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Quick Note from BricksnMortar Edesk: 
Further to one of our recent posts regarding a shared article entailing HISTORY OF CEMENT, we are sharing another informative piece of information depicting A BRIEF HISTORY OF CEMENT INDUSTRY IN INDIA.
Hope our readers would find this shared information useful/ insightful.
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India, being the second largest cement producer in the world after China, has got a huge Cement market considering its inhouse demand rather than just depending on export markets. With the government of India giving boost to various infrastructure projects, housing facilities and road networks, the cement industry in India is currently growing at an enviable pace. More growth in the Indian cement industry is expected in the coming years. It is also predicted that the cement production in India would achieve close to 310 - 320 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in FY11 and close to 345 - 350 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by FY12.

The history of the cement industry in India dates back to 1889 when a Kolkata based company started manufacturing cement from Argillaceous. But the industry started getting the organized shape in the early 1900s. In 1914, India Cement Company Ltd was established in Porbandar with a capacity of 10,000 tons and production of 1000 installed. The World War I gave the first initial thrust to the cement industry in India and the industry started growing at a fast rate in terms of production, manufacturing units, and installed capacity. This stage was referred to as the Nascent Stage of Indian Cement Company. In 1927, Concrete Association of India was set up to create public awareness on the utility of cement as well as to propagate cement consumption.

The cement industry in India saw the price and distribution control system in the year 1956, established to ensure fair price model for consumers as well as manufacturers. Later in 1977, government authorized new manufacturing units (as well as existing units going for capacity enhancement) to put a higher price tag for their products. A couple of years later, government introduced a three-tier pricing system with different pricing on cement produced in high, medium and low cost plants.

Cement Company, in any country, plays a major role in the growth of the nation. Cement industry in India was under full control and supervision of the government. However, it got relief at a large extent after the economic reform. But government interference, especially in the pricing, is still evident in India. In spite of being the second largest cement producer in the world, India falls in the list of lowest per capita consumption of cement with 125 kg. The reason behind this is the poor rural people who mostly live in mud huts and cannot afford to have the commodity. Despite the fact, the demand and supply of cement in India has grown up. In a fast developing economy like India, there is always large possibility of expansion of cement industry.

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[Sourced partly from MapsofIndia's business profile sections. Information however cannot be 100% vetted]

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One of India's major media houses, Network18, that runs various top-notch television programmes, websites, publications, etc. have recently come out with their assimilation and corroboration of the data-based analysis of the realty sector in two of the buzzing metro cities of India, viz.,

• DELHI & associated National Capital Region (also termed as Delhi-NCR), and 
• MUMBAI (earlier known as Bombay)

The article entails the assessment of the appreciation in property prices per unit area that the respective localities/ sectors/ areas/ suburbs falling in these two regions have witnessed in the span of last one year, i.e., since September 2010 up to August 2011.

The top results for these two regions being:

DELHI - NCR

1. Sushant Lok phase-1 (Gurgaon, Haryana)
2. Palam Vihar (Gurgaon, Haryana)
3. Golf Course Road (Gurgaon, Haryana)
4. DLF City phase-5 (Gurgaon, Haryana)
5. Sector 110 (Noida, Uttar Pradesh)
6. Sector 43 (Gurgaon, Haryana)
7. Vasant Kunj (Delhi - South)
8. Sector 57 (Gurgaon, Haryana)
9. Sector 51 (Gurgaon, Haryana)
10. Sector 121 (Noida, Uttar Pradesh)

MUMBAI region

1. Palm Beach Road (Navi Mumbai)
2. Mansarover (Navi Mumbai)
3. Dombivili - West (Mumbai beyond Thane)
4. Vasai Road (Mira road and beyond in Mumbai)
5. Nala Sopara - West (Mira road and beyond in Mumbai)
6. Malad - West (Mumbai Andheri Dahisa areas)
7. Powai (Mumbai central)
8. Kamothe (Navi Mumbai)
9. Bhayander - East (Mira road and beyond in Mumbai)

Check out further details and about how much the prices have appreciated

Note from BricksnMortar Edesk: Despite this reproduction of article has a little technical bend of thought, we think it would be of interest to all our readers who want to know the history of the one of the most commonest of building products, that is, CEMENT. So, read on...

In the 18th century a big effort started in Europe to understand why some limes possess hydraulic properties.

John Smeaton often referred to as "father of civil engineering in England" concentrated his work in this field.

The French Engineer Louis Vicat, inspired by the work of Smeaton and Parker, began a study of hydraulic limes in 1812 (published in 1818 as "Recherches experimentales sur les chaux de construction". He reported that in the absence of naturally occurring argillaceous components in limestone, quality hydraulic limes could be prepared by the calcination of fixed ratios of clay proportioned with quicklime.

In 1818 an English patent was granted to Maurice Leger for "Improvement method of making lime" (Leger used Vicat's method).

In 1822, the production of "British Cement" had been started by James Frost at Swanscombe based on a patent for "a new cement or artificial stone".

The invention of Portland Cement is generally credited to Joseph Aspedin, an English Bricklayer in 1824. It involves a double kilning such as was described by Vicat.

Modern day cement manufacturing line (Typical representation)

In 1838 a young chemical engineer, Isaac Johnson, burned the cement raw material at high temperature until the mass was nearly vitrified producing the modern Portland Cement.

The German Chemist Wilhelm Michaelis proposed the establishment of cement standards in 1875.

The earliest kiln is one of William Aspedin's bottle kilns from Robins & Aspedin factory at Northfleet.

The earliest bottle or dome kilns were open kilns with tapered chimney to increase the draft. They were burned in a batch rather than in a continuous fashion and were charged with alternating layers of raw feed and solid fuel.

The chamber kiln was an improved design developed and patented by Mr. Johnson. The combustion gases from the kiln dried the raw material so that when the kiln was burned out a new charge of dried material is immediately ready for use.

The time and heat losses resulting from drawing the clinker, recharging the kiln, and then heating it again led to the design of shaft kiln with continuous burning of the materials, one of the main problem of the new kiln operation was the difficulty of obtaining an even clinker burning, as some of the product would be greatly under-burnt and others be much more heavily clinkered.

In 1898 Atlas Portland cement company according to Lewis improved the design by using what is called a rotary kiln, this improvement was a big revolution in the cement industry because the new kiln could produce 200 cement barrels per day compared to a shaft kiln which produced only 40 to max 80 barrels per day; in addition to quick improvement in this new design regarding the mixing, grinding equipments for raw material, grinding equipments for coal, belt conveyor using mix kind of fuel such as natural gas (1904, Iola Portland cement, Iola Kansas).

In practice, the operation with the first generation of rotary kiln (Ransone kiln) was very difficult due to problem of maintaining a sufficient and uniform kiln temperature with excessive balling of raw feed and sticking on the Frederick lining.

In 1899 Atlas Cement Company improved the technology of the rotary kiln and fuel economy by replacing fuel oil with powdered coal dust. Furthermore, modifications to the kiln were made by addition of two auxiliary clinker coolers, in which the first hot discharged clinker was received as it fell from the kiln and air flowing over it was heated and helped to ignite the coal dust in the rotary kiln.

The new clinker produced from the new kiln technology was different than the old clinker especially from the setting time (much faster setting time). The French chemist Pierre Giron solved this problem by adding gypsum to the cement in order to control the setting time.

After 1900 there was rapid growth in both rotary kiln and auxiliary equipment technology in the United States. Coal grinding mills were developed and coal burning in cement kilns became the predominant combustion process in the industry. All the equipments related to cement production crusher, raw mill, belt conveyors, bucked elevators were improved.

Improvement in the following fields pertaining to cement manufacturing from material science technology has been an ongoing process for 200 years.

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[Reproduced this interesting piece of information for knowledge sharing purpose from: Cimnat]

SIMILAR EARLIER POSTS:

• Understanding manufacturing process of Cement in simple steps
• [Tips'n'Bits]: Do You Know Which Cement Type To Buy & Use?
• [Readers' Q&A]: What is the difference between OPC and PPC (cements)?
• Difference between types of cement (N or 1 or 10...)?
• Most common International Standards / Codes of Practice for 'Classification of Cement'

Earthquake measuring 6.8 on Richter scale hit the Indo-Nepal border region, with epicenter located about 64 km from Gangtok, the capital city of the state of Sikkim (India). Its reportedly the biggest of earthquakes in past 20 years in the area.

About 18 people have lost their lives till recent news update from reliable sources. The damages to life and property are still pouring-in from remotest of remote parts of the area. Damages are also reported from neighboring country- Nepal, with the diplomats/ embassy areas in its capital city Kathmandu, also being reported as being hit mildly-to-moderately.

Three aftershocks measuring 5.7, 5.1 and 4.6 on Richter scale hit thereafter jolting people out of their comforts. The region falls in Seismic Zone-VI (Most hazardous/ risk zone) as per Indian Seismic Standard IS:1893.


In such situations, as we mentioned in our earlier post (What should one ideally do when shocks/ tremors of an earthquake are first felt?), there can only be certain precautions one can undertake besides taking certain hints from the nature and animals/ birds/ insects/ etc. And, further yet, lets be prepared to meet contingent disaster situations like these. (Read our earlier post on such precautions clicking here).

If the much-much loud'n'firm gossips are to be believed that are abuzz within the four walls of all the newsrooms as well as the boardrooms of the elitist of elite companies that could be interested in snapping their teeth by trying to grab a deal out of it, then it must be a news of interest to all such ears also.

The news being that two of the prime & prestigious real estate property in upscale South Mumbai, India; presently having the US Consulate buildings-- viz., Lincoln House and the US Bureaucrats Housing Society commonly called as Washington Apartments-- are reportedly up for sale.

Initial reports abuzz in the real estate & business markets peg the probable deal to be valued at anything beyond INR 800 crores (about $ 173 mio). The plots where the present US Consulate's Mumbai assets are located are reportedly measuring gigantic 8,345 sqm in area. A simple calculation, as such, pegs the initial land value somewhere around a whopping INR 9.6 lakhs per sqm. And, one should not wonder much if the rate goes further sky-rocketing considering the address of the property and the location that the property is in.

US Consulate in South Mumbai is reportedly up for sale

Lets wait and see who / which company grabs the deal and valued at how much money. It would certainly be news-piece of interest for us all directly or indirectly linked to the real estate niche :-) We shall keep ours readers posted!

[Note: Forward this information to your friends, family and acquaintances if you find this useful]

New Delhi, the capital city of India, and its sub-urban satellite cities of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad experienced an earthquake of 4.2 richter scale yesterday (08/Sep/2011) night @ 23:28 hours.
The tremors that lasted for about 5-6 seconds, though ultimately reported as being mild scientifically, shook people out of their beds and usual chores and made them to come out from the comforts of their respective homes to nearby open spaces fearing another round of quake waves (shocks) might strike back.

Some of our facebook fans & followers at Bricksnmortar Edesk during a chat session a while before asked- "What should one do when tremors of an earthquake are first felt?"

We, here at bricks-n-mortar.com, had earlier assimilated and compiled quite useful information on eathquakes and measures that should be adopted during occurences of earthquakes. The said post, titled: "IITK-BMTPC's Useful and Informative Series on Earthquake related Disaster Management Tips" brings about the facts and dos & don'ts that people should follow and practice. (Read this post clicking the short URL here)

However, one very basic fact that all of us should always pay attention to whenever an instance of earthquake occurs is to look for the reactions of the birds and animals around, as they surely have a much much higher sensation alarm system built in them by no other than mother nature.

It has scientifically been proved that especially the birds and animals pick the sensations much earlier than what human beings can gather. So, whenever one sees or feels not one, not two, but a whole bunch of birds and animals around behaving in a strange way howling or becoming restless; chances of occurence of some kind of NATURE's FURY are much much higher. It would always be prudent to

Neha Kulkarni, an architect by profession and a non-resident Indian (NRI) presently putting up in California, Unites States of America, asked us on our BricksnMortar Edesk entity on Facebook...

Neha asked:

1. What are Tiles?
2. What are the different types & kinds of Tiles?
3. What are 'Homogenous Vitrified Tiles'?
4. What makes them different from other normal tiles, viz., Vitrified tiles/ Ceramic tiles/ Glazed tiles/ Composite tiles/ Stone tiles?

BricksnMortar Edesk (Team Bricks-n-Mortar) answers:
Dear Ms. Neha,
Considering the number of your queries you have asked, allow us to break the posts and answer your queries in at least 2-parts. Hereby, publishing PART 1 of 2 of the post...

WHAT ARE 'TILES'?

To begin with, let us first briefly tell you and our readers for the sake of sharing basic know-how as what essentially is meant by the building product called - 'TILES'.

In simplest of words-- "A tile is a natural or manufactured piece of hard-wearing material that could generally be used for covering, protection and/or decorating finished or unfinished surfaces like roofs, floors, walls, ceilings, facades, slabs, etc. etc."

The word 'TILE' is believed to be derived from the French word 'TUILE', which in turn is believed to have been derived from the Latin word 'TEGULA' which means a roof covering piece composed of fired clay.

DIFFERENT KINDS & TYPES OF TILES

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TILES COMMONLY USED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

The most common kind & types of tiles that are used worldwide, and which are either available naturally or are manufactured in factories are described in brief herein below: