Miracles of God are never limited and can be discovered in the most eccentric of ways. Such is the case of the mystery healing of asthmatics in Hyderabad, a city in India. The weirdness is to an extent of absurdity whereby the patient is made to swallow a live sardine wrapped in a yellow herbal paste.

As funny as it sounds, it is a practice that has been followed for nearly a century now, by a single family named Goud. They are the only trustees of this medicine, and have not commercialized it nor given out the recipe of this secret elixir.

As legend goes, the medicine was gifted to the Gouds by a Hindu Saint about 170 years ago, and he had warned them that the treatment would lose its effectiveness if commercialized. Not just it, he also blessed a well around their area Doodhbowli, which is in a mile’s distance from historic monument, Charminar in Hyderabad. The Goud family use the water from that well to mix the medicine. Currently there are three Goud brothers performing the treatment, and they strictly to adhere to the practice of their ancestors. And still to date, the medicine and treatment is free of charge. There is an alternative to the fish, for thick-headed vegetarians, they can swallow a banana instead of the fish. However the Goud’s emphasize on the importance of fish. Since the therapy is based to a large extent on the effectiveness of the fish. As the live fish moves down, it opens up the pores in the windpipe blocked by phlegm or mucus, making way for the herbal paste.

The treatment is said to be very simple. After swallowing the live fish, the patient is given another three doses of a different medicine on three successive auspicious days called ‘Arudra Karthi,’ ‘Punarvasu Karthi’ and ‘Pushyami Karthi’, which fall every 15 days in a regulated span of 45 days. Along with this, the patient is also put on a strict diet for a period of 45 days which is said to be harder than swallowing the fish itself by some patients, abstaining from most edibles. Harinath Goud, one of the three Goud brothers says, “unless you strictly adhere to the diet, the effect of the medicine will not be optimum.”

Simultaneously every fortnight, morning and evening, two pills made out of the paste are to be taken without fail with warm water. The reason for the fortnightly gap is as much of a enigma as the medicine, and is religiously marked on every patient’s calendar. The patient’s life resumes to normal on the 46^th day, but this is not the end of the treatment. The miracle also takes some time to show its success, and the Goud’s suggest that the fish medicine has to be taken for three consecutive years.

But does this treatment really work? Sheela Chakravorty, a patient who is satisfied with the results said: “The first time I took the fish, it was hard to follow the diet. I was tempted to eat, not delicacies, but simple things such as eggs and coffee, and maybe use a few spices that weren’t allowed. The next year, I was more relaxed and took it upon myself to follow it through. And I did. Today, I am 75 percent cured.”

Most patients notice an improvement in their state in the first year itself. However there isn’t any fixed pattern to recovery by this treatment. And then again there are a few people, who have shown no change, and the reason for this could be not strictly following the diet.

There is almost no scientific explanation for the cure. Yet thousands of asthmatics come to Hyderabad for this treatment both from India and other foreign countries to date to experiment this ‘wonder-therapy’ or like some say ‘God’s blessing,’ and many return eased off from this suffering of wheezing and severe breathing disorder.

The article Mystery Healing of Asthma Patients Done by Live Fish in India appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Echelon Corporation announced two micro grid deployments in India and South Africa that integrate distributed generation to compensate for disruptions in utility-supplied power. The first-of-its-kind in the two countries, the micro grid deployments involve dynamically managing demand and energy supply mix for a residential community and a retail mall to deliver reliable service cost-effectively.

The model micro grid deployments are at Palm Meadows in Hyderabad, India, and Clearwater Mall in Johannesburg, South Africa. Palm Meadows is an 86-acre integrated gated community with 335 homes and residential services. Clearwater Mall in Johannesburg is a retail building with more than 240 stores.

Such micro grids are likely to be a best practice in emerging countries grappling with intermittent power supply, and are also applicable in environmentally conscious countries that are aggressively incorporating renewable and intermittent energy sources into the distribution network.

“Smart micro grids are an ideal way to integrate local generation at the community level and allow for customer participation in the electricity enterprise,” said Michael Anderson, senior vice president of Worldwide Markets for Echelon. “Micro grids sit at the edge of the smart grid and provide real-time analysis, decision making and control.

The Palm Meadows and Clearwater Mall deployments are great examples of how Echelon’s commitment to leading the worldwide transformation of the electricity grid into an energy control network can foster market innovation. The concepts demonstrated in India and South Africa can be replicated worldwide to improve power reliability and to integrate energy efficiency solutions as well as renewable generation.”

The Palm Meadows community ties into the grid at a dedicated substation and sources energy in bulk from the utility. The community also runs diesel generators and will incorporate solar generation in the future. Residences within the community are equipped with Echelon smart meters that connect into data concentrators at distribution transformers and feed near real-time usage information to Echelon’s Networked Energy Systems (NES) system software.

Echelon partner Grene Robotics’ Skynet management application automatically turns on local generation if utility-delivered power is inadequate. The Skynet software interfaces with the NES system software and creates a bill for the customer that reflects the customers’ actual use of lower cost grid power and more expensive locally generated power.

Customers have the option of reducing usage at times when the more expensive energy is being supplied. The Palm Meadows micro grid is providing reliable service even during frequent utility grid outages and enabling the customer to make intelligent trade-offs between comfort and cost.

“When you flip that light switch, turn your television on, or boot up your computer, you expect power,” said Kiran Penmatcha, CEO of Grene Robotics. “Like a national power grid, the Palm Meadows micro grid manages generation, distribution, and the regulation of the flow of electricity to its households.

We are pleased to have helped implement a proven, open and multi-application energy control infrastructure that enables Palm Meadows to become distributors of energy within their community. Today, the community is evaluating the integration of solar generated electricity for the future. On March 29, the community may look to add other applications, such as outdoor lighting control on the same infrastructure.”

The frequency and length of blackouts in South Africa can have devastating effects on its commercial sector. For example, the local South African public utility had to institute a system of rolling blackouts over a period of four months to balance electricity demand, in which supply was interrupted at least once or twice a day on an average of four hours at a time.

The Clearwater Mall tenants, which consist of nine anchor stores, and more than two hundred other local and international fashion and quick serve food outlets, restaurants, banks, electronic goods and other specialty stores, require reliable electricity so they can continue to run their business.

The mall’s new retail micro grid solution based on Echelon partner PMT’s Meteringonline energy management application, employs Echelon smart meters, data concentrators, and NES system software to submeter individual tenant usage, so they can pay only for their actual energy usage rather than the industry norm of paying for energy on a square footage basis. Furthermore, tenants can opt-in to power supplied by local back-up generation when blackouts occur.

PMT’s Meteringonline application interfaces to Echelon’s system software and reconciles usage with energy source, allocating tariffs based on actual use. The on-demand energy services allow the store owners to manage their energy usage and associated costs and maximize revenues.

“South Africa experiences major power shortages with rolling blackouts on a regular basis, therefore implementing a rock solid energy control networking platform for Clearwater Mall and its tenants was of utmost importance,” said Graeme Mellis, director of PMT. “The Echelon solution with our Meteringonline system software created a perfect micro grid solution for Clearwater Mall to deliver multiple applications to its tenants, such as submetering, selective back up generation and consolidated billing.”

According to Pike Research, interest in implementing micro grids is spreading among educational, commercial, government, healthcare, industrial, and research campuses. A new report from Pike Research forecasts that total installed generation capacity for campus micro grids will increase by 164% between 2011 and 2017, rising from 620 megawatts (MW) to 1.6 gigawatts (GW).

By the end of the forecast period in 2017, the clean tech market intelligence firm anticipates that the campus micro grid market will reach $777 million in annual revenue.

“Micro grids are an aggregation and optimization platform that can squeeze the most value out of existing and new distributed energy assets, whether they are solar photovoltaic generation technology or smart meters enabling demand response.

Micro grids are the building blocks of a smart grid whose modularity can shrink energy consumption by 10 to 15% through more intelligent networking,” said Peter Asmus, senior analyst at Pike Research.

The article Echelon Enables Micro Grids in India and South Africa appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.