Dalai Lama expresses solidarity with Assam flood victims

Guwahati, July 17: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama expresses solidarity with Assam flood victims and has written to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal expressing his sadness at the loss of lives and damage properties in the devastating flood in Assam.

The Dalai Lama also expressed his solidarity with the victims of the floods in the state.

“The monsoon rains in Assam and other parts of India bring destruction and great suffering to people year after year. Unfortunately, this year the situation has been made even more troublesome by the continuing Coronavirus pandemic. I am writing to you today to express my sadness at the loss of life and devastation of property, as well as the tremendous hardship caused to so many due to flooding in many parts of your state. I appreciate that the State Government is doing everything it can to rescue those affected and that relief efforts are underway. As a gesture of solidarity with the people of Assam, I am making a donation from the Dalai Lama Trust towards relief and rescue efforts,” the Dalai Lama said.

76 people have lost their lives in the devastating flood in Assam so far and nearly 40 lakh people are affected.

On the other hand, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal expressed gratitude to spiritual guru for his kind gesture of solidarity and support to the flood-affected people of Assam, which was shared by His Holiness in a tweet.

In a statement, the Assam Chief Minister said that – “On behalf of the people of Assam, my heartfelt thanks to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama for his blessings and kind gesture of solidarity & support to all affected by floods in Assam.”

IIT Guwahati researchers produce biofuel from non-edible waste seeds

Guwahati, July 16: Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT ) Guwahati researchers have developed methods to produce biofuels from non-edible seeds.

There have been worldwide attempts to produce fuel from renewable biological resources to overcome future oil shortages in the world.

Currently, ‘biofuels’ are successfully made from vegetable oils and animal fats. In USA and Europe, for example, surplus edible oils like soybean oil and sunflower oil are being used for the production of biodiesel. The conversion of food resources to fuel compromises the global supply-demand of food, especially in developing countries with existing nutritional deficiencies.

The team is led by Dr Kaustubha Mohanty, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati. Results of the team’s research have been published recently in high-impact journals such as Bioresource Technology, Fuel, Renewable Energy, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, Journal of the Energy Institute and Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery. Dr Mohanty leads the team comprising research students, Dr Ranjeet Kumar Mishra, Dr Krushna P. Shadangi, Mr Mithelesh Koul, Mr Gautam Ganeshan and Mr Gourav Chatterjee, who have coauthored these papers.

“Oils derived from non-edible seeds of plants can be used to produce biofuels, to eliminate the competition between food and fuel,” Dr Mohanty said.

Plants/trees found in India, such as peela kaner, mahua, Gulmohar, neem, rain tree, castor, Kusum etc., produce seeds that have oil from which biofuels can be made.

Dr Mohanty and his research team use a heat-chemical route to produce biofuels from these and other such seeds that they painstakingly collect from various parts of the country.

“We found that these non-edible seeds had a high amount of oil in them, which was exciting,” Dr Mohanty said.

The researchers designed a low-cost pyrolyzer to obtain biofuel from these oils. While the yield of biofuel was very encouraging, there were some problems – the biofuel had lower acidity and high oxygen content, which made them unsuitable for use as transportation fuel.

To improve the properties of the biofuels derived from non-edible seed oils, the scientist used various catalysts such as calcium oxide, zeolite, etc., during the conversion of seed oil to biofuel. Both yield and quality improved; the biofuels produced were comparable in properties to regular diesel, except for viscosity.

“The higher viscosity of our biofuel is still a problem, but we’ll find a way to overcome this,” the confident scientist said.

Biofuel is not all they have obtained from these non-edible seeds. After purification of the oil derived from the seeds, the team was left with valuable chemicals in the discards, which find a plethora of industrial applications. One such remnant they could recover as hexadecanoic acid, which is used in making soaps, various cosmetic products, and release agents. Another was stearic acid that has numerous industrial applications.

“This is truly a waste-to-value operation,” Dr Mohanty said. The team is seeking to understand the chemical mechanisms by which biofuels are produced from these sources and are studying their applicability in engines.

The team has not stopped with plant sources. They have derived bio-oil from a mixture of waste plastics and waste biomass. Single-use nitrile gloves used in lab and medical settings were used for this purpose.

“The demand for biofuel is expected to increase in future and it is certainly not sustainable to generate them from food sources,” Dr Mohanty said.

This work is critical in the search for dedicated non-edible feedstocks for biofuel production.

Over 36.42 lakh people of 26 districts affected in Assam flood, death toll rises to 68

Guwahati, July 16: The flood situation in Assam remains grim as two persons on Thursday drowned in floodwaters and the current wave of flood has already affected over 36 lakh people of 26 districts.

On Thursday two more persons died after drowning in floodwaters taking the state death toll to 68.

Over 36.42 lakh people of 26 districts of the state are affected in the deluge.

According to the flood report of Assam Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), more than 36.42 lakh people of 26 districts – Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Baksa, Nalbari, Barpeta, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Kamrup, Kamrup (Metro), Morigaon, Nagaon, Hojai, Golaghat, Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Karbi Anglong have affected in the current spate of flood.

Dhubri is the worst-hit district with 5.51 lakh people are affected in the deluge followed by 5.29 lakh people in Barpeta district, 4.27 lakh people in Goalpara district, 4.20 lakh people in Morigaon district, 2.25 lakh people in South Salmara district.

3363 villages of 26 districts are currently underwater and the floodwaters have submerged nearly 1.29 lakh hectares of croplands.

37592 flood-affected people have taken shelter at 247 relief camps.

The ASDMA flood report said that the water level of Brahmaputra river is still flowing above the danger level at Neamatighat in Jorhat district, Tezpur in Sonitpur district, Guwahati, Goalpara, Dhubri district.

Assam government preps up to empower youth and deliver quality skill training

Assam government preps up to empower youth and deliver quality skill training. Mainu Dekha is a 27-year-old resident of Assam who wishes to become an entrepreneur someday. Belonging from a poor family, where her father is a carpenter she works an office and accounts in-charge in a steel and sanitary item showroom.

And it is not just her. There are thousands of others who want to establish themselves just like her. And to cater to their dreams the Assam government has constituted the North East Skill Centre (NESC) in Guwahati in collaboration with the ITES, Singapore to enhance the international standard and quality skill in the state.

The Skill Centre will train 400 candidates annually in various services of gaining importance like Food and Beverage, Housekeeping, Retail and Beauty and Wellness.

Empowering girls to aspire big, overcoming challenges posed by social stigma and deep-rooted gender disparity will be ASDM’s priority.

To enhance the possibilities, A mobile application named DAKSHA (Digital Access to Knowledge and Skilled Human Resource of Assam) will be launched by the state government to bring all stakeholders in one platform. This application will monitor all the training centres online and shall function in real-time.

The Assam Skill Development Mission was brought to function in effect from January 2017. Since then it is working with the vision of employing more number of unemployed youth and delivering quality skill training to boost the state economy.

An approval to train 47,218 students during 2017-2020 in the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna under the ASDM has already been approved by the GOI.

At present, there are 358 training centres under the ASDM and 388 training centres under PMKVY all over Assam.

During this financial year, the Assam government has set a target to train 6 lakhs students, mobilize 30 lakhs youths, place 2000 overseas and establish 1000 training centres under ASDM.

The ASDM has signed MOU with 26 different Sector Skill Council for the betterment of and smooth running of all the schemes.

An online registration portal www.asdmonline.co.in has also been launched and more than 67,000 trainees have been registered as of yet.

The ASDM has got industrial proposals to make 11 Advanced Skill Training Centre, which will be envisaged as sector-specific training centres. The training would be of international standard and benchmarking or so the government plans to accomplish.

The good news is that youth from extremism-affected districts are showing increasing interest in skill training and are registering for the trainings.

Kakoli Bora, 25 and a resident of Kampur village of Nagaon district, has been empowered by a similar skill training to join a microfinance company where she earns around Rs 20,000 a month as an Assistant Manager.

However, like all others, this too is not without challenges. The primary challenge is people’s perception of viewing skill trainings as the last resort for someone who has not opted for or progressed in the formal academic system.

Other challenges include the paucity of trainers, lack of adequate financial support and mismatch between demand and supply at the sectorial and spatial levels. Collaboration with all ministries/schemes/organisations is also a challenge to run smoothly.

Once these challenges are overcome the ASDM will prove to become a most successful step in the way to empower and employ youth.