Corporate Citizen claps for Subhash Kot and Manu Prakash, both IITians and alumnus of Mumbai and Kanpur respectively, who have bagged the prestigious MacArthur ‘genius grant’ award worth $625,000 (approximately Rs .4 crore)
The fellowship, which is also recognised as the ‘genius grant’, is bestowed on scholars who display extraordinary creativity in their fields of work. Subhash Kot and Manu Prakash will receive the grant amount over five years to further their research work. They join the esteem line up of 23 awardees, who have received the grant in 2016, across various fields such as science, art and civil rights under the John D and Catherine MacArthur Foundation. A theoretical computer scientist at New York University, Kot has been recognised for providing important insights in solving problems in the field of computational complexity and for his development of the Unique Games Conjecture. On this, he explained, “If you believe that one specific problem is hard to solve, lots and lots of other problems, which computer scientists are very interested in are also hard to solve.”
Prakash, an assistant professor at the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur. He is the brain behind developing a low-cost origami microscope called the ‘Foldscope’, which costs less than Rs.70. It is made by folding paper and attaching a glass bead lens. This device helps to view things at a sub-micron level. The foldable microscope has been designed on a single sheet of paper and has the potential to promote education and medical facilities in rural areas. Because of its low manufacturing cost, it is a boon for amateur scientists, schools and medical experts to adopt this device for their research. This fold able microscope means that low income and rural areas can have access to technology and learning which is often out of reach in these areas.
This unique microscope is just one of the many path breaking inventions that Prakash has created. His devices are low-cost, widely accessible and can be used in resource—poor settings. He has also developed a clock that works using tiny water droplets. On his acumen in development of frugal science, Prakash said that some of his creative ideas did come from his travel and childhood in India. On building inexpensive scientific devices, he said, “Often a challenge in technology deployment is in building engaged local communities that take ownership of ideas and deployment. I’d started thinking about this connection between science education and global health.” Kudos to the two scientists for carving a niche for themselves and the country of their origin, India.
Corporate Citizen slaps the insensitivity of civic authorities in Agra, who have taken no action against burning garbage in the open that has resulted in the iconic Taj Mahal getting discoloured in recent years
Although, the authorities has banned burning cow dung cakes in the vicinity, in an attempt to slow down the darkening of the marble monument, new international research pinpoints the threat that needs efficient waste management techniques in the city of the `Taj’. Not to have anticipated the ‘browning’ impact on the marble architecture due to MSW (municipal solid waste) burning shows lack of scientific know-how in saving historical monuments. It took an international study backed by field measurements and quantitative data to notice the significant effect of MSW burning. The research was conducted to compare the impact of cow dung cake burning versus burning of municipal solid waste on ‘browning’ of the Taj Mahal and on the health of people living in near by areas.”
A team of researchers from the US and India have categorically stated that ‘burning of solid municipal waste in the open may be a greater contributor to the problem.’ Team members Ajay Nagpure and Anu Ramaswami from the University of Minnesota developed a new method to characterise municipal solid waste burning and emissions. Raj Lal of Georgia Institute of Technology, meanwhile, carried out a detailed study for Agra and the Taj Mahal, comparing the impacts of emissions from municipal solid waste and cow dung-cake burning on human health and the monument. According to the study report, authorities in Agra have, taken some measures to curb the impact of local air pollution on the Taj, such as ‘restricting vehicles near the complex, requiring iron foundries to install scrubbers and filters on their smokestacks, prohibiting new polluting enterprises from being built within a defined buffer zone around the mausoleum, and - most recently - banning the burning of cow dung cake as cooking fuel.” “The more effective strategy to reduce soiling may be to reduce municipal solid waste burning,” said Ted Russell of Georgia Institute of Technology. “Many small (and dirty) fires add up to make a lot of smoke.” The scientists inferred that open MSW burning leads to about 150 milligram per square meter (mg m2) per year of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) being deposited on the surface of the Taj Mahal compared to about 12mg m2 per year from dung cake burning. Finding new ways to serve the undeserved and poor areas with waste pick up, appears to be a more promising route for authorities to pursue,” said Mr. Russel.
by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar
