Bridging the Malnutrition Gap with Social Audits and Community Participation

There is an urgent need to increase coverage of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) particularly in Madhya Pradesh and to overcome governance failures, such as staff absenteeism, leakage of funds and supplies and false reporting of coverage. By increasing community participation, ownership of the scheme, and improving programme oversight, social audits can result in increased coverage as well as better accountability among service?providers and the relevant line departments. The bulk of experience with social audits comes from implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which mandates that social audits be conducted prior to fund release. There is also some experience of using social audits for ICDS in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. This article examines the experiences from those two states and draws lessons for its application in states such as Madhya Pradesh

Collaborative Governance: Analysing Social Audits in MGNREGA in India

In the history of social protection programmes in India, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the most expansive and ambitious programme ever. In 2009/10 alone, over 380 billion rupees (US$8 billion) were spent to employ over 50 million households under this scheme. To oversee such expansive coverage, an elaborate monitoring and evaluation system has been enshrined in the law. It was also realised that non?state actors need to be included in the monitoring process for collective accountability and ensuring transparency. Social audits are unique collaborative governance mechanisms which are not only participatory programme evaluation exercises but also lead to empowerment of the poor. They are a platform for the vulnerable to raise their ‘voice’ and assert their ‘rights’; to hold the administration accountable and assume collective responsibility, thereby potentially transforming social protection to social justice. This article analyses the social audit framework from a policy design perspective, in light of field reports and recent changes in the rules and aims, to unravel why, despite the merits, it is not yet the ‘magic silver bullet’ for poverty alleviation

Pre-metallization processes for c-Si solar cells

Crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) technology dominates 85% of the PV share due to its ease process and manufacturing flow. Conventional silicon PV technology uses screen printing for the metallization and though most of the PV industries use this technique, it has its own limitations for fabricating solar cells of high efficiency beyond 19%. However this technique is widely used in industries as a major process because of its production feasibility and cost compared to the alternate metallization techniques. In this article, an attempt has been made to study the different printing mechanisms, alternate to screen printing technique. Also, the process and results of alternate printing mechanisms were interpreted and compared with screen printing technique. It is well understood that the PV industries looking for the cost effective advanced metallization technique for fabricating high efficiency solar cells. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved