Hyperbolic discounting in analyzing investment in groundwater irrigation in India

Researchers are often confronted with the choice of discount rate as well as the method of discounting for estimating the amortized cost of long-term investment in agriculture including groundwater irrigation. The obvious choice is to use the opportunity cost of capital, which is the prevailing interest rate of around 9 percent (compounded – exponential basis), charged on longterm agriculture loans. However, using the ‘exponential’ basis does not provide a realistic amortized cost of irrigation as it over estimates the value of investment due to ‘exponential’ basis as demonstrated above. In order to obtain an empirical estimate of this interest rate, using field data from farmers three dry agro-climatic zones of Karnataka (Shamsundar (1996), Sripadmini (2001), Chaitra (2002), Rajendra (2003)) nominal investment per irrigation well is considered (Table 3). The nominal investments were deflated using the index number of wholesale prices (1993-94 base year). Considering nominal and real growth in investment per irrigation well between the 1980’s and 2000’s in the three agro-climatic zones of Karnataka, using the exponential discounting, the nominal investment per well is found to be increasing between 3.7 and 5.7 percent. This shows that the amortization of groundwater investment cannot exceed say six percent. The real (exponential rate of) interest is computed by deflating the initial year investment and the terminal year investment per irrigation well using the 1993-94 as base all India wholesale price index numbers. It is found that in real terms the investment per well is falling between –2.5 percent and –0.17 percent.(Table 3). The fall in real investment is due to increased competition by rig owners in offering almost uniform rate of drilling over the years in several aquifers of Karnataka. For instance the price of drilling has been between Rs. 35 and Rs. 50 per feet between 1985 and 2005 for shallow bore wells. The phenomenon may not be very different in other states of peninsular India. A comparison of nominal investment in terminal year and the estimated cost of well in 2005 indicates that in EASTREN DRY ZONE the nominal interest rate is 3.7 percent, the real interest rate is –0.17 percent and the investment per well in 2002 (terminal year) being Rs. 53,478 and in 2005 (current year) being Rs. 59578 are comparable. But in CENTRAL DRY ZONE, while the nominal investment per well in 2000 is Rs. 45,000, the estimated investment in 2005 is Rs. 59,193, which is an unrealistically high exponential growth obtained by compounding the initial investment of Rs. 18,480 from 1984 to 2005. Similarly in EASTREN DRY ZONE, while the actual investment per well in 2000 is Rs. 75,095, the estimated investment per well in 2005 works to Rs. 97,702, which is again unrealistic. As the real interest rate is negative in irrigation wells, this could be one of the reasons for mushrooming of irrigation wells in Karnataka, since this makes investment affordable across different classes of farmers. Thus this analysis has two messages. One, that the nominal interest rate which has to be considered for amortizing investment on irrigation well can be around 3 to 6 percent, and that the real investment per well is falling.hyperbolic discounting, groundwater, exponential, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, D9, Q25, M4,

Graph theoretic extension of the Matrix model of an R & D organization

In this paper the matrix model of an R&D organization developed by Dean [1] has been extended to organizations with mixed global objectives based on a graph-theoretic formulation. The extended model can be applied to problems like the maximization of R&D outputs of a number of organizations at the level of either a corporation or a country such that a specified growth in the overall research competence of the entire corporation or the country is maintained

Groundwater quality in Handigundi State Forest Block of Ramanagaram Taluk, Karnataka, India

The paper focused on the groundwater quality in Handigundi Quarry area of Karnataka, India. Quarrying causes grave disturbances in to the water regime of the region. Water quality undergoes great change, as the hydrogeochem. processes are very slow and the change may continue for decades leading to degrdn. of natural environment. The dust generated from the quarrying activities and the erosion of loose waste materials from excavated land and dumps of the mining and quarrying areas causes siltation and eutrophication of the water bodies. Groundwater samples from the study area showed low concn. of nitrates and 60​% of the samples showed highest turbidity and exceeded the permissible limits, 90​% of the samples showed higher amt. of dissolved solids near the crushing quarries. These groundwater samples showed higher levels of calcium and are not desirable for household uses because of the consumption of more soaps and cleaning agents and also not fit for industrial use because of their scale forming nature. However the water can be used for irrigation purposes, as the Ca is an essential element for the normal plant growth

In vitro pharmacological potential of Epiprinus mallotiformis – An endemic species of Western Ghats

Epiprinus mallotiformis is an endemic species of Western Ghats, traditionally known to cure dysentery, digestive problems, ulcers, gonorrhoea and also as a good antimicrobial and diuretic agent. The present investigation was done to evaluate the in vitro pharmacological activities and preliminary screening for phytochemicals in leaf, stem and bark extracts. The study revealed an optimum antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities and the presence of phenolics, flavonoids and saponins in the plant extracts. The ethyl acetate fraction of leaf samples exhibited a very significant antibacterial activity against S. aureus with a minimum bactericidal concentration of 8 mg/mL which might be due to the presence of high saponin content (9 %) in the leaves. The investigation also suggests the possible use of E. mallotiformis as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial agent

Acute anti-inflammatory activity of ethanolic extract of leaves of Leucas indica by carrageenan induced paw oedema in wistar albino rats

Background: Inflammation is basically a defense phenomenon but can lead to serious pathological conditions. It is treated by various agents with good to moderate success because of both considerable toxicity and side effects. There are various mediators to cause an inflammatory reaction that can contribute to the associated symptoms and tissue injury. Even though non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world, their use as anti-inflammatory agents continues to be principally limited by their undesired side effects. Hence, the traditional medical practitioners and scientists are turning towards Indian System of Medicine (ISM).Methods: Dried powdered leaves of Leucas indica were subjected to solvent extraction by using 90 % ethanol. Based on acute oral toxicity study according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines No. 423, three doses of the test drug 75, 150 & 300mg/kg were selected and subjected to preclinical anti-inflammatory screening by carrageenin induced paw oedema in Wistar Albino rats.Results : Oral administration of Ethanolic Extract Of Leaves Of Leucas Indica (EELLI) at doses of 150 mg/kg and 300mg/kg showed significant anti-inflammatory activity 52.58% (p<0.01) and 36.87% (p<0.05) respectively compared to control. Conclusion: Even though oral administration of EELLI has shown significant anti-inflammatory activity, further studies are required to evaluate its comprehensive analysis including quantitative / semi quantitative analysis, characterize its chemical structure and assess its pharmacotherapeutic activities with exact mechanism of action as an anti-inflammatory agent

RAPID IN VITRO CALLOGENESIS AND PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF LEAF, STEM AND LEAF CALLUS OF MUSSAENDA FRONDOSA LINN. - A MEDICINAL PLANT.

Objective: To standardise the protocol for rapid callogenesis in Mussaenda frondosa L. using leaf explants. Qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis of leaf, stem and callus cultures.Methods: The leaf explants were inoculated onto MS medium supplemented with varying concentrations of growth regulators such as 2, 4 - D, NAA, BAP, Kn for the induction of callus. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of total phenol, flavonoids and alkaloids contents of leaf, stem and callus were tested by standard methods.  The antioxidant activities were investigated using DPPH radical scavenging method and reducing power assay. The anti - inflammatory activity was evaluated by membrane stabilizing activity.Results: Pale green, healthy, friable and fast growing callus was obtained on the medium enriched with NAA (2mg/l) + Kn (4mg/l). Quantitative determination showed the highest concentration of total phenolics in the methanolic extract of in vitro grown callus (10 ± 1.1 mg of GA/g of extract), flavonoids in methanolic stem extract (137±1.6 mg of Quercitin/g of extract) and alkaloids in methanolic extract of leaf (118.3±1.5 mg/10g of extract). The methanolic leaf extract exhibited highest free radical scavenging activity with IC50 value of 40.6±10.06 μg/ml. The highest membrane stabilizing activity was shown by chloroform extract of the leaf (66.02%).Conclusion: The present preliminary phytochemical and pharmacological analysis may form the basis for drug development in future using callus cultures of M. frondosa.  Â

Crucial stages and process for successful banana micropropagation through plant tissue cultutre techniques

Banana is a vegetatively propagated plant in which tissue culture is employed vastly. The apical shoot tip culture technique is capable to mass produce disease-free planting material for commercial propagation of banana seedlings. Healthy planting material serves as a major input for successful farming of year round crop. The success of tissue culture depends largely on the selection of mother suckers, in vitro culture and rooting and hardening of plants. The crucial stages for successful micropropagation are discussed in detail

Numerical Solution for Mixed Convection Heat Transfer from a Vertical Heated Plate Embedded in a Sparsely Packed Porous Medium

An improved numerical study on mixed convection from a heated vertical plate embedded in a Newtonian fluid saturated sparsely packed porous medium is undertaken by considering the variation of permeability, porosity and thermal conductivity. The boundary layer flow in the porous medium is governed by Lapwood – Forchheimer – Brinkman extended Darcy model. Similarity transformations are employed and the resulting ordinary differential equations are solved numerically by using shooting algorithm with Runge – Kutta – Fehlberg integration scheme to obtain velocity and temperature distributions. Besides, skin friction and Nusselt number are also computed for various physical parameters governing the problem under consideration. It is found that the inertial parameter has a significant influence in decreasing the flow field, whereas its influence is reversed on the rate of heat transfer for all values of permeability considered. Further, the obtained results under the limiting conditions were found to be in good agreement with the existing ones