India-Korea Trade and Investment Relations

Though economic relations between India and Korea have been strengthening, the current size of trade and investment between the two countries is relatively low compared to the size and structural complementarities of the two economies. In this context, the present paper analyses trade and investment relations and explores future areas of potential co-operation between India and Korea. We find that the increase in merchandise trade between the two countries has been mainly because of the changing demand structure and comparative advantages of both the economies in complementary sectors in recent years. The Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) analysis, at both the aggregated and disaggregated levels, shows that while Korea has been specialising in a few, high value-added manufacturing products, Indias exports have been more diversified. The analysis also indicates that both the countries have comparative advantages in different products in the same industry, revealing the opportunity for intra-industry trade (IIT). Moreover, the increasing trade complementarity index (TCI) shows that Indian and Korean trade gradually has become more compatible over time, indicating that any agreement between the two countries is likely to enhance trade flows. The trade intensities between the two countries reveal that Korea is doing much better and there is scope for India to improve its export intensity with Korea. The study also suggests the areas where there is huge scope for increased investment and technological collaboration between the two countries. Further, there is huge potential for trade in services in areas such as information technology, science and technology, pharmaceutical industry, broadcasting, tourism, healthcare and human resource development. Removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers, especially sector specific barriers, will give a major boost to bilateral trade and investment relations.India, Korea, trade, Investment and Barriers

India-Korea Trade and Investment Relations

Though economic relations between India and Korea have been strengthening, the current size of trade and investment between the two countries is relatively low compared to the size and structural complementarities of the two economies. In this context, the present paper analyses trade and investment relations and explores future areas of potential co-operation between India and Korea. We find that the increase in merchandise trade between the two countries has been mainly because of the changing demand structure and comparative advantages of both the economies in complementary sectors in recent years. The Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) analysis, at both the aggregated and disaggregated levels, shows that while Korea has been specialising in a few, high value-added manufacturing products, India's exports have been more diversified. The analysis also indicates that both the countries have comparative advantages in different products in the same industry, revealing the opportunity for intra-industry trade (IIT). Moreover, the increasing trade complementarity index (TCI) shows that Indian and Korean trade gradually has become more compatible over time, indicating that any agreement between the two countries is likely to enhance trade flows. The trade intensities between the two countries reveal that Korea is doing much better and there is scope for India to improve its export intensity with Korea. The study also suggests the areas where there is huge scope for increased investment and technological collaboration between the two countries. Further, there is huge potential for trade in services in areas such as information technology, science and technology, pharmaceutical industry, broadcasting, tourism, healthcare and human resource development. Removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers, especially sector specific barriers, will give a major boost to bilateral trade and investment relations.India, Korea, Trade, Investment and Barriers

Prevalence of thrombocytopenia and its relation with WHO clinical and immunological staging among human immunodeficiency virus-infected children

Objective: The aim was to study the thrombocytopenia in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected children and its relationwith WHO clinical and immunological HIV/AIDS staging. Study Design: Observational analytic cross-sectional study. Materialsand Methods: 47 ambulatory and clinically stable HIV-infected children (confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay forHIV-1 and HIV-2) aged 18 months-18 years attending the out-patient Department of anti-retroviral therapy center at tertiary caresetting, were included in this study. Detailed history was taken, and thorough clinical examination was done in all cases. Blood samplefor complete blood count and CD4 count was taken. Primary Outcome: Thrombocytopenia in HIV-infected children. SecondaryOutcome: WHO clinical and immunological HIV/AIDS staging in HIV-infected children and its relation to thrombocytopenia.Results: Of 47 studied children, thrombocytopenia was found in 14 (29.78%) cases. Patients with thrombocytopenia were found inall stages of the disease; however, it was strongly associated with increasing immunological stages (correlation coefficient, r = 0.948).Conclusion: Thrombocytopenia commonly occurs in children with HIV and its occurrence increases with an increase in WHO clinicaland immunological HIV/AIDS staging

Ductility reduction factors for masonry-Infilled reinforced concrete frames

Masonry infilled RC frames are popular structural systems; however, there is lot of uncertainty in their response under seismic loads. Using the data from past experimental studies, a simple force-deformation model with three control points was developed. Effect of the model parameters was examined on ductility reduction factors (DRFs) and ductility demands (DDs). Statistical tests indicated that the ratio of the residual strength to the peak strength was the most significant parameter. The traditional approach of determining DRF ordinates through iteration for an assumed value of ductility may result in inappropriate values of DRF due to non-monotonic relationship between DRF and DD. Constant ductility charts were developed appropriately accounting for the non-monotonicity. It was found that the allowable DRF may be much higher if relatively weaker infill compared to the frame is used, which underscores the need for modification in codal provisions as they allow relatively stronger infill.by Manish Kumar, Durgesh C. Rai and Sudhir Kumar Jai

NICEE's Role in Promoting Confined Masonry as an Appropriate Technology for Building Construction in India

The earthquake problem needs to be attacked from different directions and one important means to achieve seismic safety is to propagate building typologies that are inherently better against earthquakes. The confined masonry is one such building typology that has been shown to perform satisfactorily in resisting earthquake loads despite being low in intricacies of modern technology and being more close to traditional construction practices. National Information Center on Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at IIT Kanpur in India has taken several initiatives in the recent past to promote confined masonry as an appropriate technology for building construction in India. These initiatives included organizing a group of professional interested in developing various aspects of confined masonry to make it more effective technology, and train artisans. NICEE published two very useful documents on confined masonry: the monograph for building professionals and the guidebook for technicians and artisans.by D. C. Rai and Sudhir Kumar Jai

India-Korea Trade and Investment Relations

The present paper analyses trade and investment relations and explores future areas of potential co-operation between India and Korea. The study also suggests the areas where there is huge scope for increased investment and technological collaboration between the two countries. [ICRIER WP No. 242]investment, India, Korea, countries, technological, science, technology, revealed comparative advantage, RCA, intra industry trade, IIT, products, industry

Evaluation of properties of reinforcing bars for seismic design

Capacity design procedure for the earthquake-resistant reinforced concrete (RC) structures is effective when actual member capacities do not greatly exceed the assumed design capacities. Moreover, RC members are expected to undergo large inelastic deformations for adequate seismic energy dissipation. Since flexural capacity and post-yield behavior of an RC member is largely controlled by steel reinforcing bars, it places certain special requirements on their properties, such as, yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength to yield strength ratio (UTS/YS ratio) and elongation, which are sensitive to the method of rebar manufacturing. Flexural tests on thirty RC beams which used rebars of carefully controlled properties was conducted and it was observed that for dependable flexure behaviour, YS and UTS values should lie in a narrow band around values used in the member design. If these values are greater than the specified value, it may cause brittle shear failure instead of more ductile and desirable flexure mode of failure. Moreover, a high UTS/YS ratio equal to 1.25 is necessary to have dependable peak strength which is larger than the yield strength.by D.C. Rai, Sudhir Kumar. Jain and I. Chakrabart

Use of confined masonry for improved seismic safety of buildings in India

by Sudhir K. Jain et.a

Construction and load rating of a large capacity reaction floor-wall assembly for lateral load testing at IIT Kanpur

The earthquake simulation on full-scale civil engineering structures under quasi-static lateral loading environment provides an affordable and practical means to understand the nonlinear behavior of structures and their seismic energy dissipation potential. The required experimental facility consists of a large capacity strong floor and wall reaction assembly along with servocontrolled electro-hydraulic actuators for the load application. One such testing facility is nearing completion at IIT Kanpur, which has 15 m×10 m L-shaped and 10.5 m high reaction wall and 1.2 m thick top slab of the box girder for the strong floor. The anchor points are located in the wall and floor in a square grid of 0.6 m with each point has load capacity of 1.7 MN in tension and 1.0 MN in shear. The 2 m thick post-tensioned wall using Freyssinet 12K15 cable system in a novel configuration can resist an overturning moment of 12.7 MNm per meter of the wall. The capacity of the reaction assembly depends upon number of loads applied, combination of loads, and interaction between different components of the reaction assembly structure. A methodology based on “influence coefficients” was developed to estimate the worst load combination for describing the load rating of the reaction structure. Finite element analyses in Abaqus environment was conducted to compute the influence coefficients matrix whose elements can be added linearly to find out the maximum loading effect on the structure which can be used to determine the limiting load for a particular case of load application.by Sudhir K Jain et. a