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Contemporary Social Sciences show a strong interest in studying power and domination in postcolonial societies. Elite research has become crucial to understand the changes in the political and economic dimensions of power structures in the context of democratic experience and economic development in countries such as India. These changes can be located within social structures and the globalization of elites. This study is an attempt to make sense of the ongoing transformations happening in the field of power in India. The existing scholarship on elites in India has been more related to socio-political transformations post-independence, and less on the relation between globalization and changes in the composition of political and economic elites in India. Therefore, we study the context and impact of the process of globalization on the social background of these elites and the emerging larger dynamics regarding socio-economic changes in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In my paper, I intend to conduct a discourse analysis of Ahmed Ali's Twilight in Delhi to demonstrate how living by narratives has a therapeutic effect on our injured sense of national pride. In Ahmed Ali, the protagonist, Mir Nihal feels frustrated at the political and cultural disempowerment in the public sphere. But he is incapacitated to put an active resistance to the colonizer. Thus he develops an aesthetic or in Chatterji's words spiritual mode of resistance in the private realm of imagination. Whenever he feels insulted at the hands of the colonizer, he takes refuge in an imagined past when the Muslim rulers enjoyed absolute political power. He views the Muslim past in India as a linearly constructed discourse in which the Muslims and Hindus enjoyed an exemplary social and cultural harmony. My argument is that it is an attempt to narrativize the past and to create a benign, monolithic Muslim identity. Mir Nihal does not say a single word about the Muslim colonization of India. In my view, it is related to the politics of building historical narratives. Since Mir Nihal wants to regain lost power, his narrative remains silent on the Hindu perspective as it may become fatal for an imagined national unity needed to fight back the colonizer. His idea of nationhood draws strength from the selective narration of the past, the mythological past of India during the reign of Asoka and Chundergupt a Maurya and the arrival of the Muslim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the lierary works of painter and dalit activist Savi Sawarkar and discusses about his works on the atrocities against the dalits in the Indian societies and the hardships and the toils that are faced by the poor and deprived in the cities and the urban problems of the marginalized people.

The article reports on the large-scale migration of people from rural areas to urban space and reviews the notion of urban being a caste-infected space. The treatment meted out to Dalits and humiliation andstigma with regards to the everyday experience of a Dalit migrant and the works done by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar to address this issue is also discussed.

Economists are increasingly studying the market for charitable giving, including behavioral aspects. In the "identifiable victim effect" people donate more to help identified individuals than groups. However, individuals from socially low-ranking groups may not prompt similar charity. The continuing depth of caste-based prejudice in contemporary India is widely debated. We report three randomized experiments conducted with computer-using Indian participants. First, we conducted a survey experiment with detailed information about participants. Second, we experimentally varied 56,000 real advertisements for charitable donations shown online. Third, we conducted an Internet choice experiment in which participants allocated real money. In all three studies an identification treatment is crossed with population group membership of the recipient. We indicate population group membership of identified recipients subtly, using names that connote caste; participants' understanding of these names is verified with a separate experimental sample. In all studies, we find an identifiable victim effect for generic Indian and high-caste recipients, which is absent or even reversed for low-caste recipients. Caste still matters among the Internet-using, English-speaking population of our participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether working with a broker increases or reduces the payment received for the last client among female sex workers. Building on research on the informal economy and sex work, we formulate a positive embeddedness hypothesis, expecting a positive association, and an exploitation hypothesis, expecting a negative association. We analyze a large survey combined with intensive interview data on female sex workers in Andhra Pradesh, India. These data uniquely distinguish between the amount the sex worker actually received and the amount the client paid. The analyses show that brokers are associated with significantly lower last payment received. Although brokers are associated with a greater number of clients in the past week, this does not result in significantly higher total earnings in the past week. Further analyses suggest that much of the negative relationship with earnings is due to the fact that brokers lead to a lack of control over the amount clients are charged. At the same time, the results fail to show that brokers actually provide services of value. Ultimately, the results support the exploitation hypothesis. We conclude by encouraging the refinement of theories of embeddedness and exploitation and calling for greater research on workers in the informal economy of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elucidates the historical origins and transformations of India's caste system. Surveying the complex developments over many centuries, it points out that three positions have been taken in this regard. One suggests that the caste one is born into can be transcended within one's lifetime by performing good deeds. The other declares caste to be immutable forever. And, the third says that one can be reborn into a higher caste if one lives a virtuous life. Moving on to the sociopolitical realm, the paper notes how these positions have been used and exploited. The paper then attempts to anchor the existence and purpose of the Hindu caste system in Freud's ideas about group psychology and Klein's proposals of splitting and projective identification. The paper also deploys the large group psychology concepts of Volkan and the culturally nuanced psychoanalytic anthropology of Roland and Kakar. It concludes with delineating some ameliorative strategies for this tragic problem in the otherwise robust democratic society of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a critical reading of the history of Ashtanga yoga, participant observation, and interviews with Americans attending the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, this article explores the notion of authenticity within Ashtanga yoga itself and amongst yoga practitioners journeying to India hoping to find an authentic travel experience. Many of these tourists assume that the yoga experienced in Mysore is more genuine than that practiced in the West due to its location and groundedness in a distinct lineage. These yogis also desire a travel experience that matches their definition of the ‘real’ India, a narrow conception that spurns Western aesthetics, rejects technologies of modernity, and scoffs at local Indians who seek commodified relationships with tourists. Acknowledging that authenticity is ‘ultimately a discourse of power’ (Korpela, M. (2010). A postcolonial imagination?: Westerners searching for authenticity in India.Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(8), 1299–1315. p. 1311), I suggest that the perceptions of authenticity that inform both the Ashtanga practice and the travel expectations of yoga tourists function to maintain Orientalist imaginings of a timeless, exotic, and mystical India defined in opposition to the materialistic and rational West. Consequences of these discourses include a rejection of the syncretic evolution of yoga, a denial of India's vibrant postcolonial present, and the construction of Otherness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case describes and reflects on ethical questions that we faced as we obtained permission to conduct research on local government policy implementation processes in India, which has no legal guidelines or REBs for ethical oversight of social science research. We focus on questions of voluntary consent and exposure to unintended risks, where, in this case, staff in local governments might feel coerced to participate based on the institutional permission to conduct research granted by their superiors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a remarkable success in its mixture of history, myth and autobiography. Steeped in fantasy, the novel pictures the cryptic and multi-layered reality of life in India. Rusdie, undoubtedly, finds his voice in the novel. It is a literary response to a series of a real life-situation masterfully fictionalized through illusions, direct and indirect. It alludes to the political trouble and turmoil of the country in the last quarter of the 20th century. It covers about six decades in the history of Indian sub-continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nissim Ezekiel is one of the most productive talents and is one of the most distinctive poetic personalities of modern India. Having produced seven volumes of poetry, he is acknowledged as an established Indian-English poet of the post-Independence era. He provided an example of a poet intellectually and morally concerned with making poetry out of experiences. In his poetry, there is the truth of acknowledging what is felt and experienced in its complexity, contradictions, pleasures, fears and disillusionments without preconceived ideas of what poetry should say about the poet and life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial discourses of the skin-lightening cosmetics industry in globalizing India have propped up the ideological legitimacy of colorism or skin color discrimination whereby dark-skinned Indians are viewed as inferior to and less valued than light-skinned Indians. Two episodes of NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt’s national public affairs television programWe the People(2008 and 2013) tackle the growing problem of commodity colorism in India. My textual analysis of these two episodes ofWe the Peopleexamines the ways in which Barkha Dutt takes up and creates a forum for debate on the incendiary issues of racism and colorism on her show. I consider the agents, institutions, and social structures she holds accountable in these programs, and I explore the perspectives on anti-colorism and anti-racism that gain visibility or get marginalized inWe the People’s televised terrain of democracy and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: Metabolic syndrome is one of the emerging health problems of the world. Its prevalence is high in urban areas. Though pathogenesis is complex, but the interaction of obesity, sedentary lifestyle, dietary, and genetic factors are known as contributing factors. Community-based studies were very few to find out the prevalence or predictors of the syndrome. Objectives: To ascertain the prevalence and epidemiological predictors of metabolic syndrome. Materials and Methods: A total of 690 study subjects were chosen by 30 clusters random sampling method from 43 wards of Durgapur city. Data were analyzed in SPSS version 20 software and binary logistic regression was done to find out statistical significance of the predictors. Results: Among 32.75% of the study population was diagnosed as metabolic syndrome according to National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III definition with a modification for Asia Pacific cut-off of waist circumference. Odds were more among females (2.43), upper social class (14.89), sedentary lifestyle (17.00), and positive family history. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was high in urban areas of Durgapur. Increased age, female gender, higher social status, sedentary lifestyle, positive family history, and higher education were the statistically significant predictors of metabolic syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout India, manual scavengers are responsible for collecting and disposing of human filth from dry latrines. Scavengers are subject to gross violations of human dignity, extreme health risks, and social discrimination that ensure a cycle of poverty extending for generations. Manual scavenging is not a form of employment; it is a form of bondage that oppresses Dalit women disproportionately. Despite enacting domestic statutes to prohibit manual scavenging, India's constituent governments have directly undermined national efforts to combat this practice. This article identifies and analyzes India's specific treaty obligations to not only eradicate this practice; it also identifies means of holding government officials accountable for perpetuating this human rights violation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chief concern of this article is the organization and administration of rural policing in colonial Bengal during the last 40 years of the nineteenth century. It connects its design and implementation with the consolidation of India's colonial police force, while highlighting the ongoing negotiations made by the Bengal police in a wider colonial model. The article argues that the police administration of rural Bengal was shaped initially by the ordinary constraints of the colonial state which underpinned the design of the Indian police—namely its frugality and preference for collaborating with local intermediaries, a manifestation of salutary neglect. Yet, it highlights the role of Bengal's largely British police executive in renegotiating customs of governance and, ultimately, as an established model of policing in India. The article focuses, therefore, on ongoing and at times informal police reforms which were based upon notions contradictory to an official discourse about policing in India. This article thus contextualizes the development of rural police administration in Bengal in a strong tradition of police-led reform in the province. In so doing, the article redresses a traditional historiographical focus on the political origins and coercive function of the police, and problematizes current research which situates Indian policing within customs of British governance in the subcontinent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article challenges the notion that Kashmiri women are just silent observers/victims of an ongoing conflict and militarisation of Jammu and Kashmir. Women have utilised and impacted terrestrial public spaces, but there has been an impasse to creating a viable women's movement in the state. This analysis of digital discourses about and by Kashmiri women between 2010 and 2012 shows a discernible presence of women's discursive highways which serve to manoeuvre through the clamour of competing Indian, Pakistani and Kashmiri nationalisms. Kashmiri women can be heard, they are speaking out, and this article examines their discursive landscapes and what role, if any, Islamic discourses have in CyberKashmir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is the development of knowledge and skill through active help and support of equals. However, this has not been tested in medical education in India. Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of PAL on improvement in cognitive assessment scores and its acceptance among undergraduate medical students in one public teaching medical university in North India. Methodology: After approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee, three PAL sessions, 1 per week, each on speciic topic, were conducted using small group discussion methodology with a faculty contact and student leader and 4-6 peer-learners, in 9th semester MBBS students. A pretest with multiple choice questions (MCQs) was followed by distribution of learning objectives and list of resource material. PAL session was conducted after 72 h, followed by posttest by MCQs and then focus group discussion (FGD) on students' experiences. Results: Of the 26 students enrolled, three PAL sessions was completed by 22 (84.6%) students. The correlation coeficient between pre- and post-test scores was 0.48 (P < 0.0001), with a 24.2% improvement in posttest scores. In the nine FGDs most said that PALs helped in the better preparation of the topic, clarifying doubts, lessened examination anxiety, improved communication skills, and increased self-conidence. Conclusion: PAL was well accepted, and it improved assessment scores. Therefore, it can be adopted for teaching selected topics across all subjects of MBBS course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural resource management has been accorded high priority in India's development plan to reverse the trend of fast degradation of natural resources of the country. West Bengal, one of the most severely affected states with soil erosion is also trying to manage its natural resources through various project interventions. In its one of the most droughts affected, erosion prone district named Bankura Integrated Wastelands Development Programme was initiated in 2004 to counter the natural resource depletion challenges by encouraging active participation of farmers, which is taken as the basic assumption of success as well as failure of any development programme. It was found that participation of people was high in planning and implementation stage and partial in nature (partially participated by 84.11 and 94.13 per cent) whereas in monitoring evaluation stage full participation was very less with a high degree of non participation (60.75 per cent). Monitoring and evaluation related activities were regarded as less important by farmers in terms of participation (weighted mean score 28.14) and farmers socio economic status has a strong and positive correlation with participation in various stages of project management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the issues and potential that this festival brings forth. Festivals are an integral part of the cultural and social fabric of India. Festivals have been celebrated from times immemorial. One such festival is Hampi festival, which was in vogue in the Vijayanagara Empire. The Government of Karnataka revived this festival. Design/methodology/approach – Focus group discussions with the festival stakeholders were held to explore the cultural and economic impact of Hampi festival. Recommendations are made regarding improving the festival. Findings – Held at Hampi, a UNESCO’s World Heritage Site and the world’s largest open air museum covering 26 sq km, having 550 monuments, Hampi festival is a cultural extravaganza of dance, drama, music, fireworks, puppet shows and spectacular processions, all combined to recreate the grandeur of a bygone era. It has tremendous untapped potential from a cultural and economic perspective. Practical implications – An understanding of the opportunities and issues in organizing the festival, with implications for multiple stakeholders including the government at multiple levels. Originality/value – Building a discussion on how a large-scale festival that generates national and international visitation be leveraged for cultural and economic gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present experimental evidence on the impact of a school choice program in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh that provided students with a voucher to finance attending a private school of their choice. The study design featured a unique two-stage lottery-based allocation of vouchers that created both studentlevel and market-level experiments, which allows us to study the individual and the aggregate effects of school choice (including spillovers). After two and four years of the program, we find no difference between test scores of lottery winners and losers on Telugu (native language), math, English, and science/social studies, suggesting that the large cross-sectional differences in test scores across public and private schools mostly reflect omitted variables. However, private schools also teach Hindi, which is not taught by the public schools, and lottery winners have much higher test scores in Hindi. Furthermore, the mean cost per student in the private schools in our sample was less than a third of the cost in public schools. Thus, private schools in this setting deliver slightly better test score gains than their public counterparts (better on Hindi and same in other subjects), and do so at a substantially lower cost per student. Finally, we find no evidence of spillovers on public school students who do not apply for the voucher, or on private school students, suggesting that the positive effects on voucher winners did not come at the expense of other students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Objectives: In recent times, audio-video (A-V) recording of consent process for all the study subjects entering a clinical trial has been made mandatory. A-V recording of informed consent process is a big challenge due to confidentiality and the sociocultural environment in India. It is important to find out the acceptability for A-V recording of the consent process and reasons for refusal, if any to address this new challenge. Materials and Methods: A descriptive survey was done among 150 residents of a rural community of South India. Acceptability for A-V recording of consent process was assessed among those who had given the informed written consent for participation in the study. An attempt to find the factors determining the refusal was also made. Results: More than one-third (34%) of the study subjects refused to give consent for A-V recording of consent process. Not interested in recording or don't like to be recorded (39%) were the most common reasons to refuse for A-V recording of consent process. The refusal was higher among female and younger age-group adult subjects. Socioeconomic status was not found to be significantly associated with refusal to consent for A-V recording. Conclusion: Refusal for A-V recording of consent process is high in the South Indian rural population. Before any major clinical trial, particularly a field trial, an assessment of consent for A-V recording would be helpful in recruitment of study subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on some of the causes resulting to involuntary delay or non-marriage of daughters and the concerns that arise because of it in the rural East Indian context. It also attempts to throw some opinions on the idea of marriage from the Hindu religion point of view. The significance that the social culture gives on the marriage of a daughter is mentioned.

In many low and middle income countries where autism-related resources are scarce, interventions must rely on family and parents. A 3-month Parent-Child Training Program (PCTP) at Action For Autism, New Delhi, India is aimed at empowering and educating parents, encouraging acceptance of their child, and decreasing parent stress. Forty couples were asked to describe their child with autism using the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS), an open-ended narrative method, before and after the program. Parents described a wide range of child behaviors, primarily social and cognitive skills. While all families were of a relatively affluent strata compared to the general Indian population, there were nonetheless significant differences in parents' narratives based on their income levels. Coming into the program, parents with relatively less income focused on their child's immediate and material needs, while higher income parents discussed their parental roles and vision for society. After the PCTP, parents were more likely to reflect on their child beyond comparisons to 'normality,' and beyond the here-and-now. Mothers were more likely than fathers to reflect on themselves and their relationships with their child. Understanding parents' experiences and narratives is essential for the evaluation of interventions such as the PCTP, as Indian parents are incorporated into a growing global network of 'parents of children with autism.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the patterns and processes underlying the heterogeneous distribution of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) across communities of natural resource users is a growing research topic. However, social organization as a factor potentially shaping TEK intracultural distribution has received scant attention. Here, we analyze the role played by kinship groups—namely, patrilineal lineages and segments— in shaping bodies of TEK among a group of seminomadic pastoralists in India. We use two quantitative approaches (score based and similarity based) to analyze variations in four TEK domains: soils, ethnoveterinary, breeds, and ethnobotany. We find that kinship groups share divergent bodies of knowledge, a finding that we interpret in light of the social organization of migration, in which kinship provides a privileged basis that structures migratory groups and, as such, favors the constitution of shared bodies of knowledge. We conclude by advocating for a better inclusion of the organizational features that structure the collective life of local communities in research aiming at understanding TEK dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we seek to interrogate the cultural, political and economic conditions that generate the crisis of sanitation in India, with its severe implications for the poor and the marginalized. The key question we ask is how to interpret and explain the spectre of ‘open defecation’ in India's countryside and its booming urban centres. The discussion is divided into three parts. Part one examines the cultural interpretation of ‘shitting’ as symbolic action underpinned by ideas of purity, pollution and ‘the body politic’. Part two takes the political economic approach to gain further insights into contemporary discourse, performance and cultural politics surrounding toilets and open defecation in India. Part three examines civil society activities, state campaigns and media accounts of open defecation to explore the disruptive potency of everyday toilet activities, and how these interplay with issues of class, caste, and gender. Drawing on interviews and a review of ethnographic work, we seek to interrogate the idiom of modern sanitation, with its emphasis on cleanliness, progress and dreams of technology, as a constitutive idea and an explanatory force in Indian modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study that examined the effects of socioeconomic and religious factors on the fertility of women in the Malda district of West Bengal, India and highlights the results which showed that demographic divergence was actually related to socio-economic characteristics.

India and Bangladesh are two separate neighboring countries in South Asia, but they share a common history, being part of the Indian subcontinent and erstwhile British colonial Empire. These two countries are said to be socially and culturally different—Indians predominantly follow the Hindu religion, which sanctions a rigidly stratified caste system and Bangladeshis predominantly follow Islam, which is said to be egalitarian in nature. Despite this stark religious difference, it is found that there is a community called “dalits” in both countries and they continue to suffer from extreme discrimination, exploitation and marginalisation even today. They face the highest level of oppression and deprivation on multiple bases, such as caste-based descent, class, residential segregation, etc. Thedalitwomen suffer greatly as they are discriminated, oppressed, and face extreme violence because of their gender. In addition to exclusion on the basis of caste,dalitwomen comprise the most oppressed and marginalised sections in both India and Bangladesh. Against this backdrop, this paper discusses the cases ofdalitwomen's organisations—Dalit Mahila Samiti (DMS) from India and Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Women's Federation (BDEWF) from Bangladesh—which have been working to fight against the violence perpetrated againstdalitwomen and overall improvement in their status in their respective countries. We discuss here their specific objectives, strategies, activities, achievements, limitations and, finally, the issue of strengthening them in their national contexts through strong international networking so that they can increase the efficacy of their renewed activism substantially in order to protect the human rights ofdalitwomen and promote their empowerment, both in India and Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some Hindus are killing animals in larger numbers, more regularly, and in more spectacular fashions than they have ever done before. In contradiction of the ethnographic record asserting the diminishing significance of ritual killing since the nineteenth century, sacrifices to tutelary deities that had long been abandoned are being reactivated or enacted for the first time. However, such a counter-intuitive surge in the popularity of sacrifices is occurring at a time when the very deities to whom they are dedicated are apparently losing their potency. This seeming paradox, this article proposes, is an implication of both the entrenchment of electoral democracy and the material transformations accompanying economic liberalization in rural Tamil Nadu. In an electoral democracy, the political significance of tutelary deities—and consequently their charisma—has diminished. Their productive valence however, as exemplified in ritual sacrifices, has become ever more resonant in India's post-liberalization milieu, with its heightened sense of opportunity but also competitiveness and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I present results from the first trust game conducted among married couples. The experiment consisted of a one-shot trust game where spouses were taken into separate rooms, not allowed to communicate, given a significant endowment, and both strategies and payoffs were common knowledge. Results indicate that only 3 percent of spouses in the sender role transfer the entire amount; the average proportion sent is 57 percent of the endowment. The limited sending is costly because the household on average is walking away with half of the potential earnings. The results provide further evidence of the lack of Pareto Efficiency within the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence against women is a critical problem across the world. In this paper, we exploit state and temporal variation in alcohol control in India to examine the impact of prohibition on alcohol consumption and violent crimes against women. We first use detailed household survey data to show that prohibition policies are associated with substantially lower rates of drinking among men and domestic violence. Next, we provide evidence that alcohol prohibition reduces aggregate violence against women in officially reported crime data. The results suggest that policies that restrict access to alcohol may help reduce gender violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on delivery of cancer care services in rural areas of India. Topics discussed include increase in Tertiary Caner Centers in urban areas of India, lack of cancer care centers in the rural areas of the country, demographic predictions pertaining to increase in number of cancer patients in the country, role of increasing population in increasing number of the patients, lack of lack of awareness of cancer in the rural areas and development of rural comprehensive cancer centers.

The article talks about issues like violence faced by religious minorities in countries such as India and Pakistan dealing with the theories of nationalism, issues with the terrorist organization Taliban in Pakistan, and Indian politics. Topics include Hinduism in India, Lahore Resolution passed by All India Muslim League (AIML), and Bhimrao Ambedkar's book, "Pakistan or The Partition of India". The author also talks about communal violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities.

Background: The Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA) was developed to assess the severity of autism among Indian cases. Aims: The present study evaluated the ISAA in relation to the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Developmental Disability- Children Global Assessment Scale (DD-CGAS). Materials and Methods: Indian children with ICD 10 diagnoses of Autistic disorder (AD, n = 50), Intellectual Disability (ID, n = 50), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD, n = 26), other psychiatric disorders (PD-N=25) and control children without psychiatric disorders (n = 65) were evaluated using the ISAA, DD-CGAS and the CARS (total n = 216). Statistical Analyses: In addition to descriptive statistics and correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess whether the ISAA scores were significantly different across diagnostic groups. Results: Total ISAA scores were significantly higher among children diagnosed with autistic disorder compared to four other diagnostic groups. Total ISAA scores were significantly correlated with CARS scores and DD-CGAS scores. Groups sub-divided on the basis of recommended ISAA cutoff points of severity showed significant differences in CARS scores. Conclusion: The ISAA can thus be used to assess severity of AD among Indian children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the question, what makes a rural household a preferred choice for formal lenders? A sample selected ordered probit model is developed to address this question. While the selection equation models the determinants of access to credit, an ordered probit model is used to determine the factors affecting the choice of credit sources in hierarchical order. Using household data from six Indian states, this study finds corroborative evidence that relatively resource-rich households, even while staying at distant locations, enjoy greater access to formal creditors. It also identifies a new factor, i.e., interlinked credit, as a significant variable influencing access to formal credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study analyzed the motivations and practices of argumentation in India, an increasingly important player in regional and international affairs. Indian data indicated that arguing patterns were influenced by age and gender. Younger men reported more playful arguing than women and older women reported being more stressed by arguments than men. Cross-culturally, Indians considered arguing less a part of civil discourse and reported higher feelings of being personally persecuted in arguments when compared to Americans. Also, the approach and avoidance subscales of argumentativeness, and the subscales of verbal aggressiveness were positively correlated, an atypical finding. The similarities and differences between the two countries are analyzed through a cultural lens to better understand interpersonal arguing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Considerable scholarly attention has been paid to the growing incidence of workplace violence and homicide in India. In seeking to understand the cause of this workplace mayhem, most commentators regard employer repression as playing an important role. This article revisits four recent episodes of workplace homicide and analyses the anecdotal information available in the public domain on these cases, using a multi-level analytical framework. It argues that these incidents can best be understood within a perspective that takes into account not only factors in the specific workplace environment in the context of neoliberal low road employment policies but also the broader social-economic environment of a developing country where rapid industrialisation and migration are taking place in newly urbanised sites characterised by sharp social and economic polarisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]