Women's rights and gender equality issues in India

Women constitute half of humanity and probably the better half. In the absence of gender equality, humanity is depriving itself of a substantial strength from fifty percent of its constituents. It has been the case almost from the beginnings of civilized society that women were cast in specifically discriminatory roles and thus have never been empowered to contribute their best to the advancement of the society. Gender inequalities hinder development Social hierarchies are embedded in social institutions which are designed to perpetuate them through control over the environment and the socio-economic resources. Equality of participation and control are the necessary pre-requisites towards gender equality. There are many special challenges still faced by the women, but progress has been made when gender equality is viewed over the longer term. Much more can be accomplished, however, when women‘s contributions are valued by society as a whole, when they have a more prominent role in decision-making, and when women and men work in partnership to achieve these aims. In this context, the paper attempts to highlight the gender inequalities and identify the recent trends in women‘s social and economic development in India. The paper will be based on secondary sources of data

The usage of gold and the investment analysis based on gold rate in India

Gold is one of the main commodities where the customers invest their money comparatively with bank for better interest. In the Indian context people purchase gold for their children’s marriages for later period. The investment in gold is better suits for easy conversion into money with quickest possible time from the bank and gold merchants. The appreciation or depreciation of gold based on other investment options like fixed deposit, provident fund, international crude oil price, stock market, mutual fund etc. The comparative analysis of gold with other investment options give an edge to the customer to clearly understand the investment pattern for their hard-earned money expected to give good returns in the future

An Empirical Study on the Announcement of Corporate Quarterly Results in India

Announcement of quarterly results is the course of communicating the performance of a company to its owners. Investors’ long-term buying decisions are largely based on the earnings stream of the firm. In order to show the progress of the company, the earnings position is revealed as per the listing agreement at a regular interval. Normally a higher earnings than the previous quarter earnings should be welcomed by the market. This should be associated with greater return after the result is announced. All higher return after the announcement cannot say to be due to the earnings results. To find out the impact of results on returns, the impact of other factors in returns is to be segregated. The impact of other factors in return is taken from the index which is nothing but the market return. The announcement of earnings is unique and specific to a company, to study its impact on the market place, the impact of other factors is removed, that is why the period is limited to 32 days and the return is calculated for 31 days. This study examines abnormal returns of earnings announcement during the pre-announcement and post announcement period. This study is based on samples of 50 Nifty companies listed on National Stock Exchange, exhibited that investors do not gain value from earnings announcement. Indeed shareholders earned little value over a period of 15 days prior to the earnings announcement through to 15 days after the announcement. The lower return may be partially compensated because of the current earnings yield. This study also indicates that announcement of result does not convey any useful information to the investing community, which needs to be further investigated

Comparison between ‘three in one femoral nerve block’ and psoas compartment block for post-operative pain relief following lower limb surgical procedures

Aim of this study was to compare anterior approach (‘three in one block’) and posterior approach (psoas compartment block) of lumbar plexus block in relieving the post-operative pain in patients operated for unilateral hip, femur or knee surgery under spinal anaesthesia. 40 patients undergoing elective orthopedic procedure in hip, femur or knee were randomized into group A and group B. Surgery was done under spinal anaesthesia. At the end of the surgery, single shot lumbar plexus block was given by anterior approach (3 in 1 block) in group A and by posterior approach (psoas compartment block) in group-B patients with 30 ml of 0.25% of bupivacaine. Pain was assessed using verbal rating scale. The time for first rescue analgesic, need of additional analgesic and overall satisfaction of post-operative pain relief were noted. Both the groups were comparable in age, sex, weight, height, vital signs, duration and type of surgery. There is no significant difference in pain level between two groups. The mean time for first rescue analgesia was 9.10 (± 1.52) and 9.90 (± 1.21) hours in group A and group B respectively (p>0.05 not significant). Requirement of additional analgesic was reduced in both groups. More than 90% of patients expressed overall satisfaction of post-operative pain relief in both groups. Both approaches of lumbar plexus block by Three in one femoral nerve block (Group A) and psoas compartment block (Group B) were effective in providing post-operative analgesia after hip, femur, or knee surgery

Parameter Estimation Using Least Square Method for MIMO Takagi-Sugeno Neuro-Fuzzy in TIME Series Forecasting

This paper describes LSE method for improving Takagi-Sugeno neuro-fuzzy model for a multi-input and multi-output system using a set of data (Mackey-Glass chaotic time series). The performance of the generated model is verified using certain set of validation / test data. The LSE method is used to compute the consequent parameters of Takagi-Sugeno neuro-fuzzy model while mean and variance of Gaussian Membership Functions are initially set at certain values and will be updated using Back Propagation Algorithm. The simulation using Matlab shows that the developed neuro-fuzzy model is capable of forecasting the future values of the chaotic time series and adaptively reduces the amount of error during its training and validation

Cross-sectional associations of personal efforts and beliefs and depressive symptoms among older adults in India.

Whilst there is growing evidence on the increased vulnerability of older adults to depression, there is limited research on potentially mitigative factors against symptoms of depression at a population level. This research examined associations of possible protective factors (personal efforts and beliefs) and depressive symptoms among older adults in India. This cross-sectional study used data from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India with 31,464 respondents aged 60 years and above. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 10-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Multivariable linear regression was used while exploring the associated factors of depressive symptoms. The mean score of depressive symptoms was 2.94 (CI 2.92, 2.96). Older adults who engaged in moderate [aCoef: -0.11, CI -0.18, -0.05], vigorous [aCoef: -0.09, CI -0.16, -0.03], or both types of physical activity [aCoef: -0.10, CI -0.19, -0.02] had lower likelihood of depressive symptoms in comparison to those who were physically inactive. Older adults who participated in social activities were less likely to have depressive symptoms [aCoef: -0.44, CI -0.50, -0.39] compared to their socially inactive counterparts. Further, older adults who perceived religion as very important [aCoef: -0.29, CI -0.41, -0.17], who had high life satisfaction [aCoef: -0.78, CI -0.82, -0.73], who had good self-perceived health [aCoef: -0.29, CI -0.33, -0.25] and those who had high self-perceived social standing [aCoef: -0.39, CI -0.47, -0.31] had lower likelihood of depressive symptoms in comparison to their respective counterparts. Physical activity, social participation, voluntary work and financial contribution to family, religiosity, life satisfaction, self-perceived health and self-perceived social standing are associated with lower likelihood of depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults in this study. Future longitudinal studies should explore these factors that can guide interventions against depression in old age

Regular Semiopen Sets on Intuitionistic Fuzzy Topological Spaces in Sostak’s Sense

We introduce the concepts of fuzzy (r; s)-regular semi (resp. (r; s)-α, (r; s)-pre, (r; s)-β open sets, their respective interior and closure operators on intuitionistic fuzzy topological spaces in ˆ Sostak’s sense and then we investigate some of their characteristic properties

Major Ion Chemistry and Groundwater Quality Evaluation for Irrigation

Hydrogeochemical characteristics of Groundwater analyzed in the study area of Coimbatore district by collecting 60 samples from agricultural belt. Groundwater quality for irrigation is determined by several key factors like pH, Electrical conductivity (EC), Total suspended solids (TDS). The cations such as Sodium (Na+), Potassium (K+), Calcium (Ca2+), Magnesium (Mg2+ ) and anions are Hydrocarbon (HCO3), Carbonate (CO3 -), Chlorides (Cl-)and Sulphates (SO4 2-) are tested. The irrigation water quality parameters such as Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), Sodium Absorption Ratio (SAR), Chloro Alkali Indices (CA I & CAII), Kelley’s Ratio (KR), Magnesium Hazard (MH), Percent sodium (%Na) and Permeability Index (PI), Soluble sodium Percent (SSP) are computed from the key factors, anions and cations. From the USSL Diagram the samples fall in C2S1, C3S1, C4S1 range. Salinity hazard is too elevated in the study area, all the samples are categorized under high to very high with the values greater than 750 μS/cm. Total dissolved solid in the study area indicated that only 2 locations are unfit for irrigation. SAR and % Na shows that there is no hazard related to irrigation watering. Magnesium hazard in the groundwater is high and indicates 51 sample out of 60 is unsuitable for irrigation. From the study it indicates the groundwater is contaminated with salt content and in most of the area it can be used for irrigation. Keywords: Groundwater, Irrigation water quality, Salinity hazard, Kelley’s ratio, Magnesium hazar