PUBLIC INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURAL AND GDP GROWTH-- ANOTHER LOOK AT THE INTER SECTORAL LINKAGES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Despite its reduced share in India’s GDP, agriculture continues to have a strategic importance in ensuring its overall growth and prosperity. As part of the new economic policy package introduced in the early nineties, there has been a reduction in the rate of public investment. While this may not be bad for the industrial sector, the impact of this policy on agriculture is a matter of concern, in sofar as it not only affects steady growth of agriculture but also influences the overall performance of the economy. This is more so because the agricultural sector public investment has also promoted private investment by way of what is termed as the crowding-in phenomenon. This phenomenon together with inter-sectoral linkages is used in this paper to examine the effect of higher public investment for agriculture on the stable growth of this sector as well as of the entire economy. Policy implications of this exercise are important for obvious reasons.Sectoral linkages, Public Investment, crowding-in

Indigenous development of ultra high vacuum (UHV) magnetron sputtering system for the preparation of Permalloy magnetic thin films

We have designed and developed an indigenous ultra high vacuum (UHV) sputtering system which can deposit magnetic thin films with high purity and good uniformity. The equipment consists of state-of the-art technologies and sophistication. With this system it is possible to deposit coatings of various materials on a sample size of 3”3” 3”. The Ni81Fe19 ferromagnetic thin films, with Tantalum (Ta) as a buffer and cap layers have been deposited on silicon substrates using this ultra high vacuum (UHV) sputtering system. The magneto transport measurement study indicated a significant variation in the AMR values of the films for varying thicknesses of tantalum and NiFe layers

Ternary and quaternary logic to binary bit conversion CMOS integrated circuit design using multiple input floating gate MOSFETs

Multiple-input floating gate MOSFETs and floating gate potential diagrams have been used for conversion of ternary-valued input and quaternary-valued input into corresponding binary-valued output in CMOS integrated circuit design environment. The method is demonstrated through the design of a circuit for conversion of ternary inputs 00 to -1-1 (decimal 0 to -4) and 00 to 11 (decimal 0 to +4) into the corresponding binary bits and for conversion of quaternary inputs (decimal 0 to 3) into the corresponding binary bits (binary 00 to 11) in a standard 1.5 mm digital CMOS technology. The physical design of the circuits is simulated and tested with SPICE using MOSIS BSIM3 model parameters. The conversion method is simple and compatible with the present CMOS process. The circuits could be embedded in digital CMOS VLSI design architectures. The conversion circuit for ternary inputs into corresponding binary outputs has maximum propagation delay of 8 ns with 0.1 pF simulated capacitive load. The physical layout design occupies an area of 432´908 mm2. The conversion circuit for quaternary inputs to corresponding binary outputs has maximum propagation delay of 6 ns with 0.1 pF simulated capacitive load. The physical layout design occupies an area of 130´175 mm2. The conversion circuit achieved significant improvement in the number of devices. A reduction of more than 75% in transistor count was obtained over the previous designs. Measurements of the fabricated devices for the conversion of quaternary input into binary output agree with simulated values

All-sky signals from recombination to reionization with the SKA

Cosmic evolution in the hydrogen content of the Universe through recombination and up to the end of reionization is expected to be revealed as subtle spectral features in the uniform extragalactic cosmic radio background. The redshift evolution in the excitation temperature of the 21-cm spin flip transition of neutral hydrogen appears as redshifted emission and absorption against the cosmic microwave background. The precise signature of the spectral trace from cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization are dependent on the spectral radiance, abundance and distribution of the first bound systems of stars and early galaxies, which govern the evolution in the spin-flip level populations. Redshifted 21 cm from these epochs when the spin temperature deviates from the temperature of the ambient relic cosmic microwave background results in an all-sky spectral structure in the 40-200 MHz range, almost wholly within the band of SKA-Low. Another spectral structure from gas evolution is redshifted recombination lines from epoch of recombination of hydrogen and helium; the weak all-sky spectral structure arising from this event is best detected at the upper end of the 350-3050 MHz band of SKA-mid. Total power spectra of SKA interferometer elements form the measurement set for these faint signals from recombination and reionization; the inter-element interferometer visibilities form a calibration set. The challenge is in precision polarimetric calibration of the element spectral response and solving for additives and unwanted confusing leakages of sky angular structure modes into spectral modes. Herein we discuss observing methods and design requirements that make possible these all-sky SKA measurements of the cosmic evolution of hydrogen.Comment: Accepted for publication in the SKA Science Book 'Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array', to appear in 201

Prevention of Unauthorized Transport of Ore in Opencast Mines Using Automatic Number Plate Recognition

Security in mining is a primary concern, which mainly affects the production cost. An efficiently detecting and deterring theft will maximize the profitability of any mining organization. Many illegal transportation cases were registered in spite of rules imposed by central and state governments under Section 23 (c) of MMDR Act 1957. Use of an automated checkpoint gate based on license plate recognition and biometric fingerprint system for vehicle tracking enhances the security in mines. The method was tested on the number plates with various considerations like clean number plates, clean fingerprints, dusty and faded number plates, dusty fingerprints, and number plates captured by varying distance. By considering all the above conditions the pictures were processed by ANPR and bio-metric fingerprint modules. Vehicle license number plate was captured using a digital camera and the captured RGB image was converted to grayscale image. Thresholding was done to remove unwanted areas from the grayscale image. The characters of the number plate were segmented using Gabor filter. A track-sector matrix was generated by considering the number of pixels in each region and was matched with existing template to identify the character. The fingerprint scans the finger and matches with the template created at the time of fingerprint registration at the machine. The micro-controller accepted the processed output in binary form from ANPR and bio-metric fingerprint system. The micro-controller processed the binary output and the checkpoint gate was closed/open based on the output provided by the microcontroller to motor driver

Investigation of interface properties of sputter deposited TiN/CrN superlattices by low-angle X-ray reflectivity

Approximately 1.8 m thick nanolayered multilayer coatings of TiN/CrN (also known as superlattices) were deposited on silicon (100) substrates at different modulation wavelengths (4.6–12.8 nm), substrate temperatures (50-400 °C) and substrate bias voltages (-50 to -200 V) using a reactive direct current magnetron sputtering system. X-ray reflectivity (XRR) technique was employed to determine various properties of the multilayers such as interface roughness, surface roughness, electron density, critical angle and individual layer thicknesses. The modulation wavelengths of the TiN/CrN superlattice coatings were calculated using modified Bragg’s law. Furthermore, the experimental X-ray reflectivity patterns were simulated using theoretically generated patterns and a good fit was obtained for a three layer model, i.e., (1) top surface roughness layer, (2) TiN/CrN multilayer coating (approximately 1.8 m) and (3) Ti interlayer (~ 0.5 m) at the film-substrate interface. For the superlattice coatings prepared at a modulation wavelength of 9.7 nm, a substrate bias of -200 V and a substrate temperature of 400 C the XRR patterns showed Bragg reflections up to 5th order, indicating well-defined periodicity of the constituent layers and relatively sharp interfaces. The simulation showed that the superlattice coatings prepared under the above conditions exhibited low surface and interface roughnesses. We also present the effect of substrate temperature and substrate bias, which are critical parameters for controlling the superlattice properties, onto the various interface properties of TiN/CrN superlattices

Novel spectral kurtosis technology for adaptive vibration condition monitoring of multi-stage gearboxes

In this paper, the novel wavelet spectral kurtosis (WSK) technique is applied for the early diagnosis of gear tooth faults. Two variants of the wavelet spectral kurtosis technique, called variable resolution WSK and constant resolution WSK, are considered for the diagnosis of pitting gear faults. The gear residual signal, obtained by filtering the gear mesh frequencies, is used as the input to the SK algorithm. The advantages of using the wavelet-based SK techniques when compared to classical Fourier transform (FT)-based SK is confirmed by estimating the toothwise Fisher's criterion of diagnostic features. The final diagnosis decision is made by a three-stage decision-making technique based on the weighted majority rule. The probability of the correct diagnosis is estimated for each SK technique for comparison. An experimental study is presented in detail to test the performance of the wavelet spectral kurtosis techniques and the decision-making technique