To outsource or not to outsource!

In this article we will take a look at the phenomena of outsourcing as an overarching business concept that is, in short, about contracting of a specific bit of our business to a third part organisation. Consequently, outsourcing is a natural part of the make, share or buy continuum, as illustrated in Figure 1. We would, therefore, argue that outsourcing is not a new business phenomena as it has been commonly practiced since the early times of industrialisation, even though recently it has been enjoying renewed attention fuelled by the globalising forces

Tree species diversity, distribution and population structure in a tropical dry deciduous forests of Chhatisgarh, India

Tree species diversity, distribution and population structure of tropical forests of Bharnawapara wildlife sanctuary was investigated. The study analyzed the structure of a tropical dry deciduous forest in Chhatisgarh at different sites i.e. closed natural forest, open natural forest and plantation forests of teak. The study was conducted by laying 30 quadrats, each 10 m × 10 m in size at different sites. In total, 246 trees belonging to 28 species of 17 families were recorded from 0.3 ha sampling area. Density ranged between 520 to 990 trees ha-1 subsequently, basal area ranged between 21.50 to 47.30 m2 ha-1. The dominant tree species was Cleistanthus collinus with an importance value index (IVI) of 57.70. Other important species were Terminalia tometosa (IVI 47.10), Lagerstroemia parviflora (36.92), Diospyros melanoxylon (28.42) and Madhuca indica(26.03). The Shannon-Wiener index (H?) ranged between 0.19 to 3.35 and Simpson’s index (C) between 0.12 to 0.95 indicating high tree species diversity of tropical dry deciduous forests. It is evident from the study that natural forest has an edge over plantation forest in terms of species diversity, dominance and richness. Tree species diversity, distribution and population structure provide baseline information for conservation and management of tropical dry deciduous forests in India. Efforts are needed to conserve the natural forest for their diversity and existence. They can also be supplemented with plantation forests to lower the biotic pressure

Deficiency of magnesium in maize (Zea mays L.) induced by high potassium level in a micaceous soil of Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, India

A field observation was undertaken in a farmer’s field sown with maize at Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand to record whether K rich micaceous soil can cause Mg deficiency. The crop was fertilized with nitrogen and phosphorus only. The visible effect of Mg-deficiency initiated after 20-25 days of maize sowing as interveinal chlorosis in older leaves along the margins running the full length of the leaves parallel to the veins. In later stage, necrosis of older leaves occurred particularly at the tip of the leaves. The leaf and soil sample collected at 45 days after sowing (DAS) revealed an extremely low content of Mg in soil (4.32 mg kg-1) and plant (0.11%). The soil analysis also revealed that the soil was acidic in nature (pH 5.07) with low cation exchange capacity (9.7 cmol kg-1). However, the soil was having a very high level of water soluble (18.2 mg kg-1), exchangeable (262.3 mg kg-1) and available K (280.5 mg kg-1), which has resulted in an imbalanced exchangeable K: Mg ratio (60.7:1) rendering reduced uptake of Mg by maize. Therefore, it was concluded from the study that magnesium deficiency can occur in maize in conditions like acidic, sandy, mica rich soils with high level of K combined with low Mg content, even without K fertilization. Hence, the farmers may use dolomitic lime and/or Mg-containing fertilizers to correct Mg deficiency under such conditions for sustainable agricultural production systems

Optimum sowing dates for soybean in Central India using CROPGRO and ClimProb symbiosis

The optimum sowing dates for soybean cv. Gaurav were derived for Jabalpur, Raipur and Gwalior in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Dates were derived based on two strategies: (a) probabilities of rainfall and temperature events using ClimProb, a PC based software package, and (b) the CROPGRO Soybean v3.0 crop growth simulation model. In Madhya Pradesh, the optimum sowing dates for multiple cropping, with the first crop as soybean under rainfed conditions, are between weeks 25 and 27, while the optimum sowing dates for rainfed mono-cropping are between weeks 28 and 29

Effect of predrying treatments on the retention of quality characteristics of green peas (Pisum sativum L.) cv. Lincoln during mechanical drying

An experiment was conducted to standardize the predrying treatments with minimum loss to physicochemical characteristics of green peas (Pisum sativum L.) cv. Lincoln during drying process. In this study, moisture content (73%), TSS (15oB), chlorophyll content (28mg/100g) and ascorbic acid (54mg/100g) were recorded in green peas. Different predrying treatments used in this study for quality preservation of peas were T0, T1 and T2. From this study, it was concluded that Na2CO3, NaCl and sugars were responsible for the preservation of green color/ chlorophyll in peas during drying. On the basis of sensory evaluation T2 was found best among all because maximum green color was retained in this treatment. Therefore, it was further selected for physico-chemical analysis After drying there was decrease in moisture content (4%), chlorophyll content (17mg/100g) and ascorbic acid content (37.6mg /100g) while increase in TSS (22oB), reducing sugars (8.3%) and total sugars (20%) of peas. A rehydration ratio of 3:1 was observed for this treatment. This is a low cost technology for preservation of quality of peas. Dried peas can further be utilized for the preparation of various value added instant products round the year

Studies on development and storage stability of dehydrated pumpkin based instant soup mix

The study was carried out to develop and standardize Instant Soup Mix (ISM) from dehydrated pumpkin powder and to evaluate nutritional (moisture, sugars, protein, ?-carotene, fat, fibre and water activity) and sensory qualities (colour, texture, flavour and overall acceptability) for determining its shelf-life during a period of six month. It was packed in aluminium laminated pouches and was analyzed periodically for changes in quality. Among various recipes optimized for the development of soup mix, soup mix containing 20g pumpkin powder, 5g moong dhal, 15g tomato powder, 11.4g spices (salt and black pepper) and condiments (onion, garlic and ginger powder), 2g dried pea, 2g dried spinach, and 2g dried carrot was selected as base recipe for addition of different starch source viz. rice, corn and potato @ 10 g. From the nutritional analysis, it was observed that corn based Instant Soup Mix had higher ?-carotene (7.01 mg/100 g) and protein (12.65 %) content, while fibre (2.09 %) was higher in soup mix containing rice starch. It was observed that on the basis of sensory evaluation corn based soup mix was more acceptable. Therefore, results of nutrition and sensory evaluation indicated that a good quality ISM can be prepared by using corn starch. During the six month of storage, there was about 5.49 per cent increase in moisture, 3.16 and 5.27 per cent decrease in protein and ?-carotene, respectively, along with slight losses in total sugars, fat and sensory quality. Further, the product was stable for 6 months under ambient condition

Assessment of Natural Resources for Conservation of Wetland in District Chamba

The Ramsar Convection of IUCN held in 1971 in Iran raised global attention on the conservation and management of wetlands. 3 wetlands in the Indian State of Himachal Pradesh have been declared a wetland of International importance. Thus it is felt necessary to reclaim and develop high altitude wetlands for its optimum potential use, but a reliable and accurate database is not available. The present endeavour aims at the generation of database in terms of physical aspects/ land use, the extent of water spread and its water quality, vegetation status of the catchment area and surroundings of the lake. The threats to high altitude wetlands have been identified and adequate measures for its conservation and management suggested

Role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Early Childhood Care Education in Himachal Pradesh- An Appraisal

Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) is an indispensable foundation for lifelong learning and development and has critical impact of success at the primary stage of education. It is therefore becomes imperative to accord priority attention to ECCE (Govt. of India, 2012). Research has also indicated that if these early years are not supported by, or embedded in, a stimulating and enriching physical and psychosocial environment, the chances of the child’s brain developing to its full potential are considerably, and often irreversibly, reduced. The Govt.of India has emphasizes the role of panchayatiraj institution in planning and implementation of ECCE programmes. The emphasis is laid on the direct involvement of panchayatiraj institutions to oversee the management of ECCE (Govt. of India,2012). In Himachal Pradesh panchayati raj institutions have been involved in monitoring, supervision of ECCE/anganwadi centres and identification of beneficiaries (Govt. of Himachal Pradesh, 2011).Panchayats are authorise to check regularity of functioning of anganwadi centres, ensure coverage of all eligible beneficiaries, ensure the coordination with department like health and family welfare, panchayati raj and education, ensure non-formal pre-school education at anganwadi centres, improving infrastructure, ensure distribution of food and health services, construction of anganwadi centres in its areas, providing infrastructure facilities and other logistic support to facilitate implementation of the programme (Govt. of Himachal Prsdesh, 2010). It is against this background that the research was conducted to find out the role of panchayati raj institution in ECCE. The six districts of Himachal Pradesh were surveyed. The multi-staged and simple random sampling technique was used to select the 180 anganwadi workers, 120 members of gram panchayats and 60 members of panchayat samiti. The data collected was summarized into frequencies and percentage.The findings of the study revealed that the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in supporting Anganwadi services is found to be wanting in several respects

Comparative study of Existing Models for Online Social Network

Today, Online Social Networks becomes the first choice for businesses to broadcast their campaigns for branding, publicity, strategies, advertising, marketing, social influence and so many other areas. Social Network is a platform for communicating with social actors and Social Media is used by companies for broadcasting information. Online Social Network  used by businesses for number of purposes but the primary concern is build new social connections that helps to target most audiences for successful campaign purposes. In OSNs sites the social objects are represented by nodes and the term edge used for connection between nodes under the graph theory. Today Social Network sites have becomes most exploded as compared to traditional sites because of impact of so many influence models over traditional models.Some of popular websites of OSN such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Google Video, Orkut, LinkedIn, Live Journal and BlogSpot have great impact on customer when targeting the sales marketing funnel for businesses. Adjacent users sometimes called engaged users tend to have more trust level as compared to random pairs users on the social media sites. Already have so much research that helps to calculate the trust factor using influence modeling. So influence models play a vital role to predict the behavior of the customer that helps to fulfill the goal of the business. The key contribution of this work is study of online social networking models

Transformed Feminist Spaces and Identity Construction: Women Pandwani Performers in Indian Folk Theater

Theater proposes an alternative reality and different possible identities offering a framework of how representation works in performances, and it further provides an understanding of the transformative potential of enactment. The attempt to retrieve and re-write women’s histories through performances develops a culture of reconstructive capacities that resists absorption into the dominant culture. In theater, women have asserted their own vision and exercised their own viewpoints, expanding feminist space and communicating with spectators by employing publicly encoded signs. The folk theater of India, in particular, provides a public space to the (silenced) subaltern to assert agency and question the modalities of power, exclusion, images, and strategies that marginalize women. The paper examines Indian women’s roles on stage and in the folk theater of Chhattisgarh from the 1980s onwards and shows how feminist performances redefine gender binaries and contest popular consciousness. By voicing women’s perspectives, the women performers and women narrators of the epic Mahabharata in folk performances restructure and alter the stage. This paper explores themes of gender, power, construction of theatrical space, and the shifts in feminist positioning created by Teejan Bai and other women Pandwani performers and Kathagayakas