India Energy and Electricity Scenario: India consumes 3.4% of global energy. The Indian power industry is growing at a rapid pace. The Annual demand is increasing by 3.6% over the last 30 years. There is surging demand from domestic and industrial sectors.
Industrial sector − 35.5% (2006-07)
Domestic sector − 25.87% (2006-07)

The State Electricity Boards (SEBs) are main agencies for the generation and supply of electricity. Private investments in the Power Sector have been allowed since 1991, and therefore there is increased participation of private and global players.

The different sources of Power in India are Coal, Gas, Hydroelectric, Wind, Solar. Coal is still the biggest source of Power. The installed capacity for power generation in India is 1,49,391.91 MW.

Though 82.4% of villages are electrified less than 60% of households consume electricity. Thus the per capita consumption of electricity is the lowest in India. Industry followed by Agriculture are the two main sectors that consume power. But the power sector in India faces many roadblocks like ineffecient distribution systems, low capacity utilization and poor maintenance.

By 2012, India will need another 60 to 70 GW of power, the demand would be 950,000 MW by 2030
For the Indian economy to grow at 9% annually, additional capacity of 60 GW must be added every five years. This requires approx. US$100 billion in investment every five years. The domestic sector will cross 29% by 2011-12, industrial sector will remain almost stagnant. The Government promise of 100% electricity to domestic users will push up consumption. Government policies and foreign investment in the sector will aim at bridging the huge gap between supply and demand of electricity in India.

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NSF is funding a project for is developing the NeuroPhone system, the first Brain-Mobile phone Interface (BMI) that enables neural signals from consumer-level wireless electroencephalography (EEG) headsets worn by people as they go about their everyday lives to be interfaced to mobile phones and combined with existing sensor streams on the phone (e.g., accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS) to enable new forms of interaction, communications and human behavior modeling.

Specifically, this high-risk exploratory research is to:

1) study new energy-efficient techniques and algorithms for low-cost wireless EEG headsets and mobile phones for robust sensing, processing and duty cycling of neural signals using consumer devices;

2) develop new learning and classifications algorithms for the mobile phone to extract and infer cognitively informative signals (e.g., P300, N400, and neural synchrony) from EEG headsets in noisy mobile environments;

3) deploy networked NeuroPhone systems with a focus on real-time multi-party neural synchrony and the networking, privacy and sharing of neural signals between networked NeuroPhones; and

4) evaluate networked NeuroPhones applications, specifically, measuring teacher-student engagement in the classroom and measuring group level emotional state.

This interdisciplinary research opens up opportunities in education, teaching and outreach, in part because it focuses on an educational NeuroPhone application, which contributes new insights into cognitive engagements of students in the classroom as well as engages students from the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the project. Results from this work will transform applications across diverse domains such as education, health monitoring, and social networking.

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All the major automotive manufacturers are developing EVs -- considered the next generation of vehicles and a means for the OEMs to differentiate and stay ahead of competition. Escalating oil prices and environmental concerns are driving governments to grant incentives and encourage zero emission vehicles, endorsing the importance of EVs and stepping-up the demand for EV batteries. EV batteries come with different chamical compositions like lead acid, NiMH and lithium-ion. The rapidly evolving market for EVs is boosting demand for new battery technologies and greater supply. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, finds that the EV Li-ion battery chemical and materials market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 125 per cent from 2010 to 2016 for products like anodes, cathodes, electrolytes as well as binders and casings.

Only a few market participants can supply separators, electrolytes, anodes and cathodes, particularly in Europe, causing a bottleneck in the EV batteries value chain. Chemical and battery companies have failed to keep pace with the development of vehicles as electric vehicles have been as it took a lot of time to develope the market. The EV industry has finally taken off very suddenly, causing a potential bottleneck in battery technology supply and very few companies are in a position to capitalise on the opportunities. The market is likely to face significant price pressure from downstream companies as well as increasing competition from low-cost production locations. The chemical industry can help achieve these goals with the development of innovative materials, chemicals, and solutions as EV batteries need considerable improvement in terms of energy storage capacity, size, weight, and cost. There is a clear trend in the market that chemical companies are partnering with the key battery producers to supply the required volumes and enhance existing battery technology. More at http://bit.ly/bPq6mU