La décentralisation des services dans les petites villes indiennes, un enjeu technique et politique

À travers l’observation de petites villes en Uttar Pradesh, cet article questionne les nouveaux arrangements politiques et techniques consécutifs à la mise en place de la décentralisation des services de base. En Inde, cette question a déjà fait l’objet de plusieurs études de cas en zones rurales et dans les grandes villes, mais est plus rarement posée dans le contexte différencié des petites municipalités.Through observing small municipalities, this paper questions new political and technical arrangements in small town governance in the aftermath of decentralisation reforms of basic services. In India, various research projects have dealt with these subjects in rural areas and large metropolises but little attention has been paid to the same issues in smaller urban settlements

Confining the margins, marginalizing the confined: The Distress of Neglected Lockdown Victims in Indian Cities

En Inde, le 24 mars 2020 à 20h00, l’annonce soudaine par le Premier Ministre de la mise en place d’un confinement 4 heures plus tard a provoqué une forte panique parmi les populations déshérités. Les images dramatiques de travailleurs migrants fuyant désespérément les grandes villes pour retourner chez eux ont fait le tour du monde. Mais tous ne sont pas partis, loin de là, et nombreux sont ceux qui n’avaient pas d’autres choix que de rester confiner dans les marges. A travers différents témoignages recueillis durant les trois premières semaines du lockdown en Inde, cet article porte sur les conditions très dures du confinement des populations pauvres, et dont la crise a encore renforcé la relégation dans les marges. Outre que les « gestes barrières » contre le virus y soient impossibles à respecter, en raison de la promiscuité et d’un moindre accès à l’eau, la disparition brutale des moyens de subsistance aggrave fortement le faible niveau de vie des habitants. En révélant les effets paradoxaux d’un confinement non adapté aux quartiers pauvres, cet article plaide pour une meilleure prise en compte des ces derniers, pendant et après la crise pandémique.In India, on March 24, 2020 at 8:00 pm, the sudden announcement by the Prime Minister of the implementation of containment 4 hours later caused a strong panic among the underprivileged populations. Dramatic images of migrant workers desperately fleeing the big cities to return home have circulated around the world. But not all of them left, far from it, and many had no choice other than to remain confined to the margins. Through various testimonies gathered during the first three weeks of the lockdown in India, this article focuses on the very harsh conditions of confinement of poor populations, whose relegation to the margins was further reinforced by the crisis. In addition to the fact that the protective measures against the virus are impossible to respect there, due to promiscuity and insufficient access to water, the brutal disappearance of everyday livelihood strongly aggravates the low standard of living of the inhabitants. By revealing the paradoxical effects of a confinement that is not adapted to poor neighbourhoods, this article argues for a better consideration of the latter, during and after the pandemic crisis

Effects of Oxygen Partial Pressure on the Surface Tension of Liquid Nickel

The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's electrostatic levitation (ESL) laboratory has been recently upgraded with an oxygen partial pressure controller. This system allows the oxygen partial pressure within the vacuum chamber to be measured and controlled, theoretically in the range from 1036 to 100 bar. The oxygen control system installed in the ESL laboratory's main chamber consists of an oxygen sensor, oxygen pump, and a control unit. The sensor is a potentiometric device that determines the difference in oxygen activity in two gas compartments (inside the chamber and the air outside of the chamber) separated by an electrolyte, which is yttriastabilized zirconia. The pump utilizes coulometric titration to either add or remove oxygen. The system is controlled by a desktop control unit, which can also be accessed via a computer. The controller performs temperature control for the sensor and pump, PID-based current loop, and a control algorithm. Oxygen partial pressure has been shown to play a significant role in the surface tension of liquid metals. Oxide films or dissolved oxygen may lead to significant changes in surface tension. The effects of oxygen partial pressure on the surface tension of undercooled liquid nickel will be analyzed, and the results will be presented. The surface tension will be measured at several different oxygen partial pressures while the sample is undercooled. Surface tension will be measured using the oscillating drop method. While undercooled, each sample will be oscillated several times consecutively to investigate how the surface tension behaves with time while at a particular oxygen partial pressure

Magnesium/hydrazinium monoformate: A new hydrogenation system for the selective reduction of nitro compounds

The nitro group in aliphatic and aromatic nitro compounds, which also contain reducible substituents such as alkenes, nitriles, carboxylic acids, phenols, halogens, esters, etc., is selectively and rapidly reduced at room temperature to the corresponding amine in good yield by employing hydrazinium monoformate in the presence of magnesium powder. It was observed that, hydrazinium monoformate is more effective than hydrazine or formic acid or ammonium formate and reduction of the nitro group occurs without hydrogenolysis in the presence of low-cost magnesium compared to expensive metals like palladium, platinum, ruthenium, etc

Formic acid with 10% palladium on carbon: A reagent for selective reduction of aromatic nitro compounds

The nitro group in aromatic nitro compounds also containing reducible substituents such as carbonyl, ethene, ethyne, nitrile, acid, phenol etc, is selectively and rapidly reduced at room temperature to corresponding amino derivatives in good yield employing formic acid in the presence of 10% palladium on carbon. The catalyst could be recovered and reused after washing with water and ethanol, and the results obtained indicate further, there is no apparent loss of catalytic activity