Import of Crude Oil - A big reason for fall of the rupee

Rising prices of crude oil all over the world is hindering the growth of many nations in the world and India is no exception. India is capable of producing only 30% of the nations requirement, and 70% has to be imported.

Since 1990, there has been no increase in India's production of crude oil. However, the requirement of petrol, diesel, lpg, cng has been on the rise.

Rise of Crude Oil Consumption of India leading to imports

Though India has many coal reserves which meet 53% of the power requirement, oil accounts for 31% of energy consumption. Natural gas provides provides 8% and hydro electric energy gives 6%. Nuclear and other renewable forms of energy account for only 2% of the total energy consumption. This makes crude oil a major player in determining the economy of the nation since most of it is imported.

In 2011, the country was consuming around 3,426,000 barrels per day. The current price of crude oil is around 105 dollars per barrel. This means in 2011 India could have spent around 3426000 x 105 x 365 = 131,301,450,000 dollars. Most of this money goes to Saudi Arabia and Iran from where the crude oil is imported.

The crude oil is purchased in dollars, so India has to purchase USD with INR. This creates a demand for dollars and an excess of rupee causing the evaluation of dollar and devaluation of rupee.

The current situation is hard to control because India has become very much dependent on oil imports. In order to stop further devaluation of rupee against the dollar india needs to move towards energy independence. The falling currency can be stabilized by increasing exports which is possible by industrialization and agriculture. It should also be noted that India has a vast population which needs to feed so agriculture alone cannot be the answer. India desperately need industries which can sell finished products globally, just like China, which makes almost all electronics in the world. India celebrates diwali by lighting their homes with chinese lights, used phones, computers, tablets which are manufactured in china. India should also focus on such industrial growth and also venture in those areas yet to be exploited in global business that could strengthen our economy. Until that time, we cannot expect the rupee to revive.

All you need to know about Mobile Number Portability(MNP)

Mobile Number Portability, in short, MNP enables a consumer to change his mobile operator without changing his number. This is available in many countries across the world and was introduced in India from 20th of January 2011. The feature also enables porting from postpaid numbers of one network to prepaid/postpaid of another.

To shift your mobile number from one operator to another, a customer shall send PORT <your Mobile Number> to 1900. You will receive a unique alphanumeric UPC (Unique Porting Code) as a SMS from 1901 giving 8 digit alpha-numeric Unique Porting Code (UPC) and UPC expiry date in MM/DD/YYYY format. Visit the office of your new mobile operator and give them this UPC Code.

However, there are a few catches to this. Mobile numbers can be ported only when they meet the basic criteria:

1. There should be no outstanding bills or negative balance(in case of prepaid).
2. It should not be a bundled pack. Some bundled pack numbers cannot be ported.
3. Porting is intra circle. This means you cannot port a Mumbai based number to Delhi.
4. You must remain 90 days within the same network before you can ask for port.
5. There should not be a name / ownership transfer request in progress.
6. Port code (UPC) should be mentioned correctly in porting form.

Once these criteria are met you need to visit the operator store or local store of the network you want to switch to. There are 2 separate forms you need to complete:

1. Customer Application/Information for (CAF/CIF)
2. MNP Form.

You will need a recent passport size photograph, a xerox copy of photo id proof and address proof. For Photo id proof you may provide a PAN card, a driving license, passport, voter id card, etc. Address proof can be a document with your postal address along with your name like ration card, telephone bill, bank statement, etc. In most cases only one document is enough for both. However, BSNL requires 2 separate documents and mandates the PAN card to be provided in case it is available.

The photo copies of the documents must be self attested (signed) and the passport size photograph signed across in such a way that a part of the signature remains on the form and some part on the photograph. This is done probably to ensure that the forms are filled in person. The rest of the form has to be filled as it is specified.

The MNP form is a separate form where you need to provide the number you want to port, the network name it is currently in, and finally sign the same.

TRAI says that the porting charge is Rs. 20. However, the exact amount varies from operator to operator.Once porting is complete you need to recharge with various packs and amounts to start using it.

Porting takes approximately 6 to 7 days from the date of submission of form. In case you are submitting the form to a local store then add 1 or 2 days more.

Once the form has been submitted you will get an sms within 48 hours from your operator that your porting request has been received. You can either call the customer care to find the current status of your request or through MNPIndia.com

MNPIndia.in is a very helpful website to check the status of your porting request. You just need to fill in your mobile number and the porting code for checking the status of your application.

There are 2 operators involved:
1. Donor Operator (from which you wish to port out)
2. Receiver Operator (to which you wish to port in)

The Receiver operator forwards your porting request request to the donor operator. You will get an sms alert when they are received. The donor operator validates your port out request by checking your eligibility based on the points mentioned above. In case the criteria is not met they may decide to decline the port out request. To be sure you may call up before hand to your operator and ask them if your mobile number is in good standing to port out.

Once the document is cleared by the donor operator the request is sent to the receiver operator as okay-ed and they provide a time at which they will switch off the current sim card. You will also get an sms alert once the documents are cleared. You will also be informed when they will switch off the existing sim card.

Once you receive the sms that your current sim is being switched off at certain time, you need to be ready to exchange the sim card. There will be a blackout period up to 1 hour when none of the sim will work. After the black out period your receiver operator sim will start working and will show the towers on your mobile. Once you start seeing the towers call up customer care of the receiver operator and verify your identity. Once identity is verified you are good to go. You still need to recharge with start up packs and main balance.

So enjoy porting your mobile number to get the maximum benefits that suits your needs.

Was an Indian, The First Man to Fly??????

 It was 17, December 1903 at Kitty Chowk, North Carolina, USA. The most awaited men’s dream visually came true. It was a breakthrough in the history of mankind. Yes! Orvile and Wilbur Wright, commonly mentioned as the Wright brothers proved that it is possible for human to travel through air, by flying the world’s first aircraft.  But the question is was that the first object to fly in the space?

On june 1895, 8 full years before the Wright brothers demonstration at Kitty Chowk a remarkable incident took place at the sandy Chowpathy beach of Mumbai, India…

Shivkar Bapuji Thalped, an Indian scientist and a Sanskrit scholar along with his wife at chowpathy beach was found more excited and aunxious that day. The people around found that something sensational are going to happen there. Some knew what it was, some did not. Some were putting their instinct to work.  A huge mass of crowd has accumulated and among them was Shri Sayaji Rao Gaekwa, who was the Maharaja of Baroda during that time and the most influenced famous scholar justice Mahadeva Govin-da Ranade. Everyone there was waiting with anxiety and before that anxiety drowned that miracle happened. Yes! The world’s first unmanned aircraft named Marutsakhā was thrown into the space and it tarred the sky at a velocity of about 40,000 Km/hr. After reaching a height of more than 1500 feet it landed safely without any damage. Between the hustle, talpade was literally appreciated by Maharaja at that moment itself. It was Maharaja’s happiest moment for which he has been waiting for long period. The News was then published in the famous News Paper “Kesari”, the next day.

How was it possible by Talpade to achieve such a breakthrough? Few years ago……

Shivkar Babuji Talpade (1864 – 1916, Maharashtra), from his childhood developed his dreams of flying and getting into space. He was a great Sanskrit scholar and started searching the possibilities of man flying in the space in ancient Indian scripts, Vedas. He thoroughly learned the ancient scripts containing Vimanika Sasthras (Aeronautics Theory). On that fine morning, Talpade was lucky enough to meet Shri Suparaaya Sasthri. Sasthri gave him a bundle of treasures which contained suthras (formulas) of making an aircraft, written by the great rishi Bharadwaja. After this incident Talpade continued his work more seriously than before. Maharaja provided the funds necessary for his project. It may be too hard to believe that modern day aircrafts and even most advanced one are discussed in Vedas which are written some 10,000 years ago. But, Talpade was fully dependent on Rig Veda and Vimanika Sashthra only.

Few years later, a scholar named Acharya mentioned that “Vaimanika Shastra deals about aeronautics including the design of aircraft the way they can be used for transportation and other applications in detail. The knowledge of aeronautics is described in Sanskrit in 100 sections, eight chapters, 500 principles and 3000 slokas including 32 techniques to fly an aircraft. In fact, depending on the classifications of eras or Yugas in modern Kaliyuga aircraft used are called Krithakavimana flown by the power of engines by absorbing solar energies!’ It is feared that only portions of Bharadwaja’s masterpiece Vaimanika Shas-tra survive today.”

Again to 1895……..

After the news release in the media, few years later talpade and sasthri were jailed by the British Government. Maharaja was warned literally. Few years later, after talpade returned home, his wife passed away and he withdrew his research. After his death in 1916, it is said that his relatives sold some of his important works to few German people.  A model reconstruction of Marutsakhā was exhibited at an exhibition on aviation at Vile Parle, and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has preserved documents relating to the experiment.

What is special about Marutshakha?

The importance of the Wright brothers lies in the fact, that it was a manned flight for a distance of 120 feet and Orville Wright became the first man to fly. But Talpade’s unmanned aircraft flew to a height of 1500 feet before crashing down and the historian Evan Koshtka, has described Talpade as the ‘first creator of an aircraft’.

Marutshakha was the first model to have an Ion Mercury Vortex Engine. The Vaimanika Shastra describes in detail, the construction of what is called, the mercury vortex engine the forerunner of the ion engines being made today by NASA. The information on the mercury engines can be found in the ancient Vedic text called Samaranga Sutradhara. This text also devotes 230 verses, to the use of these machines in peace and war. The Indologist William Clarendon, who has written down a detailed description of the mercury vortex engine in his translation of Samaranga Sutradhara quotes thus ‘Inside the circular air frame, place the mercury-engine with its solar mercury boiler at the aircraft center. By means of the power latent in the heated mercury which sets the driving whirlwind in motion a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in a most marvellous manner. Four strong mercury containers must be built into the interior structure. When these have been heated by fire through solar or other sources the vimana (aircraft) develops thunder-power through the mercury.

NASA (National Aeronau-tical and Space Administra-tion) world’s richest/ most powerful scientific organisation is trying to create an ion engine that is a device that uses a stream of high velocity electrified particles instead of a blast of hot gases like in present day modern jet engines. Surprisingly according to the bi-monthly Ancient Skies published in USA, the aircraft engines being developed for future use by NASA by some strange coincidence also uses mercury bombardment units powered by Solar cells! Interestingly, the impulse is generated in seven stages. The mercury propellant is first vapourised fed into the thruster discharge chamber ionised converted into plasma by a combination with electrons broke down electrically and then accelerated through small openings in a screen to pass out of the engine at velocities between 1200 to 3000 kilometres per minute! But so far NASA has been able to produce an experimental basis only a one pound of thrust by its scientists a power derivation virtually useless. But 108 years ago Talpade was able to use his knowledge of Vaimanika Shastra to produce sufficient thrust to lift his aircraft 1500 feet into the air!

The Vaimanika Shastra manuscript later appeared at Rajakiya Sanskrit Library, Baroda by 1944.[3] The text was published in Hindi in 1959[4] and later in English by G.R. Josyer, titled Vymanika Shastra. Josyer’s edition, also added illustrations drawn by T. K. Ellappa, a draughtsman at a local engineering college in Bangalore, under the direction of Shastry, which had been missed in the 1959 edition.[5]
Rukhma Vimana

Rukhma Vimana

Unlike modern treatises on aeronautics that begin by discussing the general principles of flight before detailing concepts of aircraft design, the Vaimanika Shastra straightaway gets into quantitative description, as though a particular aircraft is being described. The topics covered include, “definition of an airplane, a pilot, aerial routes, food, clothing, metals, metal production, mirrors and their uses in wars, varieties of machinery and yantras, planes like ‘mantrik’, ‘tantrik’, and ‘kritak’” and four planes called Shakuna, Sundara, Rukma, and Tripura are described in greater detail. The extant text is claimed to be only a small (one-fortieth) part of a larger work Yantra Sarvaswa (“All about machines”[6]) composed by Maharishi Bharadwaj and other sages for the “benefit of all mankind”.[5]

In 1991, the English portion and the illustrations from the Josyer book were reprinted by David Hatcher Childress in Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India & Atlantis as part of the Lost Science Series. According to Childress, the 8 chapters treat the following:

  The secrets of constructing aeroplanes, which will not break, which cannot be cut, will not catch fire, and cannot be destroyed.

    The secret of making planes motionless.

    The secret of making planes invisible.

    The secret of hearing conversations and other sounds in enemy places.

    The secret of retrieving photographs of the interior of enemy planes

    The secret of ascertaining the direction of enemy planes approach.

    The secret of making persons in enemy planes lose consciousness.

    The secret of destroying enemy planes.

The propulsion of the Vimanas according to Kanjilal (1985) is by a “Mercury Vortex Engines”,[7] apparently a concept similar to electric propulsion. Childress finds evidence for this “mercury vortex engine” in the Samarangana Sutradhara, an 11th century treatise on architecture.

Sources:

http://archive.deccanherald.com/Deccanherald/dec16/snt2.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivkar_Bapuji_Talpade

http://m.timesofindia.com/articleshow/msid-890055,curpg-1.cms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaim%C4%81nika_Sh%C4%81stra