India’s Revenue Deficit: A Challenge Ahead

A developing country like India needs revenue surplus for the capital investment at the same time to pursue the economic development through demand expansion it needs expenditure especially in the social sectors such as health, education etc,. The recent global economic crisis also compels India to induce the expenditure for sustainability of the growth that it has achieved recently. This also needs enormous expenditure. On the other hand, current expenditure over current revenue of an economy makes revenue deficit. India’s Thirteenth Finance Commission’s one of the recommendation is that revenue deficit (as % of GDP) of the Centre needs to be progressively reduced and eliminated, followed by emergence of a revenue surplus by 2014-15 and a long term and permanent target for the Central Government should be to maintain, at the minimum, a zero revenue deficit. In the light of the above recommendation analyzing revenue deficit is imperative at this hour.India; Revenue Deficit; Revenue Receipts; Revenue Expenditure; Thirteenth Finance Commission

Radiobiological studies of plants orbited in biosatellite 2

Radiation induced mutation rates and cyotlogical changes in plants orbited on Biosatellite

Continuous light inside a cave abolishes the social synchronization of the circadian rhythm in a bat

The bat Hipposideros speoris regulates its flight activity rhythm in the absence of time cues in a totally dark natural cave. The flight activity rhythm even of captive bats in total darkness entrained to the social cues available from free flying conspecifics. The social synchronization of the circadian rhythm was abolished in continuous illumination (LL) of 10-20 lx. All the captive bats 'feerun' in LL with τ longer than 24 h. The social entrainment was re-established following a few cycles of transients when total darkness was restored

Establishing monoxenic culture of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices through root organ culture

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are soil fungi distributed worldwide, forming symbiosis with most of the vascular plants for their growth and survival, which is used for sustainable agriculture and ecosystem management. This study investigated the establishment of monoxenic cultures of Glomus intraradices in association with transformed carrot hairy root. The G.intraradices spores were isolated from sugarcane rhizosphere by wet sieving and decanting technique and propagated in open pot culture. Transformation in to carrot hairy root was done using Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Surface sterilization of G.intraradices spores co-cultured with transformed carrot hairy root in Modified Strulla and Romand (MSR) medium was found the host root growth as well as for germination AM spores. After three months of incubation in dark condition, significant production of extensive hyphal growth on MSR medium and an average of 8500-9000 spores per petri dish was observed. The in vitro inoculum exhibited higher potential of root colonization due to numerous intraradices mycelium with extensive spore load. The produced monoxenic inoculum can be used in place of traditional system where it has a advantage of producing contaminant free propagulas. Thus the monoxenic culture system, a powerful tool, of AM sporulation, can be used for the mass production of monoxenic inoculum of AM fungi besides studying its biology

Social entrainment of the circadian rhythm in the flight activity of the microchiropteran bat Hipposideros speoris

1. We investigated the problem of how members of the microchiropteran bat species Hipposideros speoris that live in a true cave clock their flight activity rhythms in the absence of time cues. 2. The bats become restless well in advance of sunset and then fly towards the cavemouth to sample light. 3. We investigated whether each bat roosting 40 m from the cave entrance must sample outside light levels for itself in order to emerge at the appropriate time. Three captive bats were tested and each began activity when the conspecifics left the cave in the evenings. 4. In another series of experiments a solitary bat was held captive in a solitary cave for 50 days and its circadian rhythm was recorded. In the absence of other conspecifics the circadian rhythm 'free ran' with a period shorter than 24 h. 5. We concluded from the results of our studies that there exists a clear-cut case for social synchronization of the circadian rhythms of this cave-dwelling bat

Single-stage parallel coupled microstrip line bandpass filter using weak coupling technique

The frequency-dispersive characteristic of a two-port parallel coupled microstrip line (PCML) can be obtained using equivalent J-inverter network parameters. The latter is obtained from its corresponding admittance parameters. Hence, the behaviour of transmission zero frequency, fundamental response frequency and harmonic response frequency of the PCML can be shown. The former is realigned by varying a centrally located single groove size to suppress the first spurious harmonic passband of the filter. Using the J-inverter parameters, the transmission zero of J-susceptance null of a PCML can be realigned by employing a single groove with specific dimension. This simultaneously cancels the first harmonic resonance. In this paper, the behaviour of the J-inverter parameters with varying coupling gaps is presented. The effect of having weak coupling characteristic is then presented. The proposed technique is then justified by two single-stage bandpass filters of PCML with weak coupling characteristic

Genetic diversity and population structure of leaf-nosed bat Hipposideros speoris (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) in Indian subcontinent

Genetic variation and population structure of the leaf-nosed bat Hipposideros speoris were estimated using 16S rRNA sequence and microsatellite analysis. Twenty seven distinct mitochondrial haplotypes were identified from 186 individuals, sampled from eleven populations. FST test revealed significant variations between populations in the overall pairwise estimation (FST = 0.710; p < 0.001). In addition, haplotype network and analysis of molecular variation analysis (AMOVA) consistently suggest the prevalence of genetic structure in the sampled populations. However, the mtDNA data was not significantly different in few closely located urban populations, but significant difference has been observed with the use of microsatellite data. The Bayesian clustering analysis identified eight clusters among the populations; the clustering pattern also corresponded to the haplotype networks. Overall, the present study suggests a “macrogeographic genetic isolation-by-distance” and possibility of gene flow among closely located populations.Key words: mtDNA, 16S rRNA, microsatellite, population structure, Hipposideros speoris

Direct correlation between the circadian sleep-wakefulness rhythm and time estimation in humans under social and temporal isolation

Several bodily functions in humans vary on a 24 h pattern and most of these variations persist with a circadian period of ca 25 h when subjects are studied under conditions of social and temporal isolation. We report in this paper that the estimates of short time intervals (TE) of 2 h are strongly coupled to the circadian rhythm in sleepwakefulness. There is a linear correlation between the number of hours humans stay awake (α) and their estimation of 2 h intervals. The coupling of TE to α appears to obtain only under conditions of physical well-being

Exogenous melatonin improves seed germination and seedling growth in greengram under drought stress

Drought stress diminishes seedling germination and vigor by reducing water uptake, inhibiting plant growth and development. Most of the pulse growing areas are under rainfed ecosystems, which significantly reduces crop yield. Melatonin, a growth-regulating compound, is widely used to mitigate the negative effects of abiotic stresses in pulses. With this background, a laboratory experiment was conducted to standardize the optimum melatonin concentration for seed treatment and foliar application in greengram, to minimize the ill effects of drought stress. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications for each treatment. The treatments consisted of soaking seeds with different melatonin concentrations, viz., 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 μM. Seeds were sown in a perti dishes and the drought stress was imposed using poly ethylene glycol 6000 (PEG 6000) @ - 0.4 MPa, and plates were maintained at room temperature (24-30 °C). After the seedlings emerged, various seedling growth parameters like germination percentage, shoot length, root length, vigor index, promptness index, germination stress tolerance index, fresh and dry weight of the seedlings, plant height stress index and root length stress index were recorded. The experimental results showed that drought stress significantly reduced germination percentage and other growth-related parameters in greengram seedlings compared to the melatonin treatments. Among the melatonin treatments, seeds treated with @ 100 μM concentration recorded the highest germination percentage (99.67 %), promptness index (98.80), vigour index (1631.68), shoot and root length (8.9 cm and 7.5 cm), fresh and dry weight of the seedlings (3.249 and 0.147 mg seedling-1) under PEG induced drought stress condition