Ancient cooling techniques come to rescue as Indians beat extreme heat

A vendor arranges earthen pots for sale along a sidewalk in Chennai on June 5, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 07 June 2024
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Ancient cooling techniques come to rescue as Indians beat extreme heat

  • Earthen pots known as matka have been used in the Indian subcontinent for millennia
  • Based on evaporative cooling, the technology is eco-friendly and sustainable

NEW DELHI: Many Indians remember using clay pots to cool water decades ago, but as summers get hotter, the ancient technique is back, proving infallible in beating extreme heat.

The earthen pots are known as matka and have been used in the Indian subcontinent for millennia. During summertime, roadside stalls selling them pop up everywhere across urban and rural landscapes.

Nathulal Prajapat’s family has been in the business for three generations, producing the earthenware in Rajasthan, the northwestern state which in May was on the meteorological department’s highest alert over severe heatwaves.

Prajapat sells thousands of 20- and 30-liter matkas during the summer months.

“This is the ancient way of beating the heat ... it keeps the water cool and keeps you healthy, as it filters the water too,” he told Arab News.

“We sell at least 20,000 pots ... More and more people are using these local products to keep themselves cool.”

The clay pots cost between $7 and $10 and buyers usually replace them every year.

Dilip Kumar Singh from Pilani in Rajasthan each summer buys at least two to serve his family of five.

“Since childhood, I have been using the earthen pot, much before we got a refrigerator at home. Even after having a refrigerator at home, we still hardly use the water from there to satiate the thirst,” he said.

“Two glasses of water from the fridge will not be as satisfying as one glass of water from the earthen pot.”

As matkas can reduce the temperature by some 8 degrees Celsius, the water also will not get freezing cold.

“You will never catch a cold or sore throat if you drink water from the pitcher,” Singh said.

When a ceramic cooler is filled with water, the liquid sinks into its pores. As it evaporates from the pores, heat is extracted from the air inside the pot. As a result, everything inside stays cold.

On a smaller scale, matkas are now available in the form of flasks and bottles which, unlike 30-liter pitchers, can be carried around.

“Handling a clay bottle is easier than the earthen pot and it occupies less space and there is less danger of it getting broken,” said Namit Agrawal, a professional based in Delhi, where temperatures last week crossed 50 degrees Celsius.

“These indigenous products are a boon in the torturous summer.”

Eco-friendly, sustainable and based on the principles of evaporative cooling instead of electricity, the ancient technology has been inspiring innovation also in architecture, with perforated clay screens installed on buildings, allowing the induced airflow to ventilate the inside with chilled air.

“If we go to ancient times there were houses made of mud. It was much cooler than houses made up of brick and concrete. That is the technology that the terracotta-based walling system has brought back from ancient times,” said Bharti Jasrotia, technology transfer manager at Development Alternatives, a Delhi-based social enterprise and think tank involved in sustainable development.

“There are many architects and designers who have recently been using terracotta-made articles and installing them in the areas where thermal comfort is required.”

The clay systems only require dripping water to make the air cooler by between 6 and 8 degrees Celsius, which makes them affordable.

“We don’t need to use fresh water to drip through it. We can use the wastewater so that we can reduce the water consumption,” Jasrotia said.

“This is eco-friendly since we are not actually doing anything and not burning anything ... It is a good technology to use.”

 

 


Microsoft ‘crumbled under pressure’ over Palestinian vigil, fired employee says

Updated 5 sec ago
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Microsoft ‘crumbled under pressure’ over Palestinian vigil, fired employee says

  • Hossam Nasr says he and Abdo Mohamed were targeted for ‘daring to humanize Palestinians’
  • Israel-linked lobby group broke news of Nasr’s firing before he was informed

LONDON: Two recently fired Microsoft employees claim that the tech giant targeted them over their pro-Palestinian activism.

Data scientist Abdo Mohamed and software engineer Hossam Nasr, both of whom are Egyptian, had their employment terminated on Oct. 24, the same day they held a vigil outside Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, for Palestinians killed in Gaza, The Guardian reported.

They were both members of No Azure for Apartheid, a pressure group of Microsoft employees who campaigned against the company’s sale of its Azure cloud services to Israel, including the Israel Defense Forces.

After his firing, Nasr said that Microsoft had targeted him and Mohamed for “daring to humanize Palestinians.”

The pressure group has demanded that Microsoft end all Azure links to Israel, disclose all ties with the country, call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and uphold employee free speech.

“Microsoft really crumbled under pressure, internally and externally, to fire me and to shut down and retaliate against our event, not because of policy violations, simply because we were daring to humanize Palestinians, and daring to say that Microsoft should not be complicit with an army that is plausibly accused of genocide,” Nasr said.

In a statement, Microsoft said that Nasr and Mohamed were fired for “disrupting the work of their colleagues” and hosting the vigil on company property.

But the pair reject both claims, saying that the event followed the same procedures as other company employee groups, with more than 200 Microsoft workers attending on the ground or virtually.

Nasr and Mohamed said that they communicated with Microsoft ahead of the vigil, and that police, who were called to the event, observed the vigil without taking action.

“(Microsoft) never, at any point, said that termination was on the table or even that disciplinary consequences were on the table,” Nasr told The Guardian.

Another controversy surrounding the firing involves an Israel-linked lobby group, Stop Antisemitism, publicizing Nasr’s dismissal before the employee himself had been informed.

Nasr showed The Guardian a phone log, showing that he was informed of his firing at 9 p.m. that day — 90 minutes after Stop Antisemitism had posted the news of his termination on social media.

He also claimed that he was the subject of repeated investigations for his pro-Palestinian comments in employee groups, while comments accusing him and Mohamed of being “members of Hamas” were ignored by HR.

Workers at Microsoft have reported widespread internal discontent over the firings.

One Palestinian employee told The Guardian: “It was unjust and very intentional as a message to the community to silence the loudest voice in our community.”

Microsoft is not the only tech giant to suffer employee discontent over its ties to the Israeli military. In April, Google fired more than 50 employees who protested against its links to the Israel Defense Forces.

-ENDS-


India condemns Canada for linking home minister to plots against Sikh separatists

Updated 02 November 2024
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India condemns Canada for linking home minister to plots against Sikh separatists

  • A row broke out between the two states after a Sikh separatist’s murder on Canadian soil last year
  • India denies any role in the incident, though both countries have expelled each other’s diplomats

NEW DELHI: India’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it had lodged a protest with Canada for linking its home minister to alleged plots against Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.
The ministry also accused Ottawa of surveillance of some Indian consular staff.
Canada’s global affairs department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, made outside usual work hours.
The Washington Post newspaper first reported in October that Canadian officials alleged Amit Shah, considered the number two in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, was behind a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.
Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told a parliamentary panel on Tuesday that he had told The Washington Post that Shah was behind the plots.
“It was conveyed in a note that the government of India protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references made to the Union Home Minister of India,” foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday.
Jaiswal said what he called Canada’s “unfounded insinuations” would have serious consequences for bilateral ties between the two nations.
Jaiswal also said Canada has informed India’s consular officials that they have been under audio and video surveillance, and that India viewed this as “harassment and intimidation.” He did not say when Canada informed Indian officials about this.
India has previously denied any role in the 2023 murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and the alleged targeting of other dissidents there. The dispute has led to expulsions of diplomats in both countries.


Indian troops kill three suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir

Updated 02 November 2024
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Indian troops kill three suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir

  • Two separate gunbattles took place in Anantnag and Srinagar districts
  • Police say two soldiers and two policemen were injured in the fighting

SRINAGAR: Three suspected militants were killed Saturday in separate gunbattles in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said Saturday.
India’s military in a statement said soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forested area in southern Anantnag district on Saturday, leading to a gunbattle that killed two rebels.
In a separate incident in the disputed region’s main city of Srinagar, police and paramilitary soldiers killed a militant in an exchange of gunfire after troops cordoned off a neighborhood on a tip that he was hiding in a house. Police said two soldiers and two police were injured in the fighting.
Residents said the troops torched the home where the rebel was trapped, a common tactic employed by Indian troops in the Himalayan region. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Militants in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is “Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.” Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.


Bangladesh introduces 10-year tax exemption for renewable energy projects

Updated 02 November 2024
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Bangladesh introduces 10-year tax exemption for renewable energy projects

  • Policy grants 100 percent tax exemption for renewable energy plants in first 5 years
  • Bangladesh’s renewable energy output is among the lowest in the world

DHAKA: Bangladesh is introducing a 10-year tax exemption package for renewable energy production — a move expected to help boost clean electricity generation, which is still hampered by high production costs.

The National Board of Revenue issued a notification earlier this week for projects that will begin commercial operations by mid-2030.

The policy grants 100 percent tax exemption for renewable energy plants in the first five years, 50 percent in the next three years, and 25 percent in the following two years.

“Companies whose commercial production will start between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2030, are exempted from the tax,” NBR chairman Abdur Rahman Khan said in a statement specifying the waivers.

The policy backtracks on the previous government’s 2023 decision to withdraw full tax exemptions for the renewable energy sector, which discouraged local and foreign investors.

“It’s a very timely and good initiative ... it will create confidence among the investors,” Dr. S.M. Nasif Shams, director of the Institute of Energy at Dhaka University and secretary of the Bangladesh Solar Energy Society, told Arab News.

“It’s a good sign that within such a short span of time this interim government came up with this decision for boosting the renewable energy sector. It also complies with Prof. Yunus’ ‘three zero’ concept which he promotes around the world.”

Bangladesh’s caretaker government took office in August when ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled the country amid violent protests.

It is headed by Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and economics professor who invented microcredit, who has been advocating work toward a world of zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero carbon emissions.

While Bangladesh aims to achieve its net-zero emissions goal by 2050, currently its clean electricity generation capacity is 1.38 GW or only about 5 percent of the total, which comes mostly from fossil fuels — mainly natural gas.

The country has been struggling for years with energy crises as demand grows about 7 percent a year amid increasing household and industry use, increasing Bangladesh’s dependence on imports as local production is insufficient, with the renewable energy output being among the lowest in the world.

Attracting investors with tax waivers could help with the high costs of building clean energy plants — currently one of the main obstacles to developing the renewable sector in the country.

“This decision will help the country’s economy a lot, as well as it will save the environment in a sustainable way,” Shams said.

“We have to go for renewable energy ... There is no alternative for us.”


India eyes fintech, clean hydrogen cooperation with Saudi Arabia

Updated 02 November 2024
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India eyes fintech, clean hydrogen cooperation with Saudi Arabia

  • Saudi energy minister, India’s commerce minister, co-chair Strategic Partnership Council meeting in Riyadh
  • Ministers agree to study feasibility of electrical interconnection between the Kingdom and India

NEW DELHI: India is exploring collaboration with Saudi Arabia in new technologies, clean hydrogen and other emerging fields, the government has said, following Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s visit to Riyadh this week.

Goyal was in the Saudi capital to co-chair with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman a ministerial meeting of the Economy and Investment Committee of the Saudi-India Strategic Partnership Council.

“This visit marks a significant milestone in strengthening the strategic partnership between India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement on Friday.

“Both countries are also exploring collaboration in emerging fields like fintech, new technologies, energy efficiency, clean hydrogen, textiles, mining, etc. The Committee Meeting reviewed these developments and reaffirmed their commitment to advancing cooperation across various areas of shared interest.”

The SPC was established in 2019. Its first meeting took place in New Delhi last year, during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s state visit to India.

The Saudi Ministry of Energy said in a statement that during the SPC’s Riyadh meeting the two countries also agreed to “study the feasibility of electrical interconnection between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of India.”

During his Riyadh trip, Goyal also took part in the Future Investment Initiative conference on Oct. 29-31, where he met the Kingdom’s Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih and Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Bandar Alkhorayef.

The outcomes of the meetings were “expected to unlock new avenues for investment and trade, driving economic growth and innovation in both countries,” the Indian commerce ministry said.

“These engagements focused on collaborative initiatives in trade, energy and technology. These discussions culminated in a series of actionable agreements, aimed at enhancing trade volumes and facilitating a smooth flow of investments between the two countries. The agreements emphasize cooperation in energy transition, digital transformation, and the exchange of expertise to accelerate economic growth.”

Saudi Arabia is India’s fifth-largest trading partner.

Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $43 billion in 2023-24 against $53 billion in 2022-23.