MONEYMAKERS
AQUA IS GOLD: Controversial it may be, but aquaculture still holds promise for many an entrepreneur. So much so that the State Bank of India (SBI), the country's leading bank, has expressed the wish to be a iconstructive partner' of the state government for promoting aquaculture in West Bengal. Addressing a meet on "Aquaculture Industry - Prospects and issues" on September 6 in Calcutta, D K Basu, general manager (planning), SBI, Calcutta, assured that aquaculture in West Bengal with the SBI as the bank will ensure that the mangrove forests are not destroyed, and also that agricultural lands are not converted into aquafarms.
FRIENDLY KILLER: With the clamour for green pesticides reaching a crescendo all over the world, the Tatas have entered into a tie-up with Agridyne, a research organisation in Salt Lake City, US, for the marketing of azadirechtin, an eco-friendly pesticide extracted from neem. The Tatas have a 49 per cent stake in the venture, appropriately named the Natural Plant Products Limited. In its first year of operations, the company has already exported US $1 million worth of azadirechtin.
STOREHOUSES OF POWER: Noisy, bulky and polluting generators are out with the entry of sleek power generators, each the size of a hoitsehold refrigerator. These generators - called'fuel cells' - are being produced by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). They are noise-free, eco-friendly and have durable parts. The fuel cells convert hydrogen gas or natural gas directly into electricity, and can be added in series depending on the power requirement. Prabhakar Rao, project chief at the BHEL Corporate Research and Development Centre, Hyderabad, says that the only'waste' generated by the cells is steam at 1800C.
MEASURING ROD: Measuring pollution levels in heavy industries like gas, oil and petrochemicals can now be JOE done at the snap of a finger. Siemens Environmental Systems, a UK-based subsidiary of Siemens, Germany, has developed a new pollution monitoring system. The system - costing about US $1.8 million to develop and produce - works with specially developed software including a tuneable laser beam, which is transmitted into the atmosphere to illuminate, detect and measure atmospheric pollution and hydrocarbons; information and graphical results follow immediately.
COOL AND GREEN: Chinese consumers will now get a chance to try out the 'green fridge'- the refrigerator which, does away with ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons. Changsha Zhongyi Electrical Appliances Co in Hong, Kong is gearing up for a trial production of these refrigerators, incorporating the alternative technology.developed by Sweden's AB Electrolux. The joint production agreement will be officially signed by the 2 companies in October.
IBM'S NEW ONES: The International Business Machines (IBM) Corp is launching a new line-up of its popular Aptiva home computers that feature voice- recognition and phone-answering capabilities and can display full-screen video. To overcome the problem of maintaining adequate supply, IBM has narrowed down the number of Aptiva retailers and has stopped offering low-priced entry models. IBM is expecting an enthusiastic response for its model that allows an IBM technician to remotely dial into an Aptiva to check on a problem and speak to the computer on the same phone line.