Automobiles
How an LPG engine works
THE system comprises a storage tank with tank and level gauge indicators, usually located in the rear of the vehicle. The bonnet houses an electro-mechanical shut-off valve, an evaporator, and an LPG vapour/air mixing unit, in line with the standard carb
urettor. An electro-mechanical solenoid is also present in the petrol line, which shuts during LPG operations and opens while running on petrol.
Alternate fuels for vehicles: Unanswered questions
THE CENTRE'S recent announcement allowing the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as fuel in automobiles is yet another effort to reduce polluting auto-emissions. It is also an acceptance of reality as, even without the government's approval, a number o
f self-styled gas consultants have been offering their services to convert petrol or diesel-driven cars to LPG fuelled ones, with scant regard for safety considerations.
Editorial
Biodiversity Bill
NEARLY EIGHT YEARS after the country became a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Biodiversity Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Environment Minister, Mr. T. R. Baalu. Enacting this Bill will make India among the first countr
ies to have such a legislation, that could even be a model for others. However, the parliamentary discussions on the Bill will have to wait for a few months since it was introduced in the Lower House only a few days before the end of the Budget Session.
Miscellaneous
Vision 2020 -- Easing the urban congestion
Overcrowding of urban areas is like obesity -- injurious to the economic, social, political and cultural health of the country. This happens because only large cities offer extensive positive externalities; the rural areas do not. But this is easil
y tackled by linking the rural areas into an urban loop and offering all services there, says P. V. Indiresan.
Politics
Control on public expenditure
ON MAY 17, most newspapers carried a telling photograph that spoke volumes on the conflicts before our economic reformers. It was a photograph of Dr. Manmohan Singh and his associates appearing before the Prime Minister and his collea
gues asking for the rollback of the reduction of subsidies, a decision which was totally justified.
Economics vs politics
THE other day, an unnamed Congress(I) Working Committee member was quoted by a daily as having said: ``As an economist, Dr. Manmohan Singh's remarks on subsidy might be making perfect sense, but the big question is, can we politically sus
tain it and oppose subsidy on power, irrigation, higher education and other non-merit areas?''
Water Management
Water crisis
IF THE public statements of ministers, city fathers and Metrowater officials are anything to go by, everything is hunky-dory on the water supply front in Chennai. This flies directly in the face of the hourly experience of hundreds of
thousands of people living in far-flung colonies, who are bearing the brunt of a severe crisis due to depleted quantities in the reservoirs and failure of the monsoon.
