Identification of Military-related Science and Technology

A proof-of-principle demonstration for extracting military-related technologies from a country's total technology publications has been performed, and applied to the Indian science and technology literature#. The method is general and can be applied to the extraction of any meta-category (e.g., intelligence-relevanttechnologies, infrastructure-relevant technologies, etc) which is not easily obtained from document clustering or factor analysis. The methodology for identifying relevant literature on military science appears to provide credible results. The volume of literature retrieved will vary depending on how strongly relevant is the desired literature. For the same definitions of 'military relevant', the volume of India's literature in the Ei Compendex database was an order of magnitude less than that of the USA or China.Defence Science Journal, 2010, 60(3), pp.259-270, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.60.35

The Road to Academic Excellence : The Making of World-Class Research Universities

For middle-income and developing countries as well as some industrial nations a major challenge for building and sustaining successful research universities is determining the mechanisms that allow those universities to participate effectively in the global knowledge network on an equal basis with the top academic institutions in the world. These research universities provide advanced education for the academic profession, policy makers, and public and private sector professionals involved in the complex, globalized economies of the 21st century. In addition to their contribution to economic development, these universities play a key societal role by serving as cultural institutions, centers for social commentary and criticism, and intellectual hubs. The positive contribution of tertiary education is increasingly recognized as not limited to middle-income and advanced countries, because it applies equally to low-income economies. Tertiary education can help these countries to become more globally competitive by developing a skilled, productive, and flexible labor force and by creating, applying, and spreading new ideas and technologies. A recent study on how to accelerate economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa spells out the crucial contribution of tertiary education in supporting this endeavor (World Bank 2008). It observes that the key for success in a globalized world increasingly lies in how effectively a country can assimilate available knowledge and build comparative advantages in areas with higher growth prospects and how it can use technology to address the most pressing environmental challenges. The main chapters of this book are nine case studies that illustrate what it takes to establish and sustain research universities and help validate the analytical model outlined above, including the paths to building research excellence

Situated and distributed cognition in artifact negotiation and trade-specific skills: A cognitive ethnography of Kashmiri carpet weaving practice

This article describes various ways actors in Kashmiri carpet weaving practice deploy a range of artifacts, from symbolic, to material, to hybrid, in order to achieve diverse cognitive accomplishments in their particular task domains: information representation, inter and intra-domain communication, distribution of cognitive labor across people and time, coordination of team activities, and carrying of cultural heritage. In this repertoire, some artifacts position themselves as naïve tools in the actors’ environment to the point of being ignored; however, their usage-in-context unfolds their cognitive involvement in the tasks. These usages-in-context are shown through artifact analysis of their routine, improvised, and opportunistic uses, where cognitive artifacts like talim—the central artifact of this practice—are shown to play not only multifunctional roles beyond representation, but are also complemented by trade-specific skills bearing strong cognitive implications in a task

Molecular Interpretation of ACTH-β-Endorphin Coaggregation: Relevance to Secretory Granule Biogenesis

Peptide/protein hormones could be stored as non-toxic amyloid-like structures in pituitary secretory granules. ACTH and β-endorphin are two of the important peptide hormones that get co-stored in the pituitary secretory granules. Here, we study molecular interactions between ACTH and β-endorphin and their colocalization in the form of amyloid aggregates. Although ACTH is known to be a part of ACTH-β-endorphin aggregate, ACTH alone cannot aggregate into amyloid under various plausible conditions. Using all atom molecular dynamics simulation we investigate the early molecular interaction events in the ACTH-β-endorphin system, β-endorphin-only system and ACTH-only system. We find that β-endorphin and ACTH formed an interacting unit, whereas negligible interactions were observed between ACTH molecules in ACTH-only system. Our data suggest that ACTH is not only involved in interaction with β-endorphin but also enhances the stability of mixed oligomers of the entire system

The interplay of institutional forces behind higher ICT education in India.

For several years, academics have debated the extent to which ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) can help poor people in developing countries. The conversation contains diverse views, yet education is always given a prominent role. Education helps shape how people think about technology and in turn, how the technology is used. This dissertation examines how the idea of ICTs is constructed at Indian universities, and how this process is impacted by institutional forces. The research findings indicate that for a variety of reasons, higher ICT education in India is markedly Western-focused, instrumental and technocratic. These characteristics of higher ICT education in India are impacted by a process that can be described as institutional collaboration - several diverse institutional forces are acting in ways that are coherent and mutually reinforcing. This institutional field can be theorised in many ways, some more appropriate than others. The findings fit well with neo-institutional theory but do not fit equally well with discourses of Development. The findings are particularly commensurate with Angell's theory of the Information Age, characterised by a looming conflict between Old and New Barbarians

Access to Knowledge in India

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. This is the third volume in our Access to Knowledge series. India is a $1 trillion economy which nevertheless struggles with a very high poverty rate and very low access to knowledge for almost seventy percent of its population which lives in rural areas. This volume features four parts on current issues facing intellectual property, development policy (especially rural development policy) and associated innovation, from the Indian perspective. Each chapter is authored by scholars taking an interdisciplinary approach and affiliated to Indian or American universities and Indian think-tanks. Each examines a policy area that significantly impacts access to knowledge. These include information and communications technology for development; the Indian digital divide; networking rural areas; copyright and comparative business models in music; free and open source software; patent reform and access to medicines; the role of the Indian government in promoting access to knowledge internationally and domestically

Impact Assessment of ICT – enabled Knowledge Sharing Agri-portals in Uttarakhand

It has been argued that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can lead to development in developing countries. With this in mind, developing countries have been rushing to implement ambitious ICT projects in rural areas through the direct-indirect supervision of institutions such as, the World Bank, United Nations (UN) and other donor/local agencies. The main focus of the interventions has been the implementation of these ICT projects, rather than understanding their impacts at the recipient level. This lack of understanding has led to many failures of ICT projects reported in the literature. There is a need to understand impacts of ICT projects in their local context considering the participants‘ perspectives at the micro level. The analytical research design was used to conduct the investigation. Two Agri portals viz. Agropedia and aAQUA were selected by census method. In an all 83 progressive farmers and 55 SAU and KVK scientists and portal managers from IIT, Kanpur and IIT, Bombay were selected as respondents. Interview Schedule, Impact assessment index and opinionnaire were developed to collect data from the farmers. Findings of the study revealed that majority of farmers were middle aged, educated up to Intermediate, with main occupation as farming, general caste, medium family income, with majority of male, had nuclear family and medium family size, KVK as major point of access to internet and information, possess medium level of communication media, high level of agricultural equipment, medium household possession, medium level of social participation, and contact fellow farmers for agricultural information. Television is the most popularly accessed media, majority had low farming experience, medium animal possession, grow 2-3 crops a year, all of them were aware of the Agri-portals‘ existence through KVK scientists, majority of them visited the selected Agri-portals for market information on monthly basis, shared the information provided through both the Agri-portals with neighbors, satisfied with Agri-portals‘ recommendations, gained medium knowledge and utilized to medium extent. Maximum number of farmers opined that uploaded content of Agropedia somewhat and aAQUA content was moderately relevant, with high technical words, moderately useful content, with appropriate readability and had the opinion that internet is the best way to learn new things. Maximum farmers reported somewhat positive changes in income, quality of produce, crop diversification due to Agropedia and aAQUA. Less number of trainings was the most important constraint identified by the farmers. Education, communication media possession and agricultural equipment possession have positive and highly significant relationship with overall knowledge level. Dependent variable, intend to practice the recommendations of aAQUA in future is positively and highly significant with annual income, caste and farming experience. Majority of the scientists and portal managers reported that content on both the Agri-portals were highly relevant, with well organized and attractive home page

Access to Knowledge in India

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. This is the third volume in our Access to Knowledge series. India is a $1 trillion economy which nevertheless struggles with a very high poverty rate and very low access to knowledge for almost seventy percent of its population which lives in rural areas. This volume features four parts on current issues facing intellectual property, development policy (especially rural development policy) and associated innovation, from the Indian perspective. Each chapter is authored by scholars taking an interdisciplinary approach and affiliated to Indian or American universities and Indian think-tanks. Each examines a policy area that significantly impacts access to knowledge. These include information and communications technology for development; the Indian digital divide; networking rural areas; copyright and comparative business models in music; free and open source software; patent reform and access to medicines; the role of the Indian government in promoting access to knowledge internationally and domestically