Managing migration in the Philippines : lessons for India

This paper highlights the significance of international migration in the Philippines economy and society, discusses the supportive and regulatory role that the government of the Philippines plays in promoting it and draws the lessons that India might learn from the Philippines experience. Temporary labour migration to foreign countries is a policy priority of the Government of the Philippines which restricts official access to markets through recruitment by licensed agencies or the government itself. The Government retains a regulatory role, though most of the responsibility for recruiting workers is entrusted with the private sector with a view to protecting workers from abuse and discouraging illegal recruitment. International migrants receive several benefits- pre migration training, life insurance, pensions and loan facilities. Remittances are encouraged and investment programmes are offered. Filipinos abroad are given psychological counselling to maintain Filipino values and offered rights to vote in national elections. The Philippines government also lends its support to return migrants through tax-free shopping facilities, investment loans and subsidised scholarships. The efforts of the government have yielded substantial results even though short comings and failures do remain. The gains of government policies however far outweigh their inadequencies. India has several lessons to draw from the Philippines experiment in order to organise systematic flows of emigrants from India, namely, to take care of their working and living conditions abroad, to channel emigrants' savings into productive uses, to promote welfare funds of emigrant workers, to protect the interests of workers abroad during their sojourn and after return, to offer intending emigrants pre-departure orientation courses, to prevent all practices of breach of contract on the part of recruitment agencies and foreign employers and to increase the investment of Indian embassies in the affairs of Indian emigrants. Key words: Migration, Remittances, Employment, The Philippines JEL Classification: J21, J2

Delivery complications and determinants of caesarean section rates in India : an analysis of National Family Health Surveys, 1992-93

Caesarean section rates have been increasing world-wide raising the question of the appropriateness of the selection of cases for the procedure. This paper examines the levels and correlates of delivery related complications and caesarean section deliveries in eighteen selected states of India in terms of specific maternal and institutional factors, using data from the National Family Health Surveys, 1992-93. Goa (15.3 per cent) and Kerala (13.7 per cent) were the two states with relatively higher caesarean section rates. There is reason to believe that the current caesarean section rates are part of a rising trend. This can not be attributed entirely to the rise in institutional deliveries alone because of the strong association between caesarean sections and private sector institutions. Apart from the fact that the states of Kerala and Goa are having relatively high caesarean section rates, in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh the risk of undergoing caesarean section in the private sector institutions is four or more times that in the public sector. It is possible that this extremely useful surgical procedure is being misused for profit purposes in the private sector in several states. There is therefore a need to examine this phenomenon using disaggregated data by the nature of caesarean sections, i.e. whether it was an elective or an emergency c-section along with the reasons for the choice. JEL Classification : I1, I18 Key Words: caesarean section, institutional deliveries, delivery complications, medical interventio

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A STABILITY INDICATING RP-HPLC METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF VALSARTAN

Objective: A stability indicating RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of Valsartan using Telmisartan (10 µg/ml) as the internal standard.Methods: In this procedure Phenomenex ODS C-18(250×4.6 mm, packed with 5 micron) column was used with a new mobile phase consisting of methanol: acetonitrile: water (70:15:15 v/v) and the pH was adjusted to 3 by 0.1% glacial acetic acid with a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The eluents were monitored at 249 nm. Valsartan was subjected to stress conditions including hydrolytic degradation in acidic, basic and neutral conditions, oxidation, photolytic, UV degradation and thermal degradation.Results: Linearity was obtained in the concentration range of 10-90 µg/ml (R2 =0.999) and with a regression equation y=0.074x+0.005. The LOD and LOQ values were 0.261 and 0.791 µg/ml respectively. The drug had shown promising degradation in the acidic, basic, neutral, thermal and oxidative stress conditions.Conclusion: The method was validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity and robustness and revealed that it is specific, accurate, rapid, precise, reliable and reproducible enough to analyze commercial dosage forms as per ICH guidelines

Chiral Symmetry Breaking and Pion Wave Function

We consider here chiral symmetry breaking through nontrivial vacuum structure with quark antiquark condensates. We then relate the condensate function to the wave function of pion as a Goldstone mode. This simultaneously yields the pion also as a quark antiquark bound state as a localised zero mode in vacuum. We illustrate the above with Nambu Jona-Lasinio model to calculate different pionic properties in terms of the vacuum structure for breaking of exact or approximate chiral symmetry, as well as the condensate fluctuations giving rise to $\sigma$ mesons.Comment: latex, revtex, 16 page

Occurrence and incidence of foot rot disease on fenugreek caused by Fusarium moniliforme in Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, India

Pathological studies were carried out in Rohilkhand region during the crop season 2013-14 to assess the pathogenic disease incidence of foot rot of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum Linn.) caused by Fusarium moniliforme. A total of 75 fields were surveyed during the crop period at monthly interval during germination, vegetative, flowering and fruiting stages in five different localities of Rohilkhand region. The foot-rot disease of fenugreek was found in all fields (Bareilly, Baheri, Pilibhit, Budaun and Meerganj) selected for the study. Monthly occurrence of disease incidence of foot rot ranged from 44-58%. Maximum disease incidence was recorded in the month of Oct. (58%) followed by September (57%) and November (56%). January exhibited the lowest incidence (45%) of pathogenic disease. However, foot rot symptoms developed at early stage of plant growth and persisted up to the end of the crop

Occurrence of Streptomyces aurantiacus in Mangroves of Bhitarkanika

Thirteen strains of Streptomyces were isolated from phyllosphere of nine mangrove tree species found in Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystem of Orissa. According to physiological, biochemical data, all 13 of the isolates were taxonomically identified to the genus Streptomyces as aurantiacus species. All strains are grayish, spirals and forming amorphous colony. Almost all utilized araginose, produced H2S, resistant towards rifampicin and penicillin, urea except few strains. However, they exhibited different extracellular activity like phosphate solubilization, lipase and L asparaginase production. This is a unique report from this mangrove ecosystem as far as Streptomyces occurrence is concerned

Blood Flow through a Composite Stenosis in an Artery with Permeable Wall

The present work concerns the fluid mechanical study on the effects of the permeability of the wall through an artery with a composite stenosis. The expressions for the blood flow characteristics, the flow resistance, the wall shear stress, shearing stress at the stenosis throat have been derived. Results for the effect of permeability on these flow characteristics are shown graphically and discussed briefly