Category Archives: Records, All

Engineering students create GPS-enabled clock

This processes the GMT time and converts it to Indian time. 18 Light Emitting Diodes (LED) bulbs give off red, green and blue light to indicate hours, minutes and second hand on a single strip.

Bengaluru :

Six students of Sapthagiri College of Engineering, with help from their faculty designed a clock of 3 feet diameter, which takes the time from the satellite through GPS (Global Positioning System). Much like how location information is enabled through satellites, time information can also be received.

Dr Dinesh K Anvekar, head of Research and Development as well as faculty in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) said, “The chip or micro-controller called Arduino was fed with a programme prepared by the students in C language. This processes the GMT time and converts it to Indian time. 18 Light Emitting Diodes (LED) bulbs give off red, green and blue light to indicate hours, minutes and second hand on a single strip. There are no moving hands like a regular clock.”

The clock was designed in over three weeks and was done during their holidays. Only an uninterrupted power supply is required to keep the clock running. However, solar power-based supply has also been included in the design.

“It is very useful for providing accurate time for the public in railway and bus stations. Maintenance required is very minimal,” he added.With the procurement of materials, the clock costed Rs 10,000. However, if the size is reduced to 1 feet in diameter, it would cost Rs 4,000.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / August 04th, 2019

Isro’s Peenya facility to track space debris

NASA estimates that over 20,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbit the Earth. Illustration: NASA
NASA estimates that over 20,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbit the Earth. Illustration: NASA

To protect Indian satellites from collision with thousands of space debris, the Indian Space Research Organisation just got dead serious. On Friday, Isro made the first step to build a Space Situational Awareness Control Centre at Peenya.

Over 10,000 debris of 10-cm diameter or more float dangerously in the orbits, increasingly populated by satellites big and small launched by countries worldwide. Space situational awareness and management has become increasingly critical to tackle the heightened threat of these debris with operational spacecraft.

The control centre will be part of the Directorate of Space Situational Awareness and Management set up by Isro recently. The directorate’s mandate is to protect high-value space assets from space debris close approaches and collisions.

On the Centre’s radar will be inactive satellites, pieces of orbiting objects, near-earth asteroids and adverse space weather conditions. Data from inactive satellites will be tracked from indigenous observation facilities and analysed to generate information critical for active satellites, informs Isro.

Eventually, the control centre will be part of an ecosystem that boosts research into active space debris modelling and removal. Isro chairman K Sivan laid the foundation stone for the centre on Friday.

As a top space scientist explained to DH, the chances of a debris colliding with an active satellite is still remote. “There is still only a one-in-a-million chance. But both the low orbit of 500 to 2,000 km and the geostationary orbit of 36,000 km are getting populated fast with such debris, and will eventually become a dangerous junkyard,” he noted.

To avoid future collisions, the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS) had come out with a set of guidelines. One of these is to actively track satellites nearing their life span and lower them to an orbit so that they are burnt on entry into the earth’s atmosphere.

The UN panel had urged the states and intergovernmental organisations to develop technologies to measure, monitor and characterise orbital and physical properties of space debris, determine the risk of collision and make trajectory adjustments to avoid it. The Isro centre will also follow these guidelines.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) estimates that over 20,000 pieces of debris, larger than a softball, orbit the Earth. They travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph (over 28,000 kmph), fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Cities> Top Bengaluru Stories / by Rasheed Kappan, DH News Service / Bengaluru – August 04th, 2019

India-UK initiative to launch unique air quality measurement system

The Catapult network has decided to focus on Bengaluru to enhance the progress already made in air quality and electric vehicle transition in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru :

British Deputy High Commissioner Dominic McAllister on Wednesday launched a two-year India-UK joint initiative in Bengaluru that would provide a unique air quality measurement system by integrating satellite and sensor data and support India’s transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs). The initiative – Innovating for Clean Air (IfCA) will identify innovations having potential to improve air quality and contribute to a more detailed localised map of the air quality of Bengaluru through the unique combination of satellite and sensor data, including both on-the-ground and mobile data.

The programme will identify relevant challenges around EV-charging infrastructure, grid management and integrating renewable energy to ensure a sufficient, reliable and clean source of power. It will also facilitate opportunities for Indian and UK innovators to collaborate in developing long-lasting relationships to address these challenges.

The programme is led by Innovate UK — part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) — and is funded by the Newton Fund with matched resources from various key partners in Karnataka and India, like Indian Institute of Science, Enzen, Project Lithium, Confederation of Indian Industries, C40 Cities and Clean Air Platform.

Other partners include Citizens for Sustainability, World Resources Institute, Indian Institute for Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), Shakti Foundation, Shell Technology Centre, Global Business Inroads and India Smart Grid Forum. A current UK partner, Earthsense is  working in collaboration with the UK Catapults.

The Catapult network has decided to focus on Bengaluru to enhance the progress already made in air quality and electric vehicle transition in Bengaluru.

UK Research and Innovation India (UKRI) Director Rebecca Fairbairn said, “UKRI has been working with India for over a decade, focussing on research that makes a difference to society and to our economies but this is the first time the UK Catapult network, which drives innovation in highly targeted industries has been implemented here and it demonstrates the creativity possible through India-UK partnership.”

British Deputy High Commissioner Mc Allister said, “Such collaborative initiatives are an example of how the UK and India can work as a joint force for good on innovative solutions, and can bring the best of our research communities, academia and businesses together to address shared challenges, such as clean air.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / August 01st, 2019

Karnataka govt awards 100 startups, 29 co-founded by women

Elevate 2019, organised by the state Department of IT, BT and S&T (Information Technology, Biotechnology, Science and Technoloy) concluded on Tuesday.

Bengaluru :

Elevate 2019, organised by the state Department of IT, BT and S&T (Information Technology, Biotechnology, Science and Technology) concluded on Tuesday. Of the 270 startups that made their pitch, 100 of them were selected as winners.

“Of the 100 winners, 29 are co-founded by women entrepreneurs and 23 are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. 76 startups from Bengaluru, 10  from Dharwad, 3 from Dakshina Kannada, 2 each from Mysuru and Udupi, and 1 startup from Bijapur, Chamarajnagar, Chikballapur, Davangere, Mandya, Tumakuru and Uttara Kannada respectively won Elevate 2019,” a press statement by the department said.

TM Vijay Bhaskar, chief secretary, said, “Karnataka is the first state in the country to initiate grant in aid to start-ups without taking equity. We will soon set up an innovation authority headed by the CM to empower start-ups to overcome legal hurdles in innovating technologies and ideas.”

“The funds are regularly monitored by the government. Funds are released to the start-ups based on their progress. Elevate 2019 generates a lot of visibility for innovative start-ups and enables them to raise further funds from angel investors and capitalists at a later stage,” said Gaurav Gupta, principal secretary of the department.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / July 31st, 2019

Brindavan Gardens’ Designer Krumbiegel’s Great-Granddaughter In Mysuru

To immerse ashes of her mother in Cauvery

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Mysuru:

Brindavan Gardens’ designer Gustav Herman Krumbiegel’s great-granddaughter Alyia Phelps Gardiner Krumbiegel is on a visit to the city.

She is visiting Mysuru and Bengaluru on a purpose and that is to immerse the ashes of her mother Jean Maureen Phelps Gardiner, who had passed away in Jan. 2018 in England.

Speaking to Star of Mysore here this morning, Alyia said that she had brought her mother’s ashes to India to immerse it in the rivers here, as she (Jean Maureen) always felt that her home was in India.

“My mother passed away on Jan. 18. 2018 and I was very clear that her body had to be cremated and not buried. Hence, I had to wait for nearly three weeks as I had to book the slot for her cremation in advance. Finally, the slot that was available was Feb.5, 2018 and it was then she was cremated. She had told me that her heart was always in India and hence to respect her last wishes I have brought her ashes to the country she always loved,” said Alyia.

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Alyia  has already immersed a part of the ashes in Waynad, Kerala and she has plans to immerse it in River Cauvery in Srirangapatna shortly, she said.

She will also be visiting the Mysuru Zoo with a letter to the Executive Director requesting him to display a plaque of her great-grandfather Krumbiegel who had also planned the Gardens in Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens.

Alyia will also be visiting the Brindavan Gardens to see for the first time the work of her great-grandfather which all these days she had only heard about.

She had cycled to Mysuru all the way from Bengaluru a couple of years ago and she had time only to visit the Mysore Palace where she had met Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, she recalled.

Alyia will later go to Bengaluru and plans to participate in the Independence  Day Flower Show at Lalbagh. In this year’s flower show, there will be a floral tribute to Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, the last Maharaja of the erstwhile State of Mysore, to mark his birth centenary celebrations.

“My great-grandfather had a big role in designing the Gardens at Lalbagh and I am so happy that this year floral tributes are being paid to Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar for whom Krumbiegel had worked,” she said.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / July 30th, 2019

IISc. researchers develop protein to kill drug-resistant bacterium

They used a bioinformatics approach to design protein

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) have designed an anti-microbial peptide (AMP) that, researchers say, can effectively and quickly kill a notorious multidrug-resistant bacterium called Acinetobacter baumannii.

According to a press release by IISc., the bacterium tops the WHO’s list of threats that urgently need new antibiotics because it is “remarkably adept at developing drug resistance”. The release also stated that it is among the six species responsible for most infections in hospitals and health care centres.

In a new study published in Science Advances, IISc. researchers used a bioinformatics approach to design a new short protein (peptide) called Omega76 that can kill A. baumannii by breaking down its cell membrane.

Infected mice treated with Omega76 had much better survival rates. The team also found that high doses of Omega76 given for prolonged periods did not produce any toxic effects. Since it is safe and effective, it is a promising candidate for developing new antibiotics, the researchers say.

Dipshikha Chakravortty, Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, who was part of this research, was quoted as saying, “The significance of A. baumannii infection was not sufficiently understood earlier… It was regarded as just another bug in the environment. It has now become a major threat, especially in the intensive care units.”

The release stated that antibiotics for such infections may soon become ineffective, as resistance to even last-resort drugs such as carbapenems is on the rise.

“They are not entirely safe either; a drug called colistin, which is considered the last hope for multidrug-resistant infections, has been found to cause severe kidney damage,” said postdoctoral fellow Deepesh Nagarajan.

While standard drugs act by “blocking specific pathways or processes in bacterial cells,” bacteria can evolve to gain resistance against such drugs. Nagasuma Chandra, Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, said, “On the other hand, anti-microbial peptides (AMPs) actually punch holes in the bacterial cell membrane. The chances of drug resistance are much lower because they act by multiple ways and cause actual physical damage.”

The researchers plan to improve its design further, and explore clinical uses.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru – July 30th, 2019

Dilapidated govt school in Bengaluru turns smart, courtesy NRI family

The Government Higher Primary School in Navarathna Agrahara near Bengaluru Airport, on a 12,000 sqft area, was completely demolished and reconstructed with the help of Ronald Colaco from Dubai.

The Government Higher Primary School in Navarathna Agrahara
The Government Higher Primary School in Navarathna Agrahara

Bengaluru :

A first look will make you think it is a private school. It has all modern education tools and infrastructure. This school, 30km from Bengaluru, is changing the way we look at government schools, thanks to an NRI family. For, the general perception is that government schools are not on par with the private ones.

The Government Higher Primary School in Navarathna Agrahara near Kempegowda International Airport, on a 12,000 sqft area, was completely demolished and reconstructed with the help of Ronald Colaco from Dubai.

The Colaco family decided to move to the countryside when they saw the villages nearby struggling to make ends meet. The school was built in 1992 and started off with just four classrooms. Over the years, the infrastructure was not updated nor the building repaired. Often classes had to be held outdoors for fear that the building may collapse any time. Eventually, the school strength fell from 92 to 52. Since there were only a few private schools within a 3km radius, many parents had to pay exorbitant fees.

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Ronald Colaco, a businessman, frequents Bengaluru and has a house near the school. The idea of rebuilding the school came to him as several people in the village used to request him to give financial assistance to pay the school fees. His son,  Nigel Colaco, oversaw the design, construction and execution of the project. “Villagers used to spend all their savings or borrow money to enrol their children in private schools. I used to get requests from parents to support their children’s education. I decided to build the new government school as a permanent solution,” Ronald Colaco told The New Indian Express.

The school today boasts of 11 well-equipped classrooms, a computer laboratory, a conference hall, sports facilities, staff chambers, 31 CCTV cameras, kitchen and dining hall to provide mid-day meal to the children, a separate washroom for girls and boys, which match the standard of international schools.

THE construction of the school and other infrastructure cost Rs 3.1 crore As of now, the school conducts classes up to grade seven. The remodelled school was inaugurated on Saturday where Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda was the chief guest. Krishna Byre Gowda, MLA, who was present, said efforts will be made to introduce English medium and also upgrade it to a high school in the following academic year. “It took just five months to complete the construction. Being an NRI, I’ve always wanted to give back to the society,” Colaco said.

While the school had only three government teachers, Colaco brought in an additional four teachers. Not only that, the school has now seen 24 new admissions. Colaco has requested more people to come forward and develop government schools. Mahesh Kumar N K, the panchayat president, said, “Now the villagers are happy to see a government school of international standards.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Preeja Prasad / Express News Service / July 29th, 2019

Interactive music museum comes up in Bengaluru

Indian Music Experience (IME), a city-based museum that explores the evolution of Indian music with interactive, multi-sensory exhibits, is organising its grand launch on July 27.

Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks
Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks

Bengaluru :

Indian Music Experience (IME), a city-based museum that explores the evolution of Indian music with interactive, multi-sensory exhibits, is organising its grand launch on July 27. Announcing  this at a press conference,  M R Jaishankar, chairman and managing director of Brigade Group and founder of IME, said, “The grand launch of the IME is a culmination of nearly a decade of effort to set up a truly world-class museum and arts centre in India. We are hopeful that the IME will grow to become a pre-eminent arts hub of the country and preserve and propagate India’s rich cultural heritage to the next generation.”

Many dignitaries, including Tejasvi Surya, member of Parliament, Bengaluru South and S M Krishna, former union minister for External Affairs, were present. On the occasion, there will be musical confluence by Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks at 7pm. Talking about IME, museum director and classical vocalist Manasi Prasad, shared, “The performing arts teach us to create, communicate and collaborate. India has the most diverse musical culture in the entire world and the museum celebrates this. Going forward, the IME aims to be a centre of music education and research, providing a platform for artistes and art lovers.”

The exhibit area of IME consists of eight thematic galleries showcasing various facets of Indian music, an instruments gallery with over 100 musical instruments, three mini theatres, and several computer-based interactive installations that allow visitors to experience the process of music-making. The exhibits feature memorabilia belonging to the Bharat Ratna musicians of the country— Bismillah Khan, Bhimsen Joshi and M S Subbulakshmi. In addition, it will also feature a rare phonograph and gramophone, a selection of microphones, gramophone records and other artifacts.
The launch will be held at IME grounds in JP Nagar at 4.30pm.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / July 27th, 2019

S. Venkatasubba Setty: A Hidden Figure in English Aviation History

Setty was likely unique in having the audacity to ignore financial worries and get involved in what was still a new and experimental field as an engineering student in Britain.

An Avro 504. Credit: TSRL/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
An Avro 504. Credit: TSRL/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

This wide-ranging column will take as its basis a discussion of a book every month on the history of science and technology, and relate it to a theme of current relevance. Read the other articles here.

On a recent visit to Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, a friend pointed out a small printed display next to a wooden model of an early Avro plane. It showed a man in suit and tie, sporting a drooping moustache and a white turban. The caption identified him as S.V. Setty (1879-1918), an “apprentice and unpaid draughtsman” at A.V. Roe and Company in 1912. It went on to declare: “India regards him as its first aircraft engineer”. This was intriguing; to the best of my knowledge Setty is not a household name in India. I set out to find out more.

Newspapers, websites and online forums have occasionally featured discussions on Setty, but the most detailed account we have of his life is contained in Kashi Viswanatha Setty’s slim volume, The First Indian Aviator: S.V. Setty, published by the Karnataka Arya Vysya Maha Sabha in 1984. Translated from the Kannada, the book gives a timeline of Setty’s life and includes some of his letters in an appendix.

Srirama Venkatasubba Setty (also known as Setti or Chetty) was born in Mysore in 1879 and earned a B.A. from the Maharaja’s College before enrolling in the Engineering College at Guindy, Madras. From Guindy, he transferred to the Thomason College, Roorkee, where he completed his engineering degree with high honours, but missed out on a prized appointment in the Indian Public Works Department (PWD) because he was above the age limit. He did get a job with the Mysore PWD, however. He served until 1909 before going on leave, having won from the Mysore government a scholarship to Faraday House, London, where he studied for a diploma in electrical engineering. This was a sandwich course , and Setty was soon gaining experience at firms in Rugby, Wolverhampton and London. During this time he also became an associate member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Setty clearly had an appetite for learning. In England, he was attracted to flying and aeroplane design, which were newly in vogue (in the United States, the Wright brothers had made their first successful powered flight in 1903). Extending his leave and procuring loans from some wealthy patrons at home, he joined Avro in 1911 as a trainee pilot and draughtsman at the company’s Brooklands airfield in Surrey. The company, which was among the first aeroplane-makers in Britain, had only been a year old at this point.

At Brooklands, Setty regularly flew in various Avro planes, earning several mentions in Flight , the journal of the Aero Club in Britain. This was an experience few Indians would have had until the end of World War I. Flying took off in India in the 1910s but was mainly the preserve of wealthy princes. Setty was by no means alone in being an Indian engineering student in Britain – but he was probably unique in having the audacity to ignore financial worries and get involved in what was still a new and experimental field, offering little by way of career options in India. It couldn’t have been easy. For one thing, flying in the early days involved mortal danger. For another, he would have stuck out like a sore thumb at Brooklands. On one occasion, when he veered off course, Flight reported, “After two or three straight lines he turned off and ran into the sewage farm. He is a vegetarian, and it is thought that he may possibly have had some irresistible attraction for the cabbages which grow that way.” This may well have been good-natured ribbing but it would not be surprising if it felt like a barb at some level.

In addition to flying, Setty was involved in preparing drawings for various planes being designed at Avro in 1911-12. It is difficult to establish with certainty the exact nature of Setty’s contribution. Documentary evidence from his time at Brooklands is scarce, and Avro’s early records perished in a fire in the 1950s. (Setty’s great-grandson has collected some documents and a medallion awarded to his ancestor, though I have not had the opportunity to look at these in the original.) The most reasonable assessment I have found so far is in a note on Setty prepared by the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, and kindly made available to me by them. Considering various sources carefully, the note concludes that Setty “definitely worked on general arrangement drawings for the Avro Type F” (the first plane with an enclosed cockpit), and possibly “worked on drawings for the original [Avro] Type E”, a biplane – having wings in a double-decker arrangement – that formed the basis for the Avro 500 series. The Avro 504 would play a major part in World War I.

Having received a handsome certificate from Avro, Setty went back to his job in Mysore, leaving England in June 1912. There he was deputed as superintendent of the Mechanical Engineering School in Bangalore. He continued to have an interest in aviation, and with his year-long experience with Avro he was confident that he could build an aeroplane in India. He sought permission from the Mysore government and requested Rs 15,000 in funding. From the estimate of expenses that he enclosed with his request, it appears that he aimed to construct a biplane along the lines of the ones he had worked on in England. The dream was short-lived, however, as World War I broke out and the Government of India disallowed the flying of aircraft in its territory.

Why is Setty not better known? In his lifetime he was not shy of publicity. He was eulogised by the Calcutta-based Modern Review, sent photographs of himself with an Avro biplane to a professional journal and, upon his return to India in 1912, was honoured at gatherings in Erode, Bangalore, Madras, Coimbatore and Kollegal. But what fame he enjoyed was tied to his career in aviation, which had lasted all of one year, and which he had no way of continuing. Still, had Setty lived a long life, his reputation might have grown. But he was denied that privilege: the influenza pandemic of 1918 claimed him before he was forty.

Perhaps it is a mistake to focus exclusively on Setty’s exploits in the air, for he became a prominent citizen of Bangalore and continued to make an impact in other fields. He set up scholarships in his parents’ names; experimented with building a Kannada typewriter; was almost certainly a member of the Freemason Lodge in Bangalore; and was acting professor in the city’s engineering college (he was confirmed in the post shortly before his death).

Trying to identify firsts in the history of technology is often an unrewarding exercise – nor is it particularly useful to invoke individual genius in explaining technological developments. Personal courage, determination and imagination are by no means unimportant – and S.V. Setty had them in good measure – but we would do him a disservice if we saw him in isolation from the world in which he worked. A number of interesting questions beckon.

How did this Roorkee graduate develop an interest in electrical engineering, still a novel subject in the 1900s? In what circles did he move as a student in London, and how did aviation catch his fancy? To what extent did the munificence of the Mysore government and his acquaintances influence the direction of his career? Did Setty’s efforts have a long-term impact on aviation in India? It may have been a coincidence, but when aircraft manufacture eventually took root in India in the 1940s, it did so in Bangalore and with the support of the Mysore government. But that is a story for another day.

Aparajith Ramnath is a historian of modern science, technology and business.

source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> History / by Aparajith Ramnath / May 15th, 2017

60 cities in 60 days in a solar-powered auto

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Meet this group that has travelled across 60 cities in 60 days on a solar-powered auto rickshaw

Many a hitch-hiker across the country has hopped on to this white auto rickshaw that is currently travelling across the country. “We picked up somebody along the way from Satara and dropped him in Pune. We also helped a couple whose car had broken down midway,” says Sushil Reddy, 30, who came up with the idea of a road trip in a tuk tuk. He is joined by Pallavi Siddhanta (27), Sudheer Lekkala (29) and Rutvick Arya (27) and together they have completed around 6,000 kilometres.

After making a pit stop in Chennai, they are now headed back to Bengaluru, where they started their journey from, on May 25. The 60-day trip covering as many cities is scheduled to end today. The team has covered Pune, Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Delhi, Agra, Mathura, Lucknow, Kanpur, Benaras, Kolkata, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Eluru, Vijaywada, Ongole, Nellore and Chennai among others.

Ray of hope

“Our project is called the Sun Pedal Ride. The idea is to spread awareness about solar energy,” says Sushil. Their auto rickshaw — provided by Volta Automotive, a Bengaluru-based company that manufactures and deals with green energy projects — is a solar-powered electric vehicle, with a solar panel fitted over head. The team believes there is relatively less noise pollution and it is more fuel efficient. “It is 50 paise per kilometre, while in other autos it’s four rupees per kilometre,” he adds. The battery in this auto is charged after every 120 kilometres. It takes four to five hours for it to be fully charged. Sushil and Sudheer both work in the solar sector, while Pallavi is a freelance communication and marketing professional and Rutvick is a software engineer.

For Sudheer, who is doing bulk of the driving, hitting the highways at a limited speed of 45 kilometre per hour gets frustrating sometimes. Given that an auto rickshaw is not the most comfortable vehicle, driving 150 kilometres a day takes a toll on his shoulders and back. “But I just listen to music and all of us make sure we keep ourselves hydrated with electrolyte water,” he smiles.

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While the trip sounds like fun, they have also had their share of challenges. The heat, being one. “We chose the summer months so we could utilise solar energy to the maximum,” says Sushil. The team has also fallen ill on many occassions. “Mostly stomach issues, considering we have been eating streetside food. Sometimes it’s the spicy local food that is the cause,” says Pallavi. “Then we quickly learnt that egg bhurji and roti are the safest to eat at most places,” says Rutvick.

Some of the accommodation they managed to get in few of the smaller towns and cities were far from luxurious. “We have seen flora and fauna of all kinds on our beds,” laughs Pallavi, adding, “So when we check into the Ibis hotels (the hospitality group is supporting this cause as part of their sustainability programme) in the bigger cities we know we are going to have a good night’s sleep.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Travel / by Priyadarshini Paitandy / July 25th, 2019