Analysing Indian G-Secs with a Predictive Approach

The bond movement being observed keenly by the business communities across the world is primarily because of the fact that large organizations require a huge sum of money which cannot be met in the form of bank loans alone. The solution is to raise money from the public by issuing bonds. It is of equal interest to the investors because bonds are fixed income securities. In this market it is imperative to understand the interplay of macroeconomic factors such as inflation levels, interest rates, foreign exchange rates, purchasing power parity, price movements, monetary and fiscal policies. The rationale behind the decision to invest in a particular bond is directly influenced by the present value of the bond. This paper aims to build a model using Panel Data Regression to predict the present value of the bonds by considering the components of the term structure such as interest rates, maturity, bond yield etc

Burkitt's Lymphoma as Primary Adrenal Lymphoma Diagnosed on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology : A Rare Case Report

Introduction :Primary adrenal lymphoma presenting as Burkitt’s lymphoma  is an extremely rare entity. Although biopsy or excision is often needed for definitive diagnosis computed tomography guided fine needle aspiration has great diagnostic value in detection of primary adrenal lymphoma.Presentation of case : A case  of a 20 yr old male with a right adrenal mass diagnosed as Burkitts lymphoma on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (confirmed by bone marrow and cytogenetics) has been reported.Conclusion : Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology  as an initial investigation tool can be very effective for detection of unusual presentation like an adrenal mass in a case of Burkitt's lymphom

Critical properties of the double exchange ferromagnet Nd0.4Pb0.4MnO3

Results of a study of dc-magnetization M(T, H), performed on a Nd0.6Pb0.4MnO3 single crystal in the temperature range around T_C (Curie temperature) which embraces the critical region | epsilon | = |T -T_C |/T_C <= 0.05 are reported. The magnetic data analyzed in the critical region using the Kouvel-Fisher method give the values for the T_C =156.47 +/- 0.06 K and the critical exponents, beta = 0.374 +/- 0.006 (from the temperature dependence of magnetization), and gamma = 1.329 +/- 0.003 (from the temperature dependence of initial susceptibility). The critical isotherm M(T_C, H) gives delta = 4.547 +/- 0.1. Thus the scaling law gamma+beta=delta beta is fulfilled. The critical exponents obey the single scaling-equation of state M(H, epsilon) = epsilon^b f_+/- (H/epsilon^(beta + gamma)) where, f_+ for T > T_C and f_- for T< T_C. The exponent values are very close to those expected for the universality class of 3D Heisenberg ferromagnets with short-range interactions.Comment: 19 pages, including 6 figure

Not fad but to feed

36-37Building the capacity of women farmers so that they can go back to their villages and be the change agents

Under the sign of security : why the bogey of 'the illegal Bangladeshi immigrant' is so powerful across urban Indian homes

From the night of July 11 when Zohra Bibi did not return home to the evening of July 16 when union minister Mahesh Sharma, member of parliament for Gautam Budh Nagar, UP met with residents of Mahagun Moderne, much has transpired. Promptly after the minister’s assurances of ‘justice’ and even retribution to the flat-owners, the settlement of tin walled shacks in which Zohra Bibi and other workers like her lived with their families was demolished the next day. Many of the ‘facts’ of the matter remain disputed – while Zohra Bibi maintains that she neither admitted to the theft of cash nor hid in the basement of the building, the allegation that her employers Harshu and Mitul Sethi harassed and detained her, confiscating her mobile phone is denied by them. Meanwhile, thirteen men, a majority of them Bengali Muslims from West Bengal, arrested from the workers’ settlement are denied bail on the charge of attempted murder on the might of three FIRs filed by residents of Mahagun Moderne and languish in judicial custody. The Noida police are yet to commence any investigation of the Sethis as required by the FIR filed by Zohra Bibi and her husband Abdul Sattar. What does this language of the riot, of murderous mobs with which residents of the swanky apartment complex took to social media with #MaldainNoida accomplish? As security cards, required by domestic and other workers to enter the gated community, were revoked for 80-odd workers under the cry of ‘ban the Bangladeshi maid’, the bogey of the illegal Bangladeshi immigrant reared its ugly head

Shift in Indian summer monsoon onset during 1976/1977

The Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) contributes nearly 80% of the annual rainfall over India and has a significant influence on the country's gross domestic product through the agricultural sector. Onset of the ISMR displays substantial interannual variability and controls the crop calendar and hence the agricultural output. This variability is traditionally linked to sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the tropical Pacific Ocean. The tropical Pacific SST underwent a regime shift during 1976/77. Wereport a prominent delay in the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) onset following the regime shift. The onset dates are computed with the Hydrologic Onset and Withdrawal Index, based on vertically integrated moisture transport over the Arabian Sea (AS). The shift in onset is found to be due to the change in moisture availability over the AS. A delay in the development of easterly vertical shear reduces northward-propagating intraseasonal variability during May-June, limiting the moisture supply from the equatorial Indian Ocean (IO) to the AS. This, along with enhanced precipitation over the IO during the pre-monsoon, drives a reduction in moisture availability over the AS region from pre- to post-1976/77, delaying the ISM onset in recent decades. Our findings highlight the need for the re-assessment of the crop calendar in India, which is now based on the mean onset date computed from long-term data, without considering the regime shift or trends in onset

The influence of the El Nino Southern Oscillation on heat waves in India

The present study investigated the relationship between the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and heat wave characteristics, such as duration, annual number of heat wave days and maximum temperature of heat wave events, in India. El Nino is associated with an eastward shift in the Walker circulation and breakdown of circulation patterns, resulting in delay in the onset of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM). Because most heat waves in India occur during the pre-monsoon season, the present study showed that heat waves during El Nino years were longer and hotter, and it is argued that this is related to a delay in the onset of the ISM. Further, it was found that the shift in the circulation pattern due to El Nino resulted in (1) the weakening of southwesterlies in the Arabian Sea, and (2) the occurrence of a large number of clear sky days over India. These explain the occurrence of warmer and longer duration heat waves during El Nino years. These results imply that, if El Nino activity increases in the future, heat waves in India are likely to intensify

When Home is the Edge of the Nation Dialogue with ‘Border’ people of Rajasthan, West Bengal and Bangladesh

SAFHR Monograph - Annexure IVSouth Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR) is part of the ‘Auditing Conflict Resolution and Partition in South Asia’ project that conducts an audit of human rights at the local level in border areas. The aim of this report is to critique securitization of the Bengal borderland. It attempts to overcome a “partitioned academy” and offers a more robust analysis on violence and violations in the borderland through incorporating people’s narratives from both sides. The socioeconomic fluidity of the borderland fosters multiple linkages and interactions; albeit ‘irregular’ the flow of exchanges destabilizes the notion of illegality

Water-food-energy nexus with changing agricultural scenarios in India during recent decades

Meeting the growing water and food demands in a densely populated country like India is a major challenge. It requires an extensive investigation into the changing patterns of the checks and balances behind the maintenance of food security at the expense of depleting groundwater, along with high energy consumption. Here we present a comprehensive set of analyses which assess the present status of the water-food-energy nexus in India, along with its changing pattern, in the last few decades. We find that with the growth of population and consequent increase in the food demands, the food production has also increased, and this has been made possible with the intensification of irrigation. However, during the recent decade (after 1996), the increase in food production has not been sufficient to meet its growing demands, precipitating a decline in the per-capita food availability. We also find a statistically significant declining trend of groundwater storage in India during the last decade, as derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite datasets. Regional studies reveal contrasting trends between northern and western-central India. North-western India and the middle Ganga basin show a decrease in the groundwater storage as opposed to an increasing storage over western-central India. Comparison with well data reveals that the highest consistency of GRACE-derived storage data with available well measurements is in the middle Ganga basin. After analysing the data for the last 2 decades, we further showcase that, after a drought, the groundwater storage drops but is unable to recover to its original condition even after good monsoon years. The groundwater storage reveals a very strong negative correlation with the electricity consumption for agricultural usage, which may also be considered as a proxy for groundwater pumped for irrigation in a region. The electricity usage for agricultural purposes has an increasing trend and, interestingly, it does not have any correlation with the monsoon rainfall as computed with the original or de-trended variables. This reveals an important finding that the irrigation has been intensified irrespective of rainfall. This also resulted in a decreasing correlation between the food production and monsoon rainfall, revealing the increasing dependency of agricultural activities on irrigation. We conclude that irrigation has now become essential for agriculture to meet the food demand; however, it should be judiciously regulated and controlled, based on the water availability from monsoon rainfall, specifically after the drought years, as it is essential to recover from the deficits suffered previously