Publications

Development and demonstration of Pongamia Oil based lantern for lighting for rural areas

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

In rural India, kerosene continues to be one of the important fuels for lighting purposes. More than half of Indian rural households have no access to electricity and those that are electrified still depend on kerosene because the electricity available is unreliable and has low/fluctuating voltages. Kerosene is burnt to produce a highly inefficient illumination. Most of the kerosene is imported and distributed under a subsidized rate to the people for lighting. This paper explores biofuel as an alternative that can be used for lighting as it can be easily available in rural areas.

Enterprise GIS and Smart Electric Grid for India

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

Smart Electric Grid is an important as well as intelligent element towards the development of an energy independent and environmentally sustainable society. Although there is no universal definition for Smart Grid, it has various functionalities towards modernization of the electrical grid by using digital systems and addressing disturbances via automated prevention and various other novel ideas. But a smarter grid needs a real-time analysis of the network.

Evaluating the potential of concentrating solar power generation in Northwestern India

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

To accelerate the decarburization in the Indian power sector, concentrating solar power (CSP) needs to play an important role. CSP technologies have found significant space in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) of the Indian government in which 20,000 MW grid connected solar power projects have been targeted by 2022 with 50% capacity for CSP.

Evaluation of bio efficacy of Tylophora indica leaf extracts, fractions and pure alkaloids against Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner)

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

Crude extracts, fractions and pure alkaloids from Tylophora indica (Burm. f.) Merrill were tested against Helicoverpa armigera larvae and moths. Among the extracts, ethanol extract was more effective than the hexane extract in reducing larval growth with GI50 value (concentration at which 50% reduction in larval weight obtained) of 0.031. Significant reduction in pupal weight was also observed (up to 20%).

Evaluation of vertical accuracy of open source Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a quantitative representation of terrain and is important for Earth science and hydrological applications. DEM can be generated using photogrammetry, interferometry, ground and laser surveying and other techniques. Some of the DEMs such as ASTER, SRTM, and GTOPO 30 are freely available open source products. Each DEM contains intrinsic errors due to primary data acquisition technology and processing methodology in relation with a particular terrain and land cover type. The accuracy of these datasets is often unknown and is non-uniform within each dataset.

Evolution of REDD Plus: From Kyoto to Doha

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

REDD+ is a financial instrument to incentivize conservation and sustainable management of forests, and thereby achieve reduction in the GHG emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation. It aims at compensating forest owners in developing countries for conserving their forests by putting a value on the forest carbon stocks - one of the many ecosystem services that forests provide. This chapter aims at discussing this path of evolution and the current state of affairs with the REDD+ mechanism.

Expanding Rural Energy Access and Improving Agro Industrial Energy Efficiency through Targeted Interventions

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

While access to low-cost, clean, safe, modern and sustainable energy technologies is a priority to farmers and agro-communities residing in villages, improving energy efficiency as a cost cutting measure is extremely important to rural agro industries, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Hence specific and targeted projects focusing on building awareness at the grass-root level, technology transfer, capacity building and fast-tracking clean energy financing to these sector are crucial growth and development drivers.

Experimental study for energy efficient cooking devices based on solid biomass fuel and its sustainability for rural India

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

Biomass fuelled cooking in traditional mud stoves is a widespread phenomenon especially across rural India.

Forest fragmentation in India

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

Assessment of, and mapping the extent of forest fragmentation is one of the key requirements for undertaking any eco-restoration work. Using a moving window approach on high-resolution geospatial data on vegetation, a fragmentation index was computed across the entire Indian landscape. On the basis of the index, the forests areas were categorized as high, moderate, low or intact. It was observed that almost half of the forested land is intact in spite of tremendous population pressures, indicating effective protection.

Fostering Sustainability through Education, Research and Practice: A case study of TERI University

Research Paper
| January 11, 2018

This paper reflects the philosophy of TERI University of intrinsically building the concept of sustainable development (SD) through higher education and research. This has been illustrated by taking up an example of its flagship postgraduate program in Environmental Studies and Resource Management.