News on Science, Technology and Research in India
The COVID 19 pandemic had brought forth the urgent need for decontaminants that can limit the spread of infectious diseases through contact. However, most decontaminants consisted of chemicals which are hazardous for the environment. This encouraged researchers to work towards greener alternatives.
In a development that could help combat climate change significantly, a team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Guwahati, in partnership with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited, has designed and developed a technology that promises to help capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The technology has been found to consume about 11 percent less energy compared to existing commercial methods.
India achieved yet another milestone in context of IP innovation ecosystem, wherein for the first time in the last 11 years, the number of domestic patent filing has surpassed the number of international patent filing at Indian patent office in the Quarter Jan-Mar 2022 i.e. of the total 19796 patent applications filed, 10706 were filed by Indian applicants against 9090 by non-Indian applicants.
Space PSU NewSpace India opened the commercial bids of the three shortlisted entities — HAL-L&T, BHEL (single firm) and the BEL-Adani Alpha Design-BEML consortium — on Wednesday. The winning bid quoted Rs 824 crore, BHEL Rs 1,129 crore and the third group Rs 1,218 crore, a source said. These figures exclude taxes.
Scientists from the Indian Institute of Nanoscience and Technology (INST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have suggested new 2D semiconducting monolayers (MgX X=S, Se, Te) having high charge carrier mobility.
The scientists have found that the region was seismically active before the disaster hit. They also found a noteworthy sequence of precursory signals of rock-ice detachment preceded by a formation of a new structure via self-assembly or self-organization called the dynamic nucleation phase.
Efforts to fabricate better and more effective energy sources for sensors and other low power electronics is expected to get a boost with a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, and Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), South Korea, developing a set of new materials for devices that help convert biomechanical energy into electrical energy.
Efforts to build fuel-efficient and less polluting next-generation gas turbines are expected to get a major boost with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras and the American multinational firm, General Electric (GE), establishing a state-of-the-art expanded gas turbine combustor testing facility at the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) at IIT-Madras.
In a significant development in environmental pollution, a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Mandi, has developed a method that promises to help transform plastic into hydrogen when exposed to light. The generation of hydrogen from plastics is expected to be more useful because hydrogen is considered the most practical non-polluting fuel of the future.
EOS-02 is Technology demonstration satellite for various new technologies with applications that include agriculture, forestry, geology, hydrology, miniaturised power electronics, reaction wheels etc. and forming the payload for SSLV-1.
