Le Pouce, or the giant thumb sculpture at Souq Waqif, is a popular public artwork installed by Qatar Museum. What would happen when that same larger-than-life art piece is carved onto pencil graphite. That’s the thought that inspired Farhan Hameed, a carving artist residing in Doha to recreate the same artwork. The result was another beautiful miniature artwork atop a pencil!
A motion graphic designer from Kerala, India, Farhan in his free time fiddles with his pencil and scalpel, and creates miniature carvings of popular buildings and other art pieces with the most recent one being Burj Doha.
Farhan has also received compliments from contemporary Qatari artist Ahmed bin Majed Al Maadheed whose signature he had carved and shared. Ahmed commented on the Insta post writing, “Amazing details job. Thank you brother for your work.”
Without any knowledge about pencil carving, he attempted to carve ‘I Love My India’ onto a pencil. About a dozen pencils later, his carving was complete. “This was my first work and it was nowhere near perfect but then it was something that I made with a lot of effort. I had no knowledge of carving tools and the pencil lead would break easily. It took over three days for the piece to be completed,” says Farhan. He attempted a few more and then sent some of the snaps to Afsal who shared his knowledge about the tools used – scalpel to sharpen and needles for detailing and making holes.
He moved to Doha for work and that is when he took up pencil carving again and started sharing them on his Instagram page. People started liking his work and recognition came when his artwork was shared by a few in the Kerala film industry. “I carved a movie name “Thamaasha” and that was part of the movie’s 25th-day screening celebration. It was then that my parents came to know about my carvings. They would see me fiddling with the pencil and doing something but allowed me to carry on with whatever I loved,” says the 27-year-old artist.
Of all the pencil carvings that he has done in the last few years, heart lock is one of his favourite and one that took many trials. He says, “In a heart lock, you have to carve the pencil in such a way that there are two hearts locked within each other. I tried it many times but it was recently that I was able to finish it successfully.”
The carvings on social issues have garnered the most support on social media, with the most recent one named Eid With Aqsa – a pencil carving of the Al Aqsa Mosque. Prior to that Azaadi carving on the CAA issue in India was also much appreciated among his Instagram followers as he says, “Social issues connect with a larger audience and it is a way for us artists to share our opinion as well.”
Though all his carvings take a lot of patience, he would like to continue his work and bring many more carvings to life. “There are quite a few beautiful structures in Doha. My dream is to carve them in a miniature form and if possible to set up an exhibition sometime later,” he concludes.
source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com / The Peninsula / Home> Doha Today> Community / by Anisha Bijukumar, The Peninsula Online / June 06th, 2021
Mujeeb (left) and Aslam share a laugh with locals along the highway | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The two will cover a distance of 600-odd kilometres on foot, to raise money for children’s education
Ambling through the streets of Kozhikode, a visibly tired Aslam TP and his childhood friend Mujeeb Rahman are intercepted by an auto driver.
He wants to know where they are heading, and why they looked so drained. When Aslam tells him about the cause they are trying to raise money for, the auto driver promptly pulls out ₹100 from his pocket and hands it over.
In just seven days of their walk, Aslam and Mujeeb have been met with overwhelming tales of generosity, and as a result, 62% of their target amount (₹7 lakh) has been raised. They are covering a distance of 600-odd kilometres on foot, from Kasargod in Kerala to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, to raise money for children’s education in Kasargod for the Najath Educational and Charitable Society. With the amount raised, they will buy smartphones for online classes. “We walked from Vadakara to Kozhikode on Monday, covering around 49 kilometres, the longest stretch so far,” say Aslam over a call from Kozhikode, Kerala. A serial fund raiser, Aslam took up a similar challenge in Bali last year, where he cycled 397 kilometres to support the education of 45 Balinese children. Currently, he runs a company called Yourfitrip in Bali, which encourages fitness holidays. These include surfing, kayaking, volcano trekking… activities that have helped Aslam stay fit over the years.
He also runs a community called Cause is Life that connects blood donors to receivers. It kept him and his pan-India volunteers busy through the second wave of COVID-19. Just before the lockdown this year, Aslam was in Nagaland, setting up Yourfitrip there, running up hills and walking from one village to another meeting the locals.
“For this walk, Mujeeb and I trained in Kasargod, our hometown, walking 15 to 18 kilometres everyday. We are training our brain to know that we are good to go, even when we are tired,” he laughs. They prepare a chart, based on which their daily route is fixed. “We average about 30-35 kilometres a day. On somedays, it goes up to 45 to 48.”
They start walking at 6.30am and wind up for the night by 7pm. “In case of emergency, we have a backup car that stays 15 kilometres ahead of us,” he adds. They take the highway, spilling into Tamil Nadu from Nagercoil before heading to Kanyakumari. With everything functional in Kerala and food available for takeaway, things have so far been under control.
Aslam says he will complete the walk in 21 to 23 days. Though planned as a 21-day project, the end date is uncertain as they get enveloped by hospitality from people they come across. So far, the duo has been pleasantly surprised by receptions planned in their honour, invites for meals from strangers, and the willingness of people to contribute even if it means handing over the last penny in their pocket. At one of the villages, a group followed them in a car as they wanted to be part of this mission. “I want people to know that we are collectively strong and can do so many things to give others a better future,” he says as he and Mujeeb stretch, lunge and soldier on, with the rain for company.
For details, check out Aslam’s Instagram handle @aslucha
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Priyadarshini Paitandy / June 30th, 2021
File photo of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna. | Photo Credit: PTI
It was the first time in open era that two Indian teams competed against each other at a Grand Slam tournament.
The experienced pair of Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza defeated the brand new combination of Ramkaumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina 6-2 7-6 (5) in the historic all-Indian mixed doubles first round match at the Wimbledon here on Friday.
It was the first time in open era that two Indian teams competed against each other at a Grand Slam tournament.
The contest finally brought a Grand Slam debut for Ramkumar, who has made 21 attempts to qualify for the singles main draw of a tennis major.
While the first set ended quickly in favour of the veterans, Ramkumar and Raina presented a good fight in the second set, which even they led for a brief period with a break of serve.
Bopanna was clearly the best player on the court with his powerful serve and solid ground strokes from the baseline as well as the ability to execute a superior net game.
On expected lines, Ramkumar served big while Raina gave her all after growing in confidence.
Mirza’s serve is still not at its best and would improve as she plays more matches.
Mirza has moved has also moved to women’s doubles second round with Bethanie Mattek-Sands while Raina and her American partner Lauren Davis lost in straight sets to the US pair of Asia Muhammad and Jessica Pegula on Thursday night.
The 14th seeds disposed off the challenge from the Raina-Davis pair 6-3 6-2 in 70 minutes.
Bopanna and Divij Sharan are already out, having lost their men’s doubles opening round match.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Tennis / by PTI / London, July 02nd, 2021
Another proud moment for Kasaragod as Musa Sharif gets nominated for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, announced district collector D Sajith Babu on his Facebook page.
Musa Sharif (right and inset) with Karamjith Singh, Malaysia’s most-decorated rally driver, at the Rally of Perlis in 2018
Kasargod :
Another proud moment for Kasaragod, announced district collector D Sajith Babu on his Facebook page.
Congratulations to the pride of Kasaragod Musa Sharif, said Kasaragod MLA Nellikkunnu.
“Let’s hope the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna will reach Kasaragod through Musa Sharif,” he said.
For Kasaragod — a district with few sporting heroes — Asia’s ace navigator Musa Sharif, 49, is a legend. He is the most experienced and sought-after co-driver in India’s motorsports world.
Acknowledging his contributions to motorsports in India, the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) has nominated Sharif for the highest sporting honour of India.
“I am honoured by the nomination for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. Normally, drivers get all the attention. But navigators enjoy the blind trust of the drivers and share the podium with them,” he said.
Since 2007, he has been the navigator of champion Gaurav Gill, who won the Arjuna Award in 2019, the year when the government recognised FMSCI as the national federation for motorsports. Musa has been a navigator for 29 years. “Coming January, it will be 30 years,” he says.
In these three decades, he has navigated for 49 drivers in 296 rallies, of which 67 were international rallies.
“I never had an off-year,” he chips in.
He has won 21 championships, including eight national championships — seven of them with Gill. Musa has travelled long rough terrains to be where he is today.
He was born to the late Zainuddin Perwad and Aysha in Mogral, a fishing village in Kasaragod. His father used to sell dry fish.
He got hooked to driving when he got admission for Bachelor of Business Management in Badriya College in Mangaluru, 40km from his home.
Thrice in a week, he used to take his TVS Shogun or Yamaha RX100 to the college. Rest of the days, he would take the bus.
When he came to know of racing events in the city, he thought of giving it a try.
The first race he took part in was the rally organised by Karavali Auto Sports Club in Mangaluru in 1993. Congress’s Mangaluru MLA U T Khader was one of his co-racers.
He won the first championship in his fourth rally. In two years, Team MRF signed him as a navigator and he shifted gear to four-wheel racing.
He started his career as a navigator with Satish Bhat. In 1997, he joined JK Tyre and then returned to Team MRF in 2001.
In 2013, he joined Mahindra Adventure. Since 2007, Musa Sharif and Gill are together, participating in 63 rallies, and winning in 36 rallies.
Together, they won the Rally of Coimbatore for Mahindra Adventure in January — to emerge national champions again.
His international wins came with Lohitt Urs (Asia Cross Country); Arjun Rao (Malaysian Rally Group N); Sanjay Takle (Malaysian Rally Championship) and Saneem Sani of Thrissur (UAE Rally Championship).
Every driver has a different call sign and navigators have to get adjusted to it. “Before the race, the driver and the navigator take the road twice, and prepare a ‘pace note’. It will be like a story of the road, the turns, and dips, the rise, the angle of the curves,” he said.
On the first trip, the driver gives the notes and the navigator takes them own.
On the second trip, the navigator will guide the driver based on the notes and will make corrections, if needed.
“On the race day, the driver would blindly trust the navigator and go by his command,” he said.
The navigator The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) nominated Musa Sharif from Mogral in Kasaragod for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
The stats 29 years | 49 drivers 296 rallies | 67 international rallies | 21 championships 8 National championships 7 with Gaurav Gill
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by George Poikayil / Express News Service / July 03rd, 2021
A thorough businessman who believes in work hard and celebrate harder.
When you are determined, Nothing can Stop you!!
Shafeeq runs the company, The star life- Hyderabad with an objective to promote the new talent in the field of fashion and to provide the right platform and the opportunity to the youth to achieve their dreams and inculcate the habits of dreaming big star life as it introduces many top class models and fashion designers.
Mr. Shafeeq ur Rahman is also a well-known personality in the field of fashion lifestyle and entertainment publications and he is also an Editor-in-chief City Hi-life magazine Hyderabad. So far he has attended 100+ fashion pageants as a chief guest. Star life Hyderabad is one of the renowned entertainment companies which organizes Beauty pageant, fashion photo shoots with well-known celebrities, fashion houses, and fashion designer. It is the wide variety of activities being celebrated at Star Life which makes it extremely unique.
Passion Vista got an opportunity to meet Mr.Shafeeq Ur Rahman on the sidelines of 3rd Business Leadership Awards, an event conceptualized by Unified Brainz powered by Passion Vista Talks in association with Asian-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry in June 2019 at the Taj, Santacruz, Mumbai.
Mr.Rahman was honored for running a Promising Emerging Enterprise in Event Management.
Here are the excerpts of our conversation with Mr.Shafeeq Ur Rahman
Mr.Rahman, how did you feel being a part of the 3rd Global Business Leadership Forum?
‘Star Life’ is just five years old and yet, it has been able to create a niche for itself and the right kind of people have started noticing us.
Mr.Rahman, what influenced you to start The Star Life and what are your plans for it?
I want to create a platform where all new models and actors can approach and showcase their talent. I want to especially reduce hardships faced by them till the point of nullifying them. I eventually would like to extend Star Life internationally too.
Is The Star Life your core profession or you are also involved in other businesses?
Well, earlier I was also into constructions but nowadays, with the positive response and multi-skilled hard work talents coming in, I plan to be dedicated to The Star Life.
That’s about business, tell us what your hobbies are? How do you usually Chill?
Well, it is not too tough to guess, whenever I get time from my schedule which is extremely tough these days, I like to watch old movies, I love yesteryears performances.
That’s interesting. Which are your favorite ones?
I can watch the old Devdas and Andaz Apna Apna infinitely. In fact, I would also urge the makers of Andaz Apna Apna to either remake the movie or release it again. Current generation needs to witness the purest form of Comedy of Errors on the Silver Screen.
Being a movie buff, Your favorite actors?
(Lol, Before the question is completed) Shahrukh Khan of Darr & Kareena Kapoor of Jab We Met
Who is your Role Model?
I have followed the life of Shri Amitabh Bachchan very closely and I would definitely like to meet him once in person to ask whats the best way to deal with the ups and downs.
Your Midnight Friend/ Philosopher/Mentor for advice?
My older brother Khaleeq Ur Rahman. I am thankful for the almighty to bless me with a brother like this, without whom I am incomplete. He has this calm demeanor that helps me always.
What is your Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs?
There is no short cut to the most beautiful place in life, hard work eventually succeeds, keep sharpening your skills, the day you don’t sharpen them, you are heading for decline.
source: http://www.passionvista.com / Passion Vista / Home> – Featured Stories / June 2019
COO, Crowdbridge Consultants Pvt Ltd; Editor, Crowdteck.com – A CSR Digital Magazine; Associate Director, Crowd Central Technology
Against all odds, Arshia Khan lives to tell the tale. The year was 1985; city, Mumbai. The building Arshia’s family was residing in, collapsed, and they lost everything including her elder brother. Arshia was declared dead and taken to a morgue. Destiny however had other plans. Arshia suffered a loss of eyesight and memory, but thanks to God’s grace and timely medical intervention led by Dr Machiswala, she gradually bounced back to normalcy.
From then on, Arshia’s fighting spirit battled every obstacle in her path to emerge victorious.
One of six siblings, Arshia grew up in humble surroundings. Despite being the lone breadwinner, her father ensured good education for all. And so Arshia attended St Anne’s High School in Bandra, Mumbai which is also alma mater to renowned personalities like actor Aamir Khan and politician Baba Siddiqui.
Valuing everything that life had to offer, Arshia worked hard and excelled at everything in school. From being among the top three rankers in class to winning scholarships and best students awards, Arshia was God’s favourite child.
Following an interest towards daily affairs and national issues, Arshia pursued a degree in Mass Media (Journalism) at Rizvi College of Management. During this time, she was academically adopted on merit by an NGO called MESCO, which supports educational necessities of worthy students. The selfless service of MESCO went a long way in encouraging her to participate in social causes. Now one of her co-ventures that she is passionate about is Crowd Bridge Consultants Pvt Ltd which covers all that creates and promotes social development, wellbeing and betterment.
At Rizvi College, Arshia was mentored by (late) Prof P K Ravindranath who was an iconic journalist in his days. Following her mentor’s advice, ‘If you want to be a journalist, be on the ground, network, and build relationships’, she didn’t pursue her masters. She started networking, which eventually landed her a job at the Indian Express Newspapers. She learnt everything about journalism and media at The Indian Express. In 2010, she moved to Network 18 Media and Investments Ltd. as a Features Editor, managing a bigger team. She later diversified into the PR industry and worked at Perfect Relations’ healthcare arm – Imprimis. Two years hence, she moved to Adfactors, the PR giant, as an account manager.
As her professional life flourished, marital bliss followed. Soon after having her first baby Yahya in 2017, Arshia moved to Doha, Qatar. During 2017 – 18, she worked as a freelance consultant. By the end of 2018, she joined Crowd Central Technology as the Head of Content. Crowd Central’s CEO, Waseem Ahmed Kazi, always spoke at length about how he wanted to make a positive difference in society. Their thoughts resonated, and eventually Arshia was leading an exciting new venture, Crowdteck.com – a CSR Digital Magazine.
The objective of the magazine is to encourage good work in humanitarian causes, irrespective of cast, creed or religion. Their aim to restore faith in humanity helped them to connect with a global audience, and their online global readership quadrupled in two years.
From Mumbai to Qatar, what has been Arshia’s biggest challenge? “I have always been a passionate journalist, but was naïve about the business aspect until 2018 when I was promoted as the Associate Director at Crowd Central Technology. This big push meant that I was not only dealing with publishing of content but also specialised areas like revenue, business, and the like. As I was delegated the responsibility of handling international business across India, I learnt the specifics of a brick-and-mortar business model, including the online implications of its cyber footprint,” shares Arshia.
Although professionally satisfying and rewarding, this leap posed some challenges at the personal level. “My husband and I would work separate shifts and take turns to be with our toddler. It can be heart-breaking to leave your months-old toddler for work, and all new mothers will relate to this.”
However Arshia was lucky to be working with a company like Crowd Central Technology, which not only accommodated her requests as a new mother but also rewarded and motivated her to continue unabated.
On the other hand is Arshia’s most gratifying moment. Without a blink, she says, “Motherhood! Being a mother has been a blissful journey, which has taught me that patience and perseverance take you far. My child has disciplined me in more ways than one, and I can’t thank the Almighty enough for this little bundle of joy.”
As a parting note, inspirational Arshia shares a very important piece of advice, “I was embarrassed to seek aid or assistance of any kind. It is important that we inculcate the habit of reaching out for help in our children, who will be future leaders.”
source: http://www.passionvista.com / Passion Vista / Home> Collector’s Edition – Featured Stories – Women Leaders 2021 / April 2021
When his friends were busy playing with toy guns, Mohammed Mubin Mallick was building robots like a pro. For Mubin, robotics was a passion that eventually became his profession.
From an amateur innovator to a global leader in robot solutions, 39-year-old Mubin has come a long way to earn a sobriquet of `Robotman’ of India and middle east. A native of Kolkata, he holds MBA degree from Cardiff University, United Kingdom.
Being the school captain, Mubin grew up as an achiever, bagging awards in various recreational activities like sports, dance, speech, etc. He continues to be an achiever even today. Recently, he received Agata Lo Tauro Special International Award 2020 and a certificate for being the Mentor for ROBOCON 2020.
Mubin ventured into digital solutions and robotics solutions with his IT service company `Kiran Smart’. Always on the lookout to cater to the market’s needs, he set out to innovate and take steps beyond what others already offered.
Since the time he realized that he had the power to think out-of-the-box and innovate, Mubin dreamt of building a company that he could run depending on his ideas. The cradle for his innovation comes from very munificent thoughts of wanting to create job opportunities and donating the profits. It is for this reason that Mubin doesn’t want to leave any stone unturned to make his firm a global leading light.
“Our company Kiran Smart is into IT Solutions and Services for the past 15 years. We have been looking for diversification in our business portfolio. We did diversification into Digital Transformation and then recently we launched and started Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Our market research on Humanoid Service Robots indicated a considerable demand for Robots. Therefore, our company decided to launch a brand Called Mi-Robots,” he said.
The pandemic, however, came as a blessing in disguise for Mubin and his company. “One of our delivery Robots serving food in China in 2019 December to COVID 19 quarantine centre became breaking news around the world. This news around the world helped us gained the trust of the people,” he said.
It was in 2017 that he came across a humanoid robot. He invested time in GITEX technology and ultimately made his passion and childhood dream come true. Understanding the working of robots and offering solutions related to them is Mubin’s only focus now.
“To be very honest, there were many challenges which cannot be listed here. Apparently, the major aspect was the financial crunch. Firstly, it is very crucial to survive in the local market. Secondly, we need smart and loyal team members who can run the company,” he said.
Over the years, Mubin learned both professional and personal lives play a considerable role in making an achiever or a failure. According to him, success in personal lives has a direct and positive impact on professional lives.
“To overcome these challenges, we adopted different strategies like inviting investors locally and globally. Apart from in-house human resources, we tied up with international firms to induct more innovative people to work with us remotely. Finally, our satisfied customers are our revenue. We do the regular follow-ups and technology updates with our customers so that we can fulfill their needs as per their growing needs,” he said.
Mubin is dealing with different kinds of Robots. These include Delivery Robots for restaurant and hotels, Educational Robots for Schools, hospitality Robots for hotels, UVC Disinfection Robots for all, Spray Dry Mist Disinfection Robot, Humidifier Robots for Home and Office, and Robots for children.
“Robots have played a major role during the pandemic as they helped people tremendously. For example, Disinfection robots are used to disinfect the places and those robots are UVC Lights Robots and Dry Mist Spray Robots. Many robots are used to check the temperature of people. Robots are used in hospitals to carry hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves in hospitals, hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, and many places,” he said.
Even corporates are using to communicate with their remote employees so that managers and team leaders can stay focused on live meetings. “Many universities across the globe have launched courses for Robotics and Machine Learning. There is data supporting the popularity of Robot installation in restaurants, hotels, hospitals, warehouses, home delivery, and schools,” he said.
Headquartered in Kuwait, Mubin’s Robots are going places. From all GCC to Africa, UK, Canada, Mexico and few European countries, Mubin is trying to introduce technology for making the life of the common man easy.
“It is really difficult to define the demand or maximum interest was shown by any specific country in this future technology because most of the countries are working on all the innovative technologies to lead the world. So, according to me, I see South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, Canada, and UAE from the Middle East. The global market for robots is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 26 percent to reach just under 210 billion U.S. dollars by 2025,” he said.
His company, `Kiran Smart’, is a reflection of Mubin’s achievements. It has been recognized as the Top Most Robotics Company of 2020. The firm also received awards from the Ministry of Awqaf as the Most Innovative Company. KISR honored Kiran Smart for being their Most Innovative Supporter in Science and Technology for their Children’s Exhibition.
His message for the youth who aspire to reach as far as he has is boosting, “Don’t give up even if you fail. Failure teaches you a lesson and makes you stronger. Accept the reality, believe in yourself, and try again! Caring for humanity and seeing a smile on people’s faces keeps us motivated in life. People should be thankful to God, respectful to their parents, and be humble,” he said.
*The author is a Bengaluru-based freelance journalist.
source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Education> Featured / by Rashida Bakait / February 10th, 2021
Dhaai Peher (Two and a Half Moments), a Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) student film directed by M.A. Mass Communication students Amal Devasiya, Danish Qazi, Jamshad Ali, Kashif Shakeel, and Pankaj Rawat, won the Outstanding Achievement Award in the student category at the L’Age d’Or International Arthouse Film Festival (LIAFF).
The story follows a series of events that unfold in Punjab in the 1990s. During the COVID outbreak, the film was made when outside venues were scarce, and Punjab had to be conjured up in and around Delhi.
LIAFF’s mission is to foster a film culture that inspires and brings together cross-cultural innovations that enrich people’s lives through entertainment and services that enlighten, educate, and entertain them.
The AJK Mass Communication Research Centre is India’s most prestigious media institute. The MCRC, founded in 1982 by Anwar Jamal Kidwai (previously VC of Jamia Millia Islamia and later Chairman of the Centre), offers graduate and post-graduate courses in new media art, craft, and technology. With professionally and academically skilled staff and a diverse range of visiting professionals, the MCRC provides the highest media education and training standards.
Lately, AJK MCRC has produced many eminent journalists and filmmakers. Barkha Dutt, Kabir Khan, Meenu Gaur are some of the examples.
An AJKMCRC),@jmiu_official student film Dhaai Peher (Two and a Half Moments)directed by Amal Devasiya, Danish Qazi, Jamshad Ali, Kashif Shakeel and Pankaj Rawat won the Outstanding Achievement Award at the L’Age d’Or International Arthouse Film Festival in the student category.
source: http://www.thenationalbulletin.in / The National Bulletin / Home> Education / by Jitesh Dhawan / June 17th, 2021
This is the third part of the series called “Scientist Says” where we bring for our readers the significant research works of young scientists.
Rashida Bakait from India Tomorrow interviews Dr. Mohammed Rameez who is presently working as Academia Sinica postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Here are the excerpts of the interview with him.
Q. What is the topic of your research and please give a brief explanation?
Ans: With the increased manufacturing activities, large amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is being released in the environment, causing Earth–Carbon disparity, leading to global warming issue. Further, there is an additional rising demand of fine chemicals such as p-benzoquinone, which are obtained from the processing of fossil fuels. However, these processes operate under high energy and high pressure conditions generating more CO2. Therefore, decreasing CO2 production and transforming CO2 into valuable solar fuels seem to be an essential issue to be considered for future sustainable development. So, this scenario has given the researchers a challenging topic of as to how to reduce the amount of CO2 and further convert it into useful low-carbon fuels. Hence, my research topic is based on reduction of carbon dioxide to other useful chemicals using electricity and catalysts. This process is known as electroreduction of CO2.
My research is developing an ideal resource-efficient solution based on catalysts i.e. artificial photosynthesis – mimicking how plants use sustainable sources of sunlight, CO2 and water to drive the production of energy-rich carbohydrates. As such, promising research efforts have been intensified in reducing CO2 to similar energy-rich fuels and chemical feedstocks through electro-catalytic routes. Recently, we report a novel g-C3N4/Cu2O-FeOheterogeneous nanocomposite catalyst for CO2 electrochemical reduction to CO, with a maximum Faradaic efficiency of 84.4% at a low onset overpotential. This research was published in topmost journal in the field of environmental engineering. This research was done in Academia Sinica, a premier research institute of Taiwan. A PhD student Girma from Ethiopia and I worked on it in Prof. Hung’s lab. I was also one of the corresponding authors.
Q. What is the motive/ aim of your research?
Ans: Different semiconducting materials and metals, such as Pt, Pd, TiO2, SrTiO3 CdS, g-C3N4, ZnO, Bi2WO6 and so on have been used as catalyst for CO2 reduction. However, the practical applications of these catalysts for CO2 reduction are still limited by the low CO2 conversion efficiency due to low light harvesting efficiency, high production cost, low catalytic activity, insufficient catalyst durability and a lack of mechanistic understanding.
Hence, our aim was integrating heterostructures containing oxides of non-noble metals, such as iron and copper with g-C3N4 that may result in stable materials that could function as active electrochemical catalysts for CO2 reduction.
Q. What important findings/aspects are highlighted in your research?
Ans: We prepared a novel g-C3N4/Cu2O-FeO heterostructure nanocomposite catalyst by a simple hydrothermal synthetic route and tested it for electrochemical CO2 reduction in aqueous systems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental report on a hybrid g-C3N4/Cu2O-FeO nanocomposite for electrochemical CO2 reduction. We demonstrated that g-C3N4/Cu2O-FeO is a promising electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction in neutral medium. Incorporating mixed metal oxide into g-C3N4 layers could be a potential strategy to improve the electrocatalytic catalytic activity of the composite materials. With careful experimental design, this research may help us obtain a library of highly efficient water stable and less toxic catalysts optimal for various catalytic applications.
Q. What kind of challenges did you face?
Ans: Many semiconductors, doped and sensitized semiconductors have been used as photocatalysts for CO2 reduction for higher conversion efficiency. The selectivity of products not only depends on the catalysts’ compositions but also on the choice of reductant and the solvent. However, the practical applications of these catalyst for CO2 reduction are still limited by the low CO2 conversion efficiency. It is important to raise the photocatalytic conversion efficiency and long-term stability to make this process economically feasible. Here, our main challenge was to enhance the selectivity and efficiency of the process for the novel g-C3N4/Cu2O-FeO catalyst, which uses earth abundant materials.
Q. Any scholarships or awards for this research?
Ans: We got financial support from Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (109-2113-M-001-020) and Academia Sinica (AS-KPQ-106-DDPP) for this research on CO2 reduction.
I have received Taiwan government’s most prestigious scholarship for PhD ‘TIGP’ and was given an opportunity to study and carry out my research in the Academia Sinica and National Chiao Tung University, a renowned research institution of Taiwan and one of the top three Universities. It was a type of dual degree with my research focused on Sustainable Chemical Science and Technology. After obtaining PhD, I also got Song Pei Wu applied chemistry thesis award for my thesis on Perovskite solar cells. Moreover, two of my research papers also received the best paper award from my university ‘National Chiao Tung University’.
Currently, I have been awarded the most prestigious postdoctoral fellowship in Taiwan (Academia Sinica postdoctoral research fellow) offered by Academia Sinica and I am working as a Postdoctoral research scholar here.
Q. How do you think your research would be beneficial to the society or industry?
Ans. I hope that this research would help in solving the prevalent issue of global warming befalling due to the rapid industrial developments across the globe. Currently, the conversion efficiency is too low to be practically useful in industry, this research would definitely help solving the existing low conversion efficiency. We are also confident that the proposed hybrid low-dimensional functional materials would help in promoting the conversion of the product yields to some extents and to gain in-depth understanding of the basic principle of CO2 reduction using the advanced spectroscopy/dynamics techniques available in our laboratory. Based on our results we will be able to design better, cheaper and inexpensive catalysts. Finally, we hope these catalysts can be used for a large-scale industrial fixation of carbon dioxide to useful chemicals. This can help us achieve two goals – 1) CO2 amount reduction and 2) valuable chemical productions without using fossil fuel. Ultimately, we will be able to attain the goal of sustainable development.
Q. When did you begin and complete your research?
Ans: I joined the above mentioned project in the month of June 2020, after finishing my PhD, and the first draft of the manuscript was ready by the end of November 2020. The research was finally published in the reputed journal named Applied Catalysis B: Environmental inthe field of environmental engineering in the month of March 2021.
Q. Any new research you are working on now?
Ans: The recent research still requires solutions like finding a viable approach, providing better stability, reducing toxicity and superior catalytic performance. Currently we are working on introducing newer class of materials known as Perovskite. Our goal in this proposal is to develop novel photocatalysts that are inexpensive and efficient. Additionally, the photocatalytic materials should be able to generate large number of electron-hole pairs, while separating charges efficiently at the same time, and providing large amount of active catalytic sites at the interface between the surface of the photocatalyst and the CO2 carriers (either in liquid phase or in gas phase).
Q. What was the conclusion of your research?
Ans. We successfully demonstrated that cheaper catalyst can also work efficiently as expensive catalysts for CO2 reduction with better efficiency and selectivity. More details can be found in our research article.
Q. How do you think your research can be carried forward?
Ans. We expect to establish a standard protocol for employing catalysts for efficient Electro Chemical systems which may ultimately lead to development of the large-scale integrated reactor, including highly efficient buffered system, high conductivity membrane material, and large surface area electrode (e.g. gas diffusion electrode, single-atom membrane, and bio-conductive membrane electrodes). Further, we will be able to tune the selectivity of products by tuning the solvents. Ultimately, research groups around the world will be able to harness CO2 for various applications.
Q. Lastly, please give some tips to the budding scientists?
Ans. My advice to the budding scientists is that they should keep themselves updated with the recent literature and findings. Never lose hope as it takes time to obtain results. Always have plan B and C ready for the research and experiments.
source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Education> Featured / by Rashida Bakait, India Tomorrow / March 30th, 2021
Suspected militants killed a policeman, his wife and daughter in Pulwama’s Awantipora area on Sunday night.
The police said militants barged into the house of Special Police Officer (SPO) Fayaz Ahmad at Hariparigam area of Awantipora and opened indiscriminate fire on Sunday night.
“In the firing, Ahmad along with his wife, Raja Bano, and daughter, Rafia Jan, received bullet wounds. Later, the couple succumbed to their injuries in the hospital,” the police said.
Jan, 24, also succumbed to her injuries on Monday morning in a Srinagar hospital.
Earlier this month, militants killed two off-duty policemen in Srinagar in two separate attacks, including an inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department.
“I strongly condemn brutal terrorist attack on SPO Ahmad and his family at Awantipora. This is an act of cowardice and perpetrators of violence will be brought to justice very soon,” Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Other States / by Special Correspondent / Srinagar – June 28th, 2021
