Sources of Public Finance in an Islamic Economy

Since interest is prohibited in Islam, the government in an Islamic economy cannot issue interest based T-Bills, T-Bonds and/or obtain interest based sovereign debt. Based on the literature review, it is argued that neither Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) nor the pious Caliphates (rta) levied any taxes other than Zakah. Accordingly, this study explores the sources of revenue for a government in an Islamic economy. In discussing sources of tax revenue, it is maintained that Zakah is the only tax the government in an Islamic economy can levy. Nevertheless, the government can charge service/performance based fees, duties, charges etc in providing public goods. Furthermore, the profitable operations of state owned enterprises form an important part of non-tax revenues. It is also analyzed that how the non-profitable public institutions like police and courts will be funded. This study also discusses that how the government can finance its deficit keeping in view that interest is prohibited in Islam and Zakah rates are very low and Zakah base is very narrow as per common understanding. The study also gives brief insights into how much Zakah can be collected in Pakistan. Finally, it suggests that the nominal GDP growth linked rate of return can be used to benchmark domestic and external loans including those from IMF, WB and IDA etc.Public Finance, Taxation, Expenditure, Fiscsl Policy, Deficit Financing, Zakat, Redistribution.

Islamic Philosophy and the Challenge of Post Modernism: A Sociological Perspective

This paper briefly describes the Post Modernism philosophy, introduces the work of its key proponents, provides a critical appraisal of Post Modernism thought and finally it compares the Post Modernism philosophy with philosophical heritage of Islamic faith and civilization and recommends ways to cope up with the challenge of post modernism.Post Modernism, Sociology, Philosophy, History, Islamic Civilization, Modernism, Enlightenment, Globalization

A critical analysis of Mudarabah & a new approach to equity financing in Islamic finance

Financial intermediation serves a valuable purpose, but it can also be structured using equity modes of financing. This can relieve the financee and increase diversity of entrepreneurial undertakings as in debt based commercial financing, there is little room for diversity with obligatory and stipulated servicing of debt. Using Islamic equity modes of financing poses the challenge of the agency problem and moral hazard. The extent of this agency problem in Mudarabah and its impact on economic payoffs between counterparties is analyzed in this study with a simulation model. Based on review of alternate solutions proposed, the author presents two possible covenants which could make Mudarabah mode of financing more acceptable and widely usable in financial intermediation. This would also further the egalitarian objectives of an Islamic economic order.Interest free economy, Islamic Economic System, Mudarabah, Agency Problem, Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection

Feedback Linearization Techniques for Collaborative Nonholonomic Robots

Collaborative robots performing tasks together have significant advantages over a single robot. Applications can be found in the fields of underwater robotics, air traffic control, intelligent highways, mines and ores detection and tele-surgery. Collaborative wheeled mobile robots can be modeled by a nonlinear system having nonholonomic constraints. Due to these constraints, the collaborative robots arc not stabilizable at a point by continuous time-invariant feedback control laws. Therefore, linear control is ineffective, even locally, and innovative design techniques are needed. One possible design technique is feedback control and the principal interest of this thesis is to evaluate the best feedback control technique. Feedback linearization is one of the possible feedback control techniques. Feedback linearization is a method of transforming a nonlinear system into a linear system using feedback transformation. It differs from conventional Taylor series linearization since it is achieved using exact coordinates transformation rather than by linear approximations of the system. Linearization of the collaborative robots system using Taylor series results in a linear system which is uncontrollable and is thus unsuitable. On the other hand, the feedback linearized control strategies result in a stable system. Feedback linearized control strategies can he designed based on state or input, while both state and input linearization can be achieved using static or dynamic feedback. In this thesis, a kinematic model of the collaborative nonholonomic robots is derived, based on the leader-follower formation. The objective of the kinematic model is to facilitate the design of feedback control strategies that can stabilize the system and Minimize the error between the desired and actual trajectory. The leader-follower formation is used in this research since the collaborative robots are assumed to have communication capabilities only. The kinematic model for the leader-follower formation is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink. A comparative assessment of various feedback control strategies is evaluated. The leader robot model is tested using five feedback control strategies for different trajectories. These feedback control strategies are derived using cascaded system theory, stable tracking method based on linearization of corresponding error model, approximation linearization, nonlinear control design and full state linearization via dynamic feedback. For posture stabilization of the leader robot, time-varying and full state dynamic feedback linearized control strategies are used. For the follower robots using separation bearing and separation-separation formation, the feedback linearized control strategies are derived using input-output via static feedback. Based on the simulation results for the leader robot, it is found that the full state dynamic feedback linearized control strategy improves system performance and minimizes the mean of error more rapidly than the other four feedback control strategies. In addition to stabilizing the system, the full state dynamic feedback linearized control strategy achieves posture stabilization. For the follower robots, the input-output via static feedback linearization control strategies minimize the error between the desired and actual formation. Furthermore, the input-output linearized control strategies allow dynamical change of the formation at run-time and minimize the disturbance of formation change. Thus, for a given feasible trajectory, the full state feedback linearized strategy for the leader robot and input-output feedback linearized strategies for the follower robots are found to be more efficient in stabilizing the system

Designing optimum water flooding scheme in a heterogeneous depleted reservoir: A simulation case study

Waterflooding is one of the cheapest oil recovery methods and the most popular secondary method to increase oil recovery by injecting water into the reservoir. This research aims to build a model using Eclipse 100 software in order to increase the oil recovery factor in a heterogeneous depleted reservoir. This project discusses the main parameters that affecting waterflooding performance in a heterogeneous depleted reservoir and quantify their importance towards an optimum design. So the main objective of this project is addressing the different interrelated parameters and their impact in order to increase the oil recovery factor. Moreover, this project is determining different scaling up schemes and their impact on the final model besides doing a sensitivity study for the parameters that affecting the waterflooding in a heterogeneous reservoir

Simulating Vehicle Movement and Multi-Hop Connectivity from Basic Safety Messages

The Basic Safety Message (BSM) is a standardized communication packet that is sent every tenth of a second between connected vehicles using Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC). BSMs contain data about the sending vehicle's state, such as speed, location, and the status of the turn signal. Currently, many BSM datasets are available through the connected vehicle testbeds of U.S. Department of Transportation from all over the country. However, without a proper visualization tool, it is not possible to analyze or visually get an overview of the spatio-temporal distribution of the data. With this goal, a web application has been developed which can ingest a raw BSM dataset and display a time-based simulation of vehicle movement. The simulation also displays multi-hop vehicular network connectivity over DSRC. This paper gives details about the application, including an explanation of the multi-hop partitioning algorithm used to classify the vehicles into separate network partitions. A performance analysis for the simulation is included, in which it is suggested that calculating a connectivity matrix with the multi-hop partitioning algorithm is computationally expensive for large number of vehicles

Affordable interactive virtual reality system for the Dynamic Hip Screw surgery training in vitro

Interactive virtual reality systems provide safe and cost-effective training environment to improve the technical skills and competence of surgeons. The trainees can have as many practice sessions, without need to the trainer all the time, before even start carrying out the procedure on any real patient. In this paper, we present an affordable interactive virtual reality system for the Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS) surgery training in vitro, through 3D tracking. The system facilitates a safe (in vitro / off patient) training to improve the cognitive coordination of trainees and junior surgeons, in particular the Hands, Eyes and Brain coordination. The system is based on very cheap commercial off-the-shelf (COT) components, which are very affordable, and needs minimum setup effort and knowledge. It also provides a range of visual and quantitative feedback information and measures, such as position, orientation, insertion point, and depth of drilling. It is envisaged that improving this level of coordination, through the training system, will contribute to reducing the failure rate of the DHS procedure. This means better treatment for patients and less costs for the Health services systems (e.g. UK's NHS system)

Welfare Potential of Zakat: An Attempt to Estimate Economy wide Zakat Collection in Pakistan

In Pakistan, Naveed and Ali (2012) in a most recent study conclude that as many as 58.7 million people in Pakistan are living in multidimensional poverty with 46 percent of the rural population and 18 percent of the urban households falling below the poverty line. It is natural to ask what the government is doing for these poor people and how much it can expend to end extreme poverty in Pakistan. If we look at the fiscal position of the government, we see that Pakistan has a very low tax to GDP ratio, i.e. 9 percent. As a result of low tax to GDP ratio and high current expenditure, the government is suffering from a large budget deficit. Often, the development spending is curtailed to contain the large budget deficit due to high non-discretionary current expenditures in debt servicing and security expenditure. Expenditure on health and education is not even 5 percent of GDP in Pakistan. Due to such a low expenditure on developing human capital and maintaining health of the masses, poor people remain uneducated and unhealthy and hence they find it very difficult to get out of the poverty tra