mswayambhu-blog

[mswayambhu-blog]

Shaastra, IIT-M, is an annual student run technical festival of the IIT-M (Indian Institute of Technology, Madras), wherein they dedicated a few days to move out of the study curriculum to interface and embrace the latest technological thoughts & practices from across the globe. They call global subject matter experts to talk, give presentations, interact with students and faculties, bring their knowledge and practical case studies to the table, they also organize workshops, competitions, exhibitions, apart from cultural program and entertainment. The festival is organized on global standards and has earned an ISO 9001:2015 certification too.

Within the Shaastra 2025 festival, there was yet another chapter of Future Cities Summit (FCS) this year, which shows the commitment of the festival towards embracing the hi-tech future and the technological advancements of tomorrow. FCS had been planned to explore and examine multidimensional approach towards the urban world of future, which will have all elements of energy, economy, transport & mobility, innovation & technologies like AI, AR, VR, ML, IoT, IT & ITES etc. apart form the livability and sustainability.

This year’s focus included subjects like Technology, AI and Data Integration, Legal and Ethical Frameworks for Smart Cities, Future of Urban Transportation, Cultural Preservation and Urban Development, Resilient Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation, and Renewable Energy Integration in Urban Environments.

Vaidic Srijan got an invite to speak in under the Resilient Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation domain, with our evidence-based case studies and success stories and the topic given to us was “Healthy Natural Resources for Sustainable Cities”. The 30 minutes presentation followed by Q&A session was conducted by Madhukar Swayambhu, Cofounder & research head of Vaidic Srijan LLP, and the case study of Moradabad Amrit Sarovars, was discussed in detail on how restoring the health of the natural Waterbodies in the Brass Capital of the country transformed the overall health, happiness and prosperity index of the city. How the urban flooding has been eradicated, Ground Water recharge has started happening, the Air Quality index has been transformed from worst in the state to healthy breathable Air, biodiversity conservation has happened, post-monsoon vector borne diseases outbreak has been mitigated and many awards and accolades have been earned by the city.

Bottom line discussed and described during the session was, the conventional approach of “cleaning” the Waterbodies is no solution, but simply postponement of the problem. A holistic and sustainable approach is the “restore the health” of the Waterbodies, since they are the ‘ecosystem service providers’ to their respective vicinities, not a mere reservoir or pool of Water. Another interesting aspect was to transform the Waterbody rejuvenation projects from “expense” to “revenue” through enabling them to earn the environmental credits (Water, Carbon, Sanitation, Emission and Biodiversity), which are tradeable commodities in the global markets.

The discussion was followed by a very rich and interactive Q&A session too.

The summit was graced by the presence of other eminent speaker from across the globe including Mr. Kok Chin Tay, the Chairman of the Smart Cities Network (a network of innovative solution and services providers for smart cities) and the Executive Director (ASEAN) for Smart Cities Council, Ms. Suchismita Goswami, is a PhD fellow from the Global Health Section at the Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Dr. Chinmay Hedge is the CEO and Co-Founder of Astrikos AI, an organization that delivers Actionable (Smart) IoT-driven Real-time Insights for Smart Cities, Mr. Ian Chew is the sole Founder of Greenie Web – an award winning Singapore ClimateTech startup that creates low-carbon computer code, Ms. Aswathy Dilip is the South Asia Director of Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), Prof. Subir Sachdev, Herchel Smith Professor of Physics. Harvard University, Mr. Shravan Bendapudi is and the Co-Managing Director of Gensler’s Mumbai office, and Dr. Shailendra Jaiswal, Professor of Practice Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Madhya Pradesh Bhoj (Open) University (MPBOU), Director at CSJM Innovation Foundation, Director at Alyna International Private Limited, Member Board of Studies, Bihar Engineering University, Patna, Innovation Advisor to Toy Association of India, Lead Mentor to Srijan Sanchar and many more responsibilities in social, academia and industry sectors, being an Ex-ED of DRDO and having plethora of experience and exposure, that he’s chosen to give back to the society.

The event was also graced by the presence of Narayan Babu, Cloud Project Manager - NexTurn, Hyderabad, A Lakshmi, Data Science and Software Engineering professional, an IIT-M Alumni, Dr. R Ramasubbu, Former Joint Chief Environmental Engineer, TNPCB, Sudhakar Sundram, AVP, OCBC, Singapore, an IIT-M Alumni, Dr. Ar. K. Sundararaman, PhD. (IIT Madras), Aakash Pugazhendi, Architect Planner, Ecorys, Chennai, Ashwin Suresh, Urbanist & Architect, Arcadis, Chennai, RR Lokesh, founder of Ewebstore, an IIT-M Alumni, Abhishek Sivakumar, Level -1 Chess Coach, MD of CIT Connects and a Research intern at CIT, Challa Saraswathi Lalith, App Development Intern at Bharat Intern, Ex-S/W Engineer at JP Morgan Chase & Co., Brahmasoor Anirudhan, CTO & Cofounder of Ciprime Modus Pvt. Ltd. & IOWater, an IIT-M Alumini, Vishwajeet Kumar, Founder & CEO at Health Sathi and Origins Tribe, Shringesh S, Mechanical Engineer & Environmental Enthusiast, working for product development at Foruppo, Prem Kumar, an Urban Mobility Consultant with a background in Urban and Transport Planning, Kalki Chandramohan, mechatronics professional, Helen Vinnie, an Electrical and Electronics Engineering student, IIT-M, Amrutha P V, an Electrical and Electronics Engineering student, Apisheke, a Civil Engineering student, Sayed Najibullah Hashimi, Afghan National, ICCR Scholar-Indian Council for Cultural Relations Ministry of External Affairs Government of India and many more.

The three days event started on 4th January and concluded on 6th January, 2025. While Shaastra 2025 was spread over many hub in the IIT-M Campus, the FCS was conducted at TTJ Auditorium in the IC&SR block, while the exhibition happened at the adjoining KV Ground. The event was sponsored by IGBC, School of Sustainability (IIT-M), Gensler, L&T Edutech, Smart Cities Network, Centre of Excellence for Road Safety, IIT-M and Astrikos.

[mswayambhu-blog]

Green fuel: Hydrogen

In light of the current environmental conditions, the climate change and global warming realities being faced by the planet and humanity, human race is on a quest to find out a sustainable alternative for our fuel and energy requirement to avoid a global climate catastrophe and Hydrogen looks like an astounding contender in this space.

Why hydrogen?

We are living in an era of hydrogen hype. It’s often considered as the fuel for the future, even to the extent that some call it gold or key negotiation tool or currency of future. Hydrogen has a very high energy density, three times that of petrol or diesel, and because its use produces only water instead of greenhouse gases and other exhaust pollutants, thus it is considered an ecofriendly and green fuel.

Furthermore, using petrol and diesel in combustion engines waste at least two thirds of the energy in the fuel, whereas hydrogen can be used in fuel cells, which are about twice as efficient, so much more of the fuel’s energy is put to good use and less fuel is needed. Leading automobile manufacturers like Toyota has already come out with the prototypes and running concept vehicles on road, powered by hydrogen as a key fuel.

However, hydrogen is not that easy and handy to produce. In spite of being the most abundant element in the universe today, it isn’t something that can be mined from ore like most of the metals or our fossil fuels. Neither it is a renewable resources like Sunlight, Water, Wind or Wave that can be tapped in from nature. In fact, some people go to the extent that they define Hydrogen as not an energy source but an energy carrier. It’s only because of the very process involved in production of hydrogen.

The colored Spectrum of Hydrogen

Based on the production mechanism, Hydrogen is given a color. That’s how there’s a complete spectrum of colored hydrogen in the industry today. Green, blue, brown, yellow, turquoise and pink – are the various colors of hydrogen, which’re essentially color codes, or nicknames, used within the energy industry to differentiate between the types of hydrogen, based on the production mechanism.

The most common ways of production are coal gasification or Water electrolysis, which are both energy hungry processes. Now the colors are decided upon the source of energy for making the above two processes happen. Which can be fossils, solar, hydro, wind or nuclear power. That’s why, people consider hydrogen to be a useful way of carrying energy from renewable sources to useful applications such as a car.

The Hydrogen Standards

The IEA (International Energy Agency) examines the full spectrum of energy issues including oil, gas and coal supply and demand, renewable energy technologies, electricity markets, energy efficiency, access to energy, demand side management and much more. Through its work, the IEA advocates policies that will enhance the reliability, affordability and sustainability of energy in its 31 member countries, 11 association countries and beyond. In the year 2023, they published a paper called “Towards hydrogen definitions based on their emissions intensity”, which documents that –

“Production based on unabated fossil fuels can result in emissions of up to 27 kg CO2‑eq/kg H2, depending on the level of upstream and midstream emissions. Conversely, producing hydrogen from biomass with CO2 capture and storage can result in negative emissions, as a result of removing the captured biogenic carbon from the natural carbon cycle. The average emissions intensity of global hydrogen production in 2021 was in the range of 12-13 kg CO2‑eq/kg H2. In the IEA Net Zero by 2050 Scenario, this average fleet emissions intensity reaches 6‑7 kg CO2‑eq/kg H2 by 2030 and falls below 1 kg CO2‑eq/kg H2 by 2050.”

However, this is yet another race in which the emerging new Bharat is wanting to take a lead by setting up new standards ahead of the IEA or rest of the world. In year 2023, on 19th of August, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India came up with new emissions cap of 2 kg carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent for 1 kg of renewable hydrogen (H2) as a 12-month average to establish a standard for the nascent industry to help its production and trade. But the big question is – how to make it happen? When the World or the G7 countries are still struggling at 27 kg CO2‑eq/kg H2, how can we manage to meet a target higher by 13 + times?

Nature has the solution for everything. There are still other natural processes like many types of microbes, which can produce hydrogen as a natural byproduct of their metabolic activity. This is often referred to as Biohydrogen, which is the greenest form of Hydrogen.

What is Biohydrogen?

Hydrogen produced through the action of living organisms is called biohydrogen. This is a type of biofuel, like bio-ethanol, bio-diesel or bio-gas or bio-oil. There are three classes of biofuels: -

First generation – made from food crops

Second generation – made from non-food crops or wastes

Third generation (advanced) - made using microbes

Advanced biofuels have several advantages over 1st and 2nd generation biofuels. Whereas first generation biofuels have caused increases in food prices, advanced biofuels would not. In comparison to second generation biofuels, advanced biofuels could capture sunlight energy 10 times more efficiently, meaning that smaller areas or land are needed to produce enough fuel. Biohydrogen is an example of an advanced biofuel (or third generation biofuel). In advanced biofuel technologies, microbes are grown in special bioreactors and provided with the energy and nutrients that they need including, sunlight, waste organic material, CO2 from the air or from conventional gas plants. As they grow the microbes produce the biofuel.

Among the advanced biofuels, biohydrogen is particularly attractive because of the excellent properties of hydrogen as a fuel and because biohydrogen is very easy to collect from the bioreactor. Conversely, biofuels such as bio-oils have to be purified from the microbial cells which is complex and expensive.

What’s Waterbodies connection?

In the year 2023, Government of India released the 1st Waterbody census report, from Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Minor Irrigation (Statistics) Wing, which says

“24,24,540 water bodies have been enumerated in the country, out of which 97.1% (23,55,055) are in rural areas and only 2.9% (69,485) are in urban areas. 59.5% (14,42,993) of water bodies are ponds, followed by tanks (15.7%, i.e. 3,81,805), reservoirs (12.1%, i.e. 2,92,280), Water conservation schemes / percolation tanks/check dams (9.3%, i.e., 2,26,217), lakes (0.9%, i.e. 22,361) and others (2.5%, i.e. 58,884).”

Now, this can be a huge infrastructure for supporting the hydrogen economics, especially because we already have technology to restore the native ecology for restoration of the ecosystem services. Now this means, all those microbes that can produce hydrogen naturally can be hosted in these Waterbodies, e.g.,  Enterobactericiae, Escherichia coli, methylotrophs, methanogenes, thermophilic archae, Ruminococcus albus, Cyanobacteria, (viz., Anabaena, Synechococcus, and Oscillatoria sp.), A. cylindrica, A. variabilis, Synechococcus sp. etc. are all know to be producing hydrogen intheir natural metabolic activities, often without any production of CO2, which means Absolutely, Low cost, and sustainable GREEN Hydrogen production, meeting the objectives of the global fuel industry. We just need to research and develop technology to measure and capture the production from an all-open natural Waterbody, for which we already have adequate number of institution and research bodies spread across the country.

[mswayambhu-blog]

Memoirs of COP29: Baku

It has been an event of sorts, for some it was a beacon of hope, while for some it was an utter failure. While people and representatives are free to make their own opinion, but every coin has two sides. In Jain philosophy there’s a concept of “Syatwad” that advocates that there could be seven different perspectives of looking at anything in this world and all of them could be correct simultaneously. Thus, everyone can have their opinion and in spite of they being ironical or event appearing to be opposite, they all can be correct and we should have the courage to accept and appreciate other’s opinions as well. We also had mixed experience during the event, but compared to COP28: Dubai, this was relatively a low-key affair. Smaller venue, lesser crowd, higher security, high restrictions, much more compact and lesser participation. But we ended up achieving much more. Starting from media interview to presentation in both the zones (Blue & Green), Exploring the third zone (innovation zone), participating in side events, interaction with academia, and corporates as well as country representatives from across the globe.

Day-1

The US elections were on top of the mind for the opening speech, with Trump’s “drill baby drill” phrase being used to create ripples in the Climate Action fraternity.

But, frankly speaking, that’s just politics. The most consistent feature of the president-elect is his unpredictability. If he realises that he’s going wrong, he doesn’t mind taking a U-turn.

Moreover, promising money to COP, and funding two conflicts to create war, is anyways no better for the environment anyways.

So, the hope is still on, rest all is speculation. As we said earlier, COP needs a “path & pace correction”, moving from “emission focus” to “sequestration focus”!

The sooner they realize it, the better it is for the world.

Day -2

I understand that the post is delayed. I’m literally posting on end of Day 3, but as the engagement grows, it’ll be tough to post on the same day. It’s a happening event, the visitors get divided into Blue Zone, Green Zone and side events.

The security arrangements are much tougher than COP28, even for the Green Zone, which is usually open to all public. In Dubai, even with out an invite, you could get the pass right at the gate of Green Zone, but it isn’t the same at Baku. Even if you have the invite and a confirmation number, you can’t enter the green zone, till your passport details are not shared with the registration desk.

So, what happens to those who are unable to join in? The side events come to rescue their travel. On 12th November, 2024, we’ve had the following side events –

Achieving transformative climate action through gender responsive, rights-based economic approaches

Transition Away from Fossil Fuels: Technology & Market - Based instruments for Net-Zero Actions

Innovations to maximize tropical forests’ contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation

What can Migrants and Displaced Persons bring to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage?

Decarbonization beyond the value chain: navigating between carbon credits and climate contributions

Climate Science: key take aways in 2024

A message from the Frozen World – the Global Impact of a Changing Cryosphere

Carbon Dioxide Removal: Considerations for Responsible Deployment on Land and Ocean

Towards real, people-led, gender just solutions

Raising the ambition of urban climate action through multilevel governance

Designing for Quality and Equity in Clean Cooking Carbon Projects

Sovereign Wealth Impact: Powering Finance for the SDGs

New Horizons in Methane-Emissions Abatement

Fostering Climate Adaptation and Resilience in Small Island States and Beyond

New Forest Economies: Subnational Government Strategies, REDD+, & Local Engagement

Leveraging blended finance: catalyzing sustainable investments for global impact

Making Climate Finance Work for Climate Action in Agriculture and Food Security

Now tell me, with so many events happenings, you meet hundreds of people, who are all sustainability professionals belonging to the same tribe. So, would you call it day utilized or wasted? So, the bottom line is, when you go with positive bent of mind, you can actually take advantage of the hurdles as well and make it and asset for yourself. That’s a learning from Day-2 of Baku.

Day -3 Very exciting day today, full of meetings, symposiums and focused discussions.

Key reports of the Standing Committee on Finance for COP29

Driving Gender-just Energy Transition through Financing and Capacity Building in the Global South

Trade and investment policies to advance climate ambition and sustainable development

Scaling up Nature Finance and Enterprise in the Amazon Basin and Beyond

Artificial Intelligence solutions to enable rapid scale up of Renewable Energy

Transformational Adaptation

Supporting Indigenous-Peoples led solutions to climate change and loss and damage

Ensuring Integrity in the Voluntary Carbon Market

Open access activity data and digital tools to help countries and other stakeholders meet their ETF

Unlocking the potential for financing methane mitigation from solid waste for the NDCs and beyond

Innovation Ecosystems for Climate Action: Digital Technologies, Industrial Solutions, and Governance

Scaling up climate action in fragile states: what are the hurdles and how to overcome them?

Innovative Pathways for Emission Reduction: Perspectives from NGOs, Government and Private Sector

Tackling Corruption: A Missing Piece in the Climate Finance Agenda

Fully funded, fair, fast, and feminist phase-out of fossil fuels in the United States

Recognizing Net Zero Ambition and Accelerating Progress

The teething troubles have been sorted out. Met some wonderful people doing great work in the environment sector from carbon capture to waste management to governance to finance. This is a platform to showcase the good work, unfortunately all people working on ground are not able to afford taking a stall here, because they’re working for saving the planet, and not making money.

Government and intergovernmental discussions happen in the Blue Zone, at least these people working on ground should get a place in the Green Zone. Or maybe create a White Zone from COP30, so that these wonderful works could be showcased and replicated across the globe. We’ve maximized the foot prints of pollution, now is the time to globalize the footprints of restoration too.

Met some good corporates from Azerbaijan, Saudi ad UAE, all keen to diversify towards NbS, which was a good surprise. In fact, even an industrial training institute was affirmative to add a course on NbS to their curriculum, which was quite unexpected. Met a few Environment Ministers from African Union too, who were keen on restoration of natural resources.

Day -4 A very happening day, full of professional, emotional, physical and mental roller-coaster rides.

The day started with a wonderful session on “Cooling the heat: Enhancing Energy Efficiency of Refrigeration and Cooling Sector”, followed by another session on “Drive climate ambition and finance”, then came a session on "Climate Finance for Fast Action", then came " Climate Technologies: Impact Stories", another on "Invest in Soil Health". Some sessions were happening parallelly too, fortunately we had a team of three. Side-by-side were also reaching out to MoEFCC to help us get through the Blue Zone badge for our session with Towards Healthy, Inclusive and Sustainable Food Systems: Agroecology, Soil Health, and Healthy Diets, organized by Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), CIFOR-ICRAF, Agroecology Coalition, Youth in Agroecology and Restoration Network (YARN), The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (TIP).

Also met a power company from Romania and explained our perspective of green energy, and how to make large scale solar plants and age-old hydro-power dam reservoirs more sustainable. After which we had to rush to Climate Action Innovation Hub for specialized events focused upon —Sustainable Innovation Forum 2024, Hydrogen Transition Summit and Agri-Food Systems Summit at Baku Mariott Boulevard.

The next hop was COP29 Flagship Friday Evening Event - Climate Finance & Innovation: Adaptation & Resilience, held at Ganjlik Plaza, 95 Ataturk Avenue, Baku, which was yet another experience. Wonderful people, great deliberations, interesting discussions and serious business propositions. It was organized by AIM (not Atal Innovation Mission) but Azerbaijan Innovation Markaz, something like Startup India, back home.

Finally, the business day was over after this. Had dinner at Nizami street and concluded the day.

Day -5

The day started with Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) hosted event, the second Edition of CEEW Leaders’ Dialogue, on the sidelines of COP29, held at Hyatt Regency, Baku.

The dialogue hosted thought-provoking conversations with domain experts including Dr Arunabha Ghosh, Founder-CEO, CEEW, who deliberated on Accelerating the low-carbon drive of Bharat towards Viksit Bharat, followed by an elaborate panel discussion on Trillions for billions: Setting financing for development back on track. The second panel discussed upon the subject of “One size does not fit all: Crafting bespoke national energy transition plans”. Later we had deliberation on Water matters: Valuing sustainable and resilient water infrastructure, moderate by Nitin Bassi, Senior Programme Lead – Sustainable Water, CEEW, after which we had to rush back to green zone for a presentation.

At the green zone, we had an opportunity to interact with the teams of “Viveka Company Creation Program”, “Innovation and Digital Development Agency” of Azerbaijan (an initiative of Azerbaijan Innovation Center or the Azerbaijan Innovation Markazi, inaugurated on 2nd October, 2024 to boost up the startup ecosystem in the country) and a lot of sustainability startups being nurtured by Viveka, because “Viveka Company Creation Program” is a unique program for startups that want to advance from the early stage to the MVP, i.e. the minimum viable product stage. These startups were primarily from Azerbaijan, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

The startups included precision agriculture domain to Water treatment, oil sludge treatment, irrigation with AI integration and many other sustainability domain technologies.

[mswayambhu-blog]

Greenovation Hackathon –A True ASIAN event

Bharat has been the most forthcoming countries across all the member nations of UN, towards the commitments to implementation of UNSDGs, because here “sustainability” is not just a buzzword, very well imbibed in the culture itself. Vaidic Science is the most comprehensive knowledge base to understand the natural processes and life sciences, because it starts from the basic building blocks of life and goes till the universe.

Bharat is in a position to LEAD the World in solving the global warming & climate change crisis, just by adhering to our own holistic knowledge of Vaidic Science.

Therefore, on the governance side, we’ve constituted National Designated Authority for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (NDAIAPA), under the chairpersonship of Secretary, MoEFCC. While on the other hand we have industry-academia alliance to organize a nation-wide hackathon for sustainability startups to nurture the talent and innovations for solving the sustainability matrix like Greenovation Hackathon.

The HOST: ICFAI Group of Educational Institutions – established in the year 1984 as a non-profit society for empowering people through education, by the pioneer visionary Shri NJ Yasaswy. Since then ICFAI has established 10+ universities across the breadth of the country from Uttarakhand to Nagaland, and also the length of the nation from Chhattisgarh till Himachal. The Greenovation Hackathon was held in the Dehradun Campus, in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

The PARTNER: Re Sustainability Limited (Formerly Known as Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd) – was the industry partner in the event. Ramky is a true sustainability champion and an organization worthy of being termed as “Born in Bharat and Serving the Globe”.  A brain child of Shri B. S. Shantharaju, who made it big enough to compel like of KKR investment group to take 60% stakes in their vision, that involved wide array of solutions, including Waste Management, Recycling, Integrated Environmental Services, Consultancy, Facilities Management, Car Park Management, and Construction & Demolition Waste Management, among others. With an extensive footprint of 99+ operating locations spread across the world, to enable a sustainable future.

The PARTICIPANTS: Sustainability Startups from across the country – the event was flashed on all social media platforms, NASSCOM startup ecosystem, F6 platform, the Manthan startup ecosystem, which resulted in hundreds of applications. Our team at ICFAI, Hyderabad went through a painstaking process of identification, verification, segregation and detailed study of each application. After the 1st round of detailed study fifty startups belonging to diverse sectors like Agri-Food Technology to Circular Economy to Clean Tech to Climate Tech to Regenerative Farming to EVs to E-Waste management, Health Care, Deep Tech, Medical Waste Management, Sustainable Fashion, Sustainable Jewelry, Emission Reduction, Removal of Legacy emission, ESG, SaaS for Sustainability, MSW Management, Plastic Recycling, Sustainable Packaging, Sustainable Tourism and Waste to Energy to Wealth. Bottomline, is you name it, and they were there. There were over fifteen remarkable applications dedicated to circular economy, while nine from recycling sector to reinstate sustainability. In the next round, again sixteen bests were shortlisted to be given the opportunity to showcase their solution in the two-days exhibition at ICFAI Dehradun campus and also pitch in front of the Jury.

In the lush green valley of Dehradun, stands the ICFAI University campus in the area called Selaqui, spread over 25 acres and equipped with 2.5 lakhs square feet of built-up area for academic blocks, workshops, laboratories, library, auditorium, seminar halls, and more. The two days event started with Arrivals of Dignitaries, registration of the attendees, startups and students from various universities of Dehradun and nearby Haridwar, and even up till Roorkee. The Welcome Address was done by Dr. Ramesh Chand Ramola, Registrar – ICFAI University, Dehradun, followed by program and the event introduction to all the participants and attendees by Dr. Ram Karan Singh, Vice Chancellor (IUD). Dr. (Prof.) M Sainath, who helped IUD from the ICFAI – Hyderabad campus from conceiving the program till conducting the program took a keynote session on "Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Indian HEIs", while Dr. Neel Mani, Director, Institute of AI, DSVV spoke about the “Future Technologies” and finally a Vote of Thanks was read by Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, Associate Dean, ITS, IUD, before breaking for lunch.

Post lunch, Shri Amit J Sharma, Head, Business Excellence, Re Sustainability (the industry partner, sponsor and an Hon’ble Jury member) elaborated upon “Global Trends in Sustainability and the Circular Economy", which was enlightening, not just for the students, but also for many startups. After this, the exhibition and the Hackathon Pitching Sessions started parallelly at the exhibition halls in K-107 &108 as well as at the 1st floor board room respectively. Startups were divided into three groups and each group had a detailed pitching session lasting from a minimum of 45 minutes to a maximum of 120 minutes too. All the startups can vouch for the patient hearing given to them by the Hon’ble jury members, and the detailed interaction done with them like no other startups Hackathon in the country.

The 2nd day in the after noon around 1400 hours (2pm) the results were announced.

The Winners –

Athar Packaging (Remarkable Innovation Prize):  Athar Packaging Solutions addresses the critical

issue of plastic pollution and the need for sustainable packaging alternatives. Every year, 400+ million tons of plastic waste gets generated across the globe, within which over 80 million tons ends up in landfills and oceans, causing severe environmental damage. This pollution not only harms marine life but also disrupts ecosystems and contributes to climate change. Traditional plastic packaging, derived from non-renewable resources, exacerbates this issue due to its non-biodegradable nature. Consumers and businesses increasingly recognize the environmental impact of their choices, but there is a lack of viable, eco-friendly packaging options. Many companies still rely on conventional plastic due to cost and convenience, unaware of sustainable alternatives or hesitant to switch due to perceived higher costs and lack of awareness.

Athar Packaging solution transforms waste materials into durable, reusable packaging, offering a practical and scalable alternative to traditional plastics. By repurposing discarded materials, the demand for virgin plastic production reduces, contributing to a circular economy. The innovative packaging solutions cater to various industries, providing cost-effective, high-quality, and customizable options that meet the growing demand for sustainable practices. Athar Packaging Solutions bridges the gap between environmental responsibility and business needs, driving a positive change in the packaging industry by revolutionizing the packaging industry by transforming waste materials into high-quality, reusable packaging.

WomenasticCo (Remarkable Innovation Prize):  WomenasticCo is a women led initiative into plastic waste management in a most innovative way by converting plastic waste into 3D printer filament by using only 5 Kw of solar energy and emitting low to no carbon footprint at all. Currently the MSME units recycling the plastic waste consume a lot energy, produces emission and carbon footprint, limited recycled products and no skill development at all. Enter WomenasticCo with their most innovative, holistic and sustainable solution for solving the plastic pollution for good. In the state of Haryana, on this youth day, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Harayana, Shri Nayab Singh Saini, honored our startup WomenasticCo with the 1st prize in “Ideathon Haryana” competition. They were awarded with a cheque of ₹ 31,000/- (Thirty-One thousand Rupees).

Cluix Pvt. Ltd. (3rd Prize): CLUIX is a pioneering clean technology startup dedicated to research and development. Globally, the alarming figure of 771 million people without access to safe drinking water represents a continuing catastrophe affecting roughly one-tenth of the world's population.  Cluix is on a mission to create transformative solutions that exceed established industry benchmarks to achieve this by integrating cutting-edge advancements, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and embedded systems, into their product for spot testing of Water with laboratory grade precision. Furthermore, CLUIX prioritizes three fundamental principles in all their research, i.e., affordability, reliability, and sustainability.

Agso AgroSoldier Pvt. Ltd. (2nd Prize): AGSO: Agrosoldier, is a startup that converts any organic trash into highly value-added products within ten days of the time by 100% natural regenerative processes. Currently, they are upscaling three to four tons of Bio-waste into feed, fertilizer and Food in a shorter period without any external chemicals or inoculums, so their process is done naturally with the help of the Black Soldier Fly. This is a 100% organic and purely natural and efficient process, so any municipality or town management team can allow this to be done in the same organic waste management system at their primaries.

Vaidic Srijan LLP (1st Prize): All across the globe, we have a problem of overcrowded cities with depleting natural resources. Bad Air quality, sewage, biodiversity losses, drinking Water availability, polluted Waterbodies, increasing GHG emissions, sanitation & hygiene issues, depleting agricultural production and declining farm profitability, Chemicals & Antibiotics in Human food chain, floods & droughts, Water logging and so on. All these problems are the chain reaction of Water, Soil and Air getting contaminated. And therefore, a holistic & sustainable nature-based solution can solve all of them in one go. This is where Vaidic Srijan LLP steps in, which is a climate tech startup, which has developed Cownomics® Technology, for resurrection of the native ecology of Soil, Water and Air, through the Waterbodies. It restores the “ecosystem services” of the Waterbodies & Wetlands, “in-situ” conditions. The rejuvenated Water gets transformed into neuro-immuno booster for plants and animals, resulting diseases, pests and weather resilient farms of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Animal husbandry reducing the input cost and multiplying the yield.

The event was over, but the journey will continue, with newer startups, more events, more cohorts, accelerator programs, appreciations, winners, prize money, grants, impact investments and investors to enrich these ASIAN (Academia-Startups-Industry-Association-Networking) events.

[mswayambhu-blog]

EcoDredging & Flood Mitigation – The Vaidic Science Approach

Historically, tanks and lakes were an important source fulfilling Water demands of the population. Kautilya’s Arthashastra (4th century BC) gives explicit information regarding the construction of dams, canals, management of canal Water, including exemption from tax. Rules for the location of tanks were also outlined. According to the Smritis, persons who breached tanks were given the death penalty by drowning in the tank Water. – And this was a practice and norm documented 2,500 years back in our country. Even prior to that in our scriptures like Skand Puran, Matsya Puran and Padm Puran there are various hymns or Shloks dedicated towards the science of Waterbody maintenance.

Many citations can also be seen in the epics of Ramayan & Mahabharat. The entire episode of Yaksh & Yudhishthir conversation has many coded descriptions of lake salinity, lake contamination and eradication of the pollution, and it happen exactly on the bank of a lake, wherein all Pandavs go one by one in search of Water to quench their thirst and take Water to their brothers and Mother. The importance of Water and underground aquifer is again described in Mahabharat when Pitamaha Bheeshm fall down and seeks Water to drink.

Even in recent history of last 2000 thousand years, Earth dams as well as masonry dams were constructed in very large numbers, in tens of thousands, from the 2nd century to the 17th century. The dams were constructed across the same river, one below the other, as well as across its tributaries. One such series of tanks in Mysore had no fewer than 1,200 inter-dependent tanks. The total numbers of tanks in Mysore was 37,000, the largest of which had a surface of 40 sq.kms.

Thus understanding Water, its importance and maintenance of the Waterbodies have been intrinsic part of our cultural ethos and social value system since time immemorial. 

Coming to the post-independence era, as per a study, there were 43,000 tanks in Chennai which were functioning in the 19th century 10,000 tanks were in disrepair. The area irrigated from these tanks exceeded 1,415,000 hectares. While today after 75 years, we all know Chennai is almost on the verge of hitting ZERO day.

In Madhya Pradesh alone, there were 50,000 small private tanks which irrigated 262,600 hectares. According to the Survey and Settlement Records of the Government prepared in the early 1930s, there were 937 lakes, tanks and Waterbodies in Bangalore. The area of the tank-bed of these Waterbodies was 26,468 acres. But today the area lost in the tank beds is 2,500 acres, according to a preliminary survey by the Survey and Settlement and the Revenue Department. According to a report in The Times of India (5 July 2009), there were 264 lakes in 1970; now they are 84. In January 2000, the Bangalore Development Authority breached a 32-acre lake, Arakere Tank bund, to make a road. The Chikkamaranahalli tank, Malady tank, Miller tank all dried out. After the tanks dried out, their land was used for different constructions and other purposes.

Disappearing Lakes

The lake may be infilled with deposited sediment and gradually become a wetland such as a swamp or marsh. Large Water plants, typically Water weeds, accelerate this closing process significantly because they partially decompose to form peat soils that fill the shallows. Conversely, peat soils in a marsh can naturally burn and reverse this process to recreate a shallow lake resulting in a dynamic equilibrium between marsh and lake. This is significant since wildfire has been largely suppressed in the developed world over the past century. This has artificially converted many shallow lakes into emergent marshes. Turbid lakes and lakes with many plant-eating fish tend to disappear more slowly. A "disappearing" lake (barely noticeable on a human timescale) typically has extensive plant mats at the Water's edge. These become a new habitat for other plants, like peat moss when conditions are right, and animals, many of which are very rare. Gradually the lake closes and young peat may form, forming a fen. In lowland river valleys where a river can meander, the presence of peat is explained by the infilling of historical oxbow lakes. In the very last stages of succession, trees can grow in, eventually turning the wetland into a forest.

Some lakes can disappear seasonally. These are called intermittent lakes, ephemeral lakes, or seasonal lakes and can be found in karstic terrain. Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions. Subterranean drainage may limit surface Water with few to no rivers or lakes

A prime example of an intermittent lake is Lake Cerknica in Slovenia or Lag Prau Pulte in Graubünden. Other intermittent lakes are only the result of above-average precipitation in a closed, or endorheic basin, usually filling dry lake beds. This can occur in some of the driest places on earth, like Death Valley. This occurred in the spring of 2005, after unusually heavy rains. The lake did not last into the summer, and was quickly evaporated. A more commonly filled lake of this type is Sevier Lake of west-central Utah.

Sometimes a lake will disappear quickly. On 3 June 2005, in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, a lake called Lake Beloye vanished in a matter of minutes. News sources reported that government officials theorized that this strange phenomenon may have been caused by a shift in the soil underneath the lake that allowed its Water to drain through channels leading to the Oka River.

The presence of ground permafrost is important to the persistence of some lakes. According to research published in the journal Science ("Disappearing Arctic Lakes", June 2005), thawing permafrost may explain the shrinking or disappearance of hundreds of large Arctic lakes across western Siberia. The idea here is that rising air and soil temperatures thaw permafrost, allowing the lakes to drain away into the ground.

Effects of disappearing lakes

Increased diversion for irrigated agriculture, the building of dams and reduced rainfall over the lake’s surface, are also named as contributing factors. These include a changing local climate – hitting agriculture, livelihoods and heath, increasing the salinity of the Water, destroying ecosystems and wetland habitats and increasing the chances of windblown ‘salt storms’.

According to the World Preservation Foundation one third of the world’s major rivers and lakes are drying up, and the groundWater wells for 3 billion people are being affected. The loss of rivers, lakes and underground Water reserves are impacting the livelihoods of millions of people, hitting animals, farming and electricity production, as well as threatening to exacerbate climate change further through the release of CO2 and methane. While climate change is playing a role, the building of dams, over extraction and mismanagement of Water and over-fishing are all playing a part in the disappearing of the world’s lakes and rivers.

The main cause for the drying up of the lake is believed to be drought caused by climate change impacting the inflow to the lake – resulting in a 65% reduction in Water levels. But that’s just a half knowledge. In reality, drought & floods are both two sides of the same coin. When the natural link between surface Waterbody and underground aquifer, via soil capillaries is compromised due to deposition of sludge, the after math in peak of summers is drought and the ripple effect of the same during monsoon is flood.

Life Cycle of Waterbody

Seeing the urban lakes, and doing an extensive study on the same, makes it clear that a Water body cannot disappear or die without the human intervention. A Water body has a complete ecology within, that keeps it alive, and the ecology is meant to go on and on.

The nature has planned a natural remediation of every Water body within itself, it’s cyclic and complete. Single-celled microbes do photosynthesis to release oxygen, these microbes are eaten by multi-celled planktons, which in turn are food for fishes, lobsters, shrimps and prawns, and their excreta is again ammonia, which is neutralized by single celled microbes. So the Water keeps renewing itself with this cycle and prohibits Eutrophication, Naturally.

But we humans, keep adding pollution to the Water. Starting from washing the dishes, to clothes, to animal bathing to human bathing everything happens on banks of the Water body. This pollution, gets to the bottom of the lake as sludge. The sludge does many harms to the Water body – namely, chocking of the soil capillaries, restricting the minerals cycles and the vertical movement of Water, reduction in DO (dissolved Oxygen) level by increase in the COD (chemical Oxygen demand), increasing the Water viscosity & making the color darker, and bringing up the Water level. Rising Water level and reduction of the depth of the Water body makes the Water vulnerable to vaporization, due to sun’s heat during the day.

Reduction of the DO level on the other hand starts the process of death of the Water body. It gives the right environment for the growth of disease causing anaerobic bacteria, which decomposes the contents of the Water body to release hydrogen sulphide (H2S) that causes the bad smell. So if you find any smelly Water body, understand that the death process has started.

This gives the right environment for the blue green algae (BGA) to flourish and cover the Water surface, which reduces the amount of sunlight to reach inside Water. This is the second stage of the death of the Water body. And finally, Water weeds like hyacinth grow over the surface, confirming the death of the Water body. With Water weeds on the top layer, the whole aquatic ecosystem dies.

This rapidly increases the sludge deposition process further, as the self-sustaining ecosystem is no more, thus natural remediation doesn’t happen and all dead organic material deposits in the bottom of the Water body as sludge. Thus the depth reduces and Water evaporates. Eventually, it converts to a swamp marsh land and further drying gives the low land surface, which gets acquired immediately, as it is in the center of a developed urban society. Either people make houses or roads or railway track or any other urban settlement.

Thus if you look at it, a Waterbody starts to dry from the bottom, not from the top.

The key to keep the Waterbody perennial, mitigate the threat of flood and drought, recharge the aquifer and keep the underground Water table healthy, eradicate air pollution, gain carbon credits through the blue carbon sinks, solve the sewage puzzle and make drinking & irrigation Water available – all lie in just one focused and uncompromised approach of keeping the native ecology of the wetlands in a healthy and “Alive” condition.

Consumption of the sludge deposits is therefore key step towards restoration and rejuvenation of the aqua-ecology.

Sludge & Silt

It is very important at this point to understand the difference between silt & sludge because often people use them a replaceable terms, especially in Government tenders, wherein the specifically mention the term “de-siltation”.

Sludge – is the settled deposits in the bottom of the Waterbody, of the Suspended (TSS) & Dissolved Solids (TDS) in Water, that come in with sewage or effluent discharge. The key chemical contaminants of the Water, that settles down to chock the soil capillaries and disconnect the vertical link between the surface Waterbody and the underground aquifer, disabling the natural rain Water harvesting and aquifer recharge.

Silt – on the other hand is a result of a natural phenomenon of grinding of soil in to its nano-particles format. When the soil is beneath Water, movement of Water molecules (which is always spiral, due to the bipolar structure) grinds the soil and silt gets created. This silt is required to create the soil capillaries, which is the link between surface Water and the aquifer. Therefore, SILT is a natural sediment component of soil that is there in every Waterbody, naturally building the weathered top soil suiting the aquatic ecosystem and establishing a link with the aquifer

For dredging of the Waterbody for restoration of the lake ecology, sludge has to be eradicated, not the silt. And the eradication process has to be consumption, not physical removal.

So what we need is to DE-SLUDGE the Waterbody, and NOT De-silt it. But no chemical or earthmoving equipment can differentiate between the two. Removing the weathered top soil of the Waterbody de-links it from the aqua-ecology thus it isn’t restoration, but a re-start.

Thus the mechanical or chemical approach is WRONG. The RIGHT approach is ECOLOGICAL. In nature nothing goes waste, therefore even the sludge is to be consumed, NOT removed.

The stopgap remedy

The generic solution adopted by most of the conservation bodies is mechanical dredging. Now this has its own limitations, since we are trying to solve a biological problem, mechanically.

It removes not just the organic sludge, but also digs the soil bed below. The soil surface below the Waterbody is cultured for ages to support the aquatic ecosystem, when it is mechanically removed, the soil surface below the top soil emerges as the new surface. Now this will take its own sweet time to get accustomed to the aquatic environment, that’ll elongate the time for the aqua ecosystem to stabilize.

Secondly, this is a tedious process to the dredger inside the Water body.

Thirdly, an expensive process.

The sludge mechanically removed itself becomes a problem. How and where to dispose it? Largely is used in the landfills that means there’s a big transportation cost as well.

Moreover, mechanical dredging disrupts the aqua-ecosystem, instead of helping it.

It is an energy intensive process that uses a lot of hydrocarbon / fossil fuel, therefore creates air pollution and is non eco-friendly.

The Vaidic Science Approach – Vaidic Srijan.

Ecological solution called “EcoDredging” is the MOST sustainable solution in this regard, which is an effect of “Resurrection of the native ecology of the Wetland”.

We conduct a careful study of the Waterbody for all the problems taking all aspects in to consideration like agroclimatic zone, amount of pollution coming in on regular basis, type of contamination, Water quality parameters, Waterbody features like surface area, depth, dimensions, vegetation on embankment and so on. Then the medicine is made, diluted in the fresh Water from the same agro-climatic zone and poured in the Waterbody.

This medicine gets synthesized in Water in presence of Sunlight and the resurrection of the aqua-ecology starts happening. The changes happen rapidly in the physical, chemical and biological layers through the natural process. Photosynthesis starts happening naturally and the oxygen generated within the Water is pure & natural. Moreover it is released from the bottom, thus gets dissolved completely there by increasing the DO levels multiple times. This creates the right environment for Aerobic bacteria to dwell and therefore the aerobic digestion starts to happen, eradicating the foul smell in the vicinity of the Waterbody. In the aerobic environment, the anaerobic organisms can’t survive and this keeps the Water safe from disease causing pathogens resulting into natural disinfection of the Waterbody.

Bottom line is – we enable sustainable resolution of Waterbody contamination through EcoDredging.

[mswayambhu-blog]

Here’s our presentation done in the Thrivability Matters Webinar held on 20th August, 2024, hosted in Australia. We were given the topic: Water: the living link between Life on Land. Enjoy the session on YouTube. View , Like, Comment on YouTube, as you like it. And if you find it interesting enough, do share it in your own circles.

The time given was 20 minutes for the presentation, followed by the Q&A session, the link that we shared earlier. Here’s the link to the main presentation

[mswayambhu-blog]

Story of Man...

Long long ago, on a beautiful planet called earth which was all clean and green, there was a species called homo-sapiens. It was a weak species, made to be somewhere in the food-chain between herbivores and carnivores, as they were neither good runners like deer nor had well developed nails & canines like the tigers. But they were blessed with a boon, and that was to make and use the tools. These tools differentiated them from rest of the animals, they walked on two legs unlike any other animal species, so they were between terrestrial and avian species. Use of the tools made their life easier, as now they were able to get fruits without climbing the tree and were also able to hunt down animals much bigger than their won size.

So they became hunter gathers, they used animal skin for protecting themselves against cruel winters and they fed upon the animal meet for their food and survival. And then they also discovered another wonderful tool called fire. While fire was always know to the planet, but Man learnt the concept of controlling fire with limited burning and even switching it off with water. Now they got a good friend in wolves, who started dwelling upon the flesh and bones left overs of human hunt, as these wolves could get to eat without hunting on their own. This tamed & domesticated friend of man was called a dog. Dogs helped him to add some super abilities including high decibel hearing, focused smelling, sharp nails, developed canines, super running abilities – all working on his commands. Life was much more comfortable now.

But then the man learnt agriculture and progressed to settlements from being the hunter gathering nomads. Now instead of hunting here and there, they built up homes and started growing their own food, good enough for him and his animal friends. The comfort quotient got further swollen in their life. Meanwhile they kept developing tools to make life furthermore comfortable, from wheels to pottery, to lever to pulleys and so on. They learnt metallurgy, they made cutting tools, and then also got arms like bow and arrow to hurt and kill from a distance.

As each one of them worked in a different direction, they developed expertise in different areas, and thus started a new system of exchange – the barter system. Each one was making his / her skills better and all good things were exchanged in between them. Now they were a mutually dependent society and life was a bliss. Man was now a social animal. While they used all the resources, but they lived in harmony with nature and kept returning it back to nature like all other living beings on the planet.

But then they invented money. They agreed to put up a value for each of their produce, which they could exchange for money. This also introduced the concept of labour, wherein one human could employ another human to work for money, as they employee could buy all his daily needs from the money that the employer paid him. This made humans develop more sophisticated tools in all regards. The evolution was still on. Man was more ambitious now and started thinking of ruling and making laws for all other humans. From settlements, he grew to villages, from villages, he went to cities and trade centres and all of them put together they now made a state. – That was now a civilisation.

Like every creator loves his creation and values it beyond everything else, humans also loved their two creations above all the other things that they had around them – Money and Civilisation / state. Man wanted to accumulate as much as he could for both the money and the authority. He never ever realised that in his quest for more accumulation of his own creation, he started hurting the nature’s creation. His authority was on humans, but he mistook it for governing even the nature and started consuming nature across the planet.

Man never realised that his over consumption of natural resources was leading him towards his own peril, his own demise. Neither did he realise that the planet was capable of rebooting and restarting afresh, with human or without human – the planet was self-sustainable, since it was a divine creation, not a man-made – money or mandate.

Thus, entangled with his own creation and misusing his boon, eventually man wiped out his own species and the planet Earth was back to its own beautiful stage of being green and clean again…..