The Transnational Mission of an Indian War Correspondent: P. R. S. Mani in Southeast Asia, 1944–1946

This article, based on new archival materials, reconstructs the experiences and observations of an Indian war correspondent from 1944 to 1946 as he covered the advance of Indian soldiers of the British-led Indian Army from northeast India, through Burma to Malaya at the war's end, then to their eventual deployment with the South East Asian Command in Java after the Japanese surrender. As it transpired, Captain P. R. S. Mani worked as an enlisted public relations officer of the British-led Indian Army but also sustained his commitment as a patriotic Indian nationalist, who gathered intelligence on the Indian diaspora in Southeast Asia and on the impact of Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. Relatively little scholarship has focused on Asian war journalism. Mani's tension-ridden role as a self-styled ‘Indian Army observer’ provides an illuminating insight into the way in which Britain's lines of communication were appropriated and subverted during wartime and beyond, and into the way his own nationalism was reshaped by his unofficial transnational activities

Effect of sterilisation on antimicrobial silver coated titanium surfaces

The implant associated infections (IAI) have been identified as one of the primary causes of bone implant failures. A novel silver based antimicrobial surface produced on Ti6Al7Nb substrates by plasma electrolytic oxidation was developed to tackle IAI . The effect of steam, dry and Ultra Violet (photocatalytical) sterilisation on this novel material was investigated. The surface topography and oxide structure was not influenced much by the sterilisation technique. The surface wettability was enhanced on UV sterilised samples. The Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis performed along with the Energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) revealed Ca-P based needle like structure formation on the steam sterilised surface. The silver release rate analysis indicated enhanced release of silver after dry sterilisation and lessened release of silver after UV sterilisation.Mechanical, Maritime and Materials EngineeringBiomechanical Engineerin

State, Policy and Gender at the Workplace in India: A Comparison Over Time

This article seeks to compare the effect of gendered perceptions of labour on women’s presence in the workforce in early 20th-century colonial India, as nascent industry sprang up in several parts of the country, and towards the end of the 20th century. We compare the entry and exit of women workers in the mill industry of South India in the first half of the 20th century with the informalisation of labour in the fish processing industry, whose workforce was predominantly women, in the 1990s. The regulation of women’s work by means of protective laws that sheltered them from “hazardous” work and mandated benefits such as creches at the workplace and maternity benefits conditioned women’s employment in multiple ways, ranging from how they were resented and mistreated by male workers and how organised unions debated and finally championed equal wages for equal work to how women got excluded altogether. After independence, protective laws and regulations grew in number and women’s participation in the labour force steadily came down. One way to cross the hurdle to women’s large-scale employment raised by protective legislation is to employ women on informal terms. This means walking the thin line, on the part of employers, between observing the law on contract workers and their benefits in letter and complying with the law in spirit. The fish processing industry that came up along the Indian coastline is a good example of informality at the workplace mediated by gender. Differences in gender perceptions across India’s culturally varied regions explains why most workers in the fish processing industry hail from one single state, Kerala

State, Policy and Gender at the Workplace in India: A Comparison Over Time

This article seeks to compare the effect of gendered perceptions of labour on women’s presence in the workforce in early 20th-century colonial India, as nascent industry sprang up in several parts of the country, and towards the end of the 20th century. We compare the entry and exit of women workers in the mill industry of South India in the first half of the 20th century with the informalisation of labour in the fish processing industry, whose workforce was predominantly women, in the 1990s. The regulation of women’s work by means of protective laws that sheltered them from “hazardous” work and mandated benefits such as creches at the workplace and maternity benefits conditioned women’s employment in multiple ways, ranging from how they were resented and mistreated by male workers and how organised unions debated and finally championed equal wages for equal work to how women got excluded altogether. After independence, protective laws and regulations grew in number and women’s participation in the labour force steadily came down. One way to cross the hurdle to women’s large-scale employment raised by protective legislation is to employ women on informal terms. This means walking the thin line, on the part of employers, between observing the law on contract workers and their benefits in letter and complying with the law in spirit. The fish processing industry that came up along the Indian coastline is a good example of informality at the workplace mediated by gender. Differences in gender perceptions across India’s culturally varied regions explains why most workers in the fish processing industry hail from one single state, Kerala