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The introduction of a new fishing technology in a small riverine village of Odisha resulted in paradoxical socio-economic outcomes. The fresh and flowing water pisciculture through the innovative Pen technology, which was based on an enclosure aquaculture system, bound from all sides by a close-knit row of multiple pens, improved productivity, income and employment levels of the fishing community. But the new technology also aggravated extant gender inequalities in the village, located on the banks of the river Mahanadi. The gendering of access to, control over and use of Pen culture in the fishing village of Naraj decided the winners and losers in this technological change. Systematic social closure and institutional bias not only ensured the exclusion of fisherwomen from accessing and utilising the new productive technology and related resources in Naraj but also reinforced the traditional male domination in the fishery sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to counter interpretations of tribal movements as reflecting parochial and perverse ethno-territorial aspirations, mostly in irrational violent forms. It compares two peaceful protest movements against wildlife sanctuaries located in different geographical and political-economic settings in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. As rational collective actions, both movements relied on the agency of project-affected persons who questioned state attempts to de-politicise development in the name of scientific conservation. The study shows how the legitimate concerns of such project-affected citizens were overshadowed by politics and the context-specific dialectical interface between three different factors, namely availability of indigenous organisational resources, political opportunity structures and identity construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research work includes the effect of Zeolite-A catalyst on the thermal degradation behavior of six different consumer plastic wastes like high density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethylene methacralate (PMMA), polystyrene (PS) and polytetrafluoro ethylene (PTFE) through kinetic approach by using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) data. Kinetic parameters such as reaction order, activation energy, and Arrhenius constant for the degradation of different waste plastics is determined using model fitting Coats–Redfern method. All the plastics show one-step degradation in the temperature range of 300–600°C. There is a significant decrease in activation energy (Ea) for the thermo-catalytic decomposition of the plastics in presence of Zeolite A catalyst. The extent of catalytic effect is found different for different plastics in the order of HDPE < PP < PS < PET < PMMA < PTFE. The order of the thermal degradation reaction is also found different for different types of plastics. The order of the reaction is altered in case of PET, PS and PTFE in presence of the catalyst but it is unaffected in case of remaining plastics. This treatment would reduce the energy consumption of pyrolysis process and also make the process economical viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The involuntary displacement and resettlement of people by the state for development purposes is reflective of the dialectical relationship between the state's use of coercive capacity against its citizens, particularly the poorer sections, and its relatively autonomous power to give concessions to them. Based on an empirical study of a coal mining project in a tribal district of Orissa, this paper focuses on the extent to which the displaced benefit from the policies purportedly designed to help them, by underlining the contradictory role of the state, which, while simultaneously trying to moderate exclusion through its resettlement policies, systematically seeks to deny them agency and freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The realisation of SGSY (Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana,) programme outcomes was circumscribed by the weak links in the long implementation chain involving several intermediate stages and complementary resources, but more importantly by the failure to tackle powerlessness of the poor rural women through social mobilisation and to circumvent the structural inadequacies afflicting their quest for sustainable livelihood security in an otherwise backward area. As only a tool and an enabling element, micro-finance could go only so far in fighting rural poverty and could be useful only if it allows the poor to become more productive in creating wealth under favourable conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of Grain Panchayats in the delivery of health care services in Himachal Pradesh from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. It highlights the weak points in the chain linking panchayats to rural health care delivery. In an environment where the functional effectiveness of statutory village bodies seems to be low, particularly in the crucial area of primary health, new measures have to be taken up to redress the situation. The paradox of successful decentralisation involves, among other things, top-down initiatives for bottom-up implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]