Social Responsibility, Business Strategy and Development: The Case of Grameen-Danone Foods Limited

The aim of this paper is to study the phenomenon of Social Business Enterprises (SBEs) and gain an understanding of their nature, operations, objectives and implications by using Grameen Danone Foods Limited (GDFL) as an illustration. Within this context, some questions that this paper seeks to explore are: is the concept of Social Businesses just another ‘fashionable business marketing fad’ that will fade and wither with time, or does it offer a real workable solution to cure the ills of global poverty? The paper seeks to investigate, with Grameen Danone’s case, if, how and to what extent such social businesses help towards social and economic uplift of the poor by simultaneously being both suppliers and consumers of their services. The case of GDFL is evaluated critically and compared analytically with similar social businesses in the dairy business sector, in order to gauge its impact on local communities, especially on the target market – malnourished children. Finally, project sustainability is discussed along with consequences of a possible commercial scale-up in operations

Traffic-Driven Energy Efficient Operational Mechanisms in Cellular Access Networks

Recent explosive growth in mobile data traffic is increasing energy consumption in cellular networks at an incredible rate. Moreover, as a direct result of the conventional static network provisioning approach, a significant amount of electrical energy is being wasted in the existing networks. Therefore, in recent time, the issue of designing energy efficient cellular networks has drawn significant attention, which is also the foremost motivation behind this research. The proposed research is particularly focused on the design of self-organizing type traffic-sensitive dynamic network reconfiguring mechanisms for energy efficiency in cellular systems. Under the proposed techniques, radio access networks (RANs) are adaptively reconfigured using less equipment leading to reduced energy utilization. Several energy efficient cellular network frameworks by employing inter-base station (BS) cooperation in RANs are proposed. Under these frameworks, based on the instantaneous traffic demand, BSs are dynamically switched between active and sleep modes by redistributing traffic among them and thus, energy savings is achieved. The focus is then extended to exploiting the availability of multiple cellular networks for extracting energy savings through inter-RAN cooperation. Mathematical models for both of these single-RAN and multi-RAN cooperation mechanisms are also formulated. An alternative energy saving technique using dynamic sectorization (DS) under which some of the sectors in the underutilized BSs are turned into sleep mode is also proposed. Algorithms for both the distributed and the centralized implementations are developed. Finally, a two-dimensional energy efficient network provisioning mechanism is proposed by jointly applying both the DS and the dynamic BS switching. Extensive simulations are carried out, which demonstrate the capability of the proposed mechanisms in substantially enhancing the energy efficiency of cellular networks

A 5G beam-steering microstrip array antenna using both-sided microwave integrated circuit technology

In this paper a beam steering 2×2 microstrip array antenna is proposed and simulated for the 5G sub-6 GHz frequency band. The array antenna is designed at the resonant frequency of 3.5 GHz. The antenna has four patches excited by two microstrip lines. Microstrip lines on top of teflon substrate of 0.8 mm height and slot line in the ground plane makes a hybrid junction. The design uses both sided microwave integrated circuit (MIC) to feed signal to the patch elements. This designed array antenna has the beam steering capability of maximum -17º to +17º while keeping the side lobe gain below 10 dB. The simulation results show that the array antenna is designed through good input impedance matching. The antenna has a return loss of -43 dB at center frequency 3.5 GHz. The results also show that the array antenna has a high gain of 12.57 dBi and directivity of 25.11 dB. The maximum gain of this antenna is 24.1 dB at -17º and +17º. The proposed work is simulated on keysight technologies advanced designed system (ADS)

Design and characterization of a circularly polarized microstrip-line-fed slot array antenna for S-band applications

A 2×2 slot array antenna fed by microstrip line for circular polarization operated in the S band frequency range is designed in this paper. Single cross slot with single port feed as well as dual port feed is taken into consideration for realizing circular polarization and combining these two processes, the slot array is designed with single feed for circular polarization. The antennas are designed on a Teflon glass fiber substrate of thickness 0.8 mm. The slot array dimension is 120×142×1.636 mm3. Smith chart of single cross slot antenna with single feed as well as dual feed has a dip at 2.69 and 2.53 GHz respectively indicate the capability of realizing circular polarization in the S band frequency range. The return loss of the slot array antenna is -58 dB shows good input impedance matching of the antenna. A dip in the smith chart of the slot array shows circular polarization near 2.4 GHz ensuring wireless applications as well. Axial ratio is found to be less than 1 dB in the resonance frequency. The impedance bandwidth percentage of the slot array antenna is 12.24%. The simulation is done by using keysight advanced design system (ADS) software

Research on Development Administration and the Challenges of International Development

The article addresses in greater depth someof the central issues of the contemporaryinternational development discourse. The focusof my article is the perspective of 'developmentadministration', a research area inadministrative science'. The central issuesof the article include the conceptual issuesconcerning development administration inadministrative science and the challengesdeveloping countries are facing in: (a.) copingwith modernisation and economic globalisation;(b.) promoting good governance by ensuringadministrative decentralisation and localdevelopment; and (c.) ensuring thesustainability of Non-GovernmentalOrganisations (NGO)-led developmentinitiatives. The article argues that there existsvery little scientific research, neither conceptualnor empirical, on development administration inFinland. Therefore, academic study on issuesrelated to 'development administration' and'international development' has vital importancefor the current development discourse in Finlandand abroad

Transition between stand-alone and grid connected solar photovoltaic microgrids

1 online resource (viii, 59 pages) : charts (some colour)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 52-59).In this study, conversion of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) energy to increase sustainable energy and increase system efficiency is being studied. During the process, both stand-alone mode and grid connected mode microgrid with energy storage system (ESS) have been tested in a simulation environment. Their transition from one mode to another have been discussed for research purpose. Solar photovoltaic PV modules, energy storage devices (Battery), power electronics converters are used to validate the desired results. The study of stand-alone to grid-connected systems will be analyzed and tuned for a stable system performance. During the tuning, the voltage and the frequency are the key driving parameters to be controlled and evaluated. Also, the study of grid connected configurations will be conducted and then both systems will be compiled together using a switching property. The aim is to work on control system for creating the transition in the systems. The study is tested with MATLAB/Simulink platform-based simulations. The major focus will be on the control mechanism of the inverters in both modes, specifically for this study

Energy efficient BS cooperation in DPS CoMP based cellular networks with hybrid power supply

Energy efficient cellular networking has recently drawn increasing attention for reducing network operation cost without sacrificing the quality of service (QoS). This paper proposes a framework for energy cooperation among base stations (BSS) in coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission based cellular networks, where the BSS are powered by hybrid power supplies including both the conventional grid and renewable energy sources. The considered network deploys BSS having independent energy storages, which are assumed interconnected by resistive power lines for energy sharing. The network also integrates dynamic point selection (DPS) CoMP technique for selecting the best serving BSS for an user equipment. The objective of the proposed cooperation is to maximize the usage of renewable solar energy leading to reduced on-grid power consumption. The proposed energy cooperation among BSS exploits the tempospatial diversities of both the renewable energy generation and the traffic demand. Monte Carlo based simulations are carried out for analyzing the energy efficiency (EE) performance of the proposed network. Simulation results validate the proposed inter- BS cooperation demonstrating substantial energy savings.</p

PV-Powered CoMP-Based Green Cellular Networks with a Standby Grid Supply

This paper proposes a novel framework for PV-powered cellular networks with a standby grid supply and an essential energy management technique for achieving envisaged green networks. The proposal considers an emerging cellular network architecture employing two types of coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission techniques for serving the subscribers. Under the proposed framework, each base station (BS) is powered by an individual PV solar energy module having an independent storage device. BSs are also connected to the conventional grid supply for meeting additional energy demand. We also propose a dynamic inter-BS solar energy sharing policy through a transmission line for further greening the proposed network by minimizing the consumption from the grid supply. An extensive simulation-based study in the downlink of a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cellular system is carried out for evaluating the energy efficiency performance of the proposed framework. System performance is also investigated for identifying the impact of various system parameters including storage factor, storage capacity, solar generation capacity, transmission line loss, and different CoMP techniques.Comment: 14 pages, International Journal of Photoenergy, 6189468, 201

Embracing collaborative protected area management for conservation: an analysis of the development of the forest policy of Bangladesh

With the history and experiences of more than one hundred years in formulation and revisions since the British colonial period, the forest policy of Bangladesh has turned away from a traditional production premises towards protection. Establishing protected areas for biodiversity conservation dates back to the 1960s. The strategy gained impetus with the passage of national legislation in 1973 that included the provision of declaring forests as national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and game reserves for the protection of the natural forest resources. Due to the absence of a clear demarcation between core areas and buffer zones and the absence of concern for the sustention of local communities' usufruct rights, degradation continued in the protected areas. Therefore, an alternative strategy of co-management involving local stakeholders and provision of incentives in terms of Alternative Income Generation (AIG) supports has been introduced by the government under a donor assisted project. This new policy is being implemented in five pilot sites. This co-management strategy has demonstrated positive impacts and, increasingly, is gaining recognition as appropriate for other protected areas. This paper reviews the evolutionary history of and periodical changes in the forest policy of Bangladesh - highlighting the conservation aspects, the development of protected areas and the gradual adoption of their collaborative management.ArticleINTERNATIONAL FORESTRY REVIEW. 11(3):359-374 (2009)journal articl