Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers

Preamble:  Prof. Roger Plank, President and Darren Byrne, Director of Membership and Examination of the Institution of Structural Engineers arrived in Kolkata on 12 March 2011 on a six day visit to promote structural engineering and to raise the profile and membership base of the Institution in the Kolkata region. In my three capacities, namely, as a Council Member, as the Chairman of the International Interest Group and as the Country Representative of the Institution--all of course labor of love for me, I organized the engagements, in which I sought and received generous help from fellow members Tapan Roy, R N Basu, Manoj Majumdar, Dr. B C Roy, Jeremy Hall, Phalguni Banerjee, Mriganka Roy, Salil Roy and Dr. Kalyan Ganguly.  While I joined Roger and Darren to make a threesome team at all engagements, some of the other members joined in at a particular event as mentioned later in this blog.  Over the span of six days the three of us attended some thirteen rewardi...

Dr. J. C. Chapman in late 1960's Beyond borders: Dr. John Clifford Chapman, (Jack to his colleagues and Dr. Chapman to his students), had a long and distinguished teaching and research career in structural engineering at Imperial College. His career at Imperial College spanned over several decades during which he mentored some fifty researchers leading to their respective PhD's and publications in refereed journals.  His students came from all across the globe. During my time, for example, in the second half of the 1960's and early 1970's, his students included: Kevin Moffat from New Zealand, Don Williams from Australia, PTK Lim from Singapore, SP Sarana/ Prabir Neogi/ me from India, Bijaan Aalami from Iran, Lloyd Yam from Hong Kong, Alexander Stamenkovic from Yugoslavia, Ian Tereszkevic/ Peter Malewski from Poland, Patrick Dowling from the Irish Republic, Paul Lyons and Tony Duke from England. Dr. Chapman treated all his students equally. He was able to brid...

One of many traveletors Splendor and awe:  On July 31, 2010, while travelling from Heathrow to Kolkata, I landed at New Delhi's Terminal-3 as a transit passenger. I had a couple of hours in hand and decided to explore the facility.  The new terminal was opened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 3 July but it became operational about a fortnight later.  Prior to the  formal opening of the terminal, MSN had carried a story on the Terminal entitled: "Splendour and Awe at Delhi's New Airport Terminal 3", and on 25 June I  had uploaded a posting  on the terminal in this blog. So I was more than curious to find out for myself what it looked like and  was exceedingly happy to see that it is a truly world class facility but then I had expected no less.   Same merchandise...same brands...across the globe The construction team: Construction and management of the T3 is handled by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which is a private conso...

Tower Bridge - a sunset panorama Tower Bridge: Tower Bridge is iconic of London. It bridges London's financial district on the north bank with the Borough of Southwark on the south bank.  The picture here  is a sunset panorama with Tower Bridge in the center and the Gherkin, Swiss Re building, (which is London's first ecological tall building, designed by Fosters + Partners), to the far right. [Photo by D.Illif released under commons license @ http://bit.ly/c4JBtp]. Being located near the Tower of London, the bridge takes its name from its location and not, as it is sometimes mistakenly imagined, from its own two towers. The bridge is also sometimes mistakenly referred to as the London Bridge, which is actually the next bridge upstream that has been there, at or near the present location, in some form or other, over the past 2,000 years; the present London Bridge is a rather mundane structure that does not deserve or draw any public attention. ...

The occasion:   This time around, the Institution of Structural Engineers  has organized a couple of away days on board the HMS Belfast  for the it's AGM and for the meetings of it's Council and the International Interest Group. These are spread over 29-30 July 2010. On 30 July, I will be making some Headline Observations in one session, and make two presentations in another session. HMS Belfast moored on the River Thames HMS Belfast:   HMS Belfast  is maintained as an Imperial War Museum and is open to the public. The ship was transferred to the Imperial War Museum  in 1976 and since then it serves as a branch of the Museum. When Belfast was first opened to the public, visitors were permitted only on the upper decks. Today all of nine decks are open to the public.  To provide public access, a walkway connects the ship's quarterdeck with a pedestrian footpath on the south bank of the river. [Photo credit: released in the public domain by Chri...

In the realm of renewable energy, India is currently doing rather well in both hydro-electricity and wind power. Today, India has an installed capacity of 30,000 MW hydro-electric power, which is approximately 20% of the estimated total capacity. Similarly, India’s installed wind power capacity is 8,000 MW, which again is approximately 20% of the estimated total capacity. However, in solar power the picture is very different. At this time India’s total installed solar power capacity is a meager 100 MW, which indicates that solar power has not even begun to scratch the surface. The game stopper here is the capital cost of the equipment, which includes the solar panel comprising photo-voltaic cells, storage batteries and high lumen yet low wattage LED's. There are other challenges as well. For example, the equipment must be rugged enough to withstand the vagaries of the weather and have a long service life. Due to its high capital cost, today, it is widely acknowledged that solar ...