CLIMATE SENSITIVITY OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Climate change impact studies on agriculture are broadly based on agronomic-economic approach and Ricardian approach. The Ricardian approach, similar in principle to the Hedonic pricing approach of environmental valuation, has received significant attention due to its elegance and also some strong assumptions it makes. This paper attempts to extend the existing knowledge in this field by specifically addressing two important issues : (a) extent of change in climate sensitivity of Indian agriculture over time; (b) importance of accounting for spatial features in the assessment of climate sensitivity. The analysis based on four decades of data suggests that the climate sensitivity of Indian agriculture is increasing over time, particularly in the period from mid-eighties to late nineties. This finding corroborates the growing evidence of weakening agricultural productivity over the similar period in India. The results also show presence of significant positive spatial autocorrelation, necessitating estimation of climate sensitivity while controlling for the same. While many explanations may exist for the presence of spatial autocorrelation, this paper argued that inter-farmer communication could be one of the primary reasons for the spatial dependence. Field studies carried out in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu through focus group discussions provided limited evidence in this direction.Climate change, Indian Agriculture, Environmental Valuation, Spatial Econometrics, Adaptation

Vulnerability to Globalization in India: Relative Rankings of States Using Fuzzy Models

globalization, vulnerability, fuzzy inference systems, India

International Migration, Remittances and its Macroeconomic Impact on Indian Economy

This paper tried to study the impact of remittances on various macroeconomic and developmental aspects for the Indian economy. For this, the data regarding remittances and some of the macroeconomic variables like GDP, PFCE, GDFC, savings, FDI, FII, export, import and balance of trade deficit etc have been analyzed for the period 1971-2008. The study shows that remittances have been consistently increasing at very fast rate for the last 15 years which have significant implications on the above mentioned macroeconomic variables. Through this study, the importance of remittances as a source of external development finance has been discussed. At last, some of the regulatory frameworks governing the flow of remittances have also been discussed.

Fatigue Analysis of High Performance Cement Concrete for Pavements Using the Probabilistic Approach

Cement concrete pavements are designed for flexural fatigue loading due to traffic. Due to its numerous advantages high performance cement concrete is finding it’s way in pavement construction. This paper investigates the fatigue strength of High Performance Cement Concretes subjected to flexural loading. Fatigue studies are conducted on these concretes to obtain the fatigue lives at various stress levels. Static flexural strength tests are conducted to determine the static failure loads on prism specimen. From the experimental studies carried out, the number of load repetitions to failure on the concretes under study is determined for three stress ratios. From the data obtained S-N curves are developed using linear regression models considering log normal distribution as is being presently adopted. Recent literature shows that weibull distribution is found to have more convincing physical features than the lognormal distribution to describe the fatigue behavior o concrete. To incorporate the probability of failure, weibull distribution is considered and Pf-S-N diagram are developed. It is observed that addition of fly ash and silica fume improves the fatigue performance of concrete by48% and 83% at a stress level of 0.75

Effect micro-nutrients and farm yard manure on soil properties and yield of maize (Zea mays l.) in lower Indo-Gangetic Plain of Uttar Pradesh

The objective of the study to find the suitable treatment combination between the combination of compaction, micronutrients and farmyard manure, which enhanced physical, chemical properties of soil and yield for alluvial soil. The maximum particle density (3.01g/cc), water holding capacity (58.23 %) and pore space (63.40 %) were observed in the treatment T3 (C3I3M3), whereas maximum bulk density (1.09 g/cc) was observed in the treatment T1 (C1I1M1). The maximum EC (0.58dS m-1), Organic carbon (0.66 %), available nitrogen (279.76 kg/ha), phosphorous (19.62 kg P2O5/ha) potash (194.90 kg K2O/ha), zinc (0.65 ppm) and sulfur (14.89 ppm) were found in treatment T3 (C3I3M3). The electrical conductivity gradually increased from control (C0I0M0-0.45) to T3 (C3I3M3-0.58) dSm-1 . The maximum dry weight, test weight and yield were found in the treatment T2 (C2I2M2) viz., 154.43, (230.33 and 50.50 qha-1 respectively for alluvial soil

Study of the Electrochemical Process for Distillery Wastewater Treatment

In this work the electrochemical (EC) process is used as a pretreatment step for the treatment of distillery wastewater using iron plates as electrodes in a batch EC reactor. The maximum COD removal of 56% was achieved at a current density of 0.10 A cm-2 with 140 min of electrolysis time at wastewater pH of 3. The BOD to COD ratio increased from 0.15 to 0.52 indicating improvement in wastewater biodegradability. The maximum anodic efficiency observed was 2.68 kg COD h-1A-1m-2 with a corresponding energy consumption of 0.71 kWh kg-1 COD

Vulnerability to Poverty and Vulnerability to Climate Change : Conceptual Framework, Measurement and Synergies in Policy

This paper attempts to compare the concepts and metrics related to vulnerability notion as used in the poverty literature with those in the filed of climate change. Such comparison could shed light on the understanding of the perceived and real differences between the two fields and also help to identify possible policy synergies between the climate change and poverty communities. The analysis shows that while vulnerability concepts in both the disciplines are defendable, broader policy relevant statements about vulnerability could be made if the analysis clearly identifies three primitives introduced in Ionescu et al. (2006) namely, the entity that is vulnerable, the stimulus due to which the entity is vulnerable, and the preference criteria on the outcome of concern. The analysis shows significant similarities between the two fields in terms of vulnerability measurement. The link between the vulnerability metrics in the two fields can be established through the introduction of sensitivity notion. The analysis also shows that the vulnerability metrics in both fields demand a stricter restriction (namely, complete reorder) on preference criteria on the outcome(s) of concern. The analysis identifies two issues that, if addressed, could create synergies between vulnerability assessments in the climate change and the poverty communities. First, the climate change community could benefit from exploring a notion analogous to that of poverty. In development policy, the notion of poverty enables one to recognise that there is a need to focus not only on people who are likely to become poor due to some exogenous input, but also on those who already are poor (and may become even poorer). Second, it would be interesting to explore the analogous concepts of mitigation and adaptive capacity in poverty research. Similar to their use in climate research and policy, the analysis of these concepts could lead to the more explicit consideration of the multidimensional nature of both causes and outcomes of poverty, as well as of the multiple time scales on which these occur.vulnerability, poverty, Climate change, Adaptation

Anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic activity of novel hydantoin derivatives: Inhibition of VEGF secretion in liver metastatic osteosarcoma cells

A series of new azaspiro bicyclic hydantoin derivatives has been designed and synthesized. Initially, the anti-proliferative effect of the hydantoin derivatives was evaluated against human ovarian cancer cells (SKOV-3 and OVSAHO) and murine osteosarcoma cells (LM8 and LM8G7). Among the tested compounds, 8-(3-fluorobenzyl)-1′-(4-(methylsulfonyl)benzyl)-8-azaspiro[bicyclo[3.2.1]octane-3,4′-imidazolidine]-2′,5′-dione (7h) and 8-(3,4-difluorobenzyl)-1′-(4-(methylsulfonyl)benzyl)-8-azaspiro[bicyclo[3.2.1]octane-3,4′-imidazolidine]-2′,5′-dione (7i) showed a significant anti-proliferative activity against the OVSAHO and LM8G7 cells. The real-time monitoring of the effect of the compounds 7h and 7i against the proliferation of LM8G7 was revealed that resulting IC50 values were 102 μM and 13 μM, respectively. We reasoned that the presence of fluorine atom at the 3rd position of the phenyl ring of the hydantoin side chain may determine the potency of the molecule. Furthermore, the compound 7i inhibited the tube formation of the mouse endothelial cells. Finally, the treatment of the compound 7i against the proliferation of LM8G7 cells demonstrated the down regulation of the secretion of VEGF, indicate the potential angioinhibitory effects. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate the suppression of the secretion of VEGF by LM8G7 cells by the compound 7i might contribute at least in part to the antitumor action

Improvement of Bod5/Cod Ratio Inpre-Treated Distillery Waste Water by Electrochemical Treatment Method

Electrochemical oxidation of low (BOD5/COD) ratio post-methanation distillery wastewater was investigated. The effects of operating parameters like pH, electrolysis duration and current density on COD removal were studied. At a current density of 0.03 Ampere/cm2 and at pH 3 the COD removal was found to be 72%. The BOD5/COD ratio of pretreated distillery wastewater was 0.145 and increased to 0.686 for an optimum of 120 minutes electrolysis duration indicating improvement of biodegradability of wastewater. The TOC reduction is 8.77% at 180 minutes of electrolysis duration. The maximum anodic efficiency observed was 21.58 kg COD h-1A-1m-2 and the minimum energy consumption observed was 84.16 wh kg-1 COD. The kinetic study reveals that reaction rate (k) decreases with increase in pH and increases with increase in current density

Photodegradation of methyl red by advanced and homogeneous photo-​Fenton's processes: A comparative study and kinetic approach

The degrdn. of methyl red (MR)​, an azo dye, was carried out by the homogeneous photo-​Fenton's process (HPFP) and the advanced photo-​Fenton's process (APFP) using sym. peroxides such as hydrogen peroxide and ammonium persulfate (APS) as oxidants. The APFP showed higher efficiency than their homogeneous counterparts even at high dye concns. due to the faster redn. of Fe3+ to Fe2+ ions on the iron surface. H2O2 proved to be a better oxidant for both the processes. However, APS efficiently inhibited the pptn. of iron oxy hydroxides at higher dosage of iron powder compared to H2O2 by providing excess acidity to the reaction medium. The rate const. for the kinetics of decolorisation by various oxidn. processes is of the order: Fe0/H2O2/UV > Fe0/H2O2/dark > Fe0/APS​/UV > Fe2+/H2O2/UV > Fe0/UV > Fe0/APS​/dark > Fe0/dark ≈ H2O2/UV > Fe2+/APS​/UV > APS​/UV > Fe2+/H2O2/dark > Fe2+/APS​/dark ≈ Fe2+/UV. The degrdn. reaction was followed by UV-​visible and GC-​MS spectroscopic techniques. Based on the intermediates obtained, probable degrdn. mechanisms have been proposed. It was found that the initial mechanism in the APFP involves the redn. of azo groups to amines while in the case of HPFP it leads to the formation of hydroxylated products due to the oxidn. of azo groups