. Mr. Chakraborty drives a Non- AC Taxi and because of the plants, his taxi remains much cooler than any other non-AC taxi. –

Also, we believe people would be fascinated with such an idea. We know we are. So, the next time you are in Kolkata, do not miss a ride in the green taxi, or as Mr. Chakraborty likes to call it, the ‘sabuj rath’. –

Source….Surabhi Katyal….www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

” Eat With it…and Then Eat it…” !!!

August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

When Narayana Peesapati became aware of the harmful effects of plastic, not only to the environment but also to our health when used as cutlery, he was stunned. But he did not stop there. He came up with a solution that most of us wouldn’t have thought of, and actually made it happen!

“Whenever I travelled, I used to feel terribly guilty about using plastic cutlery because it created so much plastic waste. Why couldn’t we create an alternative?” asks 48-year-old Narayana Peesapati, the founder and Managing Director of Bakey’s Food Private Limited. Today, he has found a way to replace plastic cutlery with edible cutlery.

Ok, so plastic is bad for the environment. Everyone knows that. But what’s wrong with not washing plastic cutlery and putting it in one’s mouth? Narayana says it is because we “abuse and misuse plastic; plastic should not be applied to food.” He has said as much in this talk, where he gives many reasons as to why plastic, especially cutlery, should be taken out of our lives. Some of these reasons have to do with the manufacturing process for plastic cutlery (explained further down) and others with hygiene.

So does he have an alternative then? He does, and Narayana has been developing it since 2010. Bakey’s manufactures edible cutlery, including spoons in different shapes and chopsticks.

Edible spoons

Bakey’s edible cutlery is made from a mix of jowar (sorghum), rice and wheat flour. The spoons and chopsticks do not get soggy if placed in water and food. They only soften after some time (10-15 minutes), and thus can be eaten easily at the end of the meal. Even if discarded, they decompose within five to six days, if not eaten by insects or rodents.

The idea about how to make the cutlery struck Narayana during a flight from Ahmedabad to Hyderabad, when he saw a passenger using a piece of Gujarati khakra as a spoon to eat dessert.

Why is plastic bad for your health?

Narayana Peesapaty at a Bakey’s stall.

Plastic consists of many chemical components which are toxic and carcinogenic, and can leech into food. Narayana, who has been to several manufacturing units of plastic cutlery in the country, has observed that the way in which it is manufactured is not very safe for use with food.

“The irony is that there are very stringent food safety norms in India. But there are no norms when it comes to manufacturing the utensils in which we consume food,” he says.

In this very competitive market, he says, hygiene has become the first casualty of cost cutting. The process of cleaning the cutlery by manufacturing units in India that he visited, involved just a rag of cloth being used to wipe the final products that came out of the mould in which molten plastic was injected.

This, he feels, leaves consumers at the risk of plastic intake.

“Even after scraping the extra plastic, there are chances that some micro-granules of plastic get dislodged and can enter the body with our food if a spoon is not washed,” he says.

A thought even scarier than this struck Narayana when he noticed that in spite of such a huge consumption of plastic spoons, they are nowhere to be seen in the same numbers after disposal. This, he found, was because they were being reused, which makes plastic cutlery a source of bacterial contamination as well.

Why edible cutlery could be good for you

The spoons do not get soggy in food.

Prior to becoming a manufacturer of edible cutlery, Narayana was a researcher at the International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad. Here, he undertook research on groundwater management, studying why groundwater levels were reducing. He concluded that producing less rice and more dryland crops like jowar would help stabilize the levels of groundwater. It was soon after this that he started thinking about creating a huge market for jowar, and this is one of the main reasons why jowar is the chief ingredients in edible cutlery.

With the product being widely acclaimed, Narayana has been able to communicate the ill effects of plastic to a wide audience.

Bakey’s cutlery has made a mark in the international market as well, with orders coming in from the US and UK.

Being a new concept, working on the idea was a challenge initially, as there was no established technology. Everything had to be developed with learning and research. According to this report, it cost Narayana more than Rs. 60 lakhs to develop the prototype machines and moulds and get started (he had to sell two homes he owned to raise the money). But one of the bigger challenges now is to create an awareness about the harmful health effects of plastic. The use of plastic is also a behavioural issue according to Narayana—people accustomed to using plastic products will not find it easy to switch to edible cutlery.

Other than selling the cutlery directly from their website, Bakey’s also sets up stalls at places like organic bazaars and exhibitions. The company is only breaking even as of now and has not started making a profit, says Narayana.

Once it does, he hopes to develop an automatic machine for manufacturing the cutlery.

Based out of Hyderabad, the manufacturing unit is an all-women enterprise, which Narayana’s wife, who is currently working as a director in the company, will soon be taking over.

To know more about this initiative, you can write to Narayana at info@bakeys.com or visit their website here.

– See more at: http://www.thebetterindia.com/30465/edible-cutlery-in-india/#sthash.i0VEdVb7.dpuf

Source….www.thebetterindia.com

Natarajan

Simple Ways You Can Test Common Food Items For Dangerous Adulterants….

August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

With the alarming rate at which adulteration of food is increasing in India, it is not an exaggeration to say that almost nothing that we eat/drink daily is safe for our health. And what is further astonishing is that all the food items that I am referring to, make an essential part of our daily balanced diet.

Now while we cannot be really sure of when this flourishing business of food adulteration will reach its dead-end, it falls upon us to keep the safety of our health intact. And one of the most potential ways we can do so is by performing simple tests to see whether or not the food item is fit for consumption.

1. Milk

Test for your safety

Put a drop of milk on a slanted surface. If the drop leaves a white trail, it’s a sign of pure milk. But, if it fails to leave the trail, it is adulterated.
If the milk turns yellow when heated, and leaves a bitter and soapy kind of after taste, take it as a sure shot sign that it has synthetic substances added to it.

2. Coffee powder

Test for your safety

Sprinkle a small amount of coffee powder on the surface of water contained in a glass. The coffee will remain afloat whereas the chicory in it will sink to the bottom leaving behind a coloured trail.

3. Chilli powder

Test for your safety

Mix a spoonful of chilli powder in a glass full of water. If you spot a formation of coloured water extract, it is because the chilli powder is adulterated.

4. Turmeric powder

Test for your safety

Add a few drops of concentrated HCL in a test tube containing turmeric powder. Appearance of pink, purple, or violet hues in the mixture confirms adulteration.

5. Mustard seeds and oil

Test for your safety

Take a few seeds and crush them. The argemone seeds on being crushed will reveal a whitish structure on the inside. Mustard seeds, on the other hand, have a yellow inner surface.

6. Ice cream

Test for your safety

If the ice cream starts to froth on adding a few drops of lemon juice to it, it indicates the presence of washing powder in it.

7. Green chillies

Test for your safety

Soak a small cotton piece in paraffin and rub it against a small portion of the outer surface of green chilli or any other green vegetable for that matter. If the cotton turns green, it means that the vegetable is artificially coloured.

8. Ghee

Test for your safety

Add 1 ml of water to a test tube containing about 0.5 g of ghee and bring the mixture to boil. Once it cools, add a drop of iodine (or iodine tincture solution) to it. If the final output is blue in colour, then it is adulterated with starchy substances.

9. Sugar

Test for your safety

Unadulterated sugar, when added to a glass of water, will sink directly to the bottom. But if it has chalk powder in it, the adulterants will remain at the surface of the water.

10. Black pepper

Test for your safety

Add a few corns of pepper to alcohol. The pure corns will stay afloat whereas the pappaya seeds will sink.

11. Tea

Test for your safety

Sprinkle some tea powder on a damp blotting paper. Change in the colour of the blotting paper to something similar to yellow, orange, or red proves the presence of artificial colour in it.

One of the most common reasons behind food adulteration is to deceit the buyer of their money by luring them into buying a ‘good-looking’ food item. However, whatever maybe the reason behind this, it goes unsaid that an act of deliberately adding toxic substances to food items is an act of POISONING.

Source….ananta sharma….www.storypick.com

Natarajan

6 Weird Facts About Gravity…

August 19, 2015August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Credit..NASA

Gravity: You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone

Here on Earth, we take gravity so for granted that it took an apple falling from a tree to trigger Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation. But gravity, which draws objects together in proportion to their mass, is about much more than fallen fruit. Read on for some of the strangest facts about this universal force.

It’s all in your head

Gravity may be pretty consistent on Earth, but our perception of it isn’t. According to research published in April 2011 in the journal PLoS ONE, people are better at judging how objects fall when they’re sitting upright versus lying on their sides.

The finding means that our perception of gravity may be less based on visual cues of gravity’s real direction and more rooted in the orientation of the body. The findings may lead to new strategies to help astronauts deal with microgravity in space.

Coming down to Earth is tough

Credit: NASA Kennedy Space Center

Speaking of astronauts, their experience has shown that a switch to weightlessness and back can be tough on the body. In the absence of gravity, muscles atrophy and bones likewise lose bone mass. According to NASA, astronauts can lose 1 percent of their bone mass per month in space.

When astronauts come back to Earth, their bodies and minds need time to recover. Blood pressure, which has equalized throughout the body in space, has to return to an Earthly pattern in which the heart must work hard to keep the brain nourished with blood. Occasionally, astronauts struggle with that adjustment. In 2006, astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper collapsed at a welcome-home ceremony the day after returning from a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

The mental readjustment can be just as tricky. In 1973, Skylab 2 astronaut Jack Lousma told Time magazine that he’d accidentally smashed a bottle of aftershave in his first days back from a month-long sojourn in space. He’d let go of the bottle in mid-air, forgetting that it would crash to the ground rather than just float there.

For weight loss, try Pluto

Credit: nullPluto may no longer be a planet, but it’s still a good bet for lightening up. A 150-pound (68 kilogram) person would weigh no more than 10 pounds (4.5 kg) on the dwarf planet. The planet with the most crushing gravity, on the other hand, is Jupiter, where the same person would weigh more than 354 pounds (160.5 kg).

The planet humans are most likely to visit, Mars, would also leave explorers feeling light-footed. Mars’ gravitational pull is only 38 percent that of Earth’s, meaning a 150-pound person would feel like they weigh about 57 pounds (26 kg).

Gravity is lumpy

Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFCEven on Earth, gravity isn’t entirely even. Because the globe isn’t a perfect sphere, its mass is distributed unevenly. And uneven mass means slightly uneven gravity.

One mysterious gravitational anomaly is in the Hudson Bay of Canada (shown above). This area has lower gravity than other regions, and a 2007 study finds that now-melted glaciers are to blame.

The ice that once cloaked the area during the last ice age has long since melted, but the Earth hasn’t entirely snapped back from the burden. Since gravity over an area is proportional to the mass atop that region, and the glacier’s imprint pushed aside some of the Earth’s mass, gravity is a bit less strong in the ice sheet’s imprint. The slight deformation of the crust explains 25 percent to 45 percent of the unusually low gravity; the rest may be explained by a downward drag caused the motion of magma in Earth’s mantle (the layer just beneath the crust), researchers reported in the journal Science.

Without gravity, some bugs get tougher

Credit: CDC/Janice Haney Carr

Bad news for space cadets: Some bacteria become nastier in space. A 2007 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that salmonella, the bacteria that commonlycauses food poisoning, becomes three times more virulent in microgravity. Something about the lack of gravity changed the activity of at least 167 salmonella genes and 73 of its proteins. Mice fed the gravity-free salmonella got sick faster after consuming less of the bacteria.

In other words, Michael Crichton’s “The Andromeda Strain” had it wrong: The danger of infection in space may not come from space bugs. It’s more likely our own bugs grown stronger would strike us.

Black holes at the center of galaxies

Credit: April Hobart, NASA, Chandra X-Ray ObservatoryNamed because nothing, not even light, can escape their gravitational clutches, black holes are some of the most destructive objects in the universe. At the center of our galaxy is a massive black hole with the mass of 3 million suns. Scarier thought? It might be “just resting,” according Kyoto University scientist Tatsuya Inui.

The black hole isn’t really a danger to us Earthlings — it’s both far away and it’s remarkably calm. But sometimes it does put on a show: Inui and colleagues reported in 2008 that the black hole sent out a flare of energy 300 years ago. Another study, released in 2007, found that several thousand years ago, a galactic hiccup sent a small amount of matter the size of Mercury falling into the black hole, leading to another outburst.

The black hole, named Sagittarius A*, is dim compared with other black holes.

“This faintness implies that stars and gas rarely get close enough to the black hole to be in any danger,” Frederick Baganoff, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was involved with the 2007 study, told LiveScience’s sister site SPACE.com. “The huge appetite is there, but it’s not being satisfied.”

Source…www. livescience.com

Natarajan

8,000 YEARS OF SILVER: The precious metal’s journey from Anatolia to the modern stock exchange …

August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Along with gold, silver is one of the most sought-after metals.

Investors, industrialists, artists and others enjoy its many unique properties such as malleability, conductivity, strength and reflectivity.

It also has many beneficial applications in medicine, photography, decoration and technology.
People have been mining silver for thousands of years.

The mining of silver began between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago in Anatolia, or what is now modern-day Turkey. As early as 700 B.C., early Mediterranean civilizations were using the brilliant white metal as currency. Over the next several centuries, the epicenter of silver mining shifted from Greece to Spain to Germany to Eastern Europe.
The Spanish conquest of the Americas changed silver forever.

The Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century dramatically transformed silver production. From 1500 to 1800, a mere three countries controlled an 85 percent share of the world’s silver market: Peru, Mexico and Bolivia.

Today’s top 10 silver producers span the world.

In 2013, the top 10 silver producers, in descending order based on output, were Mexico, Peru, China, Australia, Russia, Bolivia, Chile, Poland, the U.S. and Argentina. About 671 million troy ounces of the precious metal are mined annually. In recent years, the price of silver has fluctuated between $19 and $24 an ounce. That amounts to approximately $13 trillion generated a year.

Silver’s got unique properties.

Silver’s melting point is 1,763°F whereas its boiling point is a blistering 4,013°, which is hotter than the inside of an active volcano.

Silver has a lot of industrial applications.

Silver has many important, far-reaching technological and electronic applications. It’s used in everything from cell phones, computers and semiconductors to automobiles, water-purification systems and—because it is the best conductor of heat of all elements—spacecraft solar radiation tiles. Silver and aluminum, the world’s strongest alloy, is used in the construction of Apache helicopters and C-17 aircraft.

Silver is used in film.

About 30% of silver consumption in the United States goes toward photography production, which requires silver nitrate.

Silver is great for wire.

Silver is the second-most malleable and ductile element following gold. Just an ounce of it can be stretched into 8,000 feet of wire.

Silver is used broadly in healthcare.

The white metal also has powerful antibacterial properties, which have been known since at least the days of the ancient Phoenicians, who kept water and wine in silver vessels to ensure freshness. Today, silver is found in bandages as well as surgical instruments, stethoscopes, catheters and other health care tools. Unlike other antibiotics, silver prevents bacteria from developing resistance to it.
For investors, silver is a store of value.

There are many ways to invest in silver, including bullion, coins, medallions, ETFs, mutual funds and accumulation plans.
Source….www.business insider.com

Natarajan