Microfinance Services for rural agriculture in Pakistan and Bangladesh

Microfinance is becoming a tool of poverty reduction in Pakistan and Bangladesh, given the high rates of poverty in these countries. Poverty is greater in the rural agricultural sector where peoples’ livelihood is dependent on agricultural activities. Furthermore, the agricultural sector in the two countries is still underdeveloped. This study examines the role of agricultural microfinance services and products to assess whether microfinance is contributing to rural agriculture and rural development in Pakistan and Bangladesh, where a majority of the populations are located and their livelihood dependent on agriculture. Accordingly, the study examines rural agricultural needs and demands in the two countries and the role of microfinance in addressing them. Mostly based on secondary data sources, the study compares the two countries along certain indicators generated by the framework developed. This framework integrates the concepts of rural agriculture, rural development, poverty reduction and microfinance, which serves as the analytical toolkit. The study shows that the two countries share similar characteristics in terms of rural agriculture, rural development and even needs of this sector. The analysis of specific indicators reveals differences between the two countries in terms of microfinance outreach. One of the conclusions is that microfinance is more developed and extensive in rural outreach in Bangladesh than in Pakistan

Producer Gas Cleaning Process From Biomass Gasification And Its Impact On Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Performance

Biomass derived producer gas (PG) can be efficiently converted into electricity in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) at their operating temperature between 700–900 °C if sufficiently cleaned from PG contaminants especially tar. Amongst the tar cleaning options, thermal cracking offers the advantage of increasing the PG heating value by cracking tar into useful gases and the heat available can be utilized as heat source for SOFC operation. However, current tar thermal cracking systems are at lab–scale and are based on less efficient and expensive electric furnaces. Alternatively, thermal cracking system based on Microwave (MW) heating is rather more efficient and cost effective and has the potential for process scale–up. In this work, a modified industrial MW oven was developed and characterized for tar thermal cracking and integrated with a 10 kWth downdraft gasifier. The sensible heat of PG from MW tar cracking reactor was preserved in a stainless steel (SS) chamber for the operation of a 60 W single SOFC. PG was then subjected to a cooling process prior to compression in a compressor as a further tar cleaning mechanism of biomass tar. Particulates and traces of alkali metals and HCl were removed via cooling and filtration processes. The remaining contaminant H2S was removed using urea impregnated coconut shell activated carbon (CSAC) before feeding the cleaned compressed PG to a SOFC in a thermally insulated stainless steel chamber. The experimental work showed that MW tar cracking reactor converted 95% of particulates and 93% of tar into combustible gases resulting in the highest heating value of 5.53 MJ Nm-3 at 1250 °C. Tar was reduced from 1703 mg Nm-3 to 140 mg Nm-3. Kinetic studies revealed that tar conversion rate was 1.7 times faster under MW heating as compared to conventional heating. The high temperature PG exiting MW reactor of above 800 °C is suitable for SOFC operation thus omitting an electric furnace otherwise required to maintain SOFC operating temperature. The compression of PG in a compressor further reduced tar to 22 mg Nm-3 exhibiting 84% removal efficiency. All PG contaminants were successfully reduced below the probable tolerance limits for SOFC using the designed cleaning system. SOFC exhibited the stable voltage of 0.865 V for the tested duration of 300 min under current density of 260 mA cm-2 without showing any significant degradation under PG operation with low S/C=0.3 but still under thermodynamic carbon deposition free conditions. A single SOFC delivered the power of 23 W with the electrical efficiency of 24% at the low fuel utilization factor of 36%. PG as fuel did not cause any deteriorating effects on anode microstructure. The SOFC exhibited comparable performance under thermal profile sustained by hot PG with those of the cells operated in temperature controlled electric furnaces in similar conditions

Optimized one-pot synthesis of monoarylidene and unsymmetrical diarylidene cycloalkanones

AbstractIonic liquid dimethylammonium dimethylcarbamate (DIMCARB) catalyzed reaction for the synthesis of monoarylidene and unsymmetrical diarylidene cycloalkanones has been developed. Catalytic amount of DIMCARB was used in green solvent (water and ethanol) for different reaction of cyclic and acyclic ketones with different electron donating and withdrawing substituted aldehydes. Yields were recorded from low to excellent. This synthetic methodology provides mild, efficient, and environmentally friendly access to unsymmetrical curcuminoid analogs, avoiding the use of excess catalysts, chlorinated organic solvent, and high temperature reaction. It is green and environmentally sound alternative to the existing protocols for the synthesis of pharmaceutically important unsymmetrical natural product analogs

Analyzing the Labour Issues in Pakistan: a historical background of Labour Laws and Labour Unions

The study explores the historical development of labour laws in Pakistan during different military and democratic governments. The paper discusses the constitutional framework, international obligations and ILO conventions with regard to country’s labour laws. However, the substantial focus is on the representation and problems faced by the labour unions, implementation of labour laws, Occupational Health and Safety of Labourers at workplace and low women participation in trade unions. The study reveals that the country has an exhaustive structure of labour legislation but practically, the labour laws are exploitive and discriminatory. Registration of Trans-Provincial establishments is unclear and constitutional right of formation of trade union has been suspended in the provinces. Serious Occupational health and safety issues at workplaces have been witnessed resulting in loss of several precious lives. Women membership is extremely low in trade unions mainly owing to their distrust on union leaders and fear of losing job, and they receive fewer benefits as compared to their male counterparts. The labour laws exclude the agricultural sector- the biggest employment sector in the country- from its scope

Evaluation of Cold Spray Process for Solid-State Welding

Welding is an important manufacturing process used in various industries, from automotive to aerospace. However, existing welding techniques have certain drawbacks that affect weld integrity and limit their use in joining some temperature-sensitive materials. A significant concern is the heat-affected zone (HAZ), which often becomes softer than its surrounding areas. To address this problem, the expansion of cold spray process—a solid-state layer-by-layer high speed particle deposition process—as an alternative solid-state welding technique is proposed, developed, and evaluated, a process referred to as cold spray welding (CSW). As a starting point, the origin of softening in a Tungsten inert gas (TIG)-welded AA 6061-T651 plates is first comprehensively investigated using experimental, analytical, and thermodynamic modelling approaches; this is further compared with the CSWed samples to assess its (CSW) potential and current limitations for future optimization. The outcome of this study reveals that the softening effect or HAZ in the TIG-welded sample could extend up to ~40 mm from the weld center. The HAZ further partitions into four regions: HAZ1, HAZ2, HAZ3, and HAZ4, based on peak temperature, hardness, and stable precipitate phases in those regions. While the CSWed samples show several benefits: negligible microstructural alterations, inhibition of phase transformations, and suppression of deleterious HAZ, they exhibit lower tensile strength and impact toughness than TIG-welded counterpart due to the presence of ubiquitous microvoids resulting from inadequate metallurgical bonding in CSWed area. These microvoids act as initiation sites for microcracks. To guide future optimization efforts, a failure mechanism in the CSWed parts is established. This research underscores the importance of addressing softening effects in welded materials, while also charting a new path to establishing a new unexplored solid-state welding technique that has the potential to minimize the drawbacks in conventional welding methods. By understanding and overcoming the poor particle-particle/particle-substrate metallurgical bonding, CSW is poised to be an alternative greener solid-state welding technique for applications in various industries