Cost Benefit Analysis of Participatory Natural Resource Management: A study of watershed development initiative in Indian village

Following the Hanumanth Rao committee report Government of India initiated Watershed Development Programmes (WDPs) to improve and sustain productivity of the semiarid regions of the country at higher level. The aim of such initiatives are also to fulfill the needs of rural communities for food, fuel, fodder, and timber as majority of rural people are depending on the natural resource for their livelihood. WDPs are being given importance in the development plans for India and by donor agencies as they promote sustainable use of natural resources and improve the rural economy of India. This paper presents a social cost-benefit appraisal of a watershed development project in Rajasthan, India. The analysis has been done by the primary data collected from the Bichhiwada village and using Net Present Value (NPV), Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) and sensitivity analyses. The results show that if expected full benefits are realized, the benefits derived from the watershed project are quite high. The findings of this study suggest that watershed development projects initiated to improve the economy and ecology of India's dry and semiarid regions are economically viable and socially desirable.Watershed Development, Net Present Value, Cost Benefit Analysis, Sensitivity Analysis

Determinants of Energy Intensity: A Preliminary Investigation of Indian Manufacturing

The demand for energy, particularly for commercial energy, has been growing rapidly with the growth of the economy, changes in the demographic structure, rising urbanization, socio-economic development. In this context the energy intensity is one of the key factors which impact the projections of future energy demand. The Indian manufacturing sector is among the largest consumer of commercial energy compared to the other industries in India. Energy consumption per unit of production in the manufacturing of steel, aluminum, cement, paper, textile, etc. is much higher in India, in comparison to other developing countries. The purpose of this study is to understand the factors that influence industrial energy intensity in Indian manufacturing. The analysis undertaken in this paper find a positive relationship between energy intensity and firm size and an inverted U’ shaped relationship between energy intensity and size of the firm. The analysis shows that the foreign owned firms are less energy intensive compared to the domestic firms. Capital intensive firms as well as firms spending more on repair and maintenance are found to be more energy intensive. Further the results shows that expenditure on the research and development contribute to reduce firm level energy intensity and there is a sizable difference between highly energy intensive firm and less energy intensive firms.Energy Intensity, Commercial Energy Consumption, Indian Manufacturing Industries

Health, income inequality and climate related disasters at household level: reflections from an Orissa District

Rural households tend to rely heavily on climate-sensitive resources. Climate Change can reduce the availability of these local natural resources, limiting the options for rural households that depend on natural resources for consumption or economic activities. During and after the climate related disasters the health condition of the rural households get adversely affected and hence, reduce the ability to employ themselves in economic activities and income of the households get adversely affected. In this connection, this paper is an attempt to analyze the adverse health effect due to climate related disasters; mostly due to flood. To understand this phenomenon, this work utilizes primary data collected at the household level from select villages of Kendrapada district in Orissa state in India. The sample consists of 150 rural households. We try to link income and health inequality of the sample households and analyze whether climate related disaster and climate shocks have any impact on their health behavior. We have further attempted to check the difference or similarity in health losses based on each coping strategies of the sample households. Using an econometric approach this study further finds the determinants of health impact of the households due to climate related disasters.Climate change, Health, Energy Consumption, Income inequality, Orissa

Energy Consumption Response to Climate Change under Globalization: Options for India

The problem of mitigating climate change has continued to dominate public debates in terms of its origin, sources, potential impacts and possibly adaptation strategies. In this paper, the contributions of energy to the climate change debate are explored. The analysis based on the secondary information shows that the global use of fossil fuels has increased and dominated world energy consumption and supply. This case is quite similar to Indian case and the emissions in Indian are also increasing. To account for the change in CO2 emission, we have followed index decomposition analysis using data from the PROWESS database of the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy. Two factors are considered to account for the changes in emission intensity of Indian economy, namely, (1) output shift among three sectors of the India economy (Agriculture, Service and Manufacturing) and (2) the structural change based on the aggregate output change with respect to the emissions change for the post globalised period. Based on the estimates we found that the structural change in Indian economy from 1991-2007 plays a major role in reducing emission as compared to the output shifts across the sectors. Based on the findings and international experiences, few policy options for Indian case such as; energy pricing reforms, promoting investment in renewable energy technologies and creating public environmental awareness are suggested.Emission; Energy Consumption; Climate Change; Post-Globalization; Policy Instruments

Secure and Proficient Cross Layer (SPCL) QoS Framework for Mobile Ad-hoc

A cross layer QoS framework is a complete system that provides required QoS services to each node present in the network. All components within it cooperate together for providing the required services. In existing QoS frameworks there is no security mechanism provided while Security is a critical aspect for QoS in the MANET environment. Cross layer QoS framework  tend to be vulnerable to a number of threats and attacks like, over/under-reporting of available bandwidth, over-reservation, state table starvation, QoS degradation,  information disclosure, theft of services timing attack, flooding attack, replay attack, and denial of service (DoS) attack,  attacks on information in transit and attacks against routing. So it is necessary when designing protocols for QoS framework, the harmony between security and QoS must be present as one impacts the others. In this work we proposed secure and proficient cross layer (SPCL) QoS frameworks which prevents from various types of threats and attacks.  The proposed SPCL QoS framework achieves better performance compared to existing QoS frameworks  in metrics of throughput, packet drop ratio, end-to-end delay, and average jitter in both condition when malicious node present in the network and when malicious node not present in the networ

Prediction of Sub-cellular Localization of Scramblase Protein Family

In the present work, we discuss an anaysis about the localization of different members of scramblase protein family. Different scramblase sequences were picked up from organisms of all eukaryotic phyla and their localization were predicted using the P-SORT programme. Our analysis showed that the scramblase protein family shows multiple subcellular localization. Most proteins were found to be localized to the cytoplasm, where as others were found to be present in the nucleus or mitochondria. Interestingly, we found that in yeast, all putative scramblases were localized in the nucleus with a reliability of more than 95%. Our analysis shows that scramblases are a family of protein having diversed cellular localization and hence hypothesized to be performing multiple cellular functions in various organism

An unusual giant isolated mucosal malignant melanoma of nasal cavity – A case report

AbstractThe mucosal malignant melanoma arises from the melanocytes present in the mucosal membrane. It carries a poor prognosis due to local recurrence, neck node involvement and distant metastasis, making it difficult to identify the possible treatment. The key and critical issue for the management of the malignant melanoma of the nasal cavity is early diagnosis in order to start primary modality of treatment like surgical excision and radiotherapy with adequate follow up. We report a case of malignant melanoma of the nasal cavity in a 65years old male with presentation of recurrent epistaxis and nasal obstruction. Rarity of this isolated lesion confined to nasal cavity with a giant size warrants its attention for reporting this case

Development of decision support systems towards supply chain performance appraisement

Purpose: The aim of this research is to develop various Decision Support Systems (DSS) towards supply chain (SC) performance appraisement as well as benchmarking. The purpose of this work is to understand multi-level (measures and metrics) performance appraisement index system to evaluate overall supply chain performance extent, monitor ongoing performance level and to identify ill-performing areas of the supply chain network. Design/methodology/approach: Fuzzy logic as well as grey theory has been explored in developing a variety of SC performance appraisement modules (evaluation index systems). Generalized fuzzy numbers, generalized intervalvalued fuzzy numbers theory have been utilized in order to tackle decision-makers’ linguistic evaluation information towards meaningful and logical interpretation of procedural hierarchy embedded to the said appraisement modules. Fuzzy-grey relation theory, MULTIMOORA method coupled with fuzzy logic as well as grey theory have also been adapted to facilitate overall SC performance assessment, performance benchmarking and related decision making. Findings: Supply chain performance index has been computed in terms of fuzzy as well as grey context, suggesting the present performance status of the said organizational supply chain. Ill-performing areas of the SC have been identified too. Fuzzy as well as grey based MULTIMOORA (MOORA: Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis), fuzzy-grey relation analysis, thus adapted, appeared helpful in evaluating performance ranking order (and selecting the best) of various candidate alternatives (industries/enterprises) operating under similar supply chain architecture according to the ongoing SC performance. Empirical illustrations exhibited the fruitful application potential of the developed decision support tools. Practical implications: The decision support tools thus proposed may be proved fruitful for companies that are trying to identify key business performance measures for their supply chains. Ill-performing areas can easily be identified; companies can seek for possible means in order to improve those SC aspects so as to improve/enhance overall SC performance extent. Benchmarking may help in identifying best practices in relation to the SC which is performing as ideal (benchmarked practices). Best practices of the ideal organization need to be transmitted to the others. Companies can follow their peers in order to improve overall performance level of the entire supply chain. In view of this, the work reported in this dissertation may be proved as a good contributor for effective management of organizational SC. Research limitations: The methodology and presentation is conceptual, yet the tool can provide very useful interpretations for both researchers as well as management practitioners. Accessibility and availability of data are the main limitations affecting which model will be applied. Procedural steps towards implementing the said decision support tools have been demonstrated through empirical research. The decision support tools tools have neither been validated by practical case study nor have these been tested for assessing their reliability. Originality/value: This work articulates various approaches for supply chain performance evaluation considering multiple evaluation criteria (subjective evaluation indices), with a flexibility to modify and analyze using the available data sets collected from a group of experts (decision-makers). The approaches of performance evaluation index system are attempted due to structure and fuzzy (as well as grey) sets. The work is aimed at operational researchers, engineers and special managers