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Bahamut

Bahamut

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First Russian investment in solar sector in Tamil Nadu announced at IESS
17 March 2017 KSENIA KONDRATIEVA
Chennai-based Al Ameen Green Energy closed an $80 million deal with Miyota Power India Pvt Ltd, a Russian joint venture, for financing a 100-megawatt solar power generation project.
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IESS: Russia, India bat for SME cooperation
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INDO-RUSSIAN COOPERATION,ENERGY, CHENNAI

Russia is looking to make major inroads into India’s solar energy sector. Source: AP

Taking cooperation between Russia and India in renewable energy to a new level, Russian joint venture Miyota Power India and Chennai-based Al Ameen Green Energy on Mar. 17 signed an agreement for a 100-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu. The Russian partner will invest around $80 million in the project.

The agreement for financing and EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) was signed on the sidelines of IESS trade show in Chennai, marking the first ever Russian investment in Tamil Nadu's solar energy sector. The agreement was signed in the presence of Russia's Trade Minister Denis Manturov and India's Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman by Alok Kumar, President of Miyota Power and M.Basheer Ahamed, Chairman of Alameen Green Energy.

According to the companies, the project should be executed fully by the end of 2017, although it will be implemented in four phases. During the first three phases, the installation of 25 MW, 15 MW and 9 MW capacity will be completed respectively. The remaining 51 MW capacity will be added during the fourth stage. The connection to the grid will also happen in phases.

Alok Kumar, President of Myota Power and M.Basheer Ahamed Chairman of Akis Tech Ltd. Source: Ksenia Kondratieva

Tamil Nadu had been witnessing a severe power shortage for many years until it registered a power surplus of 11,649 million units last year, leaving behind other power-surplus states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat and Karnataka, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Miyota Power is a joint venture between two Russian companies, the state-controlled JSC Minneftegasstroi specializing in construction of pipelines, oil and gas processing plants and other industrial sites, and Akis Tech Ltd providing project development, financing, operation and management solution for power generation sector.

The project in Tamil Nadu is not the first for Miyota Power. Since 2015, it has been working on several project opportunities in India with a total estimated capacity of almost 500 MW. In March 2016, the company signed an memorandum of understanding with the government of Haryana for a 100 MW grid connected solar power project with investments of $90 million.


From Russia with solar energy
In February 2017, Miyota Power signed another investment contract with Jharkhand for the production of cells used in manufacturing of solar panels. The project will be implemented in the next six months.

According to Alok Kumar, Miyota Power's agreements with Indian states and private players could be seen as practical realization of the December 2015 agreement signed between the Russian Energy Agency (REA) and the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

Cooperation between Russia and India in the renewable energy sector at the government level has been otherwise sluggish. Despite memorandums signed by government agencies for several large-scale solar PV power plants, the pilot project still remains in the “planning stage” leaving Russia behind the U.S., Japan and Europe that have already established their presence in India's solar energy market.

Apart from investing in solar power generation in India in partnership with Minneftegasstroy, Miyota has agreements with Russia’s Hevel group, a joint venture between Renova Group and OJSC Rusnano, for joint co-production of solar PV panels for India, and another agreement with Russian Solar Management Group for co-investments in solar power projects in India.

Ksenia Kondratieva is an independent journalist based in Mumbai covering business, economic reforms and development, and international relations.
 
Bahamut

Bahamut

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How Russian scientists cracked the secret of a Vedic ritual drink
9 January 2017 RAKESH KRISHNAN SIMHA
Here’s a toast to the explorers and archaeologists who discovered the plant used to produce the drink of the ancient Indians.
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Hot pursuit: What India could learn from Russian history
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INDIA, CULTURE,RUSSIA, ARCHEOLOGY

An Indra idol at the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra. Indra enjoyed consuming Soma, according to ancient Indian texts. Source:Sarah Welch/wikipedia.org

One of the most mysterious drinks in the history of tipple is Soma – a drink of ritual importance to the ancient Indians. Drinking Soma was supposed to confer immortality, with the two leading gods Indra and Agni portrayed as consuming it in copious quantities.

The consumption of Soma by ordinary humans is attested in Vedic ritual. The Rig Veda, which was composed more than 5000 year ago, says: “We drank soma, we became immortal, we came to the light, we found gods.” The Iranians call it Hoama in the sacred Avesta.

Although the descendants of the ancient Hindus and Zoroastrians continue to perform their age-old rituals, the identity of the plant from which Soma was extracted or fermented was lost.

Non-psychoactive substitutes came to be used in place of the elusive Soma. Over the past 200 years, a number of candidates have been put forward, including cannabis, rhubarb, ginseng, opium and wild chicory.

Soma detectives
However, Russian archaeologists may have solved the puzzle. In 2009, while digging at a deep burial chamber in the forests of Mongolia, a Russian-Mongolian expedition from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS) discovered embroidered woollen textiles dating back two millennia.


Russia and India: A civilizational friendship

Although the archaeologists’ work is not yet complete, the first fragments restored have revealed some stunning facts. The fragments of the textile found were parts of a carpet composed of several cloths of dark-red woollen fabric.

It had made quite a journey – the cloth was spun in Syria or Palestine, embroidered in north-western India and ended up in Mongolia. The discovery is nothing less than miraculous because of its improbability.

Natalia V. Polosmak, Chief Researcher, SB RAS, writes: “Finding it 2000 years later is a pure chance; its amazingly good condition is almost a miracle. How it made its way to the grave of a person it was not meant for will long, if not forever, remain a mystery.”

The embroidery depicts an ancient Zoroastrian ceremony centred around a mushroom. In the middle of the composition, to the left of the altar is the king or priest, who is dressed in a smart, long embroidered kaftan gaping open at the bottom. He is focused on the mushroom in his hands.

Polosmak says the “divine mushroom” resembles the well-known psychoactive species psilocybe cubensis. “The weight of evidence suggests that soma, the ancient ritual drink, has been prepared from the mushrooms of family strophariaceae which contains the unique nervous system stimulator psilocybin.”

All researchers agree that ancient Indians and Iranians used for cult purposes a drink containing a psychoactive substance. The debate is about the identity of the drink and how it affected the consciousness of those who consumed it.

Story of the carpet
According to Polosmak, the men depicted on the carpet are either of Indo-Scythians (Saka) or Indo-Parthian stock. They are performing a ritual that indicates they acknowledge a form of Zoroastrianism – proof of this is the symbol of Ahura Mazda, the god of the Iranians, represented by the sacred fire altar.

The mushroom that the king (or priest) is holding in his hands can be an offering to the fire or it can be sanctified by the fire before being used to make the sacred drink.

“The north-western India of that time, where, in all the likelihood, the ritual is taking place, was the meeting place of three ethnos, three cultures – Indian, Iranian, and Greek. Each of them had their own gods: tolerance and worshipping not only of one’s own but also of alien gods was a common thing.”


Common values bind Russia and India

Polosmak explains further: “To get to the root of the consecration unfolding before us, we should pay attention to such seemingly insignificant details as depictions of bees and butterflies strewn all over the cloth. These insects are the most ancient symbols of worship, and used to have meanings very different from the present one.”

The bee was the symbol of honey, Indra, Vishnu and Krishna. The Atharva Veda – the fourth and last Veda – compares spiritual pursuit with honey making. The antiseptic properties of honey made it critical while preserving some foodstuffs. In Mexico, for example, honey has long been used to preserve mushrooms containing psilocybin.

The butterfly too had connotations of longevity. In Greek mythology, a butterfly personified the goddess of the soul, Psyche. The Greek word psyche means both soul and butterfly. In fine arts, a soul was often depicted as a butterfly either flying out of a funeral fire or travelling to Hades. The word soul often means “divine fire”.

“The butterflies and bees depicted in the background of the canvas may have symbolised the kingdom of souls – the Other World – the world of ancestors, where the warriors got to after having consumed sacred mushrooms,” says Polosmak.

“Now the puzzle fits together. The insects and the mushroom are closely connected and make the surrounding world miraculous.” Recall what the Rig Veda says: “We drank soma, we became immortal, we came to the light, we found gods.”

This brings to the prescient words of another Russian genius. Indologist and Rig Veda translator Tatiana Yelizarenkova wrote exactly a decade before the Mongolian finds: “Judging by the Rig Vedic hymns, Soma was not only a stimulating but a hallucinating drink. It is difficult to be more particular not only because none of the candidates satisfies all the Soma properties and matches the Soma descriptions found in the hymns only partially but primarily because the language and style of the Rig Vedic as an archaic cult monument reflecting the poetic features of ‘Indo-European poetic speech’ is a formidable obstacle to Soma identification. The answer may be provided by archaeologists and their finds in north-western India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (and not in the far-away Central Asia).”

At a pub near you
The mystery of the drink that gave immortality to the gods and vigour to the ancient Indians and Iranians has finally been solved. It remains to be seen if a clever entrepreneur will try and reverse engineer it from the recipe gleaned by R
 
Bahamut

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From Russia with solar energy
15 July 2016 ALEXANDRA KATZ, SPECIALLY FOR RIR
As India moves towards use of its primary natural resource – sunlight – to generate solar energy to diversify the country’s energy basket and boost economic growth, Russian technologies and expertise are finding their way into this young but rapidly growing market.
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Altai ushers in solar energy era
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ENERGY, INDIA,RUSSIA

Narendra Modi overlooks the panels at a solar energy farm at Gunthawada in Gujarat state in 2011. Source:AP

Almost 400 million people in India do not have access to electricity, while some remote places in the country experience power cuts for over 20 hours daily. With around 300 days of sunshine in a year, India is considered among the best places in the world to harness solar energy.

The Government of India is taking multiple steps to achieve India's ambitious renewable power production target of 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, for which the country would need over US$ 200 billion in investments. This includes addition of 100 GW of solar power, 60 GW of wind energy, 10 GW of power from biomass and 5 GW from small hydro-power projects. The country has already crossed a mark 26.8GW of wind and 7.6 GW of solar power installed capacity by May, 2016, according to Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) data.

On the solar energy front, the government is trying to make solar projects economically viable and ensure that bankability and returns are reasonably assured for investors. India’s target for reaching 100 GW of solar power by 2022 assumes that 40 GW will come from rooftop solar projects and another 40 GW from large-scale projects. The remaining 20 GW is to come from ultra-mega solar power projects - solar parks, each with a minimum 500 MW capacity. MNRE has sanctioned over 30 parks with a capacity of about 19 GW in 21 states.

Over the past three years, according to MNRE data, the renewable energy sector has attracted over $14 billion, with the solar power segment receiving around $4.5 billion. “A lot of foreign investors, including US-based companies, Asian companies, European companies are participating in India’s solar market, especially in the central government’s projects where the share of international players now is about 50%,” said Jasmeet Khurana, associate director – consulting at ‘Bridge to India’.


Sunlight beams from Russia to India

Most of the projects are located in Western and Southern India. “States like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh are the largest states in terms of total installation,” he said.

‘Bridge to India’ expects India to become the fourth largest solar market globally this year, overtaking the UK, Germany and France. With 25 GW of projects under different stages of development and about 35 new tenders with a cumulative capacity of 15.5 GW announced last year, and an additional 5 GW of new tenders to be announced in the coming months, the market is growing at an exponential rate, experts say.

Global majors like US-based SunEdison, Japanese SoftBank Corp., Italy’s Enel Green Power, French EDF Renewable Energy, Finnish Fortum Corp. as well as Indian players, including Welspun Renewables Ltd, Goldman Sachs-backed ReNew Power Ventures and Morgan Stanley-owned Continuum Wind Energy Ltd, Leap Green Energy, NuPower Renewables and others are actively expanding in India despite certain challenges that the solar sector is facing. Land availability and cost, drop in tariffs at which solar power projects are awarded from Rs. 12 per unit in 2010 to less than Rs.5 per unit in 2016, and issues with power evacuation are among those challenges.

Russian entry
Cooperation between Russia and India in the energy sector is on the rise, and though more evident in sectors like oil, gas and nuclear power, the renewable sector is slowly gaining momentum. While Russia has participated in several hydropower projects across India, including the 3,750MW Upper Siang II project in Arunachal, Teri hydropower plant in Uttaranchal and 60-MW Balimela hydroelectric project in Orissa, the promising solar sector is lagging behind.

“Russia and India can co-operate in the field of renewable energy through exchange of technology, investment in the sector and companies participating in each other’s countries. Discussions for projects keep taking place time to time. However, no concrete project so far has been set up,” Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary in the MNRE, told RIR.

The Russian Energy Agency (REA) and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) have signed an MOU for several large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in December 2015. The initial pilot project of up to 500 MW is, however, just at “initial planning stage”, the spokesperson of The Russian Ministry of Energy (Minenergo) said.

Private players have proven more active in tapping India’s solar energy sector. Alok Kumar, CEO of Moscow-based Akis Tech Ltd and Delhi-based President of Miyota Power India, said the Indian solar power sector provides plenty of opportunities for foreign investors. Miyota is currently developing several project opportunities in India and Bangladesh with a total estimated capacity of almost 500 MW. For these projects, MIYOTA is partnering with Russian investors as well as solar-cell and modules manufacturers and technology providers.

MIYOTA has, over the past few years, signed a joint investment contract with Russian Minneftegasstroy for investing in a portfolio of up to 60 MW of solar power in India. The company has signed agreements with Russian Hevel group, a joint venture between Renova Group and OJSC Rusnano, for joint co-production of solar PV panels for Indian market, and with Russian Solar Management Group for co-investments in solar power projects in India. In March, 2016, the company signed an MOU with the government of Haryana state for 100 Mw grid connected solar power project with investments of $ 90 million.


Working together in renewable energy

“The land acquisition process is currently underway”, Kumar said.

Printing for energy
Dmitry Lopatin, a Russian scientist from Krasnodar in southern Russia, found India a perfect place for manufacturing of solar panels and equipment. Lopatin made headlines last year when he was charged with the illegal acquisition and exportation of psychotropic substances on a large scale (which could result in 11 years jail sentence) after he ordered a can of solvent from an online store in China to use in his experiments on a new kind of solar panel. The charges were dropped later.

An inventor of printable solar cells that are more efficient and cost less than existing ones, Lopatin is now setting up a facility in India to manufacture industrial printers to print the solar cells. Initially, Lopatin considered manufacturing solar cells in India, but he realized that making printers here would be more effective. He has registered a company in India, Nanoprint, and is now in the process of signing contracts with two institutional investors from Russia and Australia.

“We are not dropping the idea of manufacturing cells, but it will be done in some time, and most probably, with a new pool of investors,” Lopatin told RIR. He was earlier in talks with Tata Power Solar to set up a plant in India. This has not resulted in any agreement yet.

“India has good infrastructure and resources to start a new company or manufacturing, and it definitely requires less financial resources, compared with US, for example,” Lopatin said. “However, the consumer demand for solar energy in India is not yet as big as in the US or in European countries, although the overall requirement for solar energy is huge”. He said printers manufactured by Nanoprint in India will most likely be exported to other countries than sold within India.

The young scientist and his team have also developed a membrane for water purification, which could be used for solving India’s water crisis. The membranes can be printed on the same printer as solar cells.
 
Bahamut

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Russian, Indian scientists detect cancer with cobra venom
13 December 2016 RIA NOVOSTI
Pre-clinical trials will soon begin on a drug, jointly developed by researchers from Moscow and Tezpur (India), from snake venom and semi-conductor nano-particles, which can outline that borders of a malignant tumour.
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INDIA, RUSSIA,CANCER, SCIENCE

An early and accurate diagnosis of cancer is one of the most important areas of biomedical research. Source:Shutterstock/Legion Media

A team of researchers from the National Research Technological University (MISA, Moscow), along with colleagues from the University of Tezpur (Assam, India) have designed a drug that can detect malignant tumours in the body.

Based on alpha-neurotoxins derived from the venom of the cobra, and semiconductor nanoparticles, the drug can be used to effectively identify the borders of cancerous tumours in the body, reports the MISA press service.

An early and accurate diagnosis of cancer is one of the most important areas of biomedical research. For effective surgical removal of malignant tumours, it is critical for doctors to see the borders of the treated area.

MISA has developed, and the researchers in India have studied the biological properties of the hybrid compound (conjugate) from the two molecules with different properties – alpha-neurotoxins derived from the venom of the Thai cobra, and fluorescent quantum semiconductor nanoparticles of cadmium selenide (the quantum dots). These conjugates can be used to create medical test kits for the diagnosis of a number of cancerous tumours.


Russian, Indian companies join forces to boost tech cooperation

To visualize the tumour, scientists use the unique property that toxins have – that of selective interaction with a certain "marker" of the disease. The biological "targets" alpha-neurotoxins are nicotinic cholinergic receptors. These are specific groups of proteins that cancer cells (e.g., small cell lung cancer or breast cancer) develop abnormally in large amounts. In a healthy body cholinergic receptors are involved in conducting the nerve impulse.

The "neurotoxin-quantum dot" coupler reaches the diseased organ through the bloodstream and marks the entire area of the tumour due to the bright fluorescence of the nanoparticles. They glow when irradiated with ultraviolet light invisible to the eye.

The report states that the resulting diagnostic drug is superior to previously created counterparts because of a number of parameters. Furthermore, it can be used as a therapeutic agent with a targeted delivery, if the conjugate molecule is attached to the drug molecule.

Currently, the development team is preparing for the pre-clinical studies of the drug created.
 
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UR-77: Clearing one landmine at a time
A landmine can be cleared in three to five minutes by the ‘meteorite’.
By Mikhail Nekrasov
RUSSIA'S MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

The UR-77 mine-clearing vehicle, nicknamed ‘meteorite,’ was designed in 1977 for making passages in minefields.


Demining liberated Aleppo
The vehicle is equipped with a launcher and two demining ‘charges.’ When launched, a charge causes a shock wave and breaks all the shells on the area of the mine (with a width of 6 metres and length up to 90 metres).

A complete demining cycle takes about three to five minutes. Recharging takes about 30-40 minutes.

The crew consists of the driver and commander-operator.

The UR-77 was used by the Russian Army during the First and Second Chechen wars, by rebels during the conflict in Southeastern Ukraine, and by the Syrian government forces in their fights against the rebels and ISIS.
 
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