No. 05: The Urban Food System of Bangalore, India

Bangalore (officially Bangaluru) is one of India’s fastest-growing cities. It is now the fifth-largest urban agglomeration in India, and the capital and primate city of the state of Karnataka in terms of area, population and economic output. With no natural features restricting its development, Bangalore’s spatial growth patterns are characterized by urban sprawl. Although it accounts for only 0.4% of the area of Karnataka and about 16% of the total population of the state, Bangalore has the highest district income in the state, contributing approximately 34% to Gross State Domestic Product at current prices and is a magnet for investment and employment in Karnataka. The history of Bangalore is marked by two significant political developments: the Vijayanagara Empire in the 1500s and the British Empire in the 1800s. The patterns of urbanization that emerged from both forms of control – the British and the royal families – shaped current-day Bangalore. This report provides an overview of the city focusing on demography, spatial and physical growth, and governance structures. Although the focus is largely on food-related issues, it also provides a larger contextual picture of the city’s evolution. While there is currently little detailed information available about Bangalore’s food economy, or the larger food sector at the city scale, the report also includes information about national and regional policies and programmes that have an impact on local systems

Water distribution rules and water distribution performance: a case study in the Tambraparani Irrigation System

Irrigation management / Irrigation systems / Performance / Irrigation operation / Irrigation scheduling / Water distribution / Water allocation / Water delivery / Water users' associations / Legislation / Large-scale systems / Bananas / Case studies / India / Tamil Nadu / Tambraparani Irrigation System

Organization of Indian Health Bureaucracy and its Delivery System

The aim of this paper is to probe into the structure and functioning of health bureaucracy in India with specific reference to rural health bureaucracy of Tamil Nadu State. bureaucracy is defined as "a hierarchical division of staff who act on formal assignments" - Gouldner(1954). This definition suggests five specific dimensions of bureaucracy namely (i) hierarchical structure (ii) nature of work and progress (iii) procedural devices (iv) decision making and (v) procedural bottlenecks have been considered in this order to understand the functioning of bureaucracy. These factors are particularly relevant to the understanding of bureaucratic functioning as the previous studies have indicated that the magnitude of these attributes varies from one organization to another (Hall, Peabody, Meyer) 1. The functional complexities of any bureaucratic system largely depend upon the combination of these attributes (Bennis). Health care delivery system is a system in which the services related to health care delivered to the target population. In Health care the higher-level officials do only planning while the local staff do implementation. In India including Tamil Nadu, the implementing agency of health care programmes is at block level known as Primary Health Centers (P.H.C.). In such a kind of setup, whether the centralised approach will be effective? Whether the mechanistic and vertical delivery system will achieve the health care to all sections of society? What are the merits and demerits of mechanistic model? The paper would like to address the above questions in the present context. It also would like to present the health delivery of Non Governmental Organisations. The nature of hierarchy plays an important role in health. The centralised control created problem in managing emergencies. It was also found that the lower level officials need to be part of the planning process as the policies have to be customised.Health Administration, Bureaucracy, Health management, Structure, Organisation, Vertical, Horizontal, Organisational Development, Decision Making, Organisational Behaviour

Generating cadastral base for Kolathupalayam village in Tamil Nadu from high resolution LISS IV sensor data

In the present study an attempt was made to generate cadastral base from high resolution satellite image (LISS IV) and to integrate with land use land cover information. The digital cadastral map with survey number for Kolathupalayam village in Erode district of Tamil Nadu was scanned, digitized and parcels were extracted. Similarly parcels or field boundaries were digitized and extracted from satellite image and were statistically compared by area. The area obtained from both the source through digitization correlated well with a pearson correlation of 0.87 and it was significant at 5 per cent. Thus, the area comparisons from both methods are significant indicating boundaries of individual fields generated from satellite image matched well with the one generated from cadastral map. The cadastral base generated from satellite image was overlaid on the classified image (level III output) to identify and generate land cover information against each survey number. Thus, the LISS IV data can be used for the identification and extraction of cadastral boundaries with good accuracy

Study on mitigation of ammonia volatilization loss in urea through adsorbents

Volatilized ammonia loss (VAL) and toxicity are major disadvantages on urea amendment. In order to mitigate, slow (or) controlled release urea based fertilizers are prepared with low cost materials. Therefore, micro and nano-sized adsorbents such as zeolite, biochar were impregnated with urea @1:1 ratio for fertilizer formulations. The objective of the study was to evaluate the VAL rate. To study the effect of soil texture, incubation experiment on two different soils of Tamil Nadu (TypicHaplustalf and VerticUstropepts) with 4 physically mixed, 4 fabricated, conventional urea and control without urea determined. Fertilizer formulations were surface applied @ 250 kg N ha-1 and assessed the VAL rate for 16 days. The trapped ammonia was observed with colour change from pink to greenish and titrated with diluted sulfuric acid. Initial 3 days VAL rate was high on urea, physically mixed adsorbent fertilizers than urea impregnated fertilizers and colour change was observed on every 4-6 h of both soils. In contrast, the urea impregnated fertilizers had colour change after 9-10 h regardless of adsorbent and soils. The fabricated fertilizer observed VAL rate on gradual with low quantity on T5- Zeourea (13.5 days, 15.1 days) T6- Nano-zeourea (15.5 days, 16 days), T9- Biourea (7.5 days, 7.1 days) and T10- Nano-biourea (9 days, 9.7 days) than T2- Urea (5.5 days, 4.6 days) of Alfisols and Inceptisols respectively. Cumulative VAL rate percentage was low on T5- Zeourea (30 %, 34 %), T6- Nano-zeourea (28 %, 29.3 %) T9- Biourea (39 %, 41.5 %) and T10- Nano-biourea (36 %, 37.5 %) of Alfisols and Inceptisols, respectively on comparison with other fertilizer type.It is concluded that the surface amendment of physically mixed fertilizers not influenced any change on both soils. Urea impregnation influenced on days and cumulative VAL percentage. Our study elucidates that micro and nano porous adsorbents are potential substrate to reduce VAL rate of urea in both soils

Coleroon estuary, Tamil Nadu - A potential area for edible oyster and green mussel culture

A potential area for edible oyster and green mussel cultur