Financing Urban Infrastructure in India through Tax Increment Financing Instruments: A Case for Smart Cities Mission

The paper is aimed at exploring the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) model for financing planned urban development programmes and projects in Indian cities – smart cities, in particular. This is based on the premise that the TIF approach offers an excellent opportunity to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for the creation, capture and recycling of values in cities support funding of core urban infrastructure in a sustained manner. The paper describes the key elements of the TIF model and explains why it is a theoretically elegant and practically desirable strategy for possible adoption by Indian cities at the present stage of urban evolution, when municipal finances are precarious and the municipalities are also not in a position to generate current revenue surplus. The paper is based on the principle of ‘theory follows practice and vice versa’, case studies on TIF as implemented internationally. Finally, the paper suggests directions as to how the TIF principles could be incorporated into the framework of financing innovative projects under the Smart Cities Mission, including accessing capital market funds through municipal bonds. The key findings of the paper suggests that the efficacy of tax increment financing tools in Indian cities will depend on several factors: the versatility of city development strategy and plan; reforms in municipal finance system; reforms in spatial planning; effective design of TIF projects and financing strategies, including mechanisms for value capture and recycling to catalyze economic growth-enhancing enterprises that create further values to land-owners and the city; and human resource capacity to plan, design, finance, implement and monitor projects. If designed well, TIF instruments can act as powerful tools to augment external economies of agglomeration and networking and create economic growth momentum, generating a self-financed or even surplus-generating process of planned urban expansion, development and renewal

Harmonic reduction using Particle Swarm Optimization based SHE Modulation Technique in Asymmetrical DC-AC Converter

Many inverters play an important role in transmitting and processing energy to power system networks. To reduce the cost and size of multilevel inverters, various topologies have been included in the literature. But these topologies do not look at the complete harmonic distortion in the output waveform. In this study, a modern multilevel inverter structure, a mutated H-bridge inverter is adopted that demands a small amount of switches, driver circuits, power diodes and DC voltage sources compared to conventional multilevel inverters to produce the required level in the output voltage. The mutated H-bridge converter uses a nearest-level control method, produces high value of total harmonic at the output voltage and low-level harmonics content is also high, which is more dangerous than high-order harmonics. Therefore, the selective harmonic elimination (SHE) method is used to reduce the low frequency harmonics and the total harmonic distortion to the output voltage. Comparison of complete harmonic deviation and low-level harmonic content using the above-mentioned control strategies on the 31-level inverter is presented. Simulation studies confirm the performance of a 31-level inverter with low-order harmonics and a complete harmonic distortion using the SHE process. The effectiveness and accuracy of the SHE in producing 31 level waveform is demonstrated by utilizing the test outcomes and the THD found is of the order of 2.8%, 1.7%, 1.7% and 1% for the modulation index values of 0.5590, 0.7440, and 0.8380 and 0.9110 respectively

Chemistry and Toxicity of Tear Gases

The article presents a historical background on the use of tear gases in war and civilian riot control activity. The classification of chemical compounds used as irritants, and their structure - activity relationship established through different studies has been examined. A review of toxic effects which is different from irritancy of Adamsite, w- chloroacetophenone (CN), o-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS) and Dibenz (b,f), [1, 4] - oxazepine (CR) has been presented

Unitary Extension Principle for Nonuniform Wavelet Frames in L2(R)L^2(\mathbb{R})

We study the construction of nonuniform tight wavelet frames for the Lebesgue space $L^2(\mathbb{R})$, where the related translation set is not necessary a group. The main purpose of this paper is to prove the unitary extension principle (UEP) and the oblique extension principle (OEP) for construction of multi-generated nonuniform tight wavelet frames for $L^2(\mathbb{R})$. Some examples are also given to illustrate the results

The Changing Contours of the Indian Public Sphere: Courtesans, Culture, and the British Invasion of Oudh in Kenizé Mourad’s In the City of Gold and Silver

The article explores the role of women in the Indian freedom struggle, particularly Begam Hazarat Mahal of Lucknow through Kenizé Mourad’s In the City of Gold and Silver (2010). The text explicitly and implicitly foregrounds the role of tawaifs (courtesans) in the culture and the literature of the public sphere prior to 1857 or the first Indian freedom struggle. Their participation in the freedom struggle was a response to the British attempt to reduce their role to strictly economic and sexual purposes. The article imbricates the issues of nationalism, gender, and sexuality by mining the invisible contributions of various groups of Indian women throughout the freedom movement. We focus specifically on the case of tawaifs whose status fell from being the epitome of cultural manners to the role of a prostitute, partially because they posed a threat to the British expansion and partially because of the patriarchal setup of the Oudh society. The political significance of numerous women who contributed within the domestic sphere was completely neglected and unrecorded, while those who actively participated risking their lives and honor, such as the courtesans, were demeaned or given labels such as prostitutes. The writers, journalists, and historians who were mostly men ignored their sacrifices and struggles resulting in a scarcity of literature concerning them. The article references the theoretical framework of the public sphere, proposed by Jürgen Habermas in his seminal work, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, and critiques the imposition of European, patriarchal, monolithic, bourgeois notions on the public sphere. The study concludes that apart from the British intervention, the patriarchal and moral stand of successive leaders of the Indian freedom struggle has also been responsible for the non-representation of women in general and tawaifs in particular as freedom fighters

Pre-teens, Audio Analgesia and Dental Care: A Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Research has proven that music plays an important role in alleviating fear and anxiety among patients.AIM: To assess the effect of audio analgesia in pre-teen children aged 8-12 years undergoing dental restorations. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Data was collected using a pre-tested and pre-validated proforma filled by the child prior to start of the treatment by circling the number corresponding to the expected pain during the procedure [Ranged 0 (No pain) -10 (Maximum pain)]. Children who reported their expected pain above 5, were enrolled in group 1 (The ones receiving audio analgesia) while the remaining were assigned group 2 (controls). Children in group 1 were asked to put on their favourite song using noise cancellation headphones and the procedure was commenced. After completion of the treatment, the VAS scale was re-introduced and the children were asked to re-circle the actual pain experienced during the procedure. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 using the chi-squared test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. A significant value was obtained when p was≤ 0.05. RESULTS: Of the total 80 children enrolled in the present study, there were an equal number of males and females (40 each). It was observed that 70.3% of children in group 1 had an increased pain tolerance as compared to only 37.2% of children in the control group(p=0.01). Pearson’s Correlation revealed a positive and linear association (r: +0.721) and a significant relationship (p = 0.03) between both groups. CONCLUSION: Audio analgesia has been proven to a promising alternative to distract the patient from the anxiety faced in the dental setting and is recommended for nervous and anxious patients

In vivo and In vitro Interactions between Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus spp.

The significance of polymicrobial infections is increasingly being recognized especially in a biofilm context wherein multiple bacterial species—including both potential pathogens and members of the commensal flora—communicate, cooperate, and compete with each other. Two important bacterial pathogens that have developed a complex network of evasion, counter-inhibition, and subjugation in their battle for space and nutrients are Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Their strain- and environment-specific interactions, for instance in the cystic fibrosis lung or in wound infections, show severe competition that is generally linked to worse patient outcomes. For instance, the extracellular factors secreted by P. aeruginosa have been shown to subjugate S. aureus to persist as small colony variants (SCVs). On the other hand, data also exist where S. aureus inhibits biofilm formation by P. aeruginosa but also protects the pathogen by inhibiting its phagocytosis. Interestingly, such interspecies interactions differ between the planktonic and biofilm phenotype, with the extracellular matrix components of the latter likely being a key, and largely underexplored, influence. This review attempts to understand the complex relationship between P. aeruginosa and Staphylococcus spp., focusing on S. aureus, that not only is interesting from the bacterial evolution point of view, but also has important consequences for our understanding of the disease pathogenesis for better patient management

Phytochemical screening and in vitro antibacterial activity of Moringa oleifera (Lam.) leaf extract

The aim of the study was to investigate the phytochemical constituents and antibacterial activity of ethanolic extract of Moringa oleifera Lam. belonging to family Moringaceae. Distilled water and ethanol was used to extract the bioactive compounds from the leaves of M. oleifera to detect the phytochemical constituents and to screen its antibacterial activity. The phytochemical constituents were screened by qualitative analysis method. The phytochemical screening indicated the presence of tannins, flavonoids, glycosides, terpenoids, phenols, etc., in leaf extract of M. oleifera. The antibacterial activity of ethanolic leaf extract of M. oleifera was examined against gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) and gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli). Antibacterial assay were done with ethanolic extract of M. oleifera in volumes 50, 100, 150 and 200 μL/well, using agar well diffusion method. The study showed that ethanolic extract of M. oleifera showed potent antibacterial activity against S. Aureus and E. coli