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Indian team in Hyperloop Pod contest presents prototype
These students devote three-four hours every day after college and now their work has come to fruition as they have raised `1 crore from sponsors and finally built a pod and a 40-metre test track.
Bengaluru :
At an event hosted by Atria Institute of Technology on Tuesday, aerospace engineering student from IIT Madras, Sai Madhav, presented his team’s prototype pod for the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition to his audience.
Avikshar Hyperloop is one of the 22 teams out of the 1,600 teams worldwide and also the only team from Asia that has qualified to the finals. It is a group of about 30 students from inter-disciplinary backgrounds who have been working on creating their own pod since September 2017. These students devote three-four hours every day after college and now their work has come to fruition as they have raised `1 crore from sponsors and finally built a pod and a 40-metre test track.
SAE India, a member-driven organisation which acts as a knowledge partner for students and faculty in automotive and aerospace engineering, hosted its second event in its lecture series that deals with aerospace engineering. It also functions as a think-tank and a policy maker. The second lecture was specifically about the Hyperloop, an almost too-good-to-be-true transportation service proposed by Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. The Hyperloop, if installed, seeks to reduce travel time drastically. It is supposed to be a land-based transportation service where pods, that house passengers, can levitate and zoom through tunnels by having the air pumped out of them in order to create a near-perfect vacuum for greater speed. It boasts of a travel time of just 30 minutes from Bengaluru to Chennai.
Being the main speaker at the event, Madhav’s presentation and video of the only Indian team to qualify for this competition impressed a mixture of faculty, students and heads of the SAE group. He also talked about how the plan for building their pod looked solid on paper but when it came to the actuality of making it, they faced a lot of discrepancies. Being in the stability team, he deals with a lot of mechanical aspects of the pod. During the question-and-answer session, the question of the safety of the passengers was raised as the Hyperloop project has bragged about reaching speeds up to 500-600 km/hour. “Yes, passengers will feel major deceleration effects. All this is new and I can only hope that newer research yields positive results,” he said. J Munirathnam, who is on the Board of SAE India for aerospace, also said the project will have to be built after taking into consideration the degree of g-force that the human body can withstand.
“This is completely new. We have the freedom to explore it. If you look at building a car, parameters have already been established for it. That is not the case here,” Madhav said.
The hype about hyperloop
The Hyperloop, if installed, seeks to reduce travel time drastically. It is supposed to be a land-based transportation service where pods, that house passengers, can levitate and zoom through tunnels by having the air pumped out of them in order to create a near-perfect vacuum for greater speed.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Chinmay Manoj / Express News Service / July 11th, 2019
Child-rescue initiative ‘Nanhe Farishte’ to be replicated across the country
The initiative will operate with dedicated child helpdesks at all nominated A and A1 stations
Operation Nanhe Farishte, a dedicated child-rescue initiative by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the South Western Railways (SWR), will be replicated across the country.
The initiative will operate under the same name with dedicated child helpdesks operating from all nominated A and A1 stations. The decision was taken at a Railway Board meeting recently.
‘Nanhe Farishte’ — meaning Little Angles — was an initiative taken by D.B. Kasar, Chief Security Commissioner, RPF of SWR, in July 2017, with a dedicated team of rescuers to identify and prevent the inflow of children who are illegally brought to the city, mainly to work as child labourers. Apart from Bengaluru, it was also implemented in Mysuru and Hubballi.
2,235 rescued
SWR, with the help of a few non-governmental organisations, has rescued over 2,235 children from July 2017 to March 2019. The rescued were victims of child labour, bonded labour, prostitution, organ-trade rings, and a few runaways. A total of 416 children were rescued in Bengaluru, in 2017, while 523 were rescued in 2018 from Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Railway station, Yesvanthpur Railway station, and other stations.
Debasmita Chattopadhyaya Banerjee, Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, Railway Protection Force of SWR, who has been supervising the operation since its inception, said it was a welcome move and one that needed immediate attention across the country. “Though the Indian Railways has systems to check human trafficking , it does not have a dedicated team for this. This prompted us to take up the initiative,” she said.
Legal angles
However, the RPF does not have the powers under The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, to arrest the perpetrators. Its only job is to prima facie hand them over to respective agencies.
Arguing for more powers for RPF in such cases, she said, “As we are the immediate responders, our role is crucial. If the agency which is identifying has the power to arrest and prosecute, then the the system will be more effective and efficient.”
As per The Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966, people can be punished by the RPF for suspected possession of railway properties, whether obtained unlawfully or stolen. “If a law can exist for things and goods, then special laws for people should also be given to RPF,” an official said.
NGOs such as International Justice Mission (IJM) and CHILDLINE India Foundation assist the RPF in identifying and enquiring about children who are possibly trafficked. They also help in training and sensitising of officials, ground staff and the general public.
Patrolling on trains
M. Prathima, associate director, IJM, said that human trafficking was an organised crime with complex links. She said patrolling on trains was as important as patrolling at railway stations and government should look into this issue immediately. “Coordination and cooperation between different government agencies, private organisations, and stakeholders, including the general public is important to effectively combat this issue,” she said.
Mahesh Jakati, program manager at CHILDLINE India Foundation — which has volunteers stationed at the railway stations for Nanhe Farishte — said that if the children were not rescued at the right time, they became vulnerable to all kinds of abuse and are forced to lead a poor life devoid of education, care, or protection, while often ending up on the streets.
Toll-free helpline
The rescued are taken to the helpdesk, given necessary care such as food, rest, medical check-up, along with counselling and are produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), who later restore the victims to their families.
To alert the agencies concerned about the suspicious movement of children on railway station premises, the public can call the toll-free security helpline number 182, or child line 1098, or the police helpline 100.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Jayashima K.R / Bengaluru – July 09th, 2019