The Last Mile: Gateway to rural empowerment in India

This article focuses on exemplary projects conducted by organizations who are providing access to key services and goods by creating new markets in rural India. Reaching “the last mile” is a key issue in India, which complexity is often overlooked by multinational firms. This article aims at providing a framework to help understanding innovative strategies to reach low-income consumers in India through innovative partnerships.Cet article porte sur des projets exemplaires menés par des organisations qui fournissent l'accès à des produits et services essentiels grâce à la création de nouveaux marchés dans les zones rurales de l'Inde. Atteindre "le dernier kilomètre" est un problème clé en Inde dont la complexité est souvent négligée par les multinationales. Cet article vise à fournir un cadre facilitant la compréhension des stratégies innovantes afin d'atteindre les consommateurs indiens à faible revenu par le biais de partenariats novateurs.El presente artículo se centra en proyectos ejemplares desarrollados por organizaciones que proporcionan acceso a servicios y bienes esenciales a través de la creación de nuevos mercados en la India rural. Alcanzar «el último tramo» es un tema clave para la India, cuya complejidad suele ser obviada por las multinacionales. Este artículo tiene como objetivo la provisión de un marco que ayude a la comprensión de estrategias innovadoras para alcanzar a los consumidores con bajos ingresos de la India a través de asociaciones innovadoras

The Last Mile: Gateway to rural empowerment in India

This article focuses on exemplary projects conducted by organizations who are providing access to key services and goods by creating new markets in rural India. Reaching “the last mile” is a key issue in India, which complexity is often overlooked by multinational firms. This article aims at providing a framework to help understanding innovative strategies to reach low-income consumers in India through innovative partnerships.Cet article porte sur des projets exemplaires menés par des organisations qui fournissent l'accès à des produits et services essentiels grâce à la création de nouveaux marchés dans les zones rurales de l'Inde. Atteindre "le dernier kilomètre" est un problème clé en Inde dont la complexité est souvent négligée par les multinationales. Cet article vise à fournir un cadre facilitant la compréhension des stratégies innovantes afin d'atteindre les consommateurs indiens à faible revenu par le biais de partenariats novateurs.El presente artículo se centra en proyectos ejemplares desarrollados por organizaciones que proporcionan acceso a servicios y bienes esenciales a través de la creación de nuevos mercados en la India rural. Alcanzar «el último tramo» es un tema clave para la India, cuya complejidad suele ser obviada por las multinacionales. Este artículo tiene como objetivo la provisión de un marco que ayude a la comprensión de estrategias innovadoras para alcanzar a los consumidores con bajos ingresos de la India a través de asociaciones innovadoras

Antibiotic sensitivity of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from fishery products

During the course of an investigation on the incidence of Staphylococcus aureus contamination in frozen crab meat, frozen prawns and dried fishes from Cochin, 116 strains of S. aureus were isolated. The sensitivity of the isolated strains towards nine antibiotics showed that all the S. aureus strains were sensitive to kanamycin and streptomycin (100%). Sensitivity to other antibiotics like chloramphenicol, polymyxin-B, erythromycin, tetracycline, neomycin, penicillin and ampicillin were shown by 98.28, 93.10, 87.93, 68.10, 67.24, 56.90 and 55.17 percent of the isolates respectively

Developing Communities around Factories through Strategic CSR : A Critical Step towards Shared Value in India

The Indian CSR context has changed in the last few years (particularly following the amendment to Section 135 of the Indian Companies Act in 2013) : there is now a requirement for corporate firms to devote 2 % of their net profit to social impact. The stake is particularly crucial for extractive and manufacturing companies, as community engagement and development is essential to gain their social license to operate. Through the cases of Ambuja Cements and other Indian companies, this article presents the four key factors of success of such strategies : co-creation, sustainability, local teams and long-term investmen

Effect of Electron Beam Irradiation on Structural, Electrical and Thermo-electric Power of La0.8Sr0.2MnO3

In this communication, we are reporting the effect of electron beam (e-beam) irradiation on thermoelectric properties of La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 manganites. The samples were prepared using solid state reaction technique. It is observed that the lattice volume increases with increase in dosage of e-beam. With irradiation an increase in resistivity is observed. For small irradiation dosage, we first observe a decreases in metalinsulator transition temperature TMI; thereafter TMI increases with further increase in dosage of irradiation. Both, the resistivity data and thermo-electric power data demonstrate that small polaron hopping model is valid in high temperature region

Occurrence of enterotoxigenic staphylococci in frozen fishery products

Sixty six samples of frozen fishery products consisting of frozen crab meat, frozen prawns, frozen cuttlefish and frozen mussel collected from nine cold stores situated in and around Cochin city were examined for coagulase positive staphylococci. Forty eight samples (72.72%) revealed the presence of coagulase positive staphylococci, which were then tested for enterotoxigenity, employing cellophane-over-agar method for toxin production and optimum-sensitivity-plate (OSP) method for toxin detection. Seventy seven out of one hundred and two (75.49%) coagulase positive staphylococcal isolates from the above products produced enterotoxins A, B, C, D and E either singly or in combinations. Enterotoxin A and D were detected more often than others. The occurrence of enterotoxigenic staphylococci in frozen fishery product is reported for the first time in this country

A Pragmatic Approach to Knowledge Management in Software Maintenance

Knowledge used by maintenance engineers (MEs) in resolving a software maintenance (SM) activity is crucial for any organization. Given this criticality of knowledge, attention must be paid to the effective management of knowledge. One of the major challenges to this is to be able to capture the knowledge and thought processes used by MEs and disseminate it to other MEs. Our paper provides a pragmatic solution to this problem by proposing an integrated knowledge management framework for SM. This framework includes a Tacit Knowledge Management System which will be a powerful knowledge repository. We also provide incentive structures that can be used to effectively motivate MEs in using this KM tool

Cytokine Gene Polymorphism and Sepsis

Trauma is a significant problem across the globe with mortality more than 50%. Despite the advancement of pre-hospital care to trauma patients, early resuscitation in the emergency department, surgical interventions and intensive care monitoring mortality rate has not improved yet. The higher rate of mortality in trauma patients is usually associated with development of complications such as sepsis, septic shock, and MOF which may occur due to hysterical immune inflammatory responses. Trauma patients who developed these complications in the ICU have comparatively higher chances of mortality. Cytokines are very important for host immune response against infections and play vital roles in the regulation of innate and adaptive immunity. The slanted expression of cytokines due to trauma may be involved in development of sepsis and related complications. The recently published work from various studies suggested that slanted expression of cytokines correlates with the variations in the promoter and structural regions of cytokine genes, which may be responsible for inter-individual differences in susceptibility to sepsis. Therefore, understanding the variations in cytokine genes and associated outcomes due to trauma would possibly contribute to the event of latest genetically changed diagnostic and therapeutic interventions that will improve the outcome in post-traumatic sepsis patients