The impact of price policy on demand for alcohol in rural India

Whether raising the price of addictive goods can reduce its burden is widely debated in many countries, largely due to lack of appropriate data and robust methods. Three key concerns frequently raised in the literature are: unobserved heterogeneity; omitted variables; identification problem. Addressing these concerns, using robust instrument and employing unique individual-level panel data from Indian Punjab, this paper investigates two related propositions (i) will increase in alcohol price reduce its burden (ii) since greater incomes raise the costs of inebriation, will higher incomes affect consumption of alcohol negatively. Distinct from previous studies, the key variable of interest is the budget share of alcohol that allows studying the burden of alcohol consumption on drinker's and also on other family members. Results presented show that an increase in alcohol price is likely to be regressive, especially on the bottom quartile, with a rise in the budget share of alcohol given budget constraint. This outcome is robust to different econometric specifications. Preliminary explorations suggest that higher per capita income increases the odds of quitting drinking. Results reported have wider implications for the effective design of addiction related health policies

Socioeconomic and Environmental Implications of Agricultural Residue Burning: A Case Study of Punjab, India

Organizational Studies, Economic Sociology; Environmental Economics; Community & Population Ecolog

Inter Commodity Price Linkages in India: A Case of Foodgrains, Oilseeds and Edible Oils

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the nature of price inter-linkages among four commodity complexes, namely cereals, pulses, oil seeds and edible oils. The co-integration and error-correction analysis in the case of cereals led to the conclusion that there was a unique relationship among wheat, rice and spiked millet while great millet, maize, barley and finger millet did not belong to the cereals common market. Among pulses, lentil, green gram and Bengal gram constituted a single common market. In the case of oilseeds, only groundnut, mustard, sunflower and soybean belonged to the common market. In edible oils, groundnut, rape-seed-mustard and coconut formed a common market in the long run. In the late 1990s, prices of oilseeds drifted away from the long-run equilibrium path because of a short period disturbance in the oilseeds market. However, the drift was not visible in the case of edible oils plausibly because of the presence of imported edible oils. The diversions were least for cereals and to some extent for pulses, evidently because of the cushion available in terms of procurement and minimum support price policy of Government of India in their cases

Food Supply and Security

India's total food grain production in 1950-1951 was low at 50.8 million tonnes, with a population of 361 million. Thus, the food grain production in 1950-1951 was 140.7 kg per person per annum or 0.39 kg per day. Thanks to Indian farmers and agricultural scientists who worked hard to increase the food grain production through new crop varieties and production technologies, along with the supportive policies of the governments that paved the way for the Green Revolution in Indian Agriculture. Achievements of the green revolution further led to achievements in other agricultural and allied sectors like the white revolution with substantial gains from milk production, followed by the yellow revolution with a significant increase in edible oilseed production, and the pink revolution with an increase in meat and poultry production to a significant extent. This chapter mainly discusses where does India stand today in terms of its agriculture when compared to its independence in 1947? As the data for 1947 for most of the indicators is not available, 1951 is considered the base year and compared the various indicators for the year 2021

Comparison of intraperitoneal instillation of ropivacaine with normal saline in laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: Local anesthetics are now widely used, as they have a good safety profile and are available in long acting preparation. They provide the benefit of analgesia without systemic side effects that may result from use of enterally and parenterally administered drugs.Methods: This prospective randomized double-blind study was conducted on 100 patients with symptomatic gall stones disease undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Patients were randomized to receive either 0.5% of 3mg/kg of Ropivacaine diluted in 100 ml NS, instillation at intraperitoneal space before creation of pneumoperitoneum (group I) or 100 ml NS instillation at intra peritoneal space before creation of pneumoperitoneum (group II). VAS score for pain abdomen as well as shoulder were recorded postoperatively at various time intervals and compared in both the groups. Total analgesic consumption in 24hrs was also noted and compared.Results: The mean postoperative VAS score for abdomen and shoulder pain was significantly (p values<0.05) lower in group I than in group II till 24 hrs postoperatively. The latency time from end of operation to first analgesic requirement was significantly longer in group I than in group II.Conclusions: Intraperitoneal instillation of Ropivacaine before the creation of pneumoperitoneum significantly decreased the total abdominal pain, shoulder tip pain with lower analgesic consumption. As it is safe and without apparent side effects, we believe that intraperitoneal instillation of local anaesthetic in patients undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy is an effective modality for postoperative pain management

COMPARISON OF INTERMITTENT BOLUS AND CONTINUOUS INFUSION OF 0.1% LEVOBUPIVACAINE WITH FENTANYL FOR EPIDURAL LABOR ANALGESIA

Objectives: This study was carried out to compare intermittent bolus and continuous infusion for epidural labor analgesia in terms of total dose requirement of local anesthetic and quality of analgesia as primary objective. Secondary objective was level of sensory block, motor block, hemodynamic variables, mode of delivery, duration of second stage, neonatal outcome, side effects, and postpartum complications. Methods: Eighty women of ASA physical status I or II, with single pregnancy, cephalic presentation and cervical dilatation 3–5 cm, that is, during active labor were included in the study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups. In Group A, a bolus of 8 ml of 0.1% levobupivacaine (plain) with fentanyl 2 mcg/ml was given every hour and in Group B, an infusion of 0.1% levobupivacaine (plain) with fentanyl 2 mcg/ml at 8 ml/h was given. Pain scores using visual analog scale and verbal rating score, additional bolus requirement and total dose of local anesthetic, motor blockade, fetal and neonatal outcome, mode of delivery, and duration of second stage were recorded and compared. Side effects and postpartum complications if any were documented. Results: Additional bolus requirement and total dose of local anesthetic were significantly high in Group B (45.60±6.67 mg) as compared to Group A (34.20±5.58 mg). There was no difference in the quality of analgesia, neonatal outcome, mode of delivery, duration of second stage, side effects, and complications. Conclusion: Intermittent epidural bolus is better in terms of less drug consumption and less number of additional bolus requirement

Competition Over Timeline in Social Networks

International audienceSocial networking sites pervade the World Wide Web and have millions of users worldwide. This provides ample opportunity for brands and organisations to reach out to a large and diverse audience. They do so by creating content and spreading it across the social network. Most popular social networks follow a timeline based homepage to display such content to the end users. Content once posted on the timeline, remains visible for a limited time, determined by the rate of content generation in the network. There are various ways by which brands can become more visible on the timeline of their followers, for instance by retransmitting/advertising their content from time to time. Hence, with multiple content creators in the network, there is a competition over a user's timeline, which we analyse in this paper. We first characterise the occupancy distribution of a given user's timeline and then use queueing techniques to analyse the period of time a content is present on a given timeline. We then study the competition between different content creators and characterise the equilibrium rate of content generation. We finally provide some numerical results, which provide insights into the effect of various system parameters

Inclusion body fibromatosis

Inclusion body fibromatosis is a benign, often locally recurring myofibroblastic tumor with distinctive intracytoplasmic eosinophilic inclusions. In 1965, Reye1&nbsp;was the first to document this entity through a series of 6 cases of digital fibrous tumors of childhood, where he observed intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies. This entity was later termed Reye’s tumor.2&nbsp;As per the recent 2020 World Health Organization (WHO) classification, the other accepted terminologies include infantile digital fibroma/fibromatosis, recurring digital fibrous tumor(s) of childhood, and recurring digital fibroma(s) of childhood/infancy, where the etiology and pathogenesis remain unclear.3&nbsp;It is a rare and slow-growing tumor that usually affects infants and children (mostly in less than 5 years) with equal gender distribution.4&nbsp;These lesions most commonly affect the lateral and dorsal aspects of the last four digits, sparing the thumb, hand, or foot. Rarely, extremities, tongue, and breast act as the primary extradigital site. Grossly, the lesion appeared firm to rubbery and polypoidal dermal nodule with intact overlying stretched-out skin surface. Microscopically, the tumor cells contain characteristic intracytoplasmic 1.5 to 24 μm, rounded, pale pink round bodies located mainly in para nuclear location, highlighted better on Masson Trichrome (red color), phosphotungstic acid-hematoxylin (dark purple color), and Movat (pink color) stains. Ultrastructurally, the inclusions correspond to localized collections of non-membrane-bound, granular fibrillary material contiguous with the rough endoplasmic reticulum. These inclusions show strong immunoreactivity with actin and anti-calponin-1 antibody (inclusion containing calponin 1 as its possible content) but an occasional weak expression for caldesmon (the reason is still unknown). The recurrence rate is common with incomplete excision.5Figure 1&nbsp;refers to a 2-year-old female child presented with nodular swelling over the dorsal aspect of the proximal phalanx of the right second toe (Figure 1A). The swelling appeared firm, slightly mobile, and non-tender, with a history of gradual increase in size since birth. The overlying skin was erythematous and stretched out. The mass was seen in close approximation with the nail bed. The respective interphalangeal and metatarsophalangeal joints were mobile. The plastic surgeons kept the possibility of fibromatosis and performed a Ray amputation of the right second toe. The specimen was submitted for histopathological examination.Figure 1Inclusion body fibromatosis.&nbsp;A -&nbsp;a nodular swelling over the dorsal aspect of the proximal phalanx of the right second toe measuring 1.6x1.4cm in size (scale bar = 1 cm). The overlying skin was intact, erythematous, and stretched out;&nbsp;B -&nbsp;the spindle-shaped uniform tumor cells show many intracytoplasmic and para-nuclear eosinophilic bodies causing nuclear indentation of one of the poles at places- black arrows (H&amp;E; x200);&nbsp;C -&nbsp;Masson Trichrome stain highlights these inclusions as red-coloured – black arrows (x200);&nbsp;D -&nbsp;ultrastructurally, the tumor cell within the cytoplasm shows a round, dense body (size: 3.12 µm) located in the para-nuclear region with corresponding nuclear indentation.:&nbsp;The specimen grossly included a dislocated right second toe comprising proximal, middle, and distal phalanges, measuring 5.5cm in length and 1cm in width. In close proximity to the nail bed, the dorsal aspect showed a nodular mass measuring 1.6x1.3x0.4cm. The cut surface revealed a relatively well-demarcated lesion that was firm, homogenous, and white. The lesion was not reaching the underlying bone and also the surgical margins. Microscopically, the dermis showed a relatively well-circumscribed tumor with hyperkeratosis, parakeratosis, and flattened rete ridges of the overlying epidermis. The tumor was composed of spindle-shaped cells arranged in intersecting short fascicles and, at places, in whorls. These cells are benign and uniform and contain elongated nuclei, bland chromatin, inconspicuous nucleoli, and pale eosinophilic cytoplasm with indistinct cell membrane. Mitotic activity is infrequent (less than 1/10hpf) with no significant nuclear atypia or necrosis. In addition, many intracytoplasmic and para-nuclear eosinophilic bodies causing nuclear indentation of one of the poles at places were noted (Figure 1B). These inclusions appeared red-colored on the Masson Trichrome stain (Figure 1C), magenta-colored on the Periodic Acid-Schiff stain, and showed weak-to-moderate immunoreactivity for calponin immunostain. The surgical margins and the underlying bone were not involved in the tumor. Taking into account the clinical findings and histopathological aspects, a diagnosis of inclusion body fibromatosis was given. Subsequently, tissue was retrieved from a representative formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded block and subjected to transmission electron microscopy. Ultrastructurally, the tumor cells showed round, dense bodies of varying sizes (2.97 µm to 4.32 µm) located in the para-nuclear region within the cytoplasm with corresponding nuclear indentation (Figure 1D). The tumor cells also contained bundles of myofilaments. Thus, the characteristic ultrastructural features further confirmed the diagnosis. Postoperatively, the patient was kept on close observation with no adjuvant therapy. At 4 months follow-up, no local recurrence was evident

Farmland Prices in a Developing Economy: Some Stylised Facts and Determinants

The study constructs a district and state level series of farmland prices using the village level data from MIMAP-India survey and identifies the major determinants of farmland prices. The estimates at micro level showed that density of population in the rural areas, food grain yield and distance from the nearest town were the major determinants of farmland prices. When macro variables were added at the All India level, it was found that density of rural population, road density and share of non-agriculture in GDP as well as in work force affected farmland prices positively while rural poverty affected them adversely. The results appear to have implications for urban planning, industrial location and various government programs for rural development and poverty alleviation

Ionic conduction and dielectric properties of yttrium doped LiZr2(PO4)3 obtained by a Pechini-type polymerizable complex route

We report on the ion transport properties of Li1+xZr2-xYx(PO4)3 (0.05 ≤ x ≤ 0.2) NASICON type nanocrystalline compounds prepared through a Pechini-type polymerizable complex method. Structural properties were characterized by means of powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy with selected area electron diffraction. Impedance spectroscopy was utilised to investigate the lithium ion transport properties. Y3+doped LiZr2(PO4)3 compounds showed stabilized rhombohedral structure with enhanced total ionic conductivity at 30 °C from 2.87 × 10−7 S cm−1 to 0.65 × 10−5 S cm−1 for x=0.05 to 0.20 respectively. The activation energies of Li1+xZr2-xYx(PO4)3 show a decreasing trend from 0.45 eV to 0.35 eV with increasing x from 0.05 to 0.20. The total conductivity of these compounds is thermally activated, with activation energies and pre-exponential factors following the Meyer-Neldel rule. The tanδ peak position shifts to the high-frequency side with increasing yttrium content. Scaling in AC conductivity spectra shows that the electrical relaxation mechanisms are independent of temperature