COLONIAL GLOBALISATION TO POST COLONIAL GLOBALISATION: NON ALIGNMENT AND SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION

Neste trabalho, em primeiro lugar argumentarei, brevemente, que o legado colonial não criou “condições iniciais” positivas e que o caminho para o desenvolvimento exigiu uma “desestruturação” do colonialismo. Em segundo lugar, descreverei os elementos da estratégia de Nehru para a “desestruturação” do colonialismo mostrando que o governo de Nehru, ao invés de ser um desperdício ou de levar o país a uma futura dependência, na verdade promoveu o desenvolvimento independente e criou as condições estruturais para um rápido desenvolvimento nos últimos anos. A estratégia de Nehru, que eu chamo de “consenso de Nehru” no momento da independência, era produto de uma conjuntura histórica particular. O “não alinhamento” foi um aspecto deste consenso. A conjuntura histórica foi constituída por uma série de fatores, tais como o legado do colonialismo (ou as “condições iniciais” no momento da independência),In this paper, I shall argue, in brief, that the colonial legacy did not create positive “initial conditions” and that the path to development necessitated the ’unstructuring’ of colonialism. Second, I shall outline elements of the Nehruvian strategy for ‘unstructuring’ colonialism showing that the Nehruvian period rather than being wasted or leading to further dependency actually promoted independent development and created the structural conditions for rapid development in later years. The Nehruvian strategy, which I call the ‘Nehruvian consensus’ at independence, was a product of a particular historical conjuncture. ‘Non-alignment’ was one aspect of this consensus. The historical conjuncture was constituted by a number of factors such as the legacy of colonialism or the “initial conditions” at the point of independence, the nature of world capitalism and the global balance of power at that time

Has the Janani Suraksha Yojana (a conditional maternity benefit transfer scheme) succeeded in reducing the economic burden of maternity in rural India? Evidence from the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh

Background. One of the constraints in the utilisation of maternal healthcare in India is the out-of-pocket expenditure. To improve the utilisation and to reduce the out-of-pocket expenditure, India launched a cash incentive scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), which provides monetary incentive to the mothers delivering in public facility. However, no study has yet examined the extent to which the JSY payments reduce the maternal healthcare induced catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditure burden of the households. This paper therefore attempts to examine the extent to which the JSY reduces the catastrophic expenditure estimate household expenditure on maternity, i.e., all direct and indirect expenditure. Materials and methods. The study used data on 396 mothers collected through a primary survey conducted in the rural areas of the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh state in 2013-2014. The degree and variation in the catastrophic impact of households’ maternity spending was computed as share of out-of-pocket payment in total household income in relation to specific thresholds, across socioeconomic categories. Logistic regression was used to understand the determinants of catastrophic expenditure and whether the JSY has any role in influencing the expenditure pattern. Results. Results revealed that the JSY beneficiaries on an average spent about 8.3% of their Annual Household Consumption Expenditure on maternity care. The JSY reimbursement could reduce this share only by 2.1%. The study found that the expenditure on antenatal and postnatal care made up a significant part of the direct medical expenditure on maternity among the JSY beneficiaries. The indirect or non-medical expenditure was about four times higher than the direct expenditure on maternity services. The out-of-pocket expenditure across income quintiles was found to be regressive i.e. the poor paid a greater proportion of their income towards maternity care than the rich. Results also showed that the JSY reimbursement helped only about 8% households to escape from suffering catastrophic burden due to maternity payments. Conclusions. It can be concluded that the JSY appeared to have achieved only a limited success in reducing the economic burden due to maternity. To reduce the catastrophic burden, policy makers should consider increasing the JSY reimbursement to cover not only antenatal and postnatal services but also non-medical expenditure due to maternity. The government should also take appropriate measures to curb non-medical or indirect expenditure in public health facilities

Thermodynamic curvature of charged black holes with AdS2AdS_2 horizons

Sign of the thermodynamic curvature provides empirical information about the nature of microstructures of a general thermodynamic system. For charged black holes in AdS, thermodynamic curvature is positive for large charge or chemical potential, and diverges for extremal black holes, indicating strongly repulsive nature. We compute the thermodynamic curvature $R$ at low temperatures, for charged black holes with AdS$_2$ near horizon geometry, and containing a zero temperature horizon radius $r_h$, in a spacetime which asymptotically approaches $AdS_D$ (for $D>3$). At low temperatures with fixed charge $Q$, $R$ shows a crossover from negative to positive side, indicating the shift from attraction to repulsion dominated regime near $T=0$, before diverging as $1/(\gamma T)$, where $\gamma$ is the coefficient of leading low temperature correction to entropy.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Correspondence of butterfly and host plant diversity: Foundation for habitat restoration and conservation

At a spatial scale, the diversity of butterflies varies with numerous factors including the availability of the host plant species. In parity with this proposition, the correspondence of diversity of butterfly and plant in the background of the urban–rural gradient was evaluated using Kolkata, India, as a model study area. The results reveal significant positive correlation between the diversity of butterflies and the plants, with the different values for the suburban, rural, and urban areas. Identification of the butterfly loads for the plants in the respective areas can be useful in enhancing the conservation of the butterflies through enhanced plantation of the concerned plant species. Alternatively, the disclosure of the generalist and specialist pattern of the plant species preference by the butterflies may be useful in enhancing the population of the respective species in the concerned areas. The conservation strategy for butterfly species may be refined through the use of both or any one of the quantitative assessment of the butterfly–plant links in the urban–rural gradient in Kolkata, India, and similar places in the world

Thermal and photochemical reactions ofbis(diamine)(sulfito)cobalt(III) complexes: effect ofchelate-ring size

The kinetics of formation of cis-[Co(tn)2(OH2)(OSO2-O )]+ (tn = 1,3-diaminopropane), its acid-catalysed aquation to the parent diaqua complex, anation of trans-[Co(tn)2(OH2)(SO3−S)]+ by N−, NCS−, SO32−–HSO3− , anation of trans-[Co(tn)2(OH)(SO3-S )] by SO32− and acid-catalysed aquation of trans-[Co(tn)2(SO3-S)2]- to the corresponding (aqua)(sulfito-S) complex were investigated and the results compared with analogous data for the corresponding 1,2-diaminoethane (en) complexes. Expanding the chelate-ring size from five to six had virtually no effect on the rate of formation of the sulfito-O complex, but retarded its acid-catalysed aquation. The latter effect was attributed to a pK perturbation; intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the co-ordinated H2O and sulfite in cis-[Co(tn)2(OH2)(OSO2-O )]+ hindered the protonation pre-equilibrium of the sulfito-O complex involved in the acid-catalysed aquation. This is further supported by the fact that there was no ring-size effect on the acid-catalysed aquation of trans-[Co(L–L)2(OH2)(OSO2) ]+ (L–L = tn or en). The strong labilising action due to chelate-ring expansion is remarkably attenuated by the trans effect of S-bonded sulfite as observed in the anation of trans-[Co(L–L)2(OH2/OH)(SO3 -S)]+/0. However, trans-[Co(tn)2(OH2)(SO3- S)]+ was found to be prone to intramolecular electron transfer between CoIIIand SIV under thermal conditions unlike its en analogue, further reflecting the ring-size effect. Flash photolysis of trans-[Co(L–L)2(OH2)(SO3 -S)]+ (L–L = en or tn) generated the transient trans-[Co(L–L)2(OH2)(OSO2 )]+. The photochemical ligand isomerisation of both complexes (CoIII–SO3+ → CoIII–OSO2+) also occurred at comparable rates [kiso = (4.1 ±0.8) × 104 and (3.2 ±1.3) × 104 s−1 at 25 °C for the en and tn complexes respectively]. Steady-state photolysis at 254 nm indicated that trans–[Co(en)2(OH2)(SO3-S )]+ underwent photoaquation and photoreduction. Strikingly photoreduction could not be detected for this complex at pH > 8

Rhythmicity in nitrate reductase activity in wheat embryos during germination

Nitrate reductase (NR) activity, induced by germination in KNO3 showed a strong rhythmicity during the early stages of germination of wheat embryos. Peaks of activity occurred approximately every 12 h. There was no relationship between the amounts of nitrate in the embryos and enzyme activity. The fluctuations in enzyme activity did not appear to be due to reversible inactivation of the enzyme. Some evidence suggests that the fluctuations in enzyme activity may result from a more rapid degradation of enzyme during the decreasing phase of the rhythm