Effect of Awareness of Government Initiatives on Financial Inclusion: A Study of Domestic Workers in the City of Bengaluru

A key assumption in economics is that economic growth brings prosperity to all sections of the society in an equitable manner. Historically, economic growth is not associated with equitable distribution of wealth. Governments all over the world make policies and implement them to engineer an equitable distribution of wealth. Financial exclusion is the single most important factor which can keep poorer sections of the society away from the benefits of economic growth. Financial inclusion creates a window of opportunity for poor sections of society to take part in the economic prosperity brought in by economic growth. A financially inclusive society is where all financial products and services are available without difficulty at affordable cost. The Indian government has put policies in place to encourage financial inclusion by making financial products and services available to disadvantaged sections of the society. Jan Dhan Yojana to open bank accounts with zero balance, Aushyaman Bharath Yojana for medical insurance, Atal Pension Yojana for income after retirement, and Sukaya Samruddhi Yojana for supporting a girl child are a few of the schemes promoted by government for encouraging financial inclusion of the poorer sections of the society. Poor people residing in urban areas come to the city in search of a livelihood. They struggle to manage household expenses and some unforeseen events create a burden on their financial resources. Women in the family also participate in the workforce to support the family; many of them work as household domestic workers. The present study has been undertaken to assess the awareness regarding these initiatives among domestic workers in the city of Bengaluru. As per the report released by Bangalore Gruhakarmika Sangha (BBGS) and Manegelasa Kaarmikara Union, there are four lakh domestic workers in Bengaluru and the majority of them are women. Primary data has been collected using in-depth interviews. It is found that the awareness level with respect to government initiatives is not satisfactory

Mechanical characterization of heat treated Al2219 hybrid composites

Aluminium alloy matrix composites with Al2O3 reinforcements exhibit superior mechanical properties and utilize in several demanding fields’ viz., automobile, aerospace, defense, sports equipment, electronics and bio-medical. The present work emphasizes on improvement of microstructure and mechanical properties of age hardened graphite and alumina reinforced Al alloy matrix hybrid composites. Different composites with a constant carbon content of 1 weight % and 0, 2, 4 and 6 weight % Al2O3 as reinforcements are fabricated by using stir casting technic and tested for hardness, tensile and impact strength. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is performed to analyse the failure mode under tensile load. All the composites are subjected to age hardening treatment with solutionising temperature of 530oC and aging temperatures of 100 and 200oC. The peak hardness of the composites at two aging temperatures are noted. Tensile and impact tests are conducted for the peak aged specimens. Results show substantial increase in the hardness of the age hardened specimens in the range of 34-44% in comparison with the as cast specimens. Result analysis shows increase in tensile strength (upto 40%) and decrease in impact resistance (upto 33%) with the increase in weight % of reinforcements. As the aging temperature increases a reduction in tensile strength and impact resistance is observed in each composites

Photonic system for real-time detection, discrimination, and quantification of microbes in air

We report the results of the non-invasive photonic system AUM for remote detection and characterization of different pathogenic bacterial strains and mixtures. AUM applies the concepts of elastic light scattering, statistical mechanics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to identify, classify and quantify various microbes in the scattering volume in real-time and, therefore, can become a potential tool in controlling and managing diseases caused by pathogenic microbes

Status of Sulphur, Zinc and Boron in Onion Growing Soils of Dharwad Taluk, Karnataka, India

Survey was undertaken during rabi 2021-22, to study the sulphur, zinc and boron status in onion growing fields in selected villages of Dharwad taluk, Karnataka. One hundred surface soil samples were collected from selected ten villages of Dharwad taluk using GPS. The results revealed that soils were neutral to alkaline in reaction, low in total soluble salts, low to high organic carbon content, low in available nitrogen, medium in available phosphorus, potassium and sulphur and 49.00 and 77.00 per cent of the soils were deficient in DTPA extractable zinc and hot water soluble boron, respectively

Influence of diurnal harvesting times on essential oil yield and chemical composition of lemongrass, palmarosa and tulsi: Influence of harvesting times on essential oil in aromatic crops

Essential oil yield and chemical composition of most of the aromatic crops are affected by environmental, agrochemical and genetic factors. One of such factors are Harvesting Time (HT’s), optimizing which may result in higher essential oil production with better quality.  The present study was carried out to determine the effect of HT’s on three different aromatic crops [lemongrass, palmarosa and Ocimum sanctum (CIM-Ayu)] at different diurnal times (9.00 A.M 12.00 P.M and 3.00 P.M) in a day and the same was repeated thrice on alternate days from in the same fields. The results indicated that HT at 3.00 PM had higher essential oil content in all the three aromatic crops. But, the influence of HT on the quality of essential oil was specific to the different crops studied in this report. The quality of essential oil obtained from lemongrass harvested at 12.00 PM was found to be better as it showed more percentage of citral whereas the essential oils obtained from palmarosa and O. sanctum harvested at 3.00 PM were better as they showed more percentage of geraniol and eugenol respectively. This research not only refines essential oil production strategies but also underscores the crop-specific impact of harvesting times. The meticulous temporal analysis, coupled with statistical validation, contributes novel insights, providing practical benefits for industries reliant on these aromatic crops

The Investigation of Mixed Ferrofluids Containing Iron Oxide nanoparticles and Microspheres

The aim of the present work is the synthesis and characterization of iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are coated with oleic acid and polyvinyl butyral and mixed with microspheres and further developed ferrofluids with silicon oil. Studies of the performance of the nanoparticles in these ferrofluids with and without coating agents were carried out. The nanoparticles were synthesized using the chemical co-precipitation technique and coated with oleic acid and polyvinyl butyral, and it further mixed with microsphere ferrofluids and developed using silicon oil. The prepared Fe3O4 nanoparticles and their coated forms of oleic acid and polyvinyl butyral were mixed with microspheres; furthermore, ferrofluids were developed with silicon oil. All forms of these ferrofluids are characterized for morphology and phase purity (SEM, XRD, and FTIR). The iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles have shown different magnetic properties, differentiating macroscopic iron oxide in suspended particles. The ratio of surface to volume increases along with the decrease in atomic size, essential for assessing the surface morphological properties. The magneto-rheological (MR) fluids were determined, and shear stress of Expancel microsphere mixed iron oxide nanoparticle with and without them was found almost equal. However, the ferrofluid with PVB coated nanoparticles and microspheres emerged as a stable rheological ferrofluid, sustaining high shear stress and low viscosity with increasing shear rate. Also, shear rates up to 650 s−1 have been observed, showing very high shear stress withstanding capacity. The stability and performance of the magnetic colloidal ferrofluids depend on the thermal contribution and the balance between attractive/repulsive interactions