An Analysis of Indian Foreign Trade in Present Era

Foreign trade plays a vital role in the Indian economy. As the country need to import diverse products so foreign trade is extremely important to country. India exports vast number of products and also imports an equal amount of other products. Although India has steadily opened up its economy, its tariffs continue to be high when compared with other countries, and its investment norms are still restrictive. This leads some to see India as a ‘rapid globalizer’ while others still see it as a ‘highly protectionist’ economy. Nonetheless, in recent years, the government’s stand on trade and investment policy has displayed a marked shift from protecting ‘producers’ to benefiting ‘consumers’. India is now aggressively pushing for a more liberal global trade regime, especially in services. This paper is an attempt to analyse the major changes in volume, composition and direction of Indian Foreign Trade

Socio-demographic profile of reproductive tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases in reproductive aged women

Background: RTI including Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) are increasingly recognized as a major cause of morbidity in India. RTI have become widespread today because of the changing social fabric and unconventional sexual behaviors. The present study was done to assess the prevalence of RTI and STD in women aged 20-45 years and to correlate the socio-demographic factors with RTI & STD.Methods: Two hundred & fifty women in the age group of 20-45 years attending the outpatient department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of VPC & IMS, Lucknow were included in the study. Out of them 215 were symptomatic and 35 were asymptomatic. All of them were offered clinical and microbiological examinations. A pretested, semi-structured interview schedule was used.Results: In this study the prevalence of RTI/STD was higher among women aged 31-35years, rural population, illiterate & less educated (90.4-97%) females, in farm workers & in students. The females having toilet access in field & outside toilet and with poor personal and menstrual hygiene, had more prevalence of RTI/STD.Conclusions: Hence we as obstetricians should try to make public aware about the importance of RTI/STD prevention, early diagnosis and prompt and complete treatment to avoid long term squealae.

Trap-state suppression and improved charge transport in PbS quantum dot solar cells with synergistic mixed ligand treatments

The power conversion efficiency of colloidal PbS‐quantum‐dot (QD)‐based solar cells is significantly hampered by lower‐than‐expected open circuit voltage (VOC). The VOC deficit is considerably higher in QD‐based solar cells compared to other types of existing solar cells due to in‐gap trap‐induced bulk recombination of photogenerated carriers. Here, this study reports a ligand exchange procedure based on a mixture of zinc iodide and 3‐mercaptopropyonic acid to reduce the VOC deficit without compromising the high current density. This layer‐by‐layer solid state ligand exchange treatment enhances the photovoltaic performance from 6.62 to 9.92% with a significant improvement in VOC from 0.58 to 0.66 V. This study further employs optoelectronic characterization, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy to understand the origin of VOC improvement. The mixed‐ligand treatment reduces the sub‐bandgap traps and significantly reduces bulk recombination in the devices.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft