Informal Sector and Corruption: An Empirical Investigation for India

India is a country characterized by a huge informal sector. At the same time, it is a country where the extent of corruption in every sector is remarkably high. Stifling bureaucratic interference and corruption at every stage of economic activities is one of the main reasons behind high participation in informal and unregulated sectors. For economies characterized by high inequality and poverty, a useful tool for the government to pacify social unrest, is to choose a lower level of governance allowing substantial corruption in the system. Based on a study of 20 Indian states, we empirically show that higher corruption increases level of employment in the informal sector. Further, our analysis also shows that for higher levels of lagged state domestic product, the positive impact of corruption on the size of the informal sector is nullified.informal sector, corruption, state domestic product, governance, India

Integrated CoPtP permanent magnets for MEMS electromagnetic energy harvesting applications

This work reports the development of integrated Co rich CoPtP hard magnetic material for MEMS applications such as Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvesting. We report a new method of electrodeposition compared to the conventional DC plating, involving a combination of forward and reverse pulses for optimized deposition of Co rich CoPtP hard magnetic material. This results in significant improvements in the microstructure of the developed films as the pulse reverse plated films are smooth, stress free and uniform. Such improvements in the structural properties are reflected in the hard magnetic properties of the material as well. The intrinsic coercivities of the pulse reverse deposited film are more than 6 times higher for both in-plane and out-of-plane measurement directions and the squareness of the hysteresis loops also improve due to the similar reasons

Development of nanostructured, stress-free Co-rich CoPtP films for magnetic microelectromechanical system applications

Co-rich CoPtP alloys have been electrodeposited using direct current (dc) and pulse-reverse (PR) plating techniques. The surface morphology, crystalline structure, grain size, and magnetic properties of the plated films have been compared. The x-ray analysis and magnetic measurements reveal the presence of Co hcp hard magnetic phase with c axis perpendicular to the substrate for dc and in plane for PR plated films. The dc plated films have a granular structure in the micron scale with large cracks, which are manifestation of stress in the film. Only by using a combination of optimized PR plating conditions and stress relieving additive, we are able to produce 1-6 mu m thick (for 1 hour of plating), stress-free, and nanostructured (similar to 20 nm) Co-rich CoPtP single hcp phase at room temperature, with an intrinsic coercivity of 1500 Oe

A 3D printed electromagnetic nonlinear vibration energy harvester

A 3D printed electromagnetic vibration energy harvester is presented. The motion of the device is in-plane with the excitation vibrations, and this is enabled through the exploitation of a leaf isosceles trapezoidal flexural pivot topology. This topology is ideally suited for systems requiring restricted out-of-plane motion and benefits from being fabricated monolithically. This is achieved by 3D printing the topology with materials having a low flexural modulus. The presented system has a nonlinear softening spring response, as a result of designed magnetic force interactions. A discussion of fatigue performance is presented and it is suggested that whilst fabricating, the raster of the suspension element is printed perpendicular to the flexural direction and that the experienced stress is as low as possible during operation, to ensure longevity. A demonstrated power of ~25 μW at 0.1 g is achieved and 2.9 mW is demonstrated at 1 g. The corresponding bandwidths reach up-to 4.5 Hz. The system's corresponding power density of ~0.48 mW cm−3 and normalised power integral density of 11.9 kg m−3 (at 1 g) are comparable to other in-plane systems found in the literature

Silver electrodeposits in ion-exchanged oxide glasses

Silver electrodeposits have been grown within a wide range of oxide glass sytems. The latter are first of all subjected to an alkali-metal–silver-ion exchange reaction. The experimental configuration ensures two-dimensional growth. The fractal dimension of the electrodeposits has been estimated for each sample. Glasses having lithium ions (in the original composition) show a fractal dimension around 1.85 whereas those containing sodium ions give a fractal dimension of 1.68 for their respective silver deposits. Dendritic growth has been observed in glasses containing nanometer-sized metal particles of either bismuth or aluminum. The fractal dimension of all the electrodeposits appears to increase as the length scale is reduced

Electrodeposited CoNiFeP soft-magnetic films for high-frequency applications

peer-reviewedWe have studied the influence of P and of plating current density on static/dynamic magnetic and electrical properties of CoNiFe high moment alloy. We found that morphology, electrical and magnetic properties of films with P content up to 10 at. % are quite different from those of pure CoNiFe. CoNiFeP morphology consists of a structure made of isolated islands with sizes varying between 10 and 50 μm. We indirectly obtained resistivity in this structure by using high-frequency magnetic measurements. Film composition is weakly dependent on plating current density for values larger than 10 mA cm-2. Coercivities increase up to 6400 A m-1 and magnetization saturation is reduced to 1.0 T in CoNiFeP films. The most remarkable effect of P addition to CoNiFe is the increase of resistivity over two order of magnitude with values of 5.2 x10[power]-5Ωm compared to 2.4 x10[power]-7Ωm of pure CoNiFe.We also found that the ferromagnetic resonance of CoNiFeP alloy is 3 GHz for sample with 10 at. % P and a performance factor (BF) of ~4x10[power]5 Ts-1, which is a better performance than bulk ferrite

Thermal diffusivity of nonfractal and fractal nickel nanowires

The potential of using nanometallic wires inside a matrix as new generation of thermal interface material led us to study the thermal diffusivity of nickel nanowires embedded inside porous alumina template. Thermal diffusivity measurements using a laser flash method showed size dependence for nickel nanowires inside nanochannel alumina (NCA) templates having nominal pore diameters of 200, 100, and 20 nm. Nickel nanowires embedded inside these templates showed decreasing diffusivity values of 10.7x10(-6), 8.5x10(-6), and 6.5x10(-6) m(2) s(-1) at 300 K with decreasing wire diameter when deposited at 40 degrees C. Nanowires fabricated at 60 degrees C showed similar decreasing diffusivity with wire diameter, and a further 42%-48% reduction was observed when compared to 40 degrees C samples. The modified effective medium theory (MEMT) was employed to evaluate the experimental thermal diffusivity. Calculations based on MEMT resulted in mean thermal conductivities of 70.7 and 36.2 W m(-1) K(-1) for nickel nanowires fabricated at 40 and 60 degrees C respectively. These values are similar to 20% and 60% lower than the thermal conductivity value of bulk nickel. A strong grain size dependence of thermal diffusivity in the nanowires was observed. It is believed that the decrease in diffusivity in lower temperature wires is associated with defects/dislocations in large single crystals and reduction in wire diameters according to pore diameters of NCA. Whereas in higher temperature wires, the drastic reduction in diffusivity is believed to arise from self-similar fractal morphology composed of nanogranules, close to the dimension of electron mean free path