Centralization of Decentralized Governance - Evidence from West Bengal Panchayat

Democratic decentralization in the state of West Bengal, of its own, are not producing systems that are more effective or more accountable to local needs and interests. The formal mechanisms matter less than the informal institutions that underpin local political economies. And the understanding of it by the poor may have been reflected in the ballot box of last Panchayat election held in 2008. If 'only alternative of the left is better left', then the left strategy of democratic decentralization must have to be replaced by alternative model with more accountability, less corruption and abolition of those clientilsm.Democratic decentralization, participation, access, control, sustainable development, clientelism

Towards Social Security Systems in Japan Lessons for India

Japan has to restructure its social security systems fromtime to time for different reasons like a far more rapid aging of population , the slow down of long term economic growth and deteriorating equity in the inter-generational transfer of welfare .But even then, the basic elements remain the same .It si pertinent to see how and to whar extent japan’s social security systems could be translated in the case of India. As apreliminary analysis ,in section One, attempt has been made to summarize the distinctive features of social security systems in Japan.Section Two dwells upon the nature and problems of the social security systems in India. An endeavour has been made in Section three to articulate on the lessons for India. Final Section Four concludes and summarizes the main findings.It has ben observed that there are certain experiences that India can learn ,amongothers, the careful application of universal social security systems, the role of insurance policies,private-public synergies ,the role of the government and governance, the importance attached to social capital.Universal social security system, private–public partnership, Inter-generational Equity governance, social capital

Centralization of Decentralized Governance - Evidence from West Bengal Panchayat

Democratic decentralization in the state of West Bengal, of its own, are not producing systems that are more effective or more accountable to local needs and interests. The formal mechanisms matter less than the informal institutions that underpin local political economies. And the understanding of it by the poor may have been reflected in the ballot box of last Panchayat election held in 2008. If 'only alternative of the left is better left', then the left strategy of democratic decentralization must have to be replaced by alternative model with more accountability, less corruption and abolition of those clientilsm

Towards Social Security Systems in Japan Lessons for India

Japan has to restructure its social security systems fromtime to time for different reasons like a far more rapid aging of population , the slow down of long term economic growth and deteriorating equity in the inter-generational transfer of welfare .But even then, the basic elements remain the same .It si pertinent to see how and to whar extent japan’s social security systems could be translated in the case of India. As apreliminary analysis ,in section One, attempt has been made to summarize the distinctive features of social security systems in Japan.Section Two dwells upon the nature and problems of the social security systems in India. An endeavour has been made in Section three to articulate on the lessons for India. Final Section Four concludes and summarizes the main findings.It has ben observed that there are certain experiences that India can learn ,amongothers, the careful application of universal social security systems, the role of insurance policies,private-public synergies ,the role of the government and governance, the importance attached to social capital

Towards Social Security Systems in Japan Lessons for India

Japan has to restructure its social security systems fromtime to time for different reasons like a far more rapid aging of population , the slow down of long term economic growth and deteriorating equity in the inter-generational transfer of welfare .But even then, the basic elements remain the same .It si pertinent to see how and to whar extent japan’s social security systems could be translated in the case of India. As apreliminary analysis ,in section One, attempt has been made to summarize the distinctive features of social security systems in Japan.Section Two dwells upon the nature and problems of the social security systems in India. An endeavour has been made in Section three to articulate on the lessons for India. Final Section Four concludes and summarizes the main findings.It has ben observed that there are certain experiences that India can learn ,amongothers, the careful application of universal social security systems, the role of insurance policies,private-public synergies ,the role of the government and governance, the importance attached to social capital

Reliability optimization of a series system with active and standby redundancy

This paper presents a method of maximizing reliability of a series system subject to multiple constraints. The use of both active series parallel and standby redundancy is considered to increase the reliability of the system. A flexible tree search method has been used in this paper which is found to be an efficient method of solution, as it requires only simple mathematical computations. A three stage system is used for illustration

Characterization and Control of Biological Microrobots

This work addresses the characterization and control of Magnetotactic Bacterium (MTB) which can be considered as a biological microrobot. Magnetic dipole moment of the MTB and response to a field-with-alternating-direction are characterized. First, the magnetic dipole moment is characterized using four tech-niques, i.e., Transmission Electron Microscope images, flip-time, rotating-field and u-turn techniques. This characterization results in an average magnetic dipole mo-ment of 3.32×10−16 A.m2 and 3.72×10−16 A.m2 for non-motile and motile MTB, respectively. Second, the frequency response analysis of MTB shows that its ve-locity decreases by 38% for a field-with-alternating-direction of 30 rad/s. Based on the characterized magnetic dipole moment, the magnetic force produced by our magnetic system is five orders-of-magnitude less than the propulsion force gener-ated by the flagellum of the MTB. Therefore, point-to-point positioning of MTB cannot be achieved by exerting a magnetic force. A closed-loop control strategy is devised based on calculating the position tracking error, and capitalizes on the fre-quency response analysis of the MTB. Point-to-point closed-loop control of MTB is achieved for a reference set-point of 60 mm with average velocity of 20 mm/s. The closed-loop control system positions the MTB within a region-of-convergence of 10 mm diameter