Addressing educational disparity : using district level education development indices for equitable resource allocations in India

The challenge of development work in the social sector in India today is one of bridging huge disparities across regions of the country, gender and social groups. Unless national and state policies specifically target resources to address these disparities, achieving higher level outcomes in an inclusive manner, which is the real goal for human development in education and health, will be a distant dream. This paper takes up the case of the Indian government’s Elementary Education for All Mission to understand how this flagship program relates investments to spatial and social disparities. For identifying the most deprived districts in terms of educational inputs, outputs and overall development, the authors estimate district level education development indices for 2003-2004. The contribution of the largest investment program is measured by"per child allocations"and expenditures at the state and district levels for 2005-2006. An analysis of comparing the ratio of allocations to expenditures with the ratio of district level indices to sub-dimensional indices shows that there is an apparent disconnect between the"real investment needs"of the districts, reflected in their level of educational development and the actual allocations made on an annual basis. The analysis shows that although all districts received more funds for investing in elementary education programs, the most disadvantaged and needy districts received proportionately more funds, which helped these districts to bridge access and infrastructure gaps and appoint more teachers. Benchmarking sector development by spatial entities helps not only in monitoring the outcomes, but also in targeting planning and funding to reduce disparities.Primary Education,Education For All,Gender and Education,Access&Equity in Basic Education,

Genetics of salt tolerance in rice

Experimental procedures viz., line x tester analysis, diallel analysis and stability analysis have been utilized in rice breeding programs to study combining ability, heterosis, gene action and stress tolerance capacity of various genotypes based on yield related traits.  The results have helped in development of good varieties and hybrids. Excessive work is available in the particular area of research as many plant breeders in Asia work towards improving the yield of rice. A review on gene action studies in rice has been attempted with emphasis on the research progress made in India

Natural plant resources in anti-cancer therapy-A review

Cancer is one of the most common devastating disease affecting millions of people peryear. Cancer has been estimated as the second leading cause of death in humans. So therehas been an intense search on various biological sources to develop a novel anti-cancer drugto combat this disease. Plants have proved to be an important natural source of anti-cancertherapy for several years. About 30 plant derived compounds have been isolated so far andare currently under clinical trials. These anti-cancer compounds have been found to beclinically active against various types of cancer cells. Further research in this area may leadto better treatment of cancer

STANDARDIZATION OF FRIABLE CALLUS DEVELOPMENT IN CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS (LINN.) G. DON

Objective: The objective of the study was to develop an effective hormonal combination for the maximum growth of callus and development of friable calli using the same medium with reduced concentration of agar.Methods: The percentage responses of five varied growth hormonal combinations and concentrations, supplemented with Murashige and Skoog (MS)medium were recorded. The effect of casein hydrolysate on callus induction was also studied. The nature of friable calli obtained from best responsive media fortified with 0.7% and 0.6% agar was observed.Results: The present study revealed that, three media viz., MS + 1.0 mg/L BAP + 1.0 mg/L NAA, MS + 1.5 mg/L 2,4-D + 1.0 mg/L Kin and MS + 1.5 mg/L 2,4-D + 0.5 mg/L BAP, as the best responsive media in the descending order. The effect of casein hydrolysate supplemented along with the above three media revealed MS + 1.0 mg/LBAP + 1.0 mg/L NAA + 1.0 gm/L casein hydrolysate as the best responsive media. Also, the above media supplemented with 0.6% agar was found to be the effective in terms of nature and amount of friable callus obtained.Conclusion: The results indicated MS + 1.0 mg/L BAP + 1.0 mg/L NAA + 1.0 gm/L casein hydrolysate + 0.6% agar (85% response) as the best media for the growth and development of both callus and friable callus.Â

Protoplast fusion studies in Ocimum species

Protoplasts of three Ocimum species, viz., O. basilicum, O. sanctum and O. gratissimum derived from leaf samples were used for studying fusion. The isolation of protoplasts were carried out using 1 % cellulase and 0.5 % pectinase in combination with Cocking-Peberdy-White (CPW)–13% mannitol solution as it gave the best results.  The protoplasts obtained by enzymatic digestion were purified by centrifugation.  The yield of protoplasts was found to be highest when centrifuged at 800 rpm for 15 minutes at 4ºC. Among  the  fusogen  combinations  tried  to  obtain  homokaryons,  40  %  Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-6000  fusogen solution gave better  results when  compared  to  the other  combinations. The Ca2+ concentration and pH level (5-9) were altered and studied but major changes in time taken for fusion were not observed.  The mean count of protoplasts per ml was found to be 209,200 for O. basilicum, 317,500 for O. gratissimum and 502,500 for O. sanctum. The Evans blue staining test showed that the average percentage of viable cells was 52.8 % for O. basilicum, 52.54 % for O. sanctum and 47.15 % for O. gratissimum

Calretinin expression in molecular subtypes of invasive carcinoma breast

Background: Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer death  in women worldwide. Breast carcinoma is currently managed by assessing clinicopathological features. Elucidation of molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis of breast carcinoma  may lead to the development of new targeted therapies, particularly in triple negative cancers. Literature shows a few studies on the expression of calretinin  in breast carcinoma particularly in basal like type and its prognostic significance.  In this study, authors are trying  to assess the expression of  a new marker calretinin in different molecular subtypes of invasive carcinoma breast.Methods: This study was done in  107 cases of invasive carcinoma breast specimens received in  Department of Pathology, Government Medical college, Kottayam from December  2017 to May 2019.Results: Among the molecular subtypes, Basal like tumours showed 68.4% of cases with high level and 31.6% of cases with low level calretinin expression which is comparable with the study by Farrag et al. All the other molecular subgroups showed predominantly low level of calretinin expression.Conclusions: Different molecular subtypes of invasive carcinoma breast showed varied calretinin expression. High level calretinin expression was significantly associated with grade 3 (p value = 0.002), ER negativity (p = 0.004), PR negativity (p = 0.018)  and Basal like molecular subtype (p : <0.001). This suggests that calretinin might play a role in pathogenesis of basal like breast carcinomas

Rice breeding for salt tolerance

Human exploitation of earth’s resources is leading to new problems day by day and hence newer methods are devised to overcome the same. One such case is breeding for abiotic stress, utilizing even non arable land, to feed the ever increasing population. A major stress leading to yield loss can be due to inland and coastal salinity. Rice is the most important cereal crop which feeds humans on earth. This review tries to analyse the efforts of breeders in minimising the effects of salt stress on the yield of rice crop

Studies on fruit-bud differentiation in Mango (Mangifera indica)

The time of fruit-bud-differentiation in mango is known to be governed by localweather conditions, which varies from place to place. To some extent, it also varies withvarieties grown under the same climatic conditions. The knowledge of the time of fruit-buddifferentiationunder a particular set of climatic conditions for a given variety would enablethe orchardists to schedule the manuring, irrigation and other cultural operations to havebetter yield. The fruit-bud-differentiation is a crucial event in the growth and developmentof mango, as it marks the change in partitioning and transport of metabolites from source tosink between the vegetative and reproductive organs which are governed by the growthhormones. The physiological and biochemical factors governing fruit-bud-differentiation inmango have not been adequately studied. Little is known about the role of naturallyoccurring growth substances and other metabolites involved in fruit-bud-differentiation.Need for such studies is all the more important, since these naturally occurring growthsubstances are now recognized as important factors controlling the ontogeny of flowering inhigher plants

Progress of Biorefinery in India

India is one among the world’s largest economies and its energy demand accounts for 3.5% of world’s commercial energy consumption. According to the International Energy Agency oil demand in India is expected to grow by a factor 2.2 by 2030, increasing the oil import dependency from 69% now to 91%. Rising energy prices and climate change are increasing the demand for biofuel production. The Planning Commission of India recommends replacing 20% of India’s diesel consumption mainly by non-edible Jatropha oil and Pongamia. Biorefinery could be one of the best solutions to overcome the problem. A review on the progress of biorefinery in India is attempted