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India being the youngest nation in terms of human resources is still grappling with the challenge of skilling 109 million across 24 sectors by 2022. Only 4.69 % have undergone formal training. The present capacity to train stands at 3.4 million people per year while over 12 million people join the workforce annually. A little over 92 per cent of our workforce is engaged in unorganized labour. The beginnings are made but there are inadequacies and gaps existing in the Skilling implementation process which hamper the speed and impact of skilling mechanism in the Country and consequently the low industrial growth. The current paper is a case study of Sikkim which attempts to examine the differences in the perceptions of various stakeholders against a few glaring inadequacies and gaps in the execution of skilling mechanism in the State. These inadequacies are-inadequate information on availability of skill courses to the trainees, lack of clarity on eligibility criteria, employment avenues and training centers, absence of documentation information and other formalities. These were highlighted in a focus group discussion which was conducted in 2016 in the Directorate of Capacity Building Skill State Department with representatives of the various stakeholders before undertaking a conclusive study to highlight differences across stake-holders in priority of identified inadequacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homestays have been popularized in Sikkim to provide meaningful experiences to the tourists even as ecological costs are kept at minimum. This can be best served by imbibing energy conservation beliefs and use of renewable energy in the local homestay. The objective of the study is to measure energy consciousness of the tourists and determine if significant differences exist across demographic variables in this respect. Research design is primarily exploratory, though inferential statistics has been used to arrive at important conclusions. The data has been collected from 400 tourists primarily to measure their energy consciousness. Study also draws upon the on ground observation of Homestays for the energy-efficient technologies and explores the beliefs of homestay managers in this respect. Age and gender appears to make no or little influence on energy consciousness but education emerges as a strong determinant with relatively educated tourists having distinctly higher energy consciousness than those having lower educational credentials. Very few homestays have invested in renewable energy so far with solar energy based products being the first preference. Green taxation, appropriate training and linking energy consciousness with homestay ratings could be included in state policy to encourage homestay managers to invest in green technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatility is the rate at which share price in stock market vary. It is a statistical valuation of the dispersion of returns of share prices or market index. Share prices are highly volatile which makes the investment in shares a risky venture. This study portrays the association between stock returns and volatility in Indian stock market. The nature of volatility is assessed by the use of symmetric and asymmetric GARCH class of models. The data used for the study were daily closing Nifty values for twelve years. The models arrest the volatility clustering and leverage effect during the aforesaid period. GARCH (1,1), EGARCH (1,1) and TGARCH (1,1) models are being used in shaping the study. Results of asymmetric GARCH models disclose an existence of leverage effect in share market and validate the effect of conditional volatility as well. The findings reflect that the coefficient has a likely indication in the EGARCH model as well as in the TGARCH models. Further, EGARCH (1,1) model is proved to be the finest model to arrest the asymmetric volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social and economic development of a nation in today's modern day world is critically dependent on performance of its banking system. An efficient banking system of a country can only productively channelize the monetary resources in the economy to successfully augment the societal and financial activities in the nation. With incessant transformation in regulation, expertise and competition in Indian banking industry over and above the rising cost-income ratios and non performing assets, it is imperative to analyse the performance of banks operating in India. There are multiple criteria, like long term business profitability, non performing asset (NPA), earning quality etc. which at times are contradictory in nature, impacting the successful operation of the banks. Therefore, in this paper, a novel method on the basis of step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and weighted sum method (WSM) techniques is presented for the first time to select the best public sector bank in India on selected parameters. The SWARA technique is implemented here to estimate the relative importance of the criteria and the WSM methodology is employed to prioritize the alternatives. The results derived from implementation of proposed integrated SWARA-WSM model can assist policy makers to better understand the preeminent parameters leading towards sustainable success of banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To realize our individual and collective economic aspirations skill development is critical and which at the moment is on an abysmally low proportion. This is hindering the economic development of the country. One major factor leading to low success has been found to be the lack of involvement of industries and a confusion regarding the role they need to play. To explore this issue this study has been undertaken. The objectives of this study are (a) to determine the priority of the identified industry support variables as per the expressed beliefs of the stake holders, namely teachers, industry managers and policy- makers and also whether or not they differ in their perceptions and (b) The second objective is to classify the ten variables into broader groups using exploratory factor analysis. Questionnaires were framed with ten statements (identified through a robust focus group discussion) the response for which was to be measured by various stake-holders on a five-point continuous scale. The study identifies Absorption of trained man-power and extending apprenticeship & internship as the highest priority activity for industrial interventions. It further identifies a divergence of views of stake holders in prioritizing the identified ten variables. Finally it concludes that the ten variables can be reduced to three broader classification namely providing employment and inputs and facilitating the skill mission with additional services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is observed that marketing concepts have changed the face of 21st century marketing techniques. Today, marketing is majorly dependent over technology, where in the new dimension of marketing is also known as digital marketing. Digital marketing shows a change in the consumer behaviour as compared to the consumer behaviour in the traditional marketing systems. In today's era with use of online services, especially social networking sites, a large amount of personal information is exposed like our name, location, hobbies, friends and opinions to our thoughts, hopes, dreams and fears. This is all about big data. Few organisations have truly mastered the skills needed to extract deeply perceptive insights into consumer behaviour that lead to breakthrough thinking and inventions promised by the big data revolution. Yet, there are some other types of data that still deserve much attention from the marketing community. Here, neuromarketing plays an important role. Advances in neuroscience teach how the human brain works, deep inside the skulls to examine how advertising and marketing messages affect the brains. It exposes many of the little things that happen in the minds, usually unconsciously, that may make or break the success of any marketing campaign. The phrase 'neuromarketing' being just ten years old was coined to recognize the value that can be derived from fusing scientific analysis of the brain through EEG sensors and MRI scans with the more artistic endeavour of developing creative advertising messages. Deep analysis of brain activity remains expensive and time-consuming. With the digital world changing so rapidly, few insights have to be made in the online buying behaviour of the consumers. Different parts of the brain play crucial roles in decoding brand messages and, crucially, deciding what to do about them. The research paper focuses on these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverse health effects of high altitude are of considerable importance since they may seriously interfere with working efficiency of an organization that is actively involved with inescapable duties [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast-Moving-Consumer-Goods (FMCG) retailing in India is introduced to be a promising area. If accurately navigated, it may play a vital role in growth dynamics of the country. In terms of revenue generation, FMCG is the 4th largest sector as reflected in literatures time to time. The current paper is a modest exertion to undertake a case analysis on Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, also known as PAL-an infant FMCG major that has witnessed an epic rise within a short span of time. The study aims to track a few ground realities which fully clicked for Patanjali Ayurved in terms of a Swadeshi insight. An effort is made to bring to light the USP behind Patanjali's dramatic success. The methodology, adopted here is based on the secondary sources of information along with a semi-structured primary observation carried out for the purpose. Special focus is bestowed upon to intensify the project through a multidimensional SWOT analysis of the state of affairs. Findings infer that the encouragement of Ayurveda along with allied yoga practices holds out an assured prosperity of health and spiritual wellbeing of the masses. In contemporary era, the same becomes a global phenomenon as well. As such, the authors are in a position to conclude that a sustainable endeavor in this regard is a burning need of the hour. The present case study happens to be an attempt at micro level in said direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current world scenario, there has been a steep rise in advancement of technology for progress of mankind, which has induced an urgent need to develop and adopt latest efficient methods for machining and manufacturing. Spark machining or Electro-Discharge-Machining (EDM) is known as the recent and upcoming advanced process for machining kinds of material in which electrical current can be conductive. In this technique, the machining operation is carried out due to the heat energy generated by the electric arc which is induced between the electrodes, generally tool termed as cathode and work material as anode. The machining zone is submerged in the circulating pool of dielectric fluid contained in machining tank. Powder-mixed EDM (PMEDM) is a variant of EDM process which involves suitable particles in form of powder, doped in dielectric fluid while machining. The use of powder added dielectric has resulted in enhanced machining of materials, including superalloys and composites. The process has been remarked to have improved the finish as well as the state of the machined surface and also decrease the solidified recast layer and white layer thickness. The modified state of the surface characterizations like increased micro-hardness and toughness, high corrosion and wear resistance were also observed. However, it has also been reported that very high concentration and size of powder had adverse effect on MRR and surface roughness (Ra). Hydrocarbon oils are generally used as dielectric in EDM, but led to pollution due to production of harmful hydrocarbon gases. Hence, bio dielectric like vegetable ester oils is effectively used as an alternate option to hydrocarbon oils. Also, rotating the tool was found to increase the machining rate and influence in lowering the surface roughness. MRR and surface characteristics can also be improved with use of ultrasonic assisted EDM where ultrasonic vibration is induced either to the tool or the workpiece or the machining tank. Further study, investigation and optimization of parameters is required on powder characteristics to render PMEDM commercially feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research article describes the outcomes of a thermal comfort survey conducted in railway pantry car coaches during the summer season in India. Data has been collected on six railway pantry car coaches in which 29 chefs participated. Physical measurement and subjective assessment techniques were used to estimate the thermal comfort conditions during meal preparation time; "breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner" inside the pantry car. A result of this research revealed that the maximum value of measured thermal comfort parameters likes; "air temperature" and "relative humidity" was found at lunch and snack preparation time. While minimum value of "air temperature" and "relative humidity" was recorded at breakfast time. Although entire cooking time measured value of "air temperature" and "relative humidity" did not comply the ASHRAE-55 and ISO-7730 standards. During the meal preparation chefs voted to perceive the "slightly warm to hot" and "Ok (Warm) to much too warm" for subjective response of TVS and TCV respectively. Pantry car chefs' responses regarding the thermal environment do not follow the recommended ASHRAE-55 central three categories votes. These findings will help to understand the working situation of chefs during meal preparation inside the pantry car. In further the influence of outdoor environmental factors on indoor environmental factors during cooking time may lead to a better outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's competitive environment selection of supplier is regarded as the most condemning issues in dealing by the manufacturing firms. It involves both the criteria of decision making i.e. qualitative and quantitative factors. To make the best selection, both of the criteria's should be observed carefully. The main aim of this project is to analyze the suppliers in supply chain using AHP and TOPSIS. While analyzing the suitable suppliers, factors such as product quality, service quality, price and delivery time has been taken into use. The result show that the methods (AHP and TOPSIS) used in this experiment is one of the finest method of selecting suitable supplier in any organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper to categorize the barriers in implementation of lean manufacturing technique in current situation of Indian SME's. Lean is a technique to minimize the industrial waste and increase the efficiency and profit of the company. For eliminating the waste, various lean manufacturing techniques are used like 5S, Kanban, Kaizen, poke Yoke, 7QC, JIT etc. The main findings of this paper are barriers of implementation of lean manufacturing that includes cost of investment, insufficient non-availability of financial support, workers are not ready to resists the changes in shop floor, lack of skilled management, non-availability of skilled man force to implement lean, misunderstanding the lean manufacturing benefits, industries are not ready to change existing layout and management think the initial cost of lean implementation is very high, but this is not true. These barriers are categorized in four groups such as Technical level barriers, organizational level barriers, cultural level barriers and the barriers directly impacting to the economy of the industry. Moreover, an iterative framework is presented to categorize the identified barriers for the ease of managers, so that suitable strategies can be made to overcome them according to their impact on workflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper highlights the multi-criteria optimization of turning process. The three process variables namely speed, feed and depth of cut was considered for designing an experiment using Taguchi methodology. Expulsion rate of material and harshness of surface was taken as performance response. Material removal rate is calculated using the analytical equation and surface roughness was measured using roughness tester talysurf. The multi-criteria optimization technique Grey Relational Analysis was implemented in order to gain the optimal parametric combinations for the turning operation. The result shows that the grey relational analysis is one of the promising optimization techniques for determining optimal parametric combination and was observed that the obtained parametric combination setting provides increased value of expulsion rate of material and decreased surface harshness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser beam machining is an advanced machining process that can be employed on variety of materials ranging from metals to ceramics and polymers to composites. In this study, diode-pumped Nd: YAG laser beam machining is used for creating micro-grooves in Bakelite sheets. The effect of various laser beam machining process parameters (namely frequency, cutting speed, number of passes and diode current) on surface roughness is studied. Based on the experiments, it is seen that surface roughness decreases with increase in diode current but surface roughness increases with increase in frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) which is also known as micro-lubrication, micro-dosing, mist coolant and near-dry machining is a process that came into existence due to the cost involved in cutting fluids as well as for environmental concern and reduction of health risks for machine operators. Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) is a process of sprinkling the mixture of air which is compressed and optimum cutting fluid is fed to the interface of the workpiece and the cutting tool either internally into and out of the tool or through the external system. This paper gives a review on some of the papers publicized with reference to MQL technique and its implementation with different cutting fluids for various machining processes of titanium based alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent development in the thermodynamic field has led to the usage of various components to enhance the heat transfer in the exchangers. The recent developments also show the various use of different design modifications to be very efficient in the process. But are these modifications even up to the scale? And even if they are, there are limitations to every design. In this paper, we tried a different approach, and we conducted a series of experiments with some organic additives. We tried to record the enhancement of heat transfer rates using those additives. Here we used fin-tube type heat exchangers for the experiment, and organic additives 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, and Carboxy Methyl Cellulose for conducting the series of experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation is optimized for process parameters during end milling machining of AA6082T6 metal using TOPSIS MCDM technique. In this study, process parameters are tool cutting speed, depth of cut, and feed per tooth for each experiment on the response like material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness average (Ra) & root mean square (Rq). L27 orthogonal array is designed to develop the optimal input process variable set for the experiment. This multi-criteria decision approach finds an output response related to the closeness coefficient between the feasible solution and the ideal solution. The Topsis method was approached to obtain a normalized vector, weighted decision matrix, measure separation, and rank the values based on ideal best and worst performance. This approach furnishes an appropriate ranking order based on the available alternatives. The output results support that the proposed model is fruitful and useful to facilitate multi-criteria decision-making problems under the environment of uncertainty, unreliability, and ambiguity. The obtained result illustrates the process variable of the 24th set of L27 orthogonal array produces an optimal outcome followed by 21st, 23rd, and 22nd array data set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancement of plate type heat exchanger was being carried out from the very beginning after its invention. Numerous additives have been used for the enhancement of its performance leading in the increase in its efficiency. The intent of conducting these tests is to maximize the efficiency of plate type heat exchanger using various organic additives viz. 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 1-heptanol &, 1-octanol, with carboxy Methyl Cellulose (CMC) added to water. The baffles in the plate type heat exchanger had been coated with xanthan gum for the maximum enhancement for the heat exchanger. In the previously conducted experiments, on heating the solution to a convinced temperature and together the fluctuation of the specific heat was measured. It was found out that there was certain enhancement in heat transfer capacity of plate type heat exchanger, thus developing the heat transfer rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the effects of different building orientations, different types of roof surfaces, wall materials and type of fenestrations on electric power consumption and annual cost of electricity in a residential building at different locations of Himalayan terrain of India have been analysed. The analysis has been done by using a building energy efficiency simulation software tool named eQUEST. A small general residential building is designed having net floor area of 500 feet2 and is used for all the simulations at the locations-Dehradun, Imphal and Shillong according to the weather data available in eQUEST Data portal. A suitable combination of different building parameters has been determined for least annual power consumption and annual cost of electricity for the specified locations. Further, critical observations were noted for building performance in different locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat transfer from a heated porous surface is numerically investigated using different types of convection in a square cavity containing different shapes of heated block. The analysis is done for different range Richardson and Darcy number which serves as the governing parameters. Convection characteristics and flow features produced for each type of convection is compared. Prandtl number 100 was fixed and used in the study along with the flow being in laminar regime. The recirculation zones are found to be increasing with increase in Darcy number, which indicate increase in heat transfer rate. The heat transfer rate was found to be increasing with Ri. The different values of Ri used in the study are 0.1,1,10 while the different Darcy numbers used in the study are 1e-6,1e-4,1e-2 and the effects of porosity on the recirculation were numerically studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for electricity has increased With the increase in the number of electrical gadgets and appliances, it is now very important to emphasize in the concept of demand side management to meet the required demand of electricity. DSM assures efficient use of available energy resources. DSM along with smart grid allows the consumer to have details of power consumption information and allows the sup pliers to lower the overall load demand during the peak period and modify the load curve. Necessary data of the energy consumption and price have been taken from different papers. In this research work, the primary aim is to mainly lower the overall load demand and thus the operational cost and utility bills. The work is done in different areas – residential, commercial and industrial. To get the optimized result, Meta- heuristic algorithm was developed to minimize the problem. Because of the flexibility, gradient free mechanisms and local optima avoidance of the algorithms, meta-heuristic techniques are gaining popular. The evolutionary algorithms used to solve the demand side management problem are Particle Swarm Optimization, Firefly Algorithm and Salp Swarm Algorithm. The three algorithms are used to obtain the objective of the project work in three different areas- residential, commercial and industrial area. Firefly algorithm is found out to provide the best cost as compared to other two algorithms PSO and SSA. Firefly Algorithm is able to provide better accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ti-6Al-4V is an advanced classic material having typical properties and can be utilized in number of advanced applications. Micro through hole generation on Ti-6Al-4V work-piece is very important, as there are many applications of this alloy in aviation, biomedical, turbines, aerospace etc., which requires micro through hole generation, micro features generation and micro channel generation. However, machining on Ti-6Al-4V is extremely challenging as it shows poor performance using traditional machining methods, specifically during drilling of micro through holes. Hence, micromachining of Ti–6Al–4V using nontraditional machining processes such as micro-electro discharge machining (micro-EDM) is often recognized as the most appropriate machining process. The present work emphasizes machining of micro through holes on Ti-6Al-4V work-piece using micro-EDM process. Experiments were conducted at various parametric blends of important process parameters with and without rotating electrode. It is observed that with tool rotation, percentage improvement in various micro-EDM characteristics such as material removal rate, overcut, tool wear rate and taper have been observed as 14.16, 9.76, 12.44 and 15.92 respectively with the overall percentage improvement as 13.07. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milling is a conventional machining operation that uses a rotary cutter to remove material from the workpiece with the intention of generating different shapes. Slab milling is a type of milling operation which is used to machine workpiece with flat and wide surface. In this work, slab milling is performed on cast iron specimen to investigate the machining performance on various performance measures such as surface roughness, material removal rate along with low vibration. For design of experiments, Taguchi L25 orthogonal array is selected considering rotating speed, feed rate and depth of cut as the process parameters. Also to obtain the optimal cutting parameters which results in high surface finish and material removal rate along with low vibration, grey relational analysis aided with fuzzy logic is applied. For grey input coefficients five membership functions are considered, while nine membership functions are considered for output grey-fuzzy reasoning (GFRG) grade. In total twenty-five rules were generated using these membership functions and the optimal values of process parameters were found. Also, analysis of variance (ANOVA) is adopted to identify the significance of each input parameter on the machining performance. It was found that rotating speed has maximum the influence in determination of GFRG values. The optimal parametric combination is then verified with an experimental test run which shows significant improvement in the output responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics and performance of SAH can be drastically improved by providing artificial roughness on the absorber plate. Various protrusion and dimple with varied shapes, sizes and orientations has been studied. A thorough literature review on protrusions and dimples used as artificial roughness on the absorber plate has been presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent development in the thermodynamic field has led to the usage of various components to enhance the heat transfer in the exchangers. The recent developments also shoe the various use of organic additives to be very efficient in the process. But are these additives up to the scale? And if they are, what are their limits? In this paper we check the variation of the viscosity with two of the very compatible additives namely, 2-Ethyl-1-Hexanol & 1-Heptanol. Different concentrations of these mixtures have been made and are tested under the Brookfield DV-II+ Pro Viscometer, under which the variations are tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]