Date: 19th September 2020 Media: E Flip Edition: Online Journalist: NA Headline: '5G Introduction depends on equipment, ecosystem, Telcos' Economic consideration: Govt URL: https://eflip.in/5g-introduction-depends-on-equipment-ecosystem-telcos-economic- consideration-govt/ The government on Wednesday informed Parliament that introduction of 5G services in the country will depend on equipment, device ecosystem and economic considerations by telecom operators. The government also said that state-owned BSNL and MTNL have not planned introducing 5G services yet on their networks. Minister of State for Telecommunications Sanjay Dhotre, in a written reply to a question on the 5G rollout, said, “5G services depends on 5G equipment and device ecosystem, and economic considerations by the telecom service providers.” In response to a question on the warning over data theft and national security, Dhotre said the US has intimated about the use of 5G clean path to protect the data and networks of US diplomatic facilities. The 5G clean path is an end-to-end communication path that does not use any equipment from untrusted vendors. “To address security concerns of telecom network, security conditions are incorporated in the licence conditions of telecom service providers. The National Centre for Communication Security (NCCS), Bengaluru has also been established and has been entrusted with the task of preparation of Indian telecom security assurance requirements,” Dhotre said. Responding to a separate query with regard to 5G rollout, the minister said that 5G services have not been rolled out in the country as yet and the state-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL have informed the government that they have not yet planned introduction of 5G services on their networks. Globally, over 100 telecom networks have adopted 5G technology. In India, telecom operators applied for spectrum to start 5G trials in August 2019 but the Department of Telecom (DoT) is yet to allocate radiowaves. Dhotre said that the DoT had in March 2018 approved a multi-institute collaborative project to set up indigenous 5G test bed at a total cost of Rs 224 crore. The collaborating institutes include IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER) and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT). The project envisages setting up of an end to-end open 5G test bed in a distributed architecture model, and it will enable Indian academia and industry to validate their products, prototypes and algorithms, Dhotre said. It will also provide facilities for experimenting and demonstrating 5G applications, he said. Recently, Reliance Jio also announced development of indigenous 5G technology products, Dhotre said. Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel submitted fresh applications for field trials in July but they are yet to get the spectrum. Date: 19th September 2020 Media: Battery Industry Edition: Online Journalist: NA Professor: Dr. Aravind Kumar Chandiran Headline: Ashok Leyland, Hindustan Zinc team up with IIT-Madras to develop zinc-air battery URL: https://batteryindustry.tech/ashok-leyland-hindustan-zinc-team-up-with-iit-madras-to-develop- zinc-air-battery/ Ashok Leyland, Chennai, India, and Hindustan Zinc Limited, Rajasthan, India, have (separately) joined hands with IIT Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, India, in the technology institute’s endeavour to develop a zinc air battery, Thehindubusinessline.com reports. Dr Aravind Kumar Chandiran of the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, heads a team that is developing a zinc air battery. His target is two-fold: a battery whose cost per kWh is at least half of the conventional lithium-ion batteries and one that re-charges really fast. Talking to BusinessLine, Dr Chandiran said that while Ashok Leyland is the ‘industry partner’ under the government of India’s IMPRINT-2 programme (under which the research has been granted ₹1.5 crore), Hindustan Zinc is a separate funding arrangement with different deliverables. Hindustan Zinc’s interest is, obviously, to create a market for zinc. Dr Chandiran said that today a lithium-ion battery costs $270-300 per kWh (unless contracted for huge quantities, when the price could come down to $220 a kWh). In contrast, a Zinc air battery produced today would cost $150 a kWh; if produced on the same scale as Lithium-ion batteries, the costs would come down to $30-40 a kWh, he said. ‘Electrowinning’ process At the heart of the battery is the zinc anode which can be taken out once the battery discharges its power, and replaced. Like pulling a cassette out and inserting another, says Chandiran. The cathode of the battery is, as for metal air batteries, air. Zinc reacts with the Oxygen in the air to deliver electricity, and becomes zinc oxide. In an external contrivance, which could be solar-powered, Oxygen is kicked out of the zinc oxide and the metal is won back —a process called ‘electrowinning’. Chandiran’s team is working on a design to develop battery packs of 15Ah and ~24V that are mechanically rechargeable and run a 5 kW drive motor. “The novelty lies in the design of battery pack for maximum power and ultra fast electrode replacement,” he says. Of course, it is theoretically possible to recharge the battery onboard the vehicle, but it calls for a different research at a more fundamental level. It involves developing a bi-functional catalyst for two activities — discharging and recharging — known in chemistry as ‘oxygen reduction reaction’ (ORR) and ‘oxygen evolution reaction’ (OER). This is also an area that Dr Chandiran is working on, but is not connected to the Zn air battery project. Different anode Meanwhile, another research is going on IIT Madras to develop a new type of anode for the Lithium- ion batteries. The conventional anode used is graphite which, according to Prof. Prathap Haridoss, has its own “practical issues” such as lower capacity and limited fast-charging capability. In a recent paper published in Advanced Energy Materials, an international scientific journal, Dr Haridoss and his team (which included Dr Raghavan Gopalan of IIT Madras, Dr Abhijit Chatterjee of IIT Bombay, Dr Raju Prakash, Dr Vallabha Rao Rikka and Dr Sumit Ranjan Sahu of International Advanced Research Center) have mentioned their development of a composite made of molybdenum trioxide and carbon nanohorns. Carbon nanohorns are nano materials, just like nanotubes and graphene. The battery developed using this new anode material will have about three times the energy density as conventional lithium-ion batteries, Prof Haridoss told BusinessLine. The anode will cost about the same as graphite. Date: 21st September 2020 Media: The Hindu Business Line (clip attached) Edition: Bangalore / Chennai / Hyderabad / Mumbai / New Delhi Page No: 9 Journalist: NA Headline: Companies team up with IIT-M to develop zinc-air battery Date: 21st September 2020 Media: Telangana Today (clip attached) Edition: Hyderabad Page No: 1 Journalist: Mr. M Srinivas Headline: CARO to begin ops from May 2022 Date: 21st September 2020 Media: The New Indian Express Edition: Online Journalist: NA Headline: App to collect accident data on the spot soon URL: https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2020/sep/21/app-to-collect-accident- data-on-the-spot-soon-2199706.html In Karnataka, four districts have been selected for the pilot project --- Belagavi, Bidar, Mandya and Tumakuru. Each district will have the Superintendent of Police as the nodal officer to coordinate the data collected. The app will enable the stakeholders such as the Police, Transport, Health, PWD, NHAI to use their mobile phones to collect accident data on the spot. Most importantly, it will enable police personnel to enter details about a road accident along with photos and videos, following which a unique ID will be created for the incident. Subsequently, an engineer from the Public Works Department or the local body will receive an alert on his mobile device. The officer will then visit the accident site, examine it and feed the required details, such as the road design. Data thus collected will be analysed by a team at IIT-M, which will then suggest if corrective measures in road design need to be taken. The Road Safety Authority will then implement the suggestions given. A two-day Orientation and Training programme on iRAD App was already conducted by MORTH on September 7-8 in Bengaluru for the selected districts of Karnataka. “The iRAD will have to be integrated with the VAHAN 4 server where all vehicle details are already in place. It will also be integrated with the SARATHI server to get the driver details. This will expedite the FIR registration and another litigation process including insurance. The Health department’s 108 will also update on the victim’s condition after the accident through the app,” said Shivraj Patil, Additional Commissioner of Transport (e-governance & environment). In Bengaluru alone, as on August 31, 2,066 road accidents have been reported by the city traffic police, out of which 390 were severely injured and 409 people have been killed. Date: 21st September 2020 Media: Telangana Today Edition: Online Journalist: Mr. Srinivas M Headline: Civil Aviation Research Organisation to begin ops from May 2022 in Hyderabad URL: https://telanganatoday.com/civil-aviation-research-organisation-to-begin-ops-from-may-2022- in-hyderabad The Civil Aviation Research Organisation (CARO) complex, the first research centre in the aviation sector in the country which is coming up at the old airport in Begumpet here, will be operational from May 2022. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has allotted Rs 354 crore under Phase-I for the complex, which is coming up on 20 acres, according to a reply given by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in Rajya Sabha earlier this week. Begumpet Airport Director C Pattabhi told Telangana Today that works on CARO were going on at a brisk pace.