Factors Influencing Economic Viability of Marginal and Small Farmers in Punjab

It has been noticed in Punjab that living in nearly the same socio-economic environment, some of the marginal and small farmers are financially viable, which means that they are able to earn enough income to meet their farm as well as household expenditure, while others fail to do so. There are multiple factors responsible for this viability. Broadly these factors are: farm size, off-farm income, income from dairy, rational domestic expenditure, and productivity of crops. This paper has examined the contribution of these factors towards the viability of marginal and small farmers by collecting data from three districts (Ropar, Ludhiana and Bathinda) of the state. The rationalizations of household expenditure and farm investment are also a source of enhancing the possibilities of financial viability of both the categories of farming families. Therefore, on the policy front, all efforts should be made to create off-farm employment opportunities for these farmers. The public investments should be made to remove the regional productivity gaps, as it will enhance income of these farmers. Assuring remunerative prices and up-scaling of the marketing and input supply facilities are the need of the hour to promote dairying and other allied activities among these farmers. All these measures will go a long way in easing the financial stress on marginal and small farmers of the area. In the prevailing economic scenario, it is difficult to pull out or push out these farmers out of agriculture in a short-run and hence the solution lies in making them part-time farmers having access to diversified sources of income as has happened in some of the South-East Asian countries.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Enhancement of SUV Roll Dynamics using Fuzzy Logic Control

This paper presents the development of roll control using feedforward fuzzy control for improvement of vehicle roll dynamics. The mathematical equations of the full car vehicle model were derived and the Matlab/SIMULINK model was developed. The tire model integrated to the vehicle model was represented using loop up table method. The parameters of sport utility vehicle were used for simulation purpose. The vehicle model was validated using CarSim software for double lane change maneuver. From the simulation results, the trend and magnitude of the vehicle model responses were similar to that of CarSim. A roll control strategy using road steering wheel angle and vehicle longitudinal velocity as the inputs fuzzy control was developed and implemented on the validated vehicle model. The controller performance for Fishhook and step steer maneuvers has proven the capability of the proposed control strategy in reducing the tendency to rollover

‘War on piracy’: the conflation of Somali piracy with terrorism in discourse, tactic and law

This paper argues that since 2005, the global security discourse has confused maritime piracy off the Horn of Africa with terrorism. American and European policymakers and financiers have tapped a vulnerable public imaginary to exaggerate Somali pirates as ‘maritime terrorists’ linked to Shabaab and Al Qaeda, driving the militarization and legal obfuscation of counter-piracy operations. The discursive conflation of piracy and terrorism has thereby launched a tactical and legal War on Piracy that mirrors the War on Terror. This approach is pushing pirates to become more daring and dangerous in response. We conclude that the tactical extension from counterterrorism to counter-piracy is unlikely to succeed, as it is insensitive to the origins, motives and modus operandi of Somali pirates. The paper proposes a shift from military to developmental responses to piracy, with an emphasis on respecting local institutions of law enforcement and governance in Somalia

Structural and Morphological Study of Nickel Doped Tin Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized Via Sol-Gel Technique

In the present paper nickel doped tin oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by using simple sol–gel technique. The as-synthesized sample was characterized by means of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques for its structural analysis. XRD spectrum reveals that all the nanoparticles are highly polycrystalline in nature and five major peaks were clearly observed. Ni-doped SnO2 crystals existed mainly as tetragonal rutile structure. The average particle size of the nanoparticles was calculated by using the Scherrer formula and it was obtained 20 nm. EDX analysis confirms the presence of Nickel. No other impurities were found. The morphology of the nanoparticles was analyzed by using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM image of the studied nanoparticles confirms the existence of very small, homogeneously distributed, spherical and crystalline nanoparticles

Gastrocolic fistula as a complication of benign gastric ulcer

No Abstract

Ensuring daughter survival in Tamil Nadu, India

The south Indian state of Tamil Nadu is a relatively recent entrant to the list of Indian states exhibiting the phenomenon of "missing girls". A substantial proportion of these missing girls may be attributed to the differential survival of girls and boys in the 0-6 age group due to daughter elimination in the form of sex selection, neglect and infanticide. Notwithstanding the state's relatively recent history of daughter elimination, the government and NGOs in Tamil Nadu have been active in terms of data collection to track gender differences in survival and in introducing interventions to prevent daughter elimination. Against this background, this paper has two aims. First, it provides a temporal and spatial analysis of patterns of daughter deficits in Tamil Nadu over the period 1996 to 2003. Second, it undertakes an examination of the modus operandi, underlying assumptions, strengths and weaknesses of various interventions and assesses their effect on daughter limination

Daughter Elimination: Cradle Baby Scheme in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu’s two decade old Cradle Baby Scheme tries to ensure that female babies who would otherwise have been killed are given up for adoption. Civil society activists are not happy with the scheme because they feel that it only encourages parents to abandon female babies and is not a substitute for tackling the crime of sex selection and female foeticide. However, until the girl child is welcome in families, such a scheme will be needed

The Dynamics of Job Creation and Job Destruction: Is Sub-Saharan Africa Different?

The Dynamics of Job Creation and Job Destruction: Is Sub-Saharan Africa Different? This paper analyzes the creation, destruction and reallocation of jobs in order to understand the micro-dynamics of aggregate employment change in African manufacturing. The nature and magnitude of gross job flows are examined using a unique panel data of Ethiopian manufacturing establishments over the period 1996-2007. We also assess the relative importance of firm demographics, industry effects and business cycles for job flows. The rates and patterns of job creation and destruction in our sample are comparable to the findings from developed and emerging economies suggesting that African firms adjust their labor force in a manner broadly similar to firms elsewhere and that African labor markets are not uniquely restrictive in terms of undermining job reallocation across firms. We also find, as in many other countries, that job reallocation is relatively higher in industries dominated by smaller and younger establishments. However, unlike other regions, job reallocation in our sample is pro-cyclical and its variation across industries bears little similarity to the patterns found in other developed and emerging economies. Small firms in Africa create jobs mainly at the point of market-entry and play a limited role in terms of contributing to manufacturing employment through post-entry expansion