Search

The article discusses the use of paper for social communication in early modern India, with focus given to the circulation of puranic manuscripts, or Hindu religious manuscripts. The author demonstrates how paper influenced communication and helped develop an Indian public sphere in spite of a lack of Indian print culture in the early modern period. Particular focus is given to the movement of texts within the Brahman social networks of Maratha, India, as well as the Maratha state's efforts to regulate communication deemed subversive to Brahman elites.

The emergent technology has been increasingly incorporated with the tourism industry. In the digital world, social media plays an important role in identifying the most visited tourist places. More than 80% of people commonly used the social media platform called 'Twitter'. By using tweet reviews, tourists around the world know about the feelings, suggestions and opinions of most visited tourist places in the selected region. This paper recommends an approach for the development of trip planning in South India based on tourist's preferences. For the research, we use Twitter Application Programming Interface to collect information about the most visited tourist places in South India by using tweets reviews and store it as South India Tourism Tweet reviews database. This paper mainly focuses on analyzing Twitter reviews, which are very helpful to locate the most visited tourist place. In the tweets where reviews are mostly unstructured and heterogeneous, which are then classified into positive tweets, negative tweets and neutral tweets by using the preprocessing technique and machine learning algorithm called support vector machine. Performance measures are calculated by using the classification results. Finally, the results are plotted by using the classification results and performance measures as a wordcloud. This can be very useful for tourists to select the most visited tourist locations. The proposed system can satisfy individual tourist needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uncovers evidence of political cycles in developmental outcomes in the Indian context. Comparing children born to the same mother, it shows that children born 0–11 months before scheduled state legislative assembly elections have a significantly lower risk of neonatal mortality. The effect of being born just before elections is higher in politically more competitive regions. The paper provides some evidence of the channels behind this result. The usage of prenatal care increases before elections and mothers of children born before elections are more likely to have antenatal checkups and tetanus injections during pregnancy. Components of antenatal checkups, like the probability of having a blood test or an abdominal examination during pregnancy, also increase before elections. The improvement in child health outcomes before elections seems to be driven by a transfer of resources from non-election to election years rather than an overall improvement in child health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive techno–economic and environmental impact analysis of electric two-wheeler batteries in India. The technical comparison reveals that sodium-ion (Na-ion) and lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries outperform lead–acid batteries in various parameters, with Na-ion and Li-ion batteries exhibiting higher energy densities, higher power densities, longer cycle lives, faster charge rates, better compactness, lighter weight and lower self-discharge rates. In economic comparison, Na-ion batteries were found to be ~12–14% more expensive than Li-ion batteries. However, the longer lifespans and higher energy densities of Na-ion and Li-ion batteries can offset their higher costs through improved performance and long-term savings. Lead–acid batteries have the highest environmental impact, while Li-ion batteries demonstrate better environmental performance and potential for recycling. Na-ion batteries offer promising environmental advantages with their abundance, lower cost and lower toxic and hazardous material content. Efficient recycling processes can further enhance the environmental benefits of Na-ion batteries. Overall, this research examines the potential of Na-ion batteries as a cheaper alternative to Li-ion batteries, considering India's abundant sodium resources in regions such as Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the feasibility of India achieving its stated objective of getting to net zero carbon emissions by 2070 and outlines a possible strategy for the next 10 years consistent with this goal. It recommends a combination of price-based measures and several sector-specific interventions. The ideal price-based measure would be a carbon tax. This may not be feasible for various reasons, but in its absence a well-designed emissions trading system, as described in the paper, could make a major contribution in reducing emissions. On sectoral interventions, the critical areas over the next 10 years would be (i) accelerated expansion of various forms of renewable energy capacity, which will require several policy changes, (ii) electrification of transport, and (iii) a shift from private to public transport in urban areas and from road to rail for freight. Action will also be necessary in other sectors such as industry, agriculture, and buildings, but a detailed strategy for these may take more time to put in place. Since responsibility for action in all these areas is spread across different ministries in the central government and, in many cases, state governments, evolving an internally consistent and cost-effective strategy will present a major challenge. There is a case for setting up a high-level commission chaired by the Prime Minister to approve a national strategy. The paper estimates that the additional investment needed to make this transition will be about 2 per cent of India's GDP by 2030, much of which will have to come from additional public and private savings. In this context, some form of carbon pricing would help generate additional revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern scholarship discusses 'Buddhist influences' on the Patañjali's Yogasūtras (YS). Indeed, Patañjali borrowed key Buddhist concepts, particularly from Yogācāra. But this borrowing does not evince that the YS is just 'crypto-Buddhism'. In fact, during the first millennium CE, the YS was equally influential on Buddhist thinkers. I make this argument by focusing on YS 3.25, which discusses the yogic ability to see subtle (sūkṣma), hidden (vyavahita), and far-off (viprakṛṣṭa) objects. Tracing textual occurrences of these three words, I use this stable mimetic trope to demonstrate the influence of YS on Buddhist, Nyāya, and Vaiśeṣika writings. This influence is all the more interesting given that Buddhists explicitly disagree with many of the theoretical suppositions latent in YS 3.25. I demonstrate that despite this theoretical disagreement, Buddhists make ample use of YS 3.25. This paper thus complicates any clear direction of influence between Buddhist and Hindu traditions, and further questions the cogency of strict delineations between different philosophical schools. I also offer the method used in this paper as a novel approach to textual exegesis. By focusing on stable textual memes and tracing their occurrences across sources, we gain a powerful method to more deeply plumb India's rich intertextual intellectual history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can public interventions persistently reduce conflict? Adverse weather shocks, through their impact on incomes, have been identified as robust drivers of conflict in many contexts. An effective social insurance system moderates the impact of adverse shocks on household incomes, and hence, could attenuate the link between these shocks and conflict. This paper shows that a public employment program in India, by providing an alternative source of income through a guarantee of 100 days of employment at minimum wages, effectively provides insurance. This has an indirect pacifying effect. By weakening the link between productivity shocks and incomes, the program uncouples productivity shocks from conflict, leading persistently lower conflict levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of an information dissemination intervention on the local-level implementation of the rural public works program in India. One key feature of the intervention is to provide information to workers once their wages get credited into their accounts. Using administrative and survey data, its impact on delays in wage payments and days of work along with the awareness levels of the entitlements is evaluated. The findings indicate a substantial reduction in payment delays and in trips made for wage withdrawal, in addition to improvements in awareness. The decrease in the payment delays in the treated villages persists even beyond the intervention period. While a limited impact on work days is observed during the intervention, a significant increase in the post-intervention period is found. The findings substantiated through qualitative evidence provide a platform for an innovative and cost-effective intervention to improve the implementation of social protection programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is regularly pointed out that despite impressive economic growth India has the largest number of malnourished children in the world. It also has the largest number of people with diabetes despite moderate levels of obesity. These two observations may in fact be linked; poverty breeds malnutrition in children and chronic diseases in adults. This article reviews evidence on the critical role of early nutrition both for long-term health and also for reducing the intergenerational transmission of poverty. (JEL codes: I12, I14, O15) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An analysis of 2,183 papers published by Chinese researchers and 1,034 papers published by Indian researchers in the field of plant-based medicine during 1990-2004 and indexed by Pub Med indicates that China's output is more than twice to India's output. Medical universities and colleges mainly contribute to China's output, while academic institutions mainly contribute to the Indian output. The major focus of Chinese researchers was on chemical analysis including chromatographic and spectrometric investigations, followed by oncology/radiation protection. Indian researchers emphasized gastroenteritis/liver diseases and oncology/radiation protection. The investigations were mainly focused on native plants of respective countries. Chinese researchers preferred to publish their work in domestic journals; Indian researchers in journals published from the Western countries. The share of papers in journals covered by SCI for India was higher than that from China. However, the proportion of papers in high impact factor journals for China is higher than for India. Average rate of citation for Chinese and Indian papers was almost the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to select the optimal model of a hybrid renewable-energy microgrid (MG) system for a village in India. The MG comprises solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, a wind turbine generator, a biomass generator, a battery bank, a diesel generator and an electric vehicle. The optimal model selection is based on technical, economic, environmental, social and reliability parameters. A novel spoonbill swarm optimization algorithm is proposed to select the best hybrid MG system. The optimization results are compared with particle swarm optimization, the genetic algorithm and the grasshopper optimization algorithm. The number or size of components of the optimized MG system is 215 PV modules, 92 kW of wind turbine generation, 25 kW of biomass generation, 267 batteries, 22 kW of electric vehicles and 30 kW of diesel generation. The optimized system was selected based on technical factors such as renewable dispersion (93.5%), the duty factor (5.85) and excess energy (15 975 kWh/year) as well as economic considerations including the net present cost (Rs. 34 686 622) and the cost of energy (9.3 Rs./kWh). Furthermore, environmental factors such as carbon emissions (396 348 kg/year) and atmospheric particulate matter (22.686 kg/year); social factors such as the human progress index (0.68411), the employment generation factor (0.0389) and local employment generation (15.64643); and reliability parameters including loss of power supply probability (0.01%) and availability index (99.99%) were considered during the selection process. The spoonbill swarm optimization algorithm has reduced the convergence time by 1.2 times and decreased the number of iterations by 0.83 times compared with other algorithms. The performance of the MG system is validated in the MATLAB® environment. The results show that the MG system is the optimal system considering technical, economic, environmental, social and reliability parameters. Additionally, the spoonbill swarm optimization algorithm is found to be more efficient than the other algorithms in terms of iteration time and convergence time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal predictive models are of enormous interest and value to legal community. The stakeholders, particularly, the judges and attorneys, can take the best advantages of these models to predict the case outcomes to further augment their future course of actions, for example speeding up decision making, support arguments, strengthening the defense, etc. However, accurately predicting the legal decisions and case outcomes is an arduous process, which involves several complex steps—finding suitable bulk case documents, data extracting, cleansing and engineering, etc. Additionally, the legal complexity further adds to its intricacies. In this paper, we introduce our newly developed Machine Learning (ML)-enabled legal prediction model and its operational prototype, eLegPredict , which successfully predicts the Indian supreme court decisions. The eLegPredict is trained and tested over 3072 supreme court cases and has achieved 76% accuracy (F1-score). The eLegPredict is equipped with a mechanism to aid end users, where as soon as a document with new case description is dropped into a designated directory, the system quickly reads through its content and generates prediction. To our understanding, eLegPredict is one of the first few legal prediction models trying to predict Indian supreme court decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manifest Arbitrariness Doctrine is perhaps the most important legal development of the decade for India. It is a standard that includes anything done by the legislature capriciously, irrationally and/or without adequate determining principle, excessively or disproportionately. It is being increasingly used to strike down plenary legislation under Article 14. However, there is no clarity on its application, and no literature addressing the same. Without this clarity, law-makers may inadvertently pass legislations that fail the test; and adjudicators may fail to determine when the legislations fail the test. More importantly, the Doctrine may empower judges to substitute legislative wisdom for their own. This paper alleviates these concerns by finding consistency in its application while restricting the scope of judicial scrutiny. By employing the framework of "Rules versus Standard", this paper analyses six instances of application of the Doctrine and develops a four-step test. It evinces that the Doctrine has been used in a restrictive sense to strike down plenary legislation only when first , the legislation in question is a rule as against a standard; second , it is overinclusive/underinclusive; third , due to overinclusive/underinclusive nature, it yields socially undesirable results; and fourth , these socially undesirable results are worse than the competing social results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the inception of the novel coronavirus, immense research efforts have been made to understand how several economic indicators, including food security, would be affected. With India racing behind the United States in terms of daily infection rate and being a country with challenging food security issues, it is important to investigate how the presence of the pandemic has influenced the dynamics of food prices in the country. This paper considers seven price series from 167 markets across the five regions in India as well as the growth rate of COVID-19 infection. The paper uses a time-varying autoregressive model to investigate the nonlinear dynamics of food prices in relation to the pandemic in India. The resultant models reveal strong asymmetric properties with shock-inflicted persistence, which appear not to converge over the simulation period. Moreover, in terms of the location of the burden of the pandemic impact, we find a food product divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents axiomatic arguments to make the case for distribution-sensitive multidimensional poverty measures. The commonly used counting measures violate the strong transfer axiom, which requires regressive transfers to be unambiguously poverty increasing, and they are also invariant to changes in the distribution of a given set of deprivations among the poor. The paper appeals to strong transfer as well as an additional cross-dimensional convexity property to offer axiomatic justification for distribution-sensitive multidimensional poverty measures. Given the nonlinear structure of these measures, it is also shown how the problem of an exact dimensional decomposition can be solved using Shapley decomposition methods to assess dimensional contributions to poverty. An empirical illustration for India highlights distinctive features of the distribution-sensitive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worldwide explosion of social welfare has been described as the "quiet revolution" of our time. This paper analyses the expansion of social welfare in India during the early part of the 2000s. What explains this expansion of encompassing social welfare in India, following a history of disparate and fragmented social policies? The answer, I argue, lies in recognizing the importance of the "politics of the poor," the ensemble of negotiations that encompass both electoral participation and contentious politics vis-à-vis the political institutions in India. The paper develops this argument by drawing together insights from discursive institutionalism, Indian politics, and the politics of welfare literature. Doing so enables me to examine the ways in which poor people's political practices were interpreted by India's parliamentarians to justify the legislation of India's flagship social welfare program the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. I analyze the discourses communicated through 78 parliamentary debates in English and Hindi to enact the law. I blend this analysis with process tracing of electoral behavior of India's poor and the Maoist insurrection that exploded in the country's poorest districts at the turn of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether a one-time, extensive, but temporary shock to cash supply can affect the adoption of digital payments. We exploit the 2016 demonetization episode in India, which overnight discontinued 86% of cash in circulation. Using novel administrative data from retail debit card transactions, we identify a 12% increase in digital payments in areas adversely affected by the cash shortage, which persisted well after the restoration of cash supply. Examining mechanisms, we find a limited role for social networks and stronger support for learning by doing. Further, information frictions hinder the immediate adoption of digital payments. (JEL E5, 023) Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main hindrances to the large-scale development of renewable-energy projects are the lack of bankability and the inability to align investments and investors with suitable financial instruments or robust policy measures. To illustrate a bankable project, this paper presents a research-based case study on the installation of solar photovoltaic panels on the rooftops of 195 trains of the Indian Railways. Detailed information on the annual running hours, exposure to sunlight, efficiency of solar photovoltaic generation and electrical power demands of each rail coach is considered to conduct a quantitative measure of the tentative amount of fossil fuel savings. The purpose is to provide insight into the types of renewable-energy projects that can be highly attractive to financial institutions and promoters due to their lucrative internal return on investment. As seen in this case study, there are annual savings in diesel of 12 323 088 litres and a CO2 reduction of 32 755 tonnes, with return on investment of 1.3 years. Furthermore, this study conducts a comprehensive analysis of the limitations of existing renewable-energy project financing mechanisms in India. Subsequently, three policy measures are recommended to develop a robust financial mechanism that can effectively meet the needs of investors and investors. These measures include increasing equity injection through a buy-and-hold strategy, providing direct tax benefits to promoters and financing through real-estate investment trusts. The findings are highly relevant to address the challenges associated with bridging the financial gap between access to finance and capital investment in the renewable-energy sector, especially for Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Fungal disease is frequent in India, but its incidence and prevalence are unclear. This review aims at defining the frequency or burden of various fungal infections in India. Methods A systematic review of the literature on the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science (WOS) databases was conducted using appropriate search strings. Deterministic modeling determined annual incidence and prevalence estimates for multiple life- and sight-threatening infections with significant morbidity. Results Literature searches yielded >2900 papers; 434 papers with incidence/prevalence/proportion data were analyzed. An estimated 57 251 328 of the 1 393 400 000 people in India (4.1%) suffer from a serious fungal disease. The prevalence (in millions) of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis is 24.3, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis is 2.0, tinea capitis in school-age children is 25, severe asthma with fungal sensitization is 1.36, chronic pulmonary aspergillosis is 1.74, and chronic fungal rhinosinusitis is 1.52. The annual incidence rates of Pneumocystis pneumonia (58 400), invasive aspergillosis (250 900), mucormycosis (195 000), esophageal candidiasis in HIV (266 600), candidemia (188 000), fungal keratitis (1 017 100), and cryptococcal meningitis (11 500) were also determined. Histoplasmosis, talaromycosis, mycetoma, and chromoblastomycosis were less frequent. Conclusions India's fungal burden is high and underappreciated in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the concentration of uranium in 67 groundwater samples of Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka, India, estimated using an LED fluorimeter. The age-dependent ingestion dose to the population of the district is also studied. The concentration of uranium in groundwater varied from 0.20 to 57.50 μg L−1 with an average of 4.40 μg L−1. The annual ingestion dose due to uranium varies from 0.18 to 142.68 μSv y−1, with an average of 7.11 μSv y−1. The ingestion dose received by the population in the study area is less than the recommended level of 100 μSv y−1 by the World Health Organization (2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mission of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) of India is to ensure that the use of ionising radiation and nuclear energy in India does not cause unacceptable impact on the workers, members of the public and to the environment. AERB has the mandate to carry out detailed safety review for the siting, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning of nuclear and radiation facilities established within the country. To deliver and maintain a strong, credible and technically sound regulation, AERB has established the Safety Research Institute (SRI) at Kalpakkam with a robust technical infrastructure and wide knowledge base. This paper highlights the independent safety research activities carried out at SRI and its role to support and facilitate the decision-making process by AERB at various stages of regulatory review for ensuring safety of the nuclear facilities in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether environmental conditions under exotic tree plantations abandoned in the Western Ghats of India can facilitate the natural regeneration of tropical montane forest (Shola forest) tree species is being debated. In many cases, the exotic tree plantations are being cleared to allow for the restoration of native ecosystems. In this paper, we examined whether exotic tree plantations have indeed a negative effect on the regeneration of Shola forest tree species. For this, we assessed the abundance, diversity, and composition of the regeneration of Shola forest tree species in plantations, each with different dominant tree species (Acacia mearnsii , Pinus sp. and Eucalyptus sp.). We tested the abundance of regenerating native tree species against the main plantation canopy species (plantation type) as well as other environmental factors (aspect, distance to nearest Shola forest, structural diversity, slope, elevation, presence of herbivores, and canopy closure). We found that the number of native tree species regenerating in all plantation types was at an acceptable level: 1960, 1773, and 462 individuals ha−1 for Acacia , Eucalyptus , and Pinus plantations, respectively. A rare fraction analysis showed that the highest number of Shola tree species were regenerating under Acacia mearnsii (25) followed by Eucalyptus (19) and Pinus (8) plantations. The density and diversity of regenerating Shola trees was greatest under Acacia plantations and northern aspects but declined with increasing elevation. The presence of herbivores also reduced the density and diversity of Shola tree regeneration. We concluded that the restoration of Shola forest in the Western Ghats is possible in existing stands of exotic tree species and this process can be accelerated with appropriate silvicultural methods. We additionally recommend that studies involving long-term exclosures can provide valuable insights into the effects of browsing on regeneration and species composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community engagement is gaining prominence in health research. But communities rarely have a say in the agendas or conduct of the very health research projects that aim to help them. One way thought to achieve greater inclusion for communities throughout health research projects, including during priority-setting, is for researchers to partner with community organizations (COs). This paper provides initial empirical evidence as to the complexities such partnerships bring to priority-setting practice. Case study research was undertaken on a three-stage CO-led priority-setting process for health systems research. The CO was the Zilla Budakattu Girijana Abhivrudhhi Sangha, a district-level community development organization representing the Soliga people in Karnataka, India. Data on the priority-setting process were collected in 2018 and 2019 through in-depth interviews with researchers, Sangha leaders and field investigators from the Soliga community who collected data as part of the priority-setting process. Direct observation and document collection were also performed, and data from all three sources were thematically analysed. The case study demonstrates that, when COs lead health research priority-setting, their strengths and weaknesses in terms of representation and voice will affect inclusion at each stage of the priority-setting process. CO strengths can deepen inclusion by the CO and its wider community. CO weaknesses can create limitations for inclusion if not mitigated, exacerbating or reinforcing the very hierarchies that impede the achievement of improved health outcomes, e.g. exclusion of women in decision-making processes related to their health. Based on these findings, recommendations are made to support the achievement of inclusive CO-led health research priority-setting processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue explores the operationalization of the triple helix system in developing countries by examining the university-industry relationship and its implications for national and regional innovation systems. The five papers in this issue attempt to set in perspective the role of universities in capacity building in four developing countries (India, Mexico, Chile and Thailand). The papers are based on in-depth case studies drawing on system theories such as the national and regional systems of innovation, national innovative capacity, and the triple helix system. They draw useful lessons of policy import for university managers and higher education policy-makers, local government officials and regional industry associations. They also underline the importance of policy initiatives for networking and collaboration between industry, university and government agencies. The key factors that would need to be taken into account by policy-makers and university authorities in order to ensure continuing, effective, working relationships with industry are also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian Environmental Radiation Monitoring Network continuously monitors, throughout India, the absorbed dose rate in air due to outdoor natural gamma radiation, by using Geiger–Mueller detector-based standalone environmental radiation monitors. The network consists of 546 monitors spread across 91 monitoring locations distributed all over the country. In this paper, the countrywide long-term monitoring results are summarised. The measured mean dose rate of the monitoring locations followed a log-normal distribution and ranged from 50 to 535 nGy.h−1 with a median value of 91 nGy.h−1. Due to outdoor natural gamma radiation, the average annual effective dose was estimated to be 0.11 mSv.y−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of globalization, the informal sector enterprises are also exposed to international competition; and therefore, they need to remain productive and competitive. In this regard, innovation is an obvious strategic choice at the firm level. Drawing from the data gathered through an extensive field survey in NCT-Delhi, India, this study observes that innovation activities in the informal enterprises take place mostly through non-research-and-development routes and rely more on interactive learning and learning by doing. The econometric analysis shows that formal interactions through subcontracting and membership in the industrial associations along with informal interactions with other firms, buyer–supplier interactions, and social capital are having positive and significant influence on product, process, and marketing innovation. However, this study reveals that formal interactions play a vital role in introducing marketing innovations. Further, the results show the essential role of in-house training, entrepreneurial expertise, and information communication technology usage at the firm level. Thus, the paper provides empirical evidence reiterating the importance of integrating informal manufacturing enterprises and their learning processes as the key components of the innovation system in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High prevalence of anaemia is a severe public health problem in India. In 2018, India launched the Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) strategy that focuses on six beneficiary groups for coverage, six institutional mechanisms for health system strengthening and six programmatic interventions to accelerate reductions in anaemia prevalence. This paper uses the Health Management Information System data (2017-18 to 2019-20) to examine gains in IFA coverage across Indian states. A coverage-based AMB index is computed to review performance across states. After the launch of AMB strategy, the Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation coverage between 2017-18 and 2019-20 has increased for all beneficiary groups [pregnant women from 78% to 90%; lactating mothers from 34% to 49%; school going adolescent girls (boys) from 23% to 40% (21% to 42%); out-of-school adolescent girls from 6% to 23%; children 5-9 years from 8% to 3% and children 6-59 months from 7% to 15%]. Coverage was relatively low for target groups being served through a multi-departmental convergence mechanism (health and other departments such as education department for schools or women and child development department for Anganwadi centres) than compared to those served by health department alone. However, no major gender disparities are noted in the coverage of IFA supplementation among school-going girls and boys. Bulk of the variations in coverage is attributable to state-specific differences. Training and sensitization workshops for state and district officials are found to be associated with increased coverage across beneficiary groups. The paper argues that despite following international best practices in the field, it is important to harness synergy in programme implementation across line departments to eliminate coverage inefficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is an essential resource for agriculture and the majority of land is irrigated through borewells or wells. The power requirement for an irrigation pump motor is fed by the on-grid power supply but the availability of electricity in rural areas is still questionable. With rising concerns about global warming and the rise in carbon footprints, it is necessary to choose clean and green energy, thereby attaining self-sustainable life. India receives yearly a mean solar irradiation of 6.5 kWh/m2day. Hence, a solar photovoltaic–water-pumping system (SPV–WPS) is a suitable alternative to grid energy; thereby, the farmers would generate electricity through the solar photovoltaic system and become self-sufficient in their energy needs. In this paper, two different agricultural fields in Tamil Nadu, India that deploy flood irrigation and drip irrigation are taken as a case study. The paper discusses the concerns on the use of grid power and their carbon footprint, design and simulation of 4- and 5.5-kW SPV–WPSs using PVsyst 7.1.1, and the advantages of using SPV–WPSs and life-cycle cost analysis on different use cases. The Government of India has introduced a special scheme to promote the installation of SPV–WPSs by offering attractive incentives through PM-Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) yojana. The results of the case study show that with the use of SPV–WPSs, either with or without subsidy, the farmer could gain a minimum of 250% on the investment with a project lifetime of 25 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, where around 19,500 dialects are spoken, there is a great abundance of fiction quite rich in varied descriptions of old age and aging. While scholars like Pramod K. Nayar and Ira Raja have recently begun studying Indian literary texts written in English from the perspective of literary gerontology, those literary experiences of aging (which are originally in languages like Bengali, Tamil, Hindi, Oriya, etc.) are yet to be analyzed from a gerontological point of view. The present paper aims at studying the experiences of old age in 2 Indian short stories (one from Bengali Literature and another from Tamil Literature)—Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay's "Drabomoyee Goes to Kashi" ("Drabomoyeer Kashibash" in Bengali) and T. Janakiraman's "The Puppet" ("Vilayattu Bommai" in Tamil). Regarding "Drabomoyee Goes to Kashi," the paper interrogates the problems in the emplacement of Hindu older widows to Kashi and explores the possibilities in Drabomoyee from ecofeminist and creatural perspectives. The discussions on "The Puppet" chiefly reflect on the social exclusion of the aging bodies of people living with dementia. Through the story of Venu, the paper shows that what the society or family generally expects from the older persons suffering from dementia may not do any good to them, and may instead lead to their institutionalization and other forms of exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This structured review aimed to discuss the existing literature on therapeutic hypothermia for moderate to severe neonatal encephalopathy exclusively in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).Methods: Medline, Embase, CINHAL and Cochrane Registry were searched for original papers with therapeutic hypothermia (TH) for treating neonatal encephalopathy in LMIC with no language restrictions. The search identified 1413 papers from 1990 to 31 August 2021.Results: Twenty-one original papers were included after duplicates removal and full-text screening in the final review. Fourteen randomized control studies and seven non-randomized studies were discussed with various modes of cooling (servo-controlled, phase changing material, traditional methods), complications during cooling, mortality and long-term neurodevelopmental assessment. Although there is sufficient evidence in LMIC favouring cooling for the reduction in mortality and improving the neurodevelopmental outcomes, nonetheless these studies were widely heterogeneous in terms of method of cooling, tools for assessing developmental outcomes, age at assessment and variations in neuroimaging tools and reporting.Conclusion: Therapeutic hypothermia is beneficial in LMICs with low certainty of evidence in reducing mortality and improving neurodevelopmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exploits the social organization of India to revisit the question of education spillovers in farm productivity. The fact that social interactions mainly occur within castes in rural India provides tools to show that the observed correlation between farm productivity and neighbors' education is likely to be a spillover effect. In particular, there are no cross-caste and no cross-occupation effects, which underlines that, under specific assumptions, which are stated and explored in the paper, the education of neighbors does not capture the effect of group unobservables. This evidence is complemented by separate estimations by crops, which show results that are consistent with education spillovers. The strategy used in this paper helps understand and interpret previous findings from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research forms a part of the comprehensive Indian Environmental Radiation Monitoring Network program, focusing on the continuous measurement of absorbed dose rate in outdoor air due to natural gamma radiation (cosmic and terrestrial) in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Over the course of a decade (2013–2023), data were collected from 41 monitoring locations in the city using permanently field-installed Geiger-Mueller detector-based environmental radiation monitors. This paper presents an analysis of the extensive long-term monitoring results. The mean absorbed gamma dose rate in outdoor air across the monitoring locations ranged from 84 ± 9 to 156 ± 4 nGy.h−1, with a calculated mean value of 124 ± 15 nGy.h−1. The estimated mean annual effective dose due to outdoor natural gamma radiation varied from 0.10 ± 0.01 to 0.19 ± 0.01 mSv.y−1, with an overall mean of 0.15 ± 0.02 mSv.y−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the incursions, or more accurately, the interventions of the Indian state into what are often called its "Northeast borderlands." It grapples with the specific space occupied by those who belong to this minoritized region in India. Theoretically, it works through conceptions of "sovereignty" and "intervention" to underscore what is at stake for those who lie within the remit of recognized state sovereignty but are nonetheless subject to brutal and invasive "intervention." The article engages Naga author Temsula Ao's writing on questions of "tribal" identity, globalization, and borders to situate India as a postcolonial "settler" state. Finally, it puts her work in conversation with Manu Karuka's notion of "counter-sovereignty" to highlight the ways in which even critical International Relations (IR) theory risks falling into the trap of reifying "sovereignty" and unwittingly giving credence to Westphalian and Euro-centric understandings of sovereignty at the expense of alternative and prior imaginaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses new data to study school management and productivity in India. We report five main results. First, management quality in public schools is low, and ∼2 standard deviations below high-income countries with comparable data. Second, private schools have higher management quality, driven by much stronger people management. Third, people management quality is correlated with independent measures of teaching practice, as well as school productivity measured by student value added. Fourth, better-managed schools have lower variation in within-school teacher effectiveness and higher levels of minimum teacher effectiveness. Fifth, consistent with better people management, teacher pay in private schools is positively correlated with teacher effectiveness, whereas we find no such correlation in public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freshwater resources are becoming scarce and severely affected due to urbanization and industrial pollution. The per capita water supply to every Indian household is getting lesser than the recommended level. In this scenario, wastewater is considered as a new source of water supply for agriculture, industrial use, etc. Apart from the water laws, the government also adopted various policies and schemes to promote the reuse of treated wastewater for non-potable uses. However, the ineffective implementation of water laws and wastewater policies brought a new set of challenges. It is in this connection this paper analyses the comprehensive overview of constitutional provisions, key provisions of relevant laws, policies, rules, regulations, judicial intervention on wastewater management, and reuse in India. It also identifies implementation challenges in the enforcement of wastewater laws and byelaws in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foods high in fat, sugar or salt are important contributors to the rising burden of non-communicable diseases globally and in India. Health taxes (HTs) have been used by over 70 countries as an effective tool for reducing consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). However, the potential impacts of HTs on consumption and on revenues have not been estimated in India. This paper aims to estimate the potential impact of health taxes on the demand for sugar, SSBs and foods high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) in India while exploring its impact on tax revenues. PE of sugar was estimated using Private Final Consumption Expenditure and Consumer Price Index data while price elasticities for SSBs and HFSS were obtained from literature. The reduction in demand was estimated for an additional 10–30% HT added to the current goods and services tax, for varying levels of price elasticities. The results show that for manufacturers of sweets and confectionaries who buy sugar in bulk and assuming a higher price elasticity of −0.70, 20% additional HT (total tax 48%) would result in 13–18% decrease in the demand for sugar used for confectionaries and sweets. For SSBs, HT of 10–30% would result in 7–30% decline in the demand of SSBs. For HFSS food products, 10–30% HT would result in 5–24% decline in the demand for HFSS products. These additional taxes would increase tax revenues for the government by 12–200% across different scenarios. Taxing unhealthy foods is likely to reduce demand, while increasing government revenues for reinvestment back into public health programmes and policies that may reduce obesity and the incidence of non-communicable diseases in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-informed policymaking integrates the best available evidence on programme outcomes to guide decisions at all stages of the policy process and its importance becomes more pronounced in resource-constrained settings. In this paper, we have reviewed the use of systematic review evidence in framing National Health Programme (NHP) guidelines in India. We searched official websites of the different NHPs, linked to the main website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), in December 2020 and January 2021. NHP guideline documents with systematic review evidence were identified and information on the use of this evidence was extracted. We classified the identified systematic review evidence according to its use in the guideline documents and analysed the data to provide information on the different factors and patterns linked to the use of systematic review evidence in these documents. Systematic reviews were mostly visible in guideline documents addressing maternal and newborn health, communicable diseases and immunization. These systematic reviews were cited in the guidelines to justify the need for action, to justify recommendations for action and opportunities for local adaptation, and to highlight implementation challenges and justify implementation strategies. Guideline documents addressing implementation cited systematic reviews about the problems and policy options more often than citing systematic reviews about implementation. Systematic reviews were linked directly to support statements in few guideline documents, and sometimes the reviews were not appropriately cited. Most of the systematic reviews providing information on the nature and scale of the policy problem included Indian data. It was seen that since 2014, India has been increasingly using systematic review evidence for public health policymaking, particularly for some of its high-priority NHPs. This complements the increasing investment in research synthesis centres and procedures to support evidence-informed decision making, demonstrating the continued evolution of India's evidence policy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a relatively neglected dimension of industrial relation in India, namely judicial intervention in industrial disputes. Through an interrogation of judicial intervention in capital-labour disputes in the state of West Bengal, the paper makes an original contribution to the literature. Through quantitative as well as qualitative examination of court cases, the paper addresses some important questions concerning the nature of judicial intervention. Does the declining force of trade union movements signify a corresponding shift to judicial recourse or an increasing pro-labour judiciary? How are the disputes read by the judiciary: do they adhere to a strict legalistic understanding or does their intervention involve going beyond the letter of the law? Is there uniformity in the nature of verdicts along the spectrum of the judiciary, ie, from the labour tribunals to the higher judiciary (High Court/Supreme Court)? Through an extensive case study of court judgments from labour tribunal to High Court to Supreme Court (where applicable), the paper situates the answers to these questions in the unique context of the sub-state of West Bengal with its specific political framework. Investigating the disjuncture between the legal prescriptions and their invisible implications, or between the jurisprudence at different levels, the paper provides clues to understanding not only the way judicial intervention plays out but also the way in which industrial relations are managed and understood in the context of West Bengal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States support transnational insurgents in an important variety of ways, from highly public efforts to transform the status quo to covert backing with limited ambitions. In this paper, we introduce a new theory to help explain variation in these strategies of external support. We argue that the offensive or defensive goals of state sponsors interact with their fears of escalation to shape how they support armed groups. Four strategies of state sponsorship emerge from different combinations of sponsor goals and escalation fears. We empirically investigate this argument with a unique medium- N study of Indian support and nonsupport for insurgents in South Asia. Based on fieldwork, primary sources, and specialized secondary literature, we uncover a rich landscape of links between India and armed groups in its neighborhood. We show a systematic connection between the strategies of support that India chooses with its aims in supporting rebels and its fears of escalation from doing so. However, there are mispredictions between our theory and empirical reality that we use in the conclusion to suggest new directions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Child malnutrition remains a matter of concern in India as the current levels are high and the decline is slow. National Family Health Survey (NFHS–4, 2015-16) data, for the first time, provides credible, good quality data at district level on social, household and health characteristics. Methods Techniques of spatial analysis on data in respect of 640 districts were used to identify spatial characteristics of the nutrition levels for children in the 0–60-month age group. Further, the principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify 7 important correlates of the malnutrition out of 21 relevant components provided in the NFHS-4. The paper further uses three techniques, ordinary least squares (OLS), spatial lag model (SLM) and spatial error model (SEM) to assess the strength of correlation between the malnutrition levels and the shortlisted correlates. Results The use of SLM and SEM shows improvement in the strength of the association (high R -square) compared to OLS. Women's height and Iodized salt in stunting, child anaemia in wasting, women's height and child anaemia in underweight were found to be significant factors (P  < 0.01) along with spatial autoregressive constant. Conclusions Such analysis, in combination with PCA, has shown to be more effective in prioritizing the programme interventions for tackling child malnutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether class-size reductions improve student learning outcomes is an important policy question for India. This paper investigates the issue using a credible identification strategy to address the endogeneity of class size. Pupil fixed effects combined with value-added estimation show no significant relationship between class size and student achievement, which suggests that under current teaching practices, there is no learning gain from reducing class size. If these findings, based on a small sample in one city, hold true for the entire country, they have important policy implications. When generalized, our findings suggest that India experienced a value-subtraction from spending on reducing class sizes, and that the US$3.6 billion it spends annually on the salaries of the 0.4 million new teachers appointed between 2010 and 2017 is wasteful spending rather than an investment in improving learning. These findings imply that India could save US$19.4 billion per annum by increasing PTR to 40, without any reduction in pupil learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continental collision zones form at convergent plate boundaries after the negatively buoyant oceanic lithosphere subducts entirely into the Earth's mantle. Consequently, orogenesis commences, and the colliding continents are sutured together. During the collision, plate convergence and motion of the sutured boundary towards the overriding plate are manifest in its deformation, as is the case for the long-term (∼50 Ma) and nearly constant convergence rate at the India–Eurasia collisional zone that hosts the Himalaya. However, despite the long history of modelling subduction-collision systems, it remains unclear what drives this convergence, especially in models where subduction is driven solely by buoyancy forces. This paper presents dynamic self-consistent buoyancy-driven 2-D whole-mantle scale numerical models of subduction-and-collision processes to explore variations in density and rheological stratification of the colliding continent and overriding plate (OP) viscosity (a proxy for OP strength) that facilitate post-collisional convergence and collisional boundary migration. In models with a moderately buoyant indenting continent, the collisional boundary advance is comparatively low (0.1–0.6 cm yr–1), and convergence is driven by the dense continental lithospheric mantle that continues to subduct as it decouples from its deforming crust. Conversely, models with a highly buoyant indenting continent show sustained indentation at 0.5–1.5 cm yr–1 until the slab detaches. Furthermore, models with a weaker OP and lower backarc viscosity show an enhanced propensity for indentation by a positively buoyant continent. These models additionally highlight the role of whole mantle flow induced by the sinking of the detached slab in the lower mantle as it sustains slow convergence at an average rate of 0.36 cm yr–1 for ∼25 Myr after break-off as well as prevents the residual slab from educting. In previous buoyancy-driven partial mantle depth models such eduction does generally occur, given that free-sinking of the detached slab in the mantle is not modelled. Although these findings widen the understanding of the long-term convergence of indenting continents, the lower post-collisional advance rates (0.3–1.5 cm yr–1) compared to India's approximate 1000–2000 km of northward indentation during the last 50 Myr attest to the need for 3-D models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about various papers related to geophysics. Some of the papers are "The Seismic Structure of the Saurashtra Crust in Northwest India and Its Relationship With the Reunion Plume," by G.S.P. Rao and H.C. Tewari, "Maximum Horizontal Stress Orientations in the Cooper Basin, Australia: Implications for Plate-Scale Tectonics and Local Stress Sources," by S. D. Reynolds, S. D. Mildren, R. R. Hulls, J. J. Meyer and T. Flottmann, "A Magnetic Field Model With Daily Variations of the Magnetospheric Field and Its Induced Counterpart in 2001," by V. Lesur, S. Macmillan and A. Thomson.

Using an unexpected government regulation that restricted the ability of microfinance institutions to recover loans in one Indian state, I examine whether this intervention affected bank loan performance. The bank loan delinquency rate significantly increased as a result. In response, the ex post bank credit supply declined by more than half. For identification, I compare loans from branches located in regions subject to this intervention with loans from nearby branches of the same bank located in regions not subject to the intervention. I conclude that political interventions in credit markets could have significant spillover effects. Received October 29, 2016; editorial decision November 28, 2017 by Editor Philip Strahan. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The illegal poaching of lions for their body parts poses a severe threat to lion populations across Africa. Poaching accounts for 35% of all human-caused lion deaths, with 51% attributed to retaliatory killings following livestock predation. In nearly half of the retaliatory killings, lion body parts are removed, suggesting that high demand for lion body parts may fuel killings attributed to human-lion conflict. Trafficked items are often confiscated in transit or destination countries far from their country of origin. DNA from lion parts may in some cases be the only available means for examining their geographic origins. In this paper, we present the Lion Localizer, a full-stack software tool that houses a comprehensive database of lion mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences sourced from previously published studies. The database covers 146 localities from across the African continent and India, providing information on the potential provenance of seized lion body parts. Lion mtDNA sequences of 350 or 1,140 bp corresponding to the cytochrome b region can be generated from lion products and queried against the Lion Localizer database. Using the query sequence, the Lion Localizer generates a listing of exact or partial matches, which are displayed on an interactive map of Africa. This allows for the rapid identification of potential regions and localities where lions have been or are presently being targeted by poachers. By examining the potential provenance of lion samples, the Lion Localizer serves as a valuable resource in the fight against lion poaching. The software is available at https://lionlocalizer.org. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper problematizes the increasing trend of metadata collection by law enforcement, in light of the 'going dark' debate, which was spurred by the widespread adoption of secure encryption standards. Focusing on Indian privacy law, which remains nascent as of writing, we examine and propose potential constitutional limitations on metadata collection, and provide substantive guidance on their application. These limitations are bifurcated into two stages: first, whether metadata collection infringes upon the right to privacy, and second, whether the infringement is justified. In determining whether the collection of metadata in a specific case infringes privacy, we conceive of a 'contextual approach', challenging the usual ontological subordination of 'metadata' in relation to 'content data'. At the second stage, we centre the standard of proportionality. We offer substantive guidance for Indian courts at each step of the test, including the development of a 'risk profile' of metadata collection practices. Such guidance is crucial, given the technically intricate nature of cases involving metadata processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian Environmental Radiation Monitoring Network continuously monitors the outdoor natural gamma absorbed dose rate in air at different locations throughout India by employing Geiger–Mueller (GM) detector-based field-installed environmental radiation monitors (ERMs). Hyderabad, Telangana, India is known to have high natural background radiation levels due to the presence of high concentrations of primordial radionuclides in its granitic rocks. There are a total of 59 ERMs installed at various locations across Hyderabad. Long-term monitoring data of these locations are presented in this paper. The mean values of outdoor natural gamma absorbed dose rate in air at the monitoring locations were found to vary in the range of 104–258 nGy.h−1 with a mean of 193 ± 40 nGy.h−1. The mean annual effective dose due to outdoor natural gamma radiation was estimated to be 0.24 ± 0.05 mSv.y−1. Analysis of the long-term seasonal variation of outdoor natural gamma absorbed dose rate in air showed that the same was lowest during monsoons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is declared as the international public health emergency concern by the World Health Organization in the month of March 2020. This viral disease invented from China in the month of December 2019 has previously caused havoc around the world, including India. In this paper, efficient mathematical models using Gustafson–Kessel fuzzy clustering approach for the transmission of the COVID-19 are developed by considering the actual reported cases in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The results proved a good concord between the reported data and the estimated data given by the proposed models. Moreover, the developed models are also capable to predict the requirements of beds in hospitals on the month of August 2020 in Tamil Nadu, India. Also, this work suggests strictly implementing/extending the complete lockdown for at least 21 days in the month of August 2020 and immediate separation of infected cases are the positive steps to reduce the spread of novel corona virus in Tamil Nadu state, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the US government used novel policies to accelerate research, development, and production of a diversified portfolio of new vaccines. This article begins by describing the Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950 and the initial 'priority-rated' contracts agreed to under Operation Warp Speed in 2020 to expedite manufacturing and achieve scale, which succeeded in producing hundreds of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines by early 2021. However, a puzzle soon emerged, as the scale of US vaccine production was shortly thereafter overtaken by plants in the European Union and India. The paper investigates the trade-offs US policy-makers faced in early 2021—once much of the initial uncertainty about the safety and effectiveness of many Covid-19 vaccines had been resolved—about whether to recalibrate contracts to expand production capacity to help meet global, instead of US, vaccine demand. It also examines the emergence of input shortages and assesses whether both the price constraints implicit in the 2020 DPA contracts and business decisions made to quicken the process of bringing new vaccine plants online globally inadvertently exacerbated them. It also explores the potential need for complementary, input capacity-enhancing policies in the face of highly fragmented, cross-border Covid-19 vaccine supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]