Impact of Groundwater Over-draft on Farm Income and Efficiency in Crop Production

In this study, the cost of groundwater extraction, impact of groundwater depletion on farm income, wateruse efficiency, technical efficiency in crop production and costs of groundwater depletion among different categories of farmers have been reported. The study has been conducted in the Chamarajanagar district of the Karnataka state, where groundwater is the major source of irrigation. Data have been collected from over-exploited, semi-critical and safe villages. The study has shown a wide difference between large and small farms in their access to groundwater resource in terms of cost. The functional analysis has revealed that farm income is lower in over-exploited and semi-critical villages compared to safe villages. The mean technical efficiency in crop production has been found highest among farmers in over-exploited villages. The total cost of groundwater depletion has been reported more in over-exploited villages and the cost increases with increase in the size of holding. The impact of this cost would be maximum on small and marginal farmers because of their low resource base and limited means of income. The study has emphasized on the need for incentivising for efficient use of groundwater by adopting efficient irrigation technologies like drip, sprinkler, etc. to ensure livelihood security.Groundwater, Over-draft, Farm income, Water-use efficiency, Technical efficiency, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q12, Q15, Q25,

Constitutional Impediments to Decentralization in the World\u27s Largest Federal Country

Decentralization is often advocated as a means of improving local democracy and enhancing what economists call allocative efficiency. In federal countries, where power is already divided between national and state governments, decentralization involves the devolution of power from state to local governments. The world’s largest federal country, India, took an unusual step to advance decentralization: it passed the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act to confer constitutional status on municipalities. However, India’s efforts to promote the devolution of power through a national urban renewal scheme have not succeeded for three reasons. The first is that India’s decentralization process is incomplete. Political decentralization has been stymied by the language of the constitutional amendment itself; administrative decentralization has been hampered by the comparative advantage of entrenched state-level institutions; and fiscal decentralization has not occurred because financial responsibility—but not significant revenue—has been devolved. The second reason is that decentralization has been undertaken in a top-down manner, which has exacerbated Center-state relations and mitigated the goal of allocative efficiency. Third is the relative weakness of local governance structures, which has created a Catch-22 situation: as long as the local governments lack significant capacity, the states are reluctant to devolve power to them. Additional effort needs to be directed towards an effective model of cooperative federalism. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi poised to create “smart cities” and promote urban renewal, it is critical to understand why India’s prior decentralization efforts have largely failed. The lessons learned over the past decade are an important guide to the future of cities in India as well as in other federal countrie

Nonparaxial shape-preserving Airy beams with Bessel signature

Spatially accelerating beams that are solutions to the Maxwell equations may propagate along incomplete circular trajectories, after which diffraction broadening takes over and the beams spread out. Taking these truncated Bessel wave fields to the paraxial limit, some authors sustained that it is recovered the known Airy beams (AiBs). Based on the angular spectrum representation of optical fields, we demonstrated that the paraxial approximation rigorously leads to off-axis focused beams instead of finite-energy AiBs. The latter will arise under the umbrella of a nonparaxial approach following elliptical trajectories in place of parabolas. Deviations from full-wave simulations appear more severely in beam positioning rather than its local profile

Material Characterization of Intermetallic Compound Formation with Respect to Thermosonic Bonding Duration

Intermetallic Metallic Compounds (IMCs) formation is a common cause for wire bond failures. This research studied the effect of US vibration duration on IMC formation and growth in Copper-Aluminum (Cu-Al) wire bonded samples. Wire bonded samples, using 2.5 mil (63.5 μm) thick Palladium coated Copper wire, is ultrasonically bonded on a 2 cm thick Aluminum (1”x1”) coupon. Segmented bonding technique using 200 gf force and 220 gf force are applied during segment 1 and segment 2 of the bonding respectively. Ultrasonic (US) vibration frequency of 115-117 khz and a bonding temperature of 175°C is used. A pair of 5 samples with bonding duration: 20 milliseconds (ms), 40ms, 60ms, 80ms, 100ms is created. Keeping the temperature constant at 250 °C, a tube furnace is used to annealing one set for 2 hours and the other set for 4 hours. Backscattered Electrons (BSE) images were used to detect IMC growth. Backscattered images revealed formation of IMC at the Cu-Al bond interface, mostly around the center of and bond periphery. Using BSE images to identify location of IMC, Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) linescans were then performed. Only EDS analysis was taken into account for final results assuming it was more accurate than visual inspection of BSE images. EDS linescan analysis for 2 hour heat treated samples showed IMC thickness growing from 0.6 μm to 1 μm as bond duration increased from 20ms to 100ms. Linescan results for 4 hour samples had IMC thickness ranging from 0.8μm to 1.5 μm, and hence showed an increase xiv with bond duration from 20ms to 100 ms. Using micro indentations, hardness of both Cu ball and Al was measured. Change in hardness for Cu and Al was compared with bond duration and annealing time. Cu hardness decreased from 20ms to 60ms bond time and then increased in value from 80ms to 100ms bond time. When compared to anneal time, overall hardness in Cu increased with increase in annealing time. Overall hardness in Aluminum increased with increasing bond duration but decreased with increase in anneal time, such behavior is related to the concurrent effect of annealing and IMC growth

The Effects Of Early Corticosterone Treatment On The Development Of The Avian Song Control System

Stress has long lasting effects on physiology, development, behavior, reproductive success and survival. These effects are mediated by glucocorticoids, such as corticosterone (Cort), via glucocorticoid receptors (GR), though the exact mechanisms underlying these effects are unknown. Early developmental stress affects the size of the avian song control nuclei (particularly HVC; proper name) and song quality in many songbirds, suggesting a direct link between brain and behavior. HVC is required for song learning and production. The complexity of the male zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) courtship song is important in female mate choice. Although the mechanisms behind the effects of developmental stress on song nuclei size and song quality are unknown, it is likely that elevated levels of Cort via GR within brain song nuclei play a significant role. We investigated the distribution, quantity, and subcellular-localization of GR- immunoreactive (GR-ir) neurons in the brains of male zebra finches 10 days post-hatch and in adulthood using immunohistochemistry. There was wide distribution of GR-ir neurons including two song nuclei HVC and robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA). Distribution did not vary between the two ages but there were significant differences in the overall number of GR-ir neurons and their subcellular localization. We hypothesized that early Cort treatment would reduce song quality and HVC size in adult males. We inserted Cort implants in males at four days post-hatch and quantified the effects of early Cort treatment on adult song quality. Early Cort treatment decreased song similarity between the tutor and tutee’s songs and resulted in poorer copies of tutor song, but did not alter mean amplitude or song duration. Early Cort treatment reduced the HVC size in both juvenile and adult birds. This result suggests that the effect of developmental stress on the HVC size may be mediated through Cort via activation of GR within HVC as a mechanism by which HVC size and song quality are altered in developmentally stressed birds. These results suggest a potential role for Cort in mediating adverse effects of developmental stress in adult male zebra finches and highlight the developmental plasticity of the zebra finch brain