Implications of Geographical Indication on Indian Specialty Coffee – A Case Study on ‘Monsooned Malabar Arabica Coffee’

Geographical Indication registrations are initiated keeping in mind various benefits out of it such as product differentiation, branding, price premium, increase in exports etc. There are more than 400 registered GIs in India among which 7 are specialty coffee varieties. The process of identification of unique specialty varieties of coffee and getting it registered with the Geographical Indication registry, Chennai is initiated by the Coffee Board of India. The present study aims at assessing the economic impact of first GI tagged coffee variety, ‘Monsooned Malabar Arabica Coffee’ by evaluating the exports. The study also analyses whether the GI tag was instrumental in increasing the income of the producers, the analysis is done by assessing the variation in price per metric ton of coffee being exported. The researchers also evaluates whether the GI registration has brought about temporal evolution to the coffee variant. The causal impact test results shows that this coffee variety with GI tag was able to increase its exports and earn a premium price after the GI tag registration. The results of temporal factor, that is increase in number of labourers in the plantation after the GI registration, even though it reveals a positive increase it is not attributable to the receipt of GI tag. The researchers conclude that the GI registration has brought about positive impact in the case of ‘Monsooned Malabar Arabica Coffee’

Implications of GI on Indian Specialty Coffee – A Case Study on ‘Monsooned Malabar Arabica Coffee’

333-338Geographical Indication registrations are initiated keeping in mind various benefits out of it such as product differentiation, branding, price premium, increase in exports etc. There are more than 400 registered GIs in India among which 7 are specialty coffee varieties. The process of identification of unique specialty varieties of coffee and getting it registered with the Geographical Indication registry, Chennai is initiated by the Coffee Board of India. The present study aims at assessing the economic impact of first GI tagged coffee variety, ‘Monsooned Malabar Arabica Coffee’ by evaluating the exports. The study also analyses whether the GI tag was instrumental in increasing the income of the producers, the analysis is done by assessing the variation in price per metric ton of coffee being exported. The researchers also evaluates whether the GI registration has brought about temporal evolution to the coffee variant. The causal impact test results shows that this coffee variety with GI tag was able to increase its exports and earn a premium price after the GI tag registration. The results of temporal factor, that is increase in number of labourers in the plantation after the GI registration, even though it reveals a positive increase it is not attributable to the receipt of GI tag. The researchers conclude that the GI registration has brought about positive impact in the case of ‘Monsooned Malabar Arabica Coffee’

PREPONDERANCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG WOMEN WITH INFERTILTY

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>INTRODUCTION: Infertility is a major health concern nowadays in women. Due to lifestyle changes and hormonal factors it has been increased. There are various medical technologies which has increased the chance of fertility. But the psychological influences of infertility and its treatment are of huge impact on the fertility outcome.AIM: To explore the stress and coping among infertility women. METHODOLOGY: This was a descriptive cross sectional design method involving 85 samples of infertility women attending infertility clinic at government hospital Dindigul were selected using a convenient sampling technique. Fertility problem inventory scale and coping scale were used to collect data from the patients. RESULTS: Based on the stress score 85% of the participants reported having a moderate level of stress score, 20% had severe level of stress score whereas no one had mild stress. Domain wise score in fertility problem inventory majority of the participants (74.97%) had need for parenthood. The coping score among the participants based on the level of coping was 94% of them sometimes used coping and only 6% of the participants often deployed coping strategies. Regarding the domains scores in coping scale about 84.20% had Hope, and 87.73% were having Spousal relations. There is a not significant, positive, poor correlation between Stress score and Coping score which means coping decreases their stress scores also decreases poorly( r= 0.12 P=0.52) .CONCLUSION: Psychological concerns during infertility treatment are huge which should be minimised for a better fertility outcome. Long-term infertile people were able to survive by staying away from challenging settings and accepting the issues as they were. Various stress reduction measures enhances the individuals coping ability. Hence which in turn improve their quality of life and the fertility outcomes of women.</p&gt

Endophytes and Plant Secondary Metabolite Synthesis: Molecular and Evolutionary Perspective

The distribution of endophytes (fungal and bacterial) is ubiquitous and almost without exception; the endophytes have been reported from all tissues, including leaves, stems, roots, flowers and fruits. As typical symptomless organisms, in contrast to their pathogenic counterparts, they pose a serious challenge in explaining their continued maintenance in plants. How do plants tolerate them? And how do the endophytes contain the plant defences? But a more intriguing and enigmatic issue with many endophytes is the fact that they mimic the production of specific plant associated secondary metabolites (e.g. taxol, camptothecin and rohitukine) in culture, independent of the host tissue. Several theories including the possibility of horizontal gene transfer from the respective hosts have been proposed, but none has so far been supported. In this paper, we critically review studies on endophytes producing plant secondary metabolites and explore the possible molecular mechanisms. By analysing the pathway genes for a few major metabolites, including taxol and camptothecin, we show that a far more intricate molecular mechanism might be involved in the production of the secondary metabolites by the endophytes. We show that these molecular mechanisms could have arisen through the evolutionary interactions of the endophytes with their respective host plants. We discuss these findings in the context of the current interest in harnessing endophytes as alternative sources of plant secondary metabolites