How home country weaknesses can constrain EMNE growth: the example of India

This paper discusses the opportunities and limitations that the location-specific (L) assets of the home country represent for MNEs, particularly at the early stages of internationalization. The systemic weaknesses of the home country can constrain the long-term competitiveness of its firms, and ultimately, the competitiveness of its MNEs. It is the contention of this paper that many of the emerging countries have a constrained set of L assets from which their firms are able to develop ownership-specific assets. Are their economies developing improved L assets that will promote a new generation of EMNEs? We examine data for the case of India, an economy regarded as having considerable potential to expand to knowledge-intensive sectors. At the macro level, India’s performance is not different from countries of similar economic structure, and its current pockets of excellence are a reflection of its L assets. Our analysis suggests that the failure to foster and upgrade the L assets of emerging economies is likely to stunt the growth of their domestic firms, and ultimately any new MNE activity in the long-term

Inside English/Language Arts Standards: What's in a Grade?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88058/1/RRQ.36.2.5.pd

Sentencing drug offenders under the 2003 Criminal Justice Act: Challenges for the probation service

For the most part the 2003 Criminal Justice Act, which came into effect in England and Wales in April 2005, was accepted by the probation service with relatively little opposition. Given the enormity of its impact acquiescence to this degree of change ought to come as something of a surprise. The 2003 Act changed fundamentally the nature of community supervision, it brought to an end the traditional range of non-custodial penalties and replaced them with a single community order to which sentencers could add any of 12 possible requirements. This paper considers the impact of the 2003 legislation on one particular offender group - drug misusers. Drug misusing offenders have the potential to pose serious difficulties for probation officers; the habitual nature of drug addiction and a tendency toward an irregular lifestyle make drug misusers particularly susceptible to breach. Under the new legislation courts have significantly fewer options available to them when responding to incidents of offender non-compliance. This paper argues that many of the provisions of the 2003 Act together with developments elsewhere in the UK are likely to have impacted disproportionately on those groups whose lifestyles are chaotic and whose routines are incompatible with the terms and conditions of modern day probation practice. It concludes that greater flexibility towards non-compliance, supported by regular and consistent judicial review, would encourage improved rates of compliance and retention in treatment and improved outcomes for offenders

Policy mixes for incumbency: the destructive recreation of renewable energy, shale gas 'fracking,' and nuclear power in the United Kingdom

The notion of a ‘policy mix’ can describe interactions across a wide range of innovation policies, including ‘motors for creation’ as well as for ‘destruction’. This paper focuses on the United Kingdom’s (UK) ‘new policy direction’ that has weakened support for renewables and energy efficiency schemes while strengthening promotion of nuclear power and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (‘fracking’). The paper argues that a ‘policy apparatus for incumbency’ is emerging which strengthens key regimebased technologies while arguably damaging emerging niche innovations. Basing the discussion around the three technology-based cases of renewable energy and efficiency, fracking, and nuclear power, this paper refers to this process as “destructive recreation”. Our study raises questions over the extent to which policymaking in the energy field is not so much driven by stated aims around sustainability transitions, as by other policy drivers. It investigates different ‘strategies of incumbency’ including ‘securitization’, ‘masking’, ‘reinvention’, and ‘capture.’ It suggests that analytical frameworks should extend beyond the particular sectors in focus, with notions of what counts as a relevant ‘policy maker’ correspondingly also expanded, in order to explore a wider range of nodes and critical junctures as entry points for understanding how relations of incumbency are forged and reproduced

Report to the Nation 2006

Foreword As the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) presents its fi rst annual report to the nation, we feel a sense of excitement at the potential that India has to emerge as one of the leading knowledge societies in the world. The Commission was set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prepare a blueprint to tap into the enormous reservoir of our knowledge base so that our people can confidently face challenges of the 21st century. We are conscious that this is a daunting task, which requires not only resources and time but also a vision and a long term view. At the same time, we are happy that we have taken this fi rst important step. At the heart of the NKC’s mandate are fi ve key areas related to Access, Concepts, Creation, Application and Services. We have addressed the question of how to build a knowledge society from these perspectives with a particular focus on access to knowledge. Of the nine sets of recommendations made by the NKC in 2006, six deal directly with access. We have done so consciously in conformity with the UPA government’s philosophy of building an inclusive society. The emerging knowledge society and associated opportunities present a set of new imperatives and new challenges for our economy, polity and society. Our future prosperity depends upon the policies, programmes and people that can foster continuous generation and application of knowledge in the pursuit of learning. We have addressed a wide range of subjects including a comprehensive reform of higher education, overhaul of public libraries, creation of a Knowledge Network, setting up of national portals, transformation of vocational education, re-engineering of government processes and making E-governance citizen-friendly. The impact of what we have proposed would be felt over the next decade and beyond. We have taken particular care to keep the entire process democratic, transparent and participative. In doing so, we have consulted a wide range of stakeholders in government, parliament, politics, academia, industry, civil society and the media. Our recommendations refl ect and incorporate the concerns and aspirations of experts and persons from the concerned spheres. The Commission members have worked painstakingly on every aspect of our recommendations. I want to thank all members for the exceptional dedication they have brought to their mandate even though they all know that the impact of their work will be felt only in the long-term. We have had our agreements and disagreements on many issues on the table but their expression has always been in the highest traditions of democracy. I would also like to thank the members of various working groups and the secretariat for their contribution and support. I would like to particularly acknowledge the support and guidance of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Planning Commission. We hope that the work we have done during our fi rst year will be of value to the government and will fi nd the enthusiasm and support of the administration in its implementation. We also hope that our recommendations will receive the attention they deserve and create necessary public discussion, debate and dialogue to shape and mobilize public opinion. We say this with a focus on the 550 million people below the age of 25 who will benefi t the most from the new knowledge initiatives. The destiny of India is in their hands. While making the recommendations we have been guided by how knowledge will impact the lives of people, ordinary people, of India. We are conscious that knowledge is about farmers having access to accurate information about water resources, land quality and fertilizers, students having access to schools and colleges of high quality relevant education and good jobs, scientists having access to well equipped modern libraries and laboratories, industry having access to a skilled workforce and people feeling empowered with good governance in a vibrant democracy. The recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission are really a call to action. It is time to act here and now

Modelling of collective movement in immersive environments

Immersive technologies allow us to map physical reality by means of 4D virtual systems in ever higher spatial and temporal detail, up to a scale level of 1 : 1. This level of detail enables the representation of phenomena that have been widely ignored by the geovisualization research agenda as yet. An example for such a large scale phenomenon is the collective movement of animals, which can be modelled and visualized only at a fine grained spatio-temporal resolution. This paper focuses on how collective movement can be modelled in an immersive virtual reality (VR) geovisualization. In a brief introduction on immersion and spatial presence we will argue, that high fidelity and realistic VR can strengthen the users’ involvement with the issues visualized. We will then discuss basic characteristics of swarming in nature and review the principal models that have been presented to formalize this collective behavior. Based on the rules of (1) collision avoidance, (2) polarization, (3) aggregation and (4) self-organized criticality we will formulate a viable solution of modelling collective movement within a geovisualization immersive virtual environment. An example of use and results will be presented.© Authors 201