Category: Expert Insight

The Seasonality of Changing Times

A Novel Technique developed by IIT Kharagpur Researchers Can Trace Ancient Seasons and Climate Change

Imagine to actually know the temperature when the ice age era began or the weather experienced by the residents of Dholavira in the Harappan era.What changes in climatology such as extreme heat or lack of rainfall had on our flora and fauna? What kind of temperatures led to the mass migration and then extinction of certain species of animal or plant life? Or to deduce the actual climate when the evolution of man actually began. The historians have faced challenges, tracing ancient seasons and climate change that have been referred to only in the history books or other archaeological artifacts.

A team of researchers from IIT Kharagpur and Deccan College PGRI Pune has developed a new technique that can precisely retrieve the past seasonal change in Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from calcium carbonate continuously secreted by biological organisms like fish. These carbonates are concentrated in fish ear bones, known as otoliths.  The paper titled, “Isotopic analysis of otolith carbonates using laser heating : A fast method for obtaining high resolution climate signal,” was recently published in the prestigious Journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry published by Wiley. The study was funded by the INFOSYS foundation. The method is very rapid and can be used in any kind of biological organisms like coral or snail shell and has vast potential in climate studies. Instrumental climate records are not available at every place.

If anyone wants to know, for example, how the temperature changed over the week to monthly scale during the last several years in deep tiger infested creeks of Sundarban delta, one can go catch a live fish that recorded the past climate. The key problem in modelling past climate is lack of seasonality data principally because geological or archaeological records do not provide that kind of resolution. They provide only the mean state of climate and over a thousand year time scale. Seasonality in SST controls the hydrological cycles, much like tree rings reveal conditions the tree grew up in. Hence information on past seasonality in SST or rainfall are important for validating model climate simulations.

The Lead Investigator Prof. Anindya Sarkar, Department of Geology & Geophysics, IIT Kharagpur remarked, “The method is primarily to ascertain seasonal change in Sea Surface Temperature (SST) recorded in otoliths. The current method indicate a range of possible temperature or mean temperature.  We have employed a novel technique where few millimeter size otoliths are analysed by a carbon dioxide laser at few micron scale intervals for measuring their oxygen isotopic compositions. The isotopes of oxygen in these otoliths depend on the temperature of the water in which the fish grew and therefore record continuous snapshots of past temperature during the life time of the fish for years. The study is giving us monthly data of temperature. Apart from temperature, this method can also retrieve the variations in carbon cycle, controlled by bio-productivity in the ocean”

Torsa Sengupta, Ph.D. student at IIT Kharagpur and the lead author of the paper said, ”We actually caught large live catfish Arius sona from the Gulf of Kutch and extracted its otolith and analysed it in the laser system developed in our laboratory. Our results from these otoliths exactly mimicked the seasonal variation of SST in Gulf of Kutch. Apart from temperature, this method can also retrieve the variation in the carbon cycle, controlled by bio-productivity in the ocean.”

Dr. Arati Deshpande Mukherjee of Deccan College who collaborated in this research stated, “We are studying the five thousand year old fish otoliths from Indus valley sites to assess how the seasonality through time affected the growth and collapse of this spectacular civilization. We knew through our earlier studies that monsoon and a global drought over a few thousand years played pivotal roles but we have yet no idea how the climate system behaved over a seasonal scale. This will be very important for studying climate sensitivity to seasonality.”

Content Writer:- Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer) Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

The Relics of Being & Becoming – ‘Us’

The present is just a synoptic one on the IIT Kharagpur IKS calendar of 2022 based on the scientific realization of

  1. Being and Becoming (ontology of the Vedas as recognized by 1977 Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine),
  2. Yogakshema-complementarities of ascent and descent of human mind to and from Divinity (realized by the Scientific principles developed by International Experts like Abraham Maslow and Arnold Toynbee),
  3. The idea of Cosmic Matrix or Vedic Matarisvan (Idea of MATRIX forwarded by top International Experts namely Joseph Campbell, Marija Gimbutas, Rene Guenon, Mircae Eliade and many more Scientist like James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis on ‘Gaia’s Hypothesis, which is an accepted paradigm in Top Ecosystem sciences);
  4. The parable of the Unicorn as the Eka-Sringa Rishi (based on 100 top international experts driven work encoded in THE PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS 1969);
  5. The Seven Sages and the Seven (Septuplet) Matrikas (works done by renowned scholars like Alice Boner, Padmashree Bettina Baumer and Stella Kramerisch);
  6. The embedding of the mention of ‘Shiva Sakha’ in the Rig Veda refuting the Aryan-Dravidian racial dialectics and the tone of Scientific racism (the discarded works of Eugenics and Biostatistics propagated by Charles Darwin and his cousin Francis Dalton and successor Karl Pearson rejected at the Nuremberg Trial of 1945-46;
  7. And the 1995 work intertwined with Racial Imperialism with a Colonial Hangover (rejected by the ‘Padmashree’ and award-winning Book of French Archaeologist Dr. Michel Danino entitled ‘The Invasion that Never Was’! FY: https://www.amazon.com/Invasion-That-Never-Was/dp/8185137226

Welcome to the IIT KGP IKS Calendar 2022!

The theme of this year’s Calendar challenges the Indian heritage of genetic influx attributed by the Caucasus Eurasia. The Calendar entitled “Recovery of the Foundations of Indian Knowledge Systems”, comprises of twelve evidence that substantiates the Recognitions of the Secret of Vedas and the Reinterpretation of the Indus Valley Civilization. Apart from the most actively debated topic, “The Rebuttal of the Aryan Invasion Myth” which has created a sensation among the historical custodians of the western civilization, the pages of different months are dedicated to the finding of paleo lithic horse fossils in the Sanpo-Brahmaputra river valley, the principle of subtle causation of the life principle or reincarnation, the non-linear and cyclic notions of the eons of time and cosmic symmetry, are unique evolution within the Indian subcontinent by the highest levels of adaptation-acceptance-and-altruism of the Vedic ‘Arya’ Rishis as opposed to the Colonial idea of ‘Arya’ that is based on racial arrogance, apartheid and aggression. These properties, as evident as the ‘Secret of the Veda’ and as embedded in the Indus Valley seals puts the Indus Valley Civilization (7000 – 2000 BCE) either concurrent with the Vedic Age or succeeding the Vedic age. These properties or ‘constructs’ are unique of the Indian paradigm for thousands of years, but the West has just realized the cyclic and non-linear constructs of time, space and causation in last hundred years by virtue of quantum physical and latest thermodynamic, ecological and environmental life-cycle analyses.

Today, the outputs of temporal evidence from the archaeo-astronomical planetarium software earmark the astral descriptions of constellation during times of oblation as evident in the Vedas to dates as early as 9000 BCE. These outputs are based on a 26000 cyclic return of earth’s axis and the positional view of the sky dome of any view taken at time T. It is called the science of ‘The Precession of the Equinox’.

The 20 years of research findings established that the coinage of ‘Aryan’ was an epithet and sobriquet given to the human beings, the evolving Anthropic principle, with higher Chakras representing superior branch of humanity like the Rishis or Gurus demarcated in our Vedic Upanishads and did not involve any foreign invasion by colonial aggressors. This is the basis of YOGA and KSHEMA as it has been accepted by the United Nations / UNESCO (2015) as world’s most powerful and universal intangible heritage of inner contemplative and gnostic pursuit.

STRUCTURE & INTENT

Every page in the Calendar is backed up by 20 + years of research, papers and documentation. The last 2013-19 years of progress under the Science and Heritage initiative (SandHI) is just one of many that happened with the IIT system to garner the sayings in the Calendar, having larger support publications and books. In January 2022 it delineates ‘India’s sacred landscape’ that is avoided in the Aryan Invasion theory, i.e. considering the subcontinent from the east to the west. In February 2022, it gives a small evidence of many about India’s long standing tradition of ‘Cyclic notions of Time’, ‘Non-linear progressions’ and ‘The Doctrine of causation leading to reincarnation’ that is unknown to Western paradigms. Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine (1966) had explained this in his books, as one of the many. There are also strong dialogues between Scientist Nikola Tesla, Herman HelmHOLTZ and Lord Kelvin and Swami Vivekananda on this, way back in 1893. Then are the works and dialogues between Tagore and Einstein (1930, Berlin) and Tagore and Heisenberg (1929, Kolkata).

In March 2022, the principle of causation is explained in light of semantics and semiotics of Indus valley seals that shows parity with knowledge systems, the Vedas or the Srutis hold. Great scholars like Arnold Toynbee, Gregory Bateson and Alice Boner have explained this.

In April 2022, the principle of Non-linear Dynamism is further explained in light of the six seasons (Sada Ritu) which the Aryan Sages used as a parable of cyclic progress in the Vedas and later, a characteristic only evident in the Indian Ecosystem and climatic spread, and not in the backdrop of western civilization or any Aryan migration from there. Scholars like Joseph Needham, Al Gore and others have supported it as well. From May – August 2022, the special features of the Aryan Civilization are disclosed, which are not evident in any Aryan Invasion Theories. Over 6 research papers and proceedings are evident in the backdrop. Works of Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell and others have reinforced this; in fact the entire Penguin Dictionary of Symbols is a living testimony of the science behind these pages.

Finally, from September – December 2022, the pages over the horrors as outcome of the Aryan Invasion Myth, as a mishandling by the West are portrayed, and especially when Heinrich Himmler had send a team to check Northern India and Tibet (1938) to trace the origin of Super Aryan race. Though the Calendar is the tip of the iceberg, it has shaken the roots of the myopic and subservient foundations of conservative pool of scholars, experts and scientist. Hence, it finally re-establishes the whole foundation of IKS on its proper roots.

The book titled ‘Complete Story of Civilization’ by Will Durant represents the Oriental Heritage of India, showing the progression of culture is from East to West & then a return to Asia is actually an extension of the Oriental Civilization, which is much older and original, with the primacy of the Indian Civilization. As Swami Vivekananda has said in the Parliament of World Religions (1893, Chicago) – “May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians, give strength to you to carry out your noble idea! The star arose in the East; it travelled steadily towards the West, sometimes dimmed and sometimes effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world; and now it is again rising on the very horizon of the East, the borders of the Sanpo (Brahmaputra river) a thousand fold more effulgent than it ever was before”.

Prof. Joy Sen, Chairman, Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge System (CoE-IKS) remarked – “Even though our nation has gained its independence 70 years back, unfortunately a large portion of the mind-set is driven by migration theories supporting the one-track arrow, the racial supremacy behind the migration evidences, and the support of genetic evidences that is forged to reinforce the arrow further. Therefore, migration-race-genetic triplet has continued to under-surface and galvanize the older Aryan Invasion theory or Myth, which has caused so much of damage to national mind-set and the solidarity of Indian culture and heritage, which is a few thousand years older to that of the West.”

IIT Kharagpur congratulates Prof. Joy Sen, Chairman, Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge System (CoE-IKS) and his entire team for bearing the torch of enlightenment discarding the idea of Indo-Aryan diaspora. The emergence of a fresh tide of more holistic and interdisciplinary scholarship and the paradigm expansion of human thought based on the Indian ethos have just been re-initiated.

Content Writer:- Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer) under the guidance of Prof. Joy Sen, Chairperson, Centre of Excellence-Indian Knowledge System (CoE-IKS)

Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

The 14th Webinar of “Saturday Manufacturing Talk” was conducted @IIT Kharagpur

Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology (CoEAMT) at IIT Kharagpur has conducted the 14th webinar of “Saturday Manufacturing Talks” on 12th  June 2021. The session was commenced with an introductory remarks by Prof Surjya K Pal, Chairperson, CoEAMT. Director of IIT Kharagpur, Prof V K Tewari has stressed on the importance of the event to the audience with his insightful speech on the “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – a celebration to commemorate completion of 75 years of India’s Independence”. He has also welcomed the small and medium industries and start-ups for collaborative works utilizing the state-of-the art facilities of this Centre.

Mr Bhaskar Majumdar, Founder and Managing Partner of Unicorn India Ventures has delivered an excellent lecture at this webinar on “How to create successful manufacturing based start-ups in India?”. His presentation on the evolution of manufacturing based start-ups in India, current scenario and the need of a strong eco-system was very interesting. At the end of the talk, the attendees shared queries, opinions and suggestions about the upbringing of growing start-ups and their sustainability. This weekly mega webinar series, started on March 13 2021, has been made open to all interested participants across the globe since its inception. All the webinars are being recorded.

 

Contact: Prof Surjya K Pal, Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya Chair Professor in Manufacturing
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Chairperson, Centre of Excellence in Adv Manufacturing Tech
Associate Dean, Alumni Affairs & Branding
Professor-in-Charge, Metrology Lab & FSW Lab

Email: adeanaa@adm.iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282019

Who needs quantum gravity?

By Sandipan Sengupta, Dept of Physics, IIT Kharagpur

Nature is made up of elementary particles, the interactions among them being manifested as forces of various kinds. A modern language to describe these phenomena is provided by quantum field theory, which is based on a set of relativistic fields. Within this framework, particles typically emerge as excitations over a (quantum) ground state, and macroscopic forces arise due to the exchange of particles. For instance, for the all so well-known case of the electromagnetic force, the associated particle is the photon, whose exchange between a source and a sink leads to their apparent ‘feeling’ of mutual attraction or repulsion. The photon in turn could be described by some of the components of a four-vector field in spacetime. To emphasize, the properties of this quantum field and hence the dynamics of photon are studied on a fixed spacetime (flat or curved), which has no role other than providing the background stage for these fields to thrive. This is an acceptable description, since gravity is the weakest of all the fundamental interactions, and may be treated as a passive(non-quantum) spectator, unlike the other interactions which are the main actors and are to be perceived as genuinely quantum.

However, if we need to primarily deal with gravity, then it is reasonable to demand that the same framework based on quantum fields should account for gravitational interactions as well. The gravitational attraction or repulsion then must emerge as a result of the exchange of particles similar to the photon. Einstein’s theory tells us that classically, gravity is essentially the manifestation of a nontrivial curvature of spacetime geometry. This necessarily means that in a quantum field theory of gravity, spacetime itself cannot be treated as an inert object as in the earlier case. Rather, it must be composed of a fluctuating quantum field on the top of a fixed spacetime. This implies a quantum spacetime that is dynamical as a whole and is not the nonchalant backdrop anymore. The fluctuating field is the graviton, the precise analog of a photon. With this realization, quantum field theory could provide a universal framework applicable to all the fundamental interactions in nature.

However, as it turns out, there are conceptual as well as technical difficulties in doing this, and that is the reason why quantization of gravity continues to be an open yet captivating problem. This picture with a graviton leads to infinities in physical quantities in a way that is beyond any control. In technical parlance, this is known as the ‘non-renormalizability’ of quantum general relativity.

It is still possible though that invoking a graviton might not be the only way to think about quantum gravity. Are there a better set of fields for classical gravity whose quantization might give a better result? Or is it that the standard formulation of quantum fields is not suited for gravity, because spacetime itself fluctuates, unlike the standard case where matter fluctuates on a fixed spacetime? We do know that quantum mechanics is developed around calculable answers to questions such as what is the probalibility amplitude for a particle to go from one spatial point to another between some initial and final time. However, such a question could be meaningless in quantum gravity, where time itself must emerge as a part of the dynamical quantum spacetime and the initial or final instant might not have a unique meaning.

Questions such as above are what have essentially been driving some of the past and current research in quantum gravity. Moreover, the fact that classical general relativity predicts singular solutions such as black holes adds to this spirit that what we need is a more general edifice, very likely to be provided by a nice and healthy quantum theory of gravity. The rebel of course could take another extreme but somewhat philosophical viewpoint, and simply assert that one need not quantize gravity at all because it seems all too difficult an endeavour. However, one must then ask why gravity should be so special in defying an interpretation in terms of a mediator particle in the quantum theory, whereas all other fundamental interactions do seem to embrace such a description. A better question could be, how to provide a mathematical formulation of a ground state and the excitation quanta of spacetime geometry, other than the one based on a graviton. Intrigued explorers, hence, might not be enthused by any of the idler’s charms, and could just prefer to coast along and keep digging for fresh ideas and techniques which might hold the key to deeper insights.

Citations/References:
1. Claus Kiefer, ‘Quantum Gravity’, International Series of Monographs on Physics, Third Edition (2012), Oxford, UK: Clarendon.

2. Hermann Nicolai, Kasper Peeters and Marija Zamaklar, ‘Loop quantum gravity: An Outside view’, Class.Quant.Grav. 22 (2005) R193 [e-Print: hep-th/0501114].

Graphic: Suman Sutradhar

Author Bio:
Sandipan Sengupta, is currently a faculty at the Dept of Physics, IIT Kharagpur. His broad area of research is classical and quantum gravity. In particular, some of his active interests include Extra dimensions, Cosmology, Hamiltonian quantization of gravity, Dark matter physics etc. He had obtained his Ph.D. at the IMSc, Chennai in 2012. Before joining his current position in 2016, he has served as an Assistant Professor of Physics at IIT Gandhinagar. He was awarded the `V.V. Narlikar Best Thesis Award’ in 2013 and the `N.R. Sen Young Researcher Award’ in 2015 by the IAGRG. He was also the recipient of the ECR award grant (2017-2020) funded by SERB, DST.

Saturday Manufacturing Talks by CoE in Advanced Manufacturing Technology

The Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology of IIT Kharagpur is conducting a mega event titled “SATURDAY MANUFACTURING TALKS”.

Join Online Every Saturday, from 8:30 to 9:30 pm IST
https://iitkharagpur.webex.com/iitkharagpur/j.php?MTID=m00ba321c9f62cf6aeb29a33edab1b210

It is planned to be a year-long series of webinars on topics of advanced manufacturing. It will stress the need for an industry-academia collaboration perspective.

The topics include but not limited to :
– Robotics, Automation, and Use of AI and ML in manufacturing
– Simulation in manufacturing
– Specialty materials in manufacturing
– Additive manufacturing
– AI in Supply Chain
– Design of Experiments in engineering

Watch Video for insights of Industry 4.0 related work at Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology, IIT Kharagpur

A few highlights of the event are as follows:
– Webinars will be delivered by both academicians and industry professionals – this will help in broadening the reach and outlook
– Speakers would be Alumni of IIT Kharagpur in academics and industry (India and Abroad) – this will help in understanding the research being conducted globally on advanced manufacturing

For more information please visit: https://www.coeamt.com/index.php or write to coeamt@iitkgp.ac.in

Insights into Blockchain by Dr. Sandip Chakraborty

The term “Blockchain” has now become a buzzword, and several myths, propagandas, misconceptions, and fairy tales have been around throughout the past ten years concerning this new yet powerful technology. Let me start by highlighting the real power of this technology and its plausible use cases. 

Blockchain ≠ Bitcoin!

If we consider Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the “Electric bulbs,” Blockchain is the “Electricity.” Let me try to explain it with an example. 

Trade financing during international trades involves prolonged negotiations and risks with complex legal obligations. Consequently, such tradings are facilitated by the banks as the intermediaries, who provide the financing for the trade deals and guarantee the payments after verification of supply documents. While this involves a network of banks, individual banks have their policies, and they are the competitors in the market. How can we create a digitized platform where the banks can cooperate in a reliable, transparent, and secured manner for trade financing? 

A global database with all transaction information can solve this, but then, who will maintain it? Individual banks can’t, as they are the competitors; a third-party cloud will involve cost and has privacy concerns. Blockchain solves this; you do not need a global physical database to store and update all the transactions; instead, each bank holds its own copy of the database and performs operations individually and independently. Blockchain helps maintain the consistency, correctness, and security of the data in that database and provides the competing enterprises the power to cooperate to deliver fast, transparent, and reliable services to their customers. You may check We.Trade (https://we-trade.com/), which is a blockchain-based network of 16 banks across 15 countries, for supporting trade-financing. 

Blockchain in India:

Very recently (January 2021), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY), Government of India has published the first draft of the “National Strategy on Blockchain.” The document highlights 17 potential applications that are of national interest; these include property record management, digital certificate management, eVoting, pharmaceutical supply chain, farm infrastructure, power distribution, identity management, electronic health record management, public service delivery, etc.  

Interestingly, if we look into these applications, inherently, they are multifaceted, having several stakeholders with different governance and policy implications. There are national and state-controlled organizations for many of these services, and bringing them on a common digitized platform is the real challenge. Blockchain can undoubtedly improve the service provisioning performance of these sectors and bring transparency to the entire process. However, this multifaceted and diverse governance is both our strength and our weakness. While we have a vast scope of getting the technology-in-the-loop, the diversity itself slows down its adoption.

Blockchain@SMRL, IIT Kharagpur

At the Systems and Mobile Research Lab (SMRL) within the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, one of our primary research focuses is on supporting interoperability among multiple blockchain networks, like Hyperledger, Corda, Ripple, Quorum, OpenChain, Steller, etc., which are being adopted by various enterprises globally. These individual networks typically work in silos, but, many a time, there is a strong need for interoperation among them. For example, in my earlier example of trade financing, the seller can use TradeLens (https://www.tradelens.com/), a blockchain network for trade logistics, to deliver the Goods to the buyer. In this case, the system becomes more performant if we can readily transfer the logistics details and its billing from the TradeLens network to the We.Trade network. However, freely moving sensitive information from one network to another breaks the basic principles of transparency, security, and reliability, as supported by Blockchain. At our lab, we are working towards developing such interoperation solutions in collaboration with IBM Research. We shall present this work at IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (IEEE ICBC) which will be held virtually from 3-6 May, 2021.  

We are also working on developing blockchain-based applications in our lab. One of our recently accepted papers at IEEE INFOCOM 2021 talks about the design and prototype implementation of a multi-cloud federated architecture where different small and medium cloud service providers can use a blockchain-based open marketplace to trade cloud resources. The architecture is similar to popular cloud federation platforms like OnApp Federation (https://onapp.com/onapp-federation/), but it does not use intermediaries or cloud brokers. 

Given the widespread applicability of blockchains, we should now focus on bringing blockchain-related courses into the mainstream education of Computer Science and other departments. Earlier, I had offered an NPTEL MOOC course jointly with Dr. Praveen Jayachandran, IBM IRL, on “Blockchains: Architecture, Design, and Use Cases.” We are now working on designing a similar course as a postgraduate elective for IIT Kharagpur students. There is also scope for developing a micro-specialization on Blockchain and its use cases by combining this technology’s interdisciplinary aspects from various fronts. 

The Future

The enterprises have slowly started adopting blockchain-based solutions to develop reliable, cost-effective, and secure solutions for providing fast, transparent, and efficient services to their customers. The Government has started developing the policies for its adoption in the Indian markets. With this backdrop, I see the massive potential of this technology in the coming future. However, I do not believe that Blockchain can solve all our problems; we need to find out the right use-case with the right technology at the right place. The Indian academia should play a significant role here, while the industries and the Government focus on system development, adoption, and policy decisions.   

The article was also published on ABP Education

Dr. Sandip Chakraborty is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kharagpur, where he leads multiple high-valued research projects, sponsored by the GoI and various industries. He is working as an Area Editor of Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks journal. He received various awards including INAE Young Engineers’ Award 2019. His research interests are Computer Systems, Computer-Human Interactions, and Distributed Systems. He did his Ph.D. from IIT Guwahati in 2014. 

Using Air to Store Energy

Authored by Dr. Rohan Dutta (Former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cryogenic Engineering Centre) and Dr. Pavitra Sandilya, Assistant Professor, Cryogenic Engineering Centre

Highlights of the Research

  • Potential application: Large-scale energy storage system throughout the world. With its demonstrated efficiency as high as 55% to 90%, this invention is a potential alternative to existing systems including compressed air energy storage and similar technologies.

  • Possible end users: Various power generation and distribution agencies, large energy-intensive industries (iron and steel, cement, chemical, petrochemical, LNG handling, glass etc.) with the potential of low and medium grade waste heat.

  • Potential of marketability: Large; considering the growth of demand for large, grid-scale energy storage systems due to penetration of renewable energy sources in the power market.

With an ever-increasing population and the economy, the gap between power demand and generation is also increasing worldwide. The power sector has to bridge this gap. One way of tackling such a situation is by developing large-scale energy storage systems. These systems store the excess energy when the power supply is in excess of demand. The stored energy is then released when the demand for power increases.

Cryogenic Energy Storage (CES) system is one of the alternatives for energy storage.

Compared to the more common energy storage technologies like pumped-hydro, compressed air energy storage systems, the CSE system offers advantages because it is scalable, not location-specific, clean, and sustainable with virtually no cost for working fluid (air) and no greenhouse gas emission.

A typical CES process involves two alternately operated charging and discharging processes. In the charging process or a liquefaction process, the air is liquefied by using the excess power to compress the ambient air to high pressure of about 120-150 bar and stored. During the discharging process or a power cycle, the stored energy is released during the deficit period of power by first regasifying the liquefied air to high pressure (about 150 bar), and then expanding this compressed air to run a turbine for power generation.

Hitachi, a Japanese multinational conglomerate, developed and demonstrated similar versions of the CES system using air. However, the energy storage efficiencies of these systems were not comparable with those of the prevalent energy storage technologies. In 2006, UK-based company HighView Power® started developing a modular liquid air energy storage system that was scalable to gigawatts-hr of energy storage and could be taken to the customer site. Using the equipment available in the conventional power, and oil and gas industries, they obtained a significant increase in the turnaround efficiency (ratio of energy output to energy input).

Through our work, we demonstrated that the turnaround efficiency of the CES system would get enhanced by:

  1. Using the heat of compression during the liquefaction process in an Organic Rankine Cycle to produce power during the discharging process
  2. Pre-cooling the working fluid using traditional room temperature closed-cycle refrigerator during liquefaction
  3. Introducing multistage turbines with intermediate heating and an appropriate combination of turbine and valve at the last stage of liquefaction
  4. Heat integration between liquefaction and power cycles by using waste heat from the liquefaction stage as well from industries, and cooling using the waste-cold from the power cycle as well as external sources such as LNG regasification plants, etc.

A prototype of a packed-bed-based waste-cold storage method using commonly found and cheaply available pebbles has been developed at a laboratory scale. This was found to be the most critical to the successful implementation of the process modifications as observed in the study of operability of the modified process by process simulation.

A plant with the afore-mentioned modifications was shown to have not only higher overall turnaround efficiency, but also a lower payback period than a plant not using waste heat and refrigeration.

A patent has been filed already.

Cite Paper: 

1. Dutta, Rohan and Sandilya, Pavitra, Experimental Investigations on the Cold Recovery-Efficiency of a Packed-bed in a Cryogenic Energy Storage System, CEC-ICMC 2019, Connecticut Convention Centre, Hartford, USA, 21-25 July 2019. https://www.academia.edu/43848430/Experimental_Investigations_on_the_Cold_Recovery_Efficiency_of_a_Packed_bed_in_a_Cryogenic_Energy_Storage_System

2. Dutta, Rohan and Sandilya, Pavitra, Improvement Potential of Cryogenic Energy Storage Systems by Process Modifications and Heat Integration, Energy, 221, April 2021, 119841 DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2021.119841

Promotion of Micro-irrigation installation for improving horticultural production

By Prof. K N Tiwari, Dept. of Agricultural and Food Engineering, IIT Kharagpur

Adoption of micro-irrigation system in the country rose from a meagre 1500 hectares in the 1980s to nearly 86.21 lakh hectares in 2016, yet the technology adoption is confined only to 18 States and the area is negligibly small in most of the eastern and North Eastern States. Presently, this technology is in vogue only for very few crops. Among the horticultural crops, drip technology is adopted mostly, in fruits with a penetration of 34%. This is followed by vegetables (14%), plantation crops (13%), coconut (12%). citrus (10%), spices (8%), and all other crops individually contribute to less than 10 percent of the area under the drip. There is a need to expand the technology to many other fruits, vegetables, and cash crops.

Precision Farming Development Centre (PFDC), IIT Kharagpur, has carried out in-depth laboratory and field research experiments, hardware, and software developments on various aspects of micro-irrigation technology. PFDC conducted several experimental trials on water and nutrients requirements of vegetable crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, okra, lettuce, capsicum, tomato, baby corn, brinjal, onion, and cucumber), fruit crops (banana, sapota, guava, litchi, mango, pineapple, cashew, and strawberry), and flower crops (Dutch rose, chrysanthemum, and gerbera) under a micro-irrigation system. The Centre also developed the package of practices (PoP) for 23 crops. PFDC developed the automated micro-irrigation system and soil moisture sensing system. PFDC also conducted crop experiments to standardize crop water and fertilizer requirement of flower and vegetable crops grown inside the greenhouse. Standardized technologies were demonstrated in PFDC experimental farms as well as in farmers’ fields.

Fig. 1. Experimental crops under micro-irrigation system at PFDC experimental farm, Agricultural & Food Engg Dept. IIT Kharagpur

While considering the fact that the large numbers of farmers of West Bengal are small landholding farmers (< 2 acres), the PFDC developed a small-scale micro-irrigation system to promote the system. Overhead tank drip irrigation system designed and the pedal-operated pump and nano solar pump were introduced in place of the power-operated pump to lift the water to the overhead tank. Adjustable flow emitters were developed to control and vary the drip discharge according to the requirement of plants. Dual components drippers and single component drippers were designed and developed, which reduces the requirement of plastic material and also the cost of emitters. Sweat irrigation technology was also developed to reduce the cost of drip laterals and emitters.

The experimental findings and developed technologies were transferred to farmers’ and other stakeholders through workshops, short term training courses. More than eleven thousand farmers, Officials from the Govt and Non-Government organizations were trained through two hundred sixty-six training programs, workshops and mass awareness camps. The training programs were conducted to disseminate knowledge about the benefits of micro-irrigation techniques. Farmers were also trained on the micro-irrigation components, design, layout, installation, maintenance and repair of micro-irrigation system and components, etc.

Fig 2. Transfer of developed technologies among various stakeholders (Seeing is believing)

PFDC demonstrated and provided technical support to farmers’ fields of different districts of West Bengal to promote MI technology. Including demonstration, Field visits and surveys were conducted at regular intervals to know the issues on the implementation of MI technologies on horticultural crops in different parts of West Bengal.

Fig 3. Demonstration of micro-irrigation system installed in farmers’ field

Groundwater Insights from Hydrogeoscience Expert Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee

Dr. Abhijit Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Dept. of Geology & Geophysics and School of Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur and globally renowned expert in groundwater shares insights on his decadal work exploring suitable and sustainable drinking water sources in different parts of India and other parts of the world. Prof. Mukherjee has recently been awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and named in a special publication of 50 under 50 by the Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.

1. Please share your observations about changes in the groundwater scenario in India over the last three decades. 

Much of the Indian states are undergoing severe groundwater storage depletion primarily due to ever-increasing population, cultivation of water-intensive crops (e.g. high yield boro rice), cropping pattern changes (e.g. food crop replacement by cash crop). Parts of the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and West Bengal have all recorded >4 m groundwater decline during the last decade.

In situ and satellite-based groundwater resource trends and estimates show concomitant, synchronous, unequal changes of groundwater water storage (GWS) and level (GWL) between 1996 and 2014 across the country. While parts of the Indus-Ganges Brahmaputra (IGB) river basin aquifers mostly suggest declining groundwater storage, several parts of southern and western India show rejuvenating trends. The GWS changes, calculated as anomaly demonstrates strong spatio-temporal variability in the study region. 

Following earlier observations of several workers for earlier periods, observed data shows that GWS (1996-2017) of eastern and northern zones are undergoing a rapid decline, at a rate of 3.59±0.14 km3/year and 4.55±0.11 km3/year, respectively. Similarly, satellite-based estimates (2002-2016) also indicate rapid depletion in eastern and northern zones at a rate of -1.16±0.35 and -1.40±0.14 and cm/year (-14.02±1.37 and 14.49±4.36 km3/year), respectively. On the contrary, the observed GWS estimates suggest rejuvenation of GWS in southern and western parts of the country at the rates of 0.31±0.02 km3/year and 1.06±0.03 km3/year. Comparison of in-situ groundwater level fluctuation of the decadal mean (2001 to 2010) to 2011 by the Central Ground Water Board, Government of India, in general, suggests groundwater depletion in northwestern, northern, and eastern India, and replenishment in western and southern India across the hydrological year. In more than half of the measured observation wells, there has been a decline of ≥ 1m/year of groundwater level trends for pre-monsoon seasons from 2007 to 2012.

On the other hand, conducive, geogenic sources and processes result in pervasive, natural groundwater contaminants (e.g. Arsenic, Fluoride etc.) across the country, posing severe health risks for millions of Indians. The extent and severity of arsenic pollution in the groundwater of the lower Gangetic basin covering major parts of West Bengal (and neighboring areas of Bangladesh), Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is known to be the largest mass poisoning in human history. Recent discoveries showed the presence of high arsenic groundwater in major portions of the Brahmaputra basin in north-eastern India. Additionally, the indiscriminate introduction of human-sourced emerging pollutants (e.g. Pesticides, Poly-aromatic Hydrocarbons, Antibiotics etc.) and improper sanitation practices leading to fecal coliform pollution result in further quality deterioration. 

2. What are the advancements in your work during your decade’s association with IIT Kharagpur?

In 2010, when I returned to India, I felt the need to develop the next generation hydrogeoscientists of the country to augment the work being done by Govt. ministries and departments on groundwater. Today we have 25 researchers working on varied topics, ranging from groundwater quantification using NASA missions, urban geosciences of Varanasi (in collaboration with the British Geological Survey), groundwater-sea interactions, application of AI and big data analytics, organic pollution of groundwater etc. 

Our recent work on groundwater quantity variation across India, specifically on recent groundwater rejuvenation in parts of the country, as a consequence of government policy interventions, has attracted global acclamation and media coverage. This research provided unprecedented support to the Government of India missions in evaluating outcomes of missions like MNREGA on groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India. This work is believed to be one of the influential factors in the initiation of the Jal Shakti mission for groundwater rejuvenation programs across India. The work was also highlighted as the Image of the Day (September 22, 2017) on the NASA website. Also, our recent studies on the drying and pollution of the Ganga river have initiated an in-depth evaluation of the river and its flow by the Namami Gange mission. Also, the study of sanitation-sourced groundwater fecal pollution to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has been instrumental in evaluating the efficiency of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

3. Your projects involve substantial satellite data from NASA. How did it influence your work and impacted the research outcome especially in comparison to those which are primarily based on water statistics collected on ground and secondary data from various published reports including govt. reports?

We have been working with the NASA Hydrology team for almost the last 8 years. Dr. Matt Rodell, Associate Deputy Director of Earth Sciences (https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/matthew.rodell) is our primary collaborator. The primary NASA mission that we work on is the GRACE mission. We worked on validating the satellite observations with groundwater level measurements of the erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources. We started by working on ~20,000 data locations across the country, however, found that only ~3500 locations could withstand the quality check. These ~3500 wells corroborated well with the NASA satellite data (mostly 70% or more matches). So, with proper quality checks, the government and statistics are found to be quite useful for our study. 

4. Which regions in India have been covered in your research projects? What are the region-wise key challenges in groundwater you have observed?

While our field-work based studies are more local, our data analytics and satellite-based studies are mostly India-scale.  Among our regional-scale studies, our group’s work on geological and human influences on groundwater pollution in the Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra river basins has attracted wide attention. We work in field sites on groundwater pollutants studies all across the Ganges river basin in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (up to Varanasi). In the Indus basin, we are working in the Kashmir valley and Ladakh-Kargil-Dras areas. In the Brahmaputra basin, our work is mostly confined to different parts of Assam. We also worked on groundwater-sea interactions in coastal areas of eastern India (Odisha) and the UNESCO World Heritage biological reserve in the Sunderban delta, adjoining the Bay of Bengal.

High concentrations of groundwater fluoride (F) have also been observed, mostly in the crystalline aquifers in parts of 19 states. It is reported that >66 million people in India are exposed to high concentrations of fluoride in groundwater. Arsenic (As) contamination of groundwater, has exposed >90 million inhabitants just in the Bengal Basin.

Industrial and Agricultural pollution is generally increasing and can get transported to the groundwater systems, albeit locally, eventually ending up in the drinking water sources.  These effluents contain a wide range of chemical and biological contaminants (e.g. Persistent Organic Pollutants [PoPs], Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), Antibiotics) that are extremely toxic. Our studies from Murshidabad to the Sunderbans in West Bengal identified all of these aforesaid human-sourced pollutants both in groundwater and Bhagirathi-Hoogly river water.

5. Please share the policy recommendations involved in your research to rejuvenate the groundwater situation in India, especially in the context of Jal Jeevan Mission, Ministry of Jal Shakti and other govt. bodies.

Unregulated abstraction for enhanced irrigation of water-intensive cultivation, a recent paradigm shift in Indian central/state government policies on groundwater withdrawal and management strategies for sustainable water utilization are starting to demonstrate its results. Potentially, such groundwater rejuvenation is linked with a reduction in irrigation-linked groundwater withdrawal, change in agricultural practice, increasing artificial recharge, surface water irrigation increase, etc. 

Hence, the results of our recent studies illustrate scenarios, where under conducive groundwater management policies, India can transform from “groundwater scarce” to “groundwater sufficient”. These observations, when highlighted in the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries of Government of India in 2017, received a lot of commendation. This research provided unprecedented support to the Government of India missions in evaluating outcomes of missions like MNREGA on groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India. This work is believed to be one of the influential factors in the formulation of the Jal Shakti Mission.

6. In your book ‘Global Groundwater: Source, Scarcity, Sustainability, Security, and Solutions‘, the global situation of groundwater has been presented. Which regions are comparable to the situation in India? Have there been remedial measures in those regions?

Several of the major global aquifers, specifically the ones in arid and semi-arid zones that rely largely on groundwater, are undergoing a rapid decline in groundwater storage volumes to non-renewable levels. These include the Canning basin of Australia, the Guarani aquifers of South America, High Plain and Central Valley aquifers of the USA, Northern Sahara and Nubian Aquifers of Africa, North China Plain, most of the Middle East Aquifers in the Persian Peninsula, the North China Plains and the Northwestern parts of India. However, in present times, even, the traditionally, water-affluent regions, numerous countries from Asia to the Americas, are facing an acute shortage of usable waters, as they are witnessing a rapid rise in population, urbanization, and change in societal water use, cropping patterns along with lifestyle changes.  

The groundwater abstraction only in a few of the countries (e.g. India, China, USA, Pakistan and Iran) aggregates to about 65% of the global groundwater abstraction. India is presently the largest consumer of groundwater and one of the top exporters of groundwater through food trade. The abstracted volume is larger than the sum of the total groundwater abstraction of the United States and China, the second and third highest groundwater user countries, respectively. Further, our recent studies have demonstrated that these rapid groundwater exploitation and overdraft have also significantly impacted the environmental flow by reduction of baseflow to the adjoining rivers, resulting in even seasonal drying of the some largest riverine systems (e.g. the Ganges river).

7. What are the global policies explored by you and your collaborators to address this region in India and other regions of the world? Do you think new-age technologies would be able to put forward the much-needed solutions? Please elaborate.

As the groundwater demand and accompanying stress is increasing with agriculture, industry and domestic needs, sustainability through governance and management is not alone sufficient to attain security. In more recent times, the emergence of advanced observational e.g. GRACE mission and numerical techniques, e.g. application of AI, have resulted in better and broader estimates and predictions of the global groundwater extent, and thus identifies the problem target areas. In all these cases levers and pathways of solution interventions are required to secure and sometimes, rejuvenate the groundwater reservoirs. Some of these primary levers are outlined below:

a) Enhancing irrigation: In several parts of the world that generate a large part of the global food need, farmers are still using traditional water-intensive irrigation methods, which have barely evolved in the last few centuries to millennia. But in reality, much of the crops need only a fraction of the groundwater than that of the flood irrigation. 

b) Groundwater Rejuvenation: Groundwater replenishment at a local to regional-scale can be achieved by the scientific application of a suite of technologies that can increase groundwater recharge and increase storage according to the local hydrogeological architecture. 

c) Desalination: A large volume of the global groundwater, as well as the ocean water, are of non-usable quality due to higher concentrations of total dissolved solids. The emergence of technologies is showing promise to sustainably desalinate these saline water. 

About Prof. Mukherjee: With his specialization in regional hydrogeology and groundwater contaminant transport, he is engaged in understanding decadal-scale groundwater storage changes over the Indian subcontinent, groundwater-seawater interaction at coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal, and groundwater quality evolution of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin. He has also initiated a project on the application of artificial intelligence techniques in predicting future groundwater availability in different parts of India. Know More

Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee can be contacted at abhijit@gg.iitkgp.ac.in

Novel coronavirus – Insights by Prof. Arindam Mondal

COVID-19 infections in India are nearing 15000 cases while claiming more than 100000 lives globally. Coronaviruses are a virus family causing various diseases, ranging from common cold to those like SARS and MERS which can have a high fatality rate. The novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic is a new strain and has been named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 abbreviated as 19-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2.

Dr. Arindam Mondal, Assistant Professor at IIT Kharagpur’s School of Bioscience speaks with The Kgp Chronicle regarding frequently asked questions about novel coronavirus. Dr. Mondal leads the Molecular Virology Laboratory in the School of Bioscience where they study human RNA virus replication and host pathogen interaction on molecular detail to develop novel strategies for therapeutic or prophylactic measures. Currently, his lab focuses upon influenza viruses as a model that causes mild to severe respiratory illness.

1) What is novel coronavirus?

Corona viruses are relatively large viruses ranging from 80-200nm in diameter and having RNA as their genetic material. The outer surface of these viruses contain three surface proteins, namely spike protein (S), membrane protein (M) and Envelope protein (E), while the inner core is constituted of the long genomic RNA enwrapped with multiple copies of viral Nucleoprotein (N). Under the electron microscope, virus particles with spike proteins projecting outwards  form a crown-like appearance, leading to its name Corona (corona in Latin is crown). Recently, during December 2019 several cases of pneumonia like illness with unknown cause was reported from the Wuhan province of China. Later it was found that the disease is caused by a virus belonging to the coronavirus family (Coronaviridae). As this specific type of coronavirus has never been found to infect humans, named as novel coronavirus. 

2) How common are coronaviruses in causing epidemic in the human history?

Human infecting coronaviruses have been known since the 1960s. Coronaviruses like HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-HKU1 cause common cold, mild respiratory infections and flu-like illness. First epidemic outbreak of coronavirus was reported  during 2002-2003 caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV). The epidemic originated from the Guangdong Province of China and speeded across 26 countries causing approximately 8000 infections. Subsequently another Coronavirus was reported causing severe respiratory infections in Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Middle east during 2012, named as Middle eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus or MERS-CoV. For COVID-19, initial cases of “pneumonia of unknown cause” were reported to WHO on December 31st , 2019, from Wuhan in the central Hubei province of China. On January 30th , 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak to be a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” and recognized it as a pandemic on March 11th , 2020.

3) How is 19-nCoV different from SARS, Ebola, bird and swine flu etc.?

All of these viruses have drawn public attention due to pandemic or epidemics caused in the recent past, such as the 1918 Spanish flu, the 2009 Swine Flu, the 2014 West African Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic and the 2003 SARS epidemic. While bird and swine flu were caused by different subtypes of influenza viruses, Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever. The novel coronavirus, recently identified to have been originated from Wuhan province of China, is closely related to the SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) that caused the 2002-2003 epidemic, and has thus been alternatively designated as SARS-CoV2. Like the SARS-CoV that originated from bats and got transmitted to humans via an intermediate mammalian host (civets), the SARS-CoV2 seems to have jumped host species from bats to humans, although the existence or identity of the intermediate host is yet to be elucidated. Recent reports have identified pangolins as the possible intermediate host.

The SARS-CoV-2 strain is similar to the 2009 Swine Flu virus (Influenza A- H1N1) or the seasonal flu virus only in a few aspects, such as transmission via close contact, bodily secretions, respiratory droplets during coughing, sneezing or talking, and fomites and the general symptoms similar to common cold like fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, sore throat, runny nose, a typical dry cough. Early evidence shows that although it is more contagious than the seasonal flu or the Ebola Virus or SARS-CoV that caused epidemics, it is less deadly. While SARS-CoV-2 has a variable case fatality rate of 2% depending on age, geographic location, extent and criteria for testing, the Ebola virus and the SARS-CoV has case fatality rates of 40% and 10% respectively. Several infected individuals developing only mild symptoms or even being asymptomatic at times. Also, the major target age groups for the 2009 swine flu were children between 5 and 20 years of age, for the COVID-19 it is mostly older individuals above 60 years of age and immunocompromised people or people with other complications such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension or diabetes, much like the SARS-CoV.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-deadly-is-the-coronavirus-compared-to-past-outbreaks

4) What is the activity cycle of the novel coronavirus?

Coronavirus life cycle initiates with the interaction of surface spike proteins with the receptors on host cells. The spike protein of novel SARS-Coronavirus-2  recognizes host ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2). The spike protein of this virus has significant similarity with two coronavirus strains that infects bats. Hence, it is assumed that the current strain of the novel coronavirus got adapted to infect humans through adaptation in its spike protein. Usually, these kind of novel viral strains, as they are unknown to the humans immune system, may cause severe infection, as happening currently.

Interaction of viral spike protein with the host cell receptors leads to entry of the novel coronavirus into the host cell, followed by uncoating of the outer envelope to release of viral genomic RNA. The viral RNA then utilizes host machinery to synthesize viral proteins. Some of these newly synthesized viral proteins (RNA polymerase/ replicase) then carry out genome replication to produce more copies of progeny viral genomes. Another set of viral proteins then assembles with these progeny viral genomes to generate a large number of progeny virion particles. 

5) For how long can this virus remain active on an inorganic surface?

According to recent reports, the new COVID-19 coronavirus can remain stable in aerosols and on various surfaces for several hours, indicating plausibility of aerosol and fomite-borne transmissions. The SARS-CoV2 can remain viable in aerosols for up to 3 hours, up to 4 hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and for the longest duration of up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel, although its infectivity reduces with time. This further highlights the importance of frequent hand sanitization and not touching the face or mouth after touching surfaces.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?articleTools=true

6) Social media is buzzing with the news that the virus would weaken with rise in temperature? Is there any scientific truth in this statement?

In 2002-03 during the SARS epidemic, it was observed that rising temperature and relative humidity did affect the spread of the virus by rapidly declining its viability. In case of COVID-19 pandemic, it has been observed that the virus spread is more rampant in regions of lower temperature (5-11°C) and moderate humidity (50-70%). Experts also noted that the duration of sunlight, which determines the duration of UV exposure to the virus, could be a determining factor as it is UV-sensitive. Some studies under review also suggest, laboratory grown strains of 19-nCoV could be sensitive to extreme heat, but that will not suffice to explain its expected behavior in a pandemic setting, influenced by unpredictable human factors. However the jury is still out on whether the temperature rise and monsoon will be able to significantly subdue the outbreak.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/health-wellness/higher-temperatures-affect-survival-of-new-coronavirus-pathologist-says/700800

7) Recently India has been getting orders for hydroxychloroquine by countries severely affected by the virus. Is it the ultimate antiviral remedy for novel coronavirus?

Several antivirals have been identified that could combat the virus by interfering with different stages of the viral life cycle, for example, uncoating inhibitors chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, replication inhibitor Remdesvir, RNA polymerase inhibitor Favipiravir and so on. Although, specific mechanisms of these antiviral drugs are still under investigation.

Dr Arindam Mondal’s group in collaboration with Prof. Suman Chakraborty’s laboratory at the Mechanical Engineering Department, IIT KGP, is currently trying to develop of a paper-strip kit for rapid low-cost diagnostics of COVID-19 infection. This is a portable rapid diagnostic kit, which in combination with a smartphone app, can be deployed at community level in order to carry out extensive detections for the SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID19.

Prof. Arindam Mondal can be reached at arindam.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in.