Student team in hybrid car debut

You can’t race with India’s latest hybrid car prototype, but that might be okay when driving in the nation’s gridlocked cities.

A team of engineering students has unveiled a two-seater car that runs on batteries, gas and petrol.

The tri-fuel car prototype, developed by students from Amity School of Engineering and Technology in Delhi, with the help of faculty, will run up to 90km on batteries at a maximum speed of 45 km per hour.

When its electric power runs out, a switch to either gas or petrol will facilitate slightly higher speed — up to 50km per hour. The team concedes there’s still scope for improvement.

“The plan is to reduce the weight of the battery and increase seating capacity and to use a more powerful engine to increase speed,” says team leader Mukkamal Pavan, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student.

The prototype — a sleek, green-and-black vehicle — has been tested for over 400km on the capital’s roads. The students and faculty are hoping automobile manufacturers will take notice.

Goddess stays, boon flows

The tide has turned in the Cauvery, but faith in the goddess hasn’t ebbed.

A statue of Veeralakshmi was placed in the river a few years ago, when it ran dry during summer, for the shooting of a sequence in a Tamil film featuring actress Simran.

The idol remained popular long after Kovilpatti Veeralakshmi went out of theatres. People flocked to the site, on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border in Dharmapuri district where the Cauvery gushes down its rocky course, to worship the deity that brought the actress good luck.

But since last week, when heavy rains caused the river to swell, Veeralakshmi has barely kept her head above the tide. But Cauvery Matha (Mother Cauvery) has blessed parched Tamil Nadu with the water it has fought hard for. And, Simran isn’t the only one getting the boon.

Have sambar, fight cancer

If you relish your sambar, here is another reason to have more spoonfuls of it. And it’s not to tickle the taste buds.

Scientists at the National Institution of Nutrition and experts at the Public Health Foundation of India have come out with a study that says the spicy south Indian staple contains cancer-fighting antioxidant properties.

Sambar’s usual ingredients — drumsticks, onions, garlic, asafoetida and other vegetables like ladyfinger, brinjal and pumpkins — have medicinal elements that also bring down the Glycemic Index, a ranking system for carbohydrates based on their effect on glucose levels.

According to the study, having sambar regularly could help reduce the risk of diabetes by 58 per cent, high blood pressure by 66 per cent and stroke by 40 to 60 per cent.

The mouth-watering equivalent of daal in the south is popular in restaurants across the country. A Bangalore-based ready-to-eat food maker that made a fortune selling variants of sambar was bought by a Norwegian firm for a huge sum.

Shaky shuttles

The road to schools in Delhi might be paved with new problems.

The state-owned Delhi Transport Corporation said last week that it was considering withdrawing services to schools.

Over 1,100 corporation buses ferry school children at rates the government says have become uneconomic over the years. “They are paying us charges fixed several years ago. The buses are losing out on trips,” transport minister Haroon Yusuf said. Schools might then be asked to hire buses on contract to meet their requirements.

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