Relevance of Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) for Procurement of Equipments in a Government Medical College and Hospital in North-East India

Introduction: Continuous procurement of various equipments in the hospitals is essential to keep up with global progress of healthcare services. In public sectors, procurement process largely depends on budget sanctions and also by a number of formal procedures and rules which leads to delayed procurement. With this prevalent scenario, the present study was carried out to evaluate the procurement of two major equipments in an apex tertiary care institute using Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Objective: This study was done to evaluate the procurement of two major equipments using PERT in a tertiary care institute. Method: This study was conducted using Operational Research technique in an apex tertiary care institute i.e., medical college and hospital, in one of the North Eastern states of India. All the procurements related to equipments in that teaching hospital initiated in the financial year 2021 were listed. Out of them, two procurement files were selected by simple random sampling; procurement of Operating Table and Bio Safety cabinet Level – III. Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) was applied to calculate the possible reduction in time in the whole procurement process. Results: The present study showed that procurement of Operating table took 185 days where minimum 8 days could have been saved and procurement of Bio-Safety cabinet Level-III was completed by 702 days where minimum 196 days could have been saved. Conclusion: Application of PERT in this procurement evaluation process can play significant role by calculating critical path and predicting the possible delay

Study of Thermodynamic Quantities in Generalized Gravity Theories

In this work, we have studied the thermodynamic quantities like temperature of the universe, heat capacity and squared speed of sound in generalized gravity theories like Brans-Dicke, Ho$\check{\text r}$ava-Lifshitz and $f(R)$ gravities. We have considered the universe filled with dark matter and dark energy. Also we have considered the equation of state parameters for open, closed and flat models. We have observed that in all cases the equation of state behaves like quintessence. The temperature and heat capacity of the universe are found to decrease with the expansion of the universe in all cases. In Brans-Dicke and $f(R)$ gravity theories the squared speed of sound is found to exhibit increasing behavior for open, closed and flat models and in Ho$\check{\text r}$ava-Lifshitz gravity theory it is found to exhibit decreasing behavior for open and closed models with the evolution of the universe. However, for flat universe, the squared speed of sound remains constant in Ho$\check{\text r}$ava-Lifshitz gravity.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Performance of Mutual Funds in India: A Study with Reference to Select Equity Multi-Cap Funds

Indian Mutual Fund Industry has witnessed enormous expansion in terms of growth of Assets under Management (AUM), from a meagre Rs. 25 crores in 1964 to Rs. 36.59 lakh crores in August 2021. Equity Multi-cap mutual funds tend to invest in stocks of companies across the stock market irrespective of sector and size. As a result, these funds provide much-needed diversification. In a direct plan, the investor decides to invest directly in mutual funds without routing the investment through any distributor or agent. Due to the absence of an intermediary commission, the direct plan has a lower expense ratio than a regular plan which leads to higher returns. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the stock markets have experienced an extensive crisis with severe dampening effects in the entire global scenario. It has affected the Indian Mutual Fund Industry as well. However, irrespective of all negative signs, the impact of COVID-19 has created a ray of hope towards rebuilding self-confidence for Indian investors during the last year in this new normal landscape. In this backdrop, the present research paper focuses on examining the performance of direct plans of four open-ended Equity Multi-cap Mutual Funds [Baroda Multi-Cap Fund (BMF), ICICI Prudential Multi-Cap Fund (IPMF), Invesco India Multi-Cap Fund (IIMF) and Nippon India Multi-Cap Fund (NIMF)] based on certain parameters. This secondary data-based study covers 8 years (2013-2021). The criterion for selecting the funds was net assets above Rs.1,000 crores as of 31.08.2021. Results reveal that the funds provided double-digit returns during the entire study period. IPMF and NIMF performed poorly and remained riskier than the benchmark during the entire study period. Further, NIMF remained the riskiest fund throughout the study period. IIMF remained the best performer in the 1-year, 5-year and 8-year periods in terms of risk-adjusted return. NIMF remained the most aggressive fund and BMF remained the most defensive fund during the entire study period. The fund managers of IIMF succeeded in quality stock-picking in 1-year, 5-year and 8-year. The fund managers of NIMF performed miserably throughout the study period and failed in quality stock picking. RSQ values portray that BMF was the most successful fund in terms of diversification during the entire study period