Learning versus stealing : how Important are market-share -- reallocations to India's productivity growth?

Recent trade theory emphasizes the role of market-share reallocations across firms ("stealing") in driving productivity growth, while the older literature focused on average productivity improvements ("learning"). The authors use comprehensive, firm-level data from India's organized manufacturing sector to show that market-share reallocations did play an important role in aggregate productivity gains immediately following the start of India's trade reforms in 1991. However, aggregate productivity gains during the overall period from 1985 to 2004 were driven largely by improvements in average productivity, which can be attributed to India's trade liberalization and FDI reforms.Economic Theory&Research,Industrial Management,E-Business,Labor Policies,Debt Markets

Disrupting Business as Usual: Considering Teaching Methods in Business Law Classrooms

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)’s Calls to Action propose signimcant changes to legal education. No law school classroom is exempt, including business law courses. We are two of a growing number ofscholars in the legal academy actively incorporating Indigenous laws, critical race theory and socio-economic perspectives into business law courses as part of our responses to the TRC. This paper explores a field school we developed at Windsor Law as a response to the Calls to Action. In a temporary fusion of two courses, Secured Transactions along with Indigenous Peoples, Art & Human Rights, a synergy emerges through “collaterization” and “valuation.” Our methodology of combining courses and students with diverging interests was designed to evoke reflections on the intersections of Indigenous law and commercial law in legal education. In closing we offer five ways in which business law classrooms might respond to the TRC recommendations

Preparing Low Cost Solution Based On Customized Process Of Parallel Clustering Solution

Big Data analysis is the field of data processing where it involves collections of large volume of data sets which are generally so large and really complex in nature and also there is no unified scientific solution globally for any data analysis due to its nature of difficulties to process them by adopting traditional approaches and technologies. Handling large volume of data and preparing them for deep analysis to evaluate them and prepare required information as required by the mining process is the most complex and sometimes costlier task in real-time. There are many solutions for the data mining process like clustering, special mining, k-means mining to name a few. But the real challenge in data mining process is choosing the correct solution or algorithm to apply for mining the input data and tuning the processing step in such a way that we establish a cost effective solution for the entire mining process. There may be many solutions where mining is efficient but cost of operation is not effective and sometimes it is vice-versa. Hence there is always an ever increasing demand for an efficient solution which is cost effective as well as efficient in data mining technique. The intent of this paper is researching on how we implement a concept called Parallel clustering which gives higher benefit in terms of cost and time in data mining processing without compromising the efficiency and accuracy in expected result. This paper discusses one such custom algorithm and its performance as compared to other solutions

Maternal and fetal outcome in obesity complicating pregnancies

INTRODUCTION: In general, pregnancy in women is considered unique, physiologically normal episode in women’s life. However preexisting morbidity of the mother or fetus can complicate pregnancy and as well as those arising during pregnancy and intrapartum make it a high risk one. “A pregnancy is defined as high risk, when the probability of an adverse outcome for the mother or child is increased over the base line risk of that outcome among the general population by the presence of one or more ascertainable risk factors”. “One such pre-existing maternal morbidity that makes a pregnancy high risk is obesity”.The magnitude of the obesity prevalence has been increasing in developed and developing nations, though in varying degrees. Also coming with the increase in obesity prevalence, inevitably, are the morbidities obesity promotes, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke etc. It becomes a major issue when it affects the women of reproductive age group, as obesity makes a pregnancy high risk, by the increased incidence of gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, labour induction, increased cesarean rates, anesthetic complications, postoperative morbidity, prolonged hospital stay etc. They are at increased risk of delivering large babies and NICU admission. Although routine weighing of pregnant women is being carried out in most of the antenatal clinics, not much of importance is given to the weight of the women as such. In fact prenatal counseling plays a vital role in identifying women who are obese. Advice on weight reduction before embarking on pregnancy will go a long way in reducing the morbidity due to obesity in pregnancy. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of obesity on the maternal and perinatal outcome in pregnancies complicated by obesity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study Design: Prospective Cohort Study. Period of Study: July 2005 – June 2006. Place of Study: Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Egmore, Chennai. Case Selection - Among antenatal mothers attending antenatal outpatient department, mothers were chosen in their first trimester who had Body Mass Index > 30kg /m2 as study group and mothers with a Body Mass Index between 18.5 kg/m2 and 25kg/m2 as control group. Inclusion Criteria - 1. Pregnant women with first trimester BMI >30kg/m2. 2. Pregnant women with first trimester BMI between 18.5kg/m2 and 25kg/m2. 3. Irrespective of age, parity, socio-economic status. Exclusion Criteria - 1. Mothers not booked at First Trimester 2. Miscarriage 3. Anomalous baby 4. Women with BMI between 25.1kg/m2 and 29.9kg/m2. 5. Women with BMI <18.5kg/m2. 6. Women who could not be followed until delivery Method of Study: Pregnant mothers were selected according to the criteria and in all women detailed history followed by complete general and physical examination was done. Relevant hematological, biochemical investigations, USG were done. They were followed up to delivery and postpartum until discharge and outcome studied. SUMMARY: In our study, 99 obese women (BMI>30kg/m2 ) and 201 women with normal BMI (18.5kg/m2 _ 24.99kg/m2) were studied. It was observed that: 1. Obese women were slightly older than control group. Majority of obese women belonged to age group 25-29yrs when compared to control group ,who belonged to 20-24years age group. 2. The mean age of obese women was 27.01yrs and that of control women was 24.14yrs. 3. The proportion of nulliparous women was less in obese group (36.36%) when compared to control group (45.77). 4. In obese group, the mean BMI increased with increase in parity. 5. Among obese group, majority (82.82%) was moderately obese, 12.12% were severely obese and 5.56% were very severely obese. 6. 18.18% of obese women had menstrual abnormalities when compared to 2.49% of control women. 7. Infertility was seen in 20.2% of obese group and 2.49% in control group 8. Obese women had increased incidence of pre-existing medical disorders like hypothyroidism, when compared to control group. But no difference was seen with respect to diabetes, hypertension and other morbidities between the two groups. 9. Obese women had increased incidence of gestational diabetes when compared to control group (10.10% Vs 1.99%) . Obese group had 5.53 fold increased risk of gestational diabetes. 10. The incidence of pre -eclampsia was higher in obese group when compared to control group (13.13% Vs 5.97%). Obese women had 2.3 fold increased risk of developing pre-eclampsia. 11. Gestational hypertension was found to be higher in obese group when compared to control group (10.10% Vs 2.99%). The risk of gestational hypertension among obese group was increased almost 3.6 fold. 12. Obese women were more likely to be induced (12.1%, Odd’s Ratio: 2.55) when compared to control group (4.9%). 13. Increased cesarean delivery rates was found among obese women (56.57%, Odd’s Ratio 2.8) when compared to control group (30.35%). The risk increased with increase in severity of obesity. 14. Nulliparous women had 2.5 fold increased risk of cesarean delivery when compared to women with normal BMI. 15. Emergency primary cesarean deliveries were higher among obese group (31.34%, Odd’s Ratio: 2.13,) when compared to control group (17.64%). Similarly elective primary cesarean delivery was also fond to be higher in obese group (5.97%, Odd’s Ratio: 2.09) when compared to control group(2,94%) 16. No difference was seen among obese and control group with respect to placenta previa, abruptio placenta, malpresentation, multiple pregnancy, instrumental deliveries, shoulder dystocia, complete perineal tears and hemorrhage. 17. Post operative wound infections and wound dehiscence were found to be increased in obese group (23.2%, 8.93%) when compared to control group (9.84%, 1.67%) respectively(Odd’s Ratio: 2.47 and 3.12 respectively). 18. No difference was found in preterm births (<37 weeks) between two groups 19. The majority of the neonates of obese women (44%) were between 3kg-3.49kg where as majority of neonates in control group (48.28%) were between 2.5kg – 2.99kg. 20. Three babies of obese women were >4kg but none were in control group. 21. No difference was seen among obese and control group with respect to Apgar score at 5 Minutes. (3% Vs 0.49%) respectively. 22. There were increased admissions to NICU among neonates of obese women (21%) when compared to control group (8.37%). The major reasons for admissions were for the care of infant of diabetic mother and macrosomia. 23. There was one still birth and one early neonatal death in obese group due to prematurity. None were there in control group Prolonged hospital stay was required in obese group (26.26%) when compared to control group (10.95%). The major reasons for the prolonged stay were due to wound infections, medical disorders and NICU admissions. CONCLUSION: Our study points out the numerous maternal and perinatal risks in obese pregnant women which pose a considerable challenge to the obstetrical practitioner. In addition, massive obesity among women of child bearing age is associated with a number of health risks later in life. This stresses the importance of concentrating on trying to reduce the increasing incidence of obesity in fertile women. The best time of intervention may be before a women considers a pregnancy, because it is not recommended that obese women lose weight during pregnancy. This implicates the need of pre-pregnancy advice and counseling to young women. Obese women considering pregnancy should be informed of the risk that maternal obesity confers on a pregnancy. Health care professionals need to encourage and assist obese women to make life style changes, to lose weight pre-conceptually in an attempt to optimize and potentially decrease the risk of complication in pregnancy. Pregnancies among obese women must be classified as high risk pregnancies and appropriate antenatal care should be provided with heightened surveillance, anticipation and diagnosis of the complications and intervene earlier if complications arise

Learning Versus Stealing: How Important Are Market-Share Reallocations to India\u27s Productivity Growth?

Recent trade theory emphasizes the role of market-share reallocations across firms (“stealing”) in driving productivity growth, whereas previous literature focused on average productivity improvements (“learning”). We use comprehensive, firm-level data from India\u27s organized manufacturing sector to show that market-share reallocations were briefly relevant to explain aggregate productivity gains following the beginning of India\u27s trade reforms in 1991. However, aggregate productivity gains during the period from 1985 to 2004 were largely driven by improvements in average productivity. We show that India\u27s trade, FDI, and licensing reforms are not associated with productivity gains stemming from market share reallocations. Instead, we find that most of the productivity improvements in Indian manufacturing occurred through “learning” and that this learning was linked to the reforms. In the Indian case, the evidence rejects the notion that market share reallocations are the mechanism through which trade reform increases aggregate productivity. Although a plausible response would be that India\u27s labor laws do not easily permit market share reallocations, we show that restrictions on labor mobility cannot explain our results

In With the Big, Out With the Small: Removing Small-Scale Reservations in India

An ongoing debate in employment policy is whether promoting small and medium enterprises creates jobs. We use the elimination of small-scale industry (SSI) promotion in India to address this question. For 60 years, SSI promotion in India focused on reserving certain products for manufacture by small and medium enterprises. We identify the consequences for employment growth, investment, output, productivity, and wages of dismantling India\u27s SSI reservations. We exploit variation in the timing of de-reservation across products and also measure the long-run impact of national SSI policy changes using variation in pretreatment exposure at the district level. Districts more exposed to de-reservation experienced higher employment and output growth. Entrants into the de-reserved product spaces and incumbents that were previously constrained by the size restrictions drove the increase in growth. The results suggest that dismantling India\u27s SSI policies encouraged overall employment growth

Near ω-continuous multifunctions on bitopological spaces

In this paper, we introduce and study basic characterizations, several properties of upper (lower) nearly (i; j)-!-continuous multifunctions on bitopological space

Prevalence of back-pain following caesarean section under spinal anesthesia

Back pain following a caesarean section is a typical complaint. It has been statistically proven that more than 70% of cases, or 7 out of 10 women who give birth, endure back pain. If it is not treated at the appropriate time and with adequate measurement, the back pain may worsen in the future. A systematic literature search was performed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with back pain among patients undergoing spinal anesthesia. Many studies have attempted to determine risk factors for back pain after birth in different populations, using different methods and outcome variables. Data were collected from PubMed, Google scholar and the medicine and nursing database. Back pain that persists after a caesarean delivery is brought on by a number of circumstances. Post-partum back pain is linked to a history involving pre- and post-pregnancy back pain, obesity, bad posture while nursing, sitting, walking, and standing are the contributing factors. The study results show that by maintaining posture correction, yoga, meditation, lumbar support, rest and massage helps to alleviate post anesthetic back pain. This study confirms that the overall incidence of back pain is high in comparison to the majority of studies. The severity of back pain caused by spinal anesthesia is highly connected to the size of the spinal needle, body mass index, and number of attempts, body posture and number of bone contacts

A nutrigenetic approach to investigate the relationship between metabolic traits and vitamin D status in an Asian Indian population

Studies in Asian Indians have examined the association of metabolic traits with vitamin D status. However, findings have been quite inconsistent. Hence, we aimed to explore the relationship between metabolic traits and 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations. We investigate whether this relationship was modified by lifestyle factors using a nutrigenetic approach in 545 Asian Indians randomly selected from the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (219 normal glucose tolerant individuals, 151 with pre-diabetes and 175 individuals with type 2 diabetes). A metabolic genetic risk score (GRS) was developed using five common metabolic disease-related genetic variants. There was a significant interaction between metabolic GRS and carbohydrate intake (energy%) on 25(OH)D (Pinteraction = 0.047). Individuals consuming a low carbohydrate diet (≤62%) and those having lesser number of metabolic risk alleles (GRS ≤ 1) had significantly higher levels of 25(OH)D (p = 0.033). Conversely, individuals consuming a high carbohydrate diet despite having lesser number of risk alleles did not show a significant increase in 25(OH)D (p = 0.662). In summary, our findings show that individuals carrying a smaller number of metabolic risk alleles are likely to have higher 25(OH)D levels if they consume a low carbohydrate diet. These data support the current dietary carbohydrate recommendations of 50%–60% energy suggesting that reduced metabolic genetic risk increases 25(OH)D

The importance of the minimum dosage necessary for UVC decontamination of N95 respirators during the COVID-19 pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a press report highlighting the severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is endangering healthcare workers worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.(1) To meet this urgent need, healthcare institutions across the world have begun to utilize the germicidal properties of ultraviolet C (UVC) to decontaminate N95 respirators so that they can be reused.(2) It is clearly crucial that the dose of UVC delivered is sufficient to kill any viable SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of the COVID-19 pandemic, that may be present on the respirators