Historicizing 'Law' as a Language of Progress, and Its Anomalies: The Case of Penal Law Reforms in Colonial India.

This paper dispels the myth of liberal Enlightenment in relation to penal law reforms in colonial India by advancing two sets of argument. First, the liberal project of codification on the basis of universalist notion of utilitarianism never broke with cultural hierarchy inbuilt in the very act of colonisation. In this paper, I specifically look into the emerging phenomenon of evolutionary science in the nineteenth century – social Darwinism – to explain the dominant normative, as opposed to realist, justification of such racial hierarchy in colonial discourses since the nineteenth century. Second, using Dipesh Chakrabarty’s theoretical framework, I provincialise the penal law reform project in colonial India through the examination of literature in the field, and substantiate how the notion of utilitarian universality remained vague and unpromising in face of instrumental needs on ground – both in the colony and in the metropolis. Taken together, these propositions dispel the myth of the liberal project of penal law reforms in colonial India based on this universalist position and underscore the fallacies of the transition narrative of modernity itself

Prospects of Service Apartment in Chittagong: An Exploratory Study

Rapid urbanization has become an acute problem for the country. The rate of urbanization is estimated to be 5-6% annually for Bangladesh(REHAB,2004)About 25% of the people of Bangladesh is now living in urban areas and 34%will be living by 2015(REHAB 2004). 50% by 20259 Singha D., 2004). There is acute shortage of housing supply in all urban areas. Moreover, in a study Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) shows that house rentals in Dhaka have more than doubled (249.62 percent) in last 17 years. In Chittagong the scenario is same. Tenants who are from middle, upper middle and lower middle class are worse victims of the rising trend of house rentals.  The study has investigated the nature of service apartment to fulfill the housing need of the growing number of customers and the boost up the downtrend of housing business. The  researchers have interviewed about 500 respondents from income group ranging from 20thousand and above. Several locations have been identified for service apartments and a good number of findings will help the prospective researchers and developers as well. Keyword: Housing, real estate, service apartment, housing market

Process modelling for the production of hydrogen-rich gas from gasification of coal using oxygen, CO2 and steam reactants

This process modelling studied the effect of different reactants on syngas composition and gasifier heat duty (heat energy required to carry out the operation) and the downstream treatment of CO rich syngas to maximise hydrogen yield. The process modelling was validated against experimental data obtained from a large bench-scale entrained flow gasifier. Results show that considering the H2/CO ratio, the steam-O2 reactant favours the most compared to those of the pure oxygen and oxygen-CO2 reactants. Under comparable operating conditions, the highest H2/CO ratio of 0.74 was determined using steam-O2 reactant compared to that of 0.31 and 0.33 using steam-CO2 and pure oxygen reactant. The catalytic water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) favours the yield of H2 with complete CO conversion at a temperature of 400 °C using the steam/coal ratio of 1.2. Supplying steam in the gasifier requires more heat energy to be supplied to drive endothermic gasification reaction and maintain the gasifier temperature. Under complete carbon conversion, steam-CO2 and steam-oxygen reactants require 5–65 kW more energy than pure oxygen. © 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LL

Bumper crops, producer incentives and persistent poverty

Food aid has played a useful role in Government of Bangladesh efforts to increase food security in the last three decades, adding to foodgrain availability, supplying wheat for targeted distribution to poor households, and helping to finance development projects and programs. However, sustained increases in domestic production of both rice and wheat have increased the likelihood of disincentive effects arising from continued large inflows of food aid. The analysis shows that if good rice harvests continue so that real rice prices remain at their levels of 2000, and if international wheat prices return to their average 1995-99 levels, then public wheat distribution may need to be cut to levels below the current amount of food aid received (650 thousand tons in 2000/2001) to avoid reducing domestic prices below import parity. However, resources will continue to be required for programs that increase access to food by the poor, contribute to increased utilization of food and result in improved nutritional outcomes, even if the need for food aid to increase availability of foodgrains diminishes.Food relief Bangladesh. ,Food security. ,Development projects. ,Rice Prices Bangladesh. ,Wheat Prices. ,

Effect of pore diffusion on the gasification characteristics of coal char under CO2 atmosphere

The effect of pore diffusion on kinetic parameters is of particular interest to the current study using coal char under CO2 gasification conditions. A high-temperature entrained-flow gasifier was used for the preparation of char through the rapid pyrolysis process. The kinetic study with the char was then carried at temperatures of 973-1473 K under atmospheric pressure. A prediction of carbon conversion for large particle size (100 μm) is reported from the carbon conversion of small particle size (25 μm) considering the diffusion effect. The effect of diffusion caused by temperatures and particle size was reported through activation energy. The apparent activation energy in the chemically controlled region (973-1173 K) was calculated to be 178 kJ/mol, whereas it was 69 kJ/mol in the pore diffusion zone (1373-1473 K) using smaller particle size. The apparent activation energy using large particle size was found to be 186 and 99 kJ/mol in chemically controlled and pore diffusion zone, respectively. The intrinsic activation energy for both particle sizes was almost similar. A variation between apparent and intrinsic reaction rates was depicted mostly at higher temperatures of over 1273 K. The change in the surface area of char particle was crucial in terms of decreasing reaction rates, which was decreased with the progression of the conversion. The predicted carbon conversion for large particle size was in good agreement with the experimentally measured conversion except for little discrepancies at higher temperatures. © 2021 by Begell House, Inc