Indian Infrastructures and Capabilities
With a focus on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ programme, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) through its High Speed Railways Innovation Centre (HSRIC) trust has partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISC) to develop ‘Made in India’ techniques for the Bullet train projects.
Opportunities are up for grabs in India’s space sector, especially since June last year when it was opened for private participation, and Indian startups are not hesitating.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is all set to establish the country’s first thunderstorm research testbed at Balasore.Expected to be fully operational in next five years, the facility will aim to reduce fatalities and loss of property due to lightning strikes in Odisha and the eastern states.
Recent evaluation studies of the scheme indicate that the coverage of Micro Irrigation is relevant in achieving national priorities such as substantially improving on-farm water use efficiency, enhancing crop productivity, ensuring better returns to farmers, generating employment opportunities etc. Further, the scheme has been effective in terms of ensuring benefits for farmers e.g. higher productivity; reduction in labour cost, water consumption, power utilization, fertilizer use etc.
India now has the potential to create its own secured internet by setting up a root server locally for less than Rs 10 crore, according to state-run ITI and industry platform IPv6 Forum.
Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), a government-owned special purpose vehicle, has established Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) facilities with the total capacity of 5.33 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) at these three locations, according to the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
An NHAI contractor has created a World Record for the laying of Pavement Quality Concrete (PQC) for a four-lane highway of 2,580 meters length within 24 hours. Starting at 8 am on 1st February, 2021, they finished the job, totalling 2,580 meters X 4 lanes i.e. approximately 10.32 lane kilometres by 8 am next morning.
CSIR-CMERI-Centre of Excellence for Farm Machinery has developed Off-gridSolar Biodiesel Hybrid Minigrid of 50kW peak capacity system for providing 24X7 power to Center for Excellence in Farm Machinery (CoEFM) Residential Colony at Gill Road, Ludhiana (Punjab). Prof. (Dr.) Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR – CMERI inaugurated the system on 1st February 2021.
“Prior to the deployment of the Aireon system, aircraft were compelled to fly at uneconomical levels due to the high-traffic and many conflict points at crossing paths, burning extra fuel and resulting in extra expenses for airlines. Now, with more accurate position reporting available throughout the entire region, aircraft are more likely to get preferred flight levels and route changes, alleviating the prior issues,” AAI said in a statement.
The plant, built by state-run IndianOil, is Ladakh’s only source of cooking gas and a lifeline once snow snaps road connectivity with the rest of the country. About 40% of the refills produced at the plant go to the defence establishment. It is also the country’s only LPG unit to be operated by women.
