The Politics of Poverty Alleviation in Nepal : Structural Analysis of Socioeconomic Development from the Past Five Decades

As Nepal opened her door for international communities, it emerged from a barter system to global economy. During the last five decades (1950/51 - 2000/01) the country has witnessed different motley politico-economic decision making systems. The initial years in 1950s after emancipation from a very autocratic regime of more than 100 years were a political mess. The second half of 1950s was in the process streamlining, but another unfortunate political incident of 1960 pushed the country in different direction. The socioeconomic development of 1961 to 1990 was very sluggish, regionally biased, and unproductive, which forced the increment of mass poverty level in Nepal. The socioeconomic progress after 1990 seems encouraging but the real achievements have been shadowed by the weakness of politico-economical characters of ruling leaders. In last 50 years, Nepal followed the modernization path and experienced lots of developmental patch-ups, which did not sustain and enhance the productivity at the local level. Rather, the country witnessed a persistent poverty in spite of huge national and international expenses. In order to break the spurring poverty level the village economy needs to be enhanced with equal emphasis on human or social and ecological capitals enrichment activities

Drivers of Sustainable Innovation: Exploratory Views And Corporate Strategies

Various forces drive corporate commitment to sustainable innovation including: (a) external stimuli, (b) business opportunities, and (c) a business orientation toward corporate social responsibility. The depth of corporate response to these drivers is shaped by how the managing team of a corporation views the relationship between economic growth and the environment. This paper examines associations between key drivers of sustainable innovation and three alternative views of the economic growth-environment relationship. We also examine three contrasting modes of corporate response (i.e. compliance, commitment and resistance) to those drivers and suggest directions for further research on the corporate practice of sustainable innovation

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field