Return emigrants in Kerala : rehabilitation problems and development potential

This research report is aimed at three aspects of return emigrants in Kerala – their occupational mobility, utilisation of their human and material resources in Kerala’s development and their rehabilitation. It describes their demographic, social and economic characteristics before emigration, after emigration and, after return to Kerala. Also included are the financial costs of and benefits from emigration and the problems faced by them in the Gulf countries and in Kerala after return. A few suggestions for their rehabilitation and their possible role in the state’s development effort are made in the concluding part. The study shows that there was indeed considerable difference between the industrial affiliation of the return emigrants in Kerala before emigration and after their return to Kerala. As much as 43 percent of the return emigrants had changed their industrial sector in between emigration and return. However, real transition in the economic sector, in the sense of a systematic movement from primary sector to secondary sector and from secondary sector to tertiary sector was only about 18 percent, less than half of the total movements. Thus, there were movements, but very little meaningful transition. Some workers moved from agriculture and allied sectors to manufacturing or service sectors, but some others moved back from the manufacturing and the service sectors to the primary sector. The Government of Kerala has been looking up to the emigrants and return emigrants for help in the state’s development programmes. How much could the return emigrants actually contribute? This study shows that while emigrants while abroad could play a significant role in this matter, the role that the return emigrants would be able to play is limited. There are about three-quarters of a million return emigrants in Kerala today. However, they are relatively old with an average age of 41.7 years. A few are even too old and/or too sick to work. Some feel that there is no need for them to work at all; with the money they have earned abroad, they would rather enjoy a leisurely life back at home. The majority of them have, however, neither the human nor the material resources to make a real contribution to Kerala’s development. They have relatively poor levels of general education and technical education. Nor do there exist much of entrepreneurial abilities and leadership qualities among them. Most of them have already spent their savings and are looking for assistance to keep up the relatively high levels of living they have been accustomed to, following migration. There is, however, one factor, an important factor in the Kerala context, in their favour: they constitute a much more disciplined and committed work force than the general breed of ‘conscientised’ workers of Kerala. If it is possible to instil entrepreneurial skills and leadership qualities among them and supply them with technical skills and required finance, they might possibly make a real contribution to the development of Kerala. This is however a tall order of demand: the Government could at best act only as a facilitator in this effort. The richer and the more endowed with human resources and entrepreneurial leadership qualities do not seem to have returned to Kerala in considerable numbers. They are still out there in the Gulf and other countries employed in tenured jobs or engaged in secure businmess activities. They are the ones to be roped in to work for the economic resurgence of Kerala. For that effort to succeed, however, an entirely new approach to NRIs is needed. This research report does not pertain to this aspect of the NRIs. While the Government wants assistance from the return emigrants in the state’s development, what the majority of the return emigrants expect the most from the Government is help for their own rehabilitation. In our view, in a large number of cases they do deserve help.When they had been abroad they had made significant contribution to the state’s development. Emigration has been the single-most factor in the otherwise dreary development scenario of Kerala in the last quarter of the last century. An emigrant who returned to Kerala in recent years had, on an average, earned a total of about Rs 750,000 during the 6 years and 3 months period, he was out there. The contribution of emigrants to reduction of unemployment and poverty levels and improving the housing conditions of Kerala is widely acclaimed. But almost all their foreign savings have been used up for subsistence, buying land, constructing houses, paying dowries, paying back debts, etc. What little was left with a few was invested in selfemployment projects which in practice yielded little in terms of income and the majority of which have met with natural death in the course of a few years. Return emigrants are now a disillusioned lot, hoping that the Government would bail them out. Among the return emigrants there exists a small proportion, about one-fifth, whose emigrations were misadventures and had resulted in their loss of wealth, wastage of energy and loss of health. This group finds its survival precarious. There is not much economic justification for any agency to dole out social welfare assistance except perhaps to this small proportion. In general, the Government may not find it justifiable to implement social welfare programmes for all return emigrants. The return emigrants have time and again proved that financial assistance given to them by way of loans for small-scale industries won’t cut much ice. Many of them want pension, but we find little justification for any special treatment for the return emigrants in preference to other deserving segments of the population. We make two suggestions for the rehabilitation of return emigrants, for those who have already come back and for those who would be returning in future: establishment of a welfare scheme and organisation of co-operatives for specific tasks (example, public works, tourism projects etc) in which the work discipline the return emigrants have acquired abroad could be of immense use. The seed money for both should come from the commercial banks of Kerala, the institutions which have received and continue to receive, massive inflows of funds by way of emigrants’ remittances. But the maintenance of the welfare schemes on a continuing basis should be the responsibility of the emigrants still abroad and that of the co-operatives of the returned emigrants themselves. JEL Classification : J10, J18, J22, J31 Key Words: Return migration, remittances, rehabilitation, Keral

Ruthenium oxide-carbon-based nanofiller-reinforced conducting polymer nanocomposites and their supercapacitor applications.

In this review article, we have presented for the first time the new applications of supercapacitor technologies and working principles of the family of RuO2-carbon-based nanofiller-reinforced conducting polymer nanocomposites. Our review focuses on pseudocapacitors and symmetric and asymmetric supercapacitors. Over the last years, the supercapacitors as a new technology in energy storage systems have attracted more and more attention. They have some unique characteristics such as fast charge/discharge capability, high energy and power densities, and long stability. However, the need for economic, compatible, and easy synthesis materials for supercapacitors have led to the development of RuO2-carbon-based nanofiller-reinforced conducting polymer nanocomposites with RuO2. Therefore, the aim of this manuscript was to review RuO2-carbon-based nanofiller-reinforced conducting polymer nanocomposites with RuO2 over the last 17 years

Global Retinoblastoma Presentation and Analysis by National Income Level.

Importance: Early diagnosis of retinoblastoma, the most common intraocular cancer, can save both a child's life and vision. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many children across the world are diagnosed late. To our knowledge, the clinical presentation of retinoblastoma has never been assessed on a global scale. Objectives: To report the retinoblastoma stage at diagnosis in patients across the world during a single year, to investigate associations between clinical variables and national income level, and to investigate risk factors for advanced disease at diagnosis. Design, Setting, and Participants: A total of 278 retinoblastoma treatment centers were recruited from June 2017 through December 2018 to participate in a cross-sectional analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed in 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: Age at presentation, proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, and tumor stage and metastasis. Results: The cohort included 4351 new patients from 153 countries; the median age at diagnosis was 30.5 (interquartile range, 18.3-45.9) months, and 1976 patients (45.4%) were female. Most patients (n = 3685 [84.7%]) were from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, the most common indication for referral was leukocoria (n = 2638 [62.8%]), followed by strabismus (n = 429 [10.2%]) and proptosis (n = 309 [7.4%]). Patients from high-income countries (HICs) were diagnosed at a median age of 14.1 months, with 656 of 666 (98.5%) patients having intraocular retinoblastoma and 2 (0.3%) having metastasis. Patients from low-income countries were diagnosed at a median age of 30.5 months, with 256 of 521 (49.1%) having extraocular retinoblastoma and 94 of 498 (18.9%) having metastasis. Lower national income level was associated with older presentation age, higher proportion of locally advanced disease and distant metastasis, and smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma. Advanced disease at diagnosis was more common in LMICs even after adjusting for age (odds ratio for low-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 17.92 [95% CI, 12.94-24.80], and for lower-middle-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 5.74 [95% CI, 4.30-7.68]). Conclusions and Relevance: This study is estimated to have included more than half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017. Children from LMICs, where the main global retinoblastoma burden lies, presented at an older age with more advanced disease and demonstrated a smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, likely because many do not reach a childbearing age. Given that retinoblastoma is curable, these data are concerning and mandate intervention at national and international levels. Further studies are needed to investigate factors, other than age at presentation, that may be associated with advanced disease in LMICs

The global retinoblastoma outcome study : a prospective, cluster-based analysis of 4064 patients from 149 countries

DATA SHARING : The study data will become available online once all analyses are complete.BACKGROUND : Retinoblastoma is the most common intraocular cancer worldwide. There is some evidence to suggest that major differences exist in treatment outcomes for children with retinoblastoma from different regions, but these differences have not been assessed on a global scale. We aimed to report 3-year outcomes for children with retinoblastoma globally and to investigate factors associated with survival. METHODS : We did a prospective cluster-based analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed between Jan 1, 2017, and Dec 31, 2017, then treated and followed up for 3 years. Patients were recruited from 260 specialised treatment centres worldwide. Data were obtained from participating centres on primary and additional treatments, duration of follow-up, metastasis, eye globe salvage, and survival outcome. We analysed time to death and time to enucleation with Cox regression models. FINDINGS : The cohort included 4064 children from 149 countries. The median age at diagnosis was 23·2 months (IQR 11·0–36·5). Extraocular tumour spread (cT4 of the cTNMH classification) at diagnosis was reported in five (0·8%) of 636 children from high-income countries, 55 (5·4%) of 1027 children from upper-middle-income countries, 342 (19·7%) of 1738 children from lower-middle-income countries, and 196 (42·9%) of 457 children from low-income countries. Enucleation surgery was available for all children and intravenous chemotherapy was available for 4014 (98·8%) of 4064 children. The 3-year survival rate was 99·5% (95% CI 98·8–100·0) for children from high-income countries, 91·2% (89·5–93·0) for children from upper-middle-income countries, 80·3% (78·3–82·3) for children from lower-middle-income countries, and 57·3% (52·1-63·0) for children from low-income countries. On analysis, independent factors for worse survival were residence in low-income countries compared to high-income countries (hazard ratio 16·67; 95% CI 4·76–50·00), cT4 advanced tumour compared to cT1 (8·98; 4·44–18·18), and older age at diagnosis in children up to 3 years (1·38 per year; 1·23–1·56). For children aged 3–7 years, the mortality risk decreased slightly (p=0·0104 for the change in slope). INTERPRETATION : This study, estimated to include approximately half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017, shows profound inequity in survival of children depending on the national income level of their country of residence. In high-income countries, death from retinoblastoma is rare, whereas in low-income countries estimated 3-year survival is just over 50%. Although essential treatments are available in nearly all countries, early diagnosis and treatment in low-income countries are key to improving survival outcomes.The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and the Wellcome Trust.https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/homeam2023Paediatrics and Child Healt

Lidar investigations on the optical and dynamical properties of cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere regions at a tropical station, Gadanki, India (13.5 degrees N, 79.2 degrees E)

High altitude cirrus clouds are composed mainly of ice crystals with a variety of sizes and shapes. They have a large influence on Earth's energy balance and global climate. Recent studies indicate that the formation, dissipation, life time, optical, and micro-physical properties are influenced by the dynamical conditions of the surrounding atmosphere like background aerosol, turbulence, etc. In this work, an attempt has been made to quantify some of these characteristics by using lidar and mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar. Mie lidar and 53 MHz MST radar measurements made over 41 nights during the period 2009 to 2010 from the tropical station, Gadanki, India (13.5 degrees N, 79.2 degrees E). The optical and microphysical properties along with the structure and dynamics of the cirrus are presented as observed under different atmospheric conditions. The study reveals the manifestation of different forms of cirrus with a preferred altitude of formation in the 13 to 14 km altitude. There are considerable differences in the properties obtained among 2009 and 2010 showing significant anomalous behavior in 2010. The clouds observed during 2010 show relatively high asymmetry and large multiple scattering effects. The anomalies found during 2010 may be attributed to the turbulence noticed in the surrounding atmosphere. The results show a clear correlation between the crystal morphology in the clouds and the dynamical conditions of the prevailing atmosphere during the observational period. (c) 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE

Land-use survey of Idukki District

The growing population pressure and limited availability of land necessitates proper utilization of the available land through scientific land-use planning. Realizing this fact, a project using multiband aerial photography was taken up with following objectives: identification and mapping of areas under various land uses, study of geomorphology, identification of potential groundwater areas and identification of areas requiring soil conservation and reclamation measures. The major land-use classes mapped are agriculture, forest, wasteland, water bodies and public use. These are further subclassified. Some of the important observations are the reduction in the area under forest and the existence of a large area under wasteland. Geomorphological maps prepared depict slope, relief, drainage and vegetation. With the help of structural and geomorphological maps, the technique of identifying potential groundwater areas has been demonstrated. The land-use maps have a classification accuracy of 86 per cent whereas the accuracy of slopes in geomorphological maps is 72 per cent. The locational accuracy of the land features is 50-150 m on the ground. Visual interpretation of LANDSAT images led to the identification of nine land-cover classes while digital analysis enabled identification of twelve land-cover classes. Significant changes in land cover over a decade (1973-1982) have been noticed. This information has been used for preparation of a detailed land-use plan for the Idukki District