Caste and the Court: Examining Judicial Selection Bias on Bench Assignments on the Indian Supreme Court

This paper is a study on the effect of caste on bench assignments on the Indian Supreme Court. The objective was to determine whether the Chief Justices have historically assigned associate justices to benches based on their individual castes – Brahmin or Non-Brahmin – in order to tilt the bias of the Court in either an elitist (Brahmin) direction or a non-elitist (Non-Brahmin) direction. Based on a probability analysis of panel assignments, I created a new model to determine the extant of castebased judicial selection bias on the Indian Supreme Court. Using a random sample of cases from 1950 to 2000, a two-sample test of proportionality was employed to test whether any bias was present in the Chief Justice’s bench assignments. No caste bias was discovered in either the fifty-year period of the Court or in a smaller data set of cases between 1977 and 2000 (a period after the emergency between 1975 and 1977)

Capture process and prospects in marine island fishery with emphasis on trade: a typical paradigm of underutilized resources in Bay Islands

In economics the term ‘trade-off’ is expressed as opportunity cost, referring to the most preferred alternative given up. A trade-off, then, involves a sacrifice that must be made to obtain a certain product, rather than other products that can be made using the same required resources. For a person going to a basketball game, its opportunity cost is the money and time expended, say that would have been spent watching a particular television program (Wikipedia). Another key word is ‘sustainable development’. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (World Commission on Environment and Development). Sustainable development was added as one of the general objectives of the World Trade Organization when it was established in 1994

Pd-catalyzed enantioselective aerobic oxidation of secondary alcohols: Applications to the total synthesis of alkaloids

Enantioselective syntheses of the alkaloids (-)-aurantioclavine, (+)-amurensinine, (-)-lobeline, and (-)- and (+)-sedamine are described. The syntheses demonstrate the effectiveness of the Pd-catalyzed asymmetric oxidation of secondary alcohols in diverse contexts and the ability of this methodology to set the absolute configuration of multiple stereocenters in a single operation. The utility of an aryne C-C insertion reaction in accessing complex polycyclic frameworks is also described

Reinforcement learning for continuous control

Reinforcement learning is an area in machine learning that concerns how agents should take actions in an environment to maximize its reward. Earlier works on reinforcement learning algorithms work well for discrete action and discrete observations. In the continuous environment the actions are infinite in number and observations are also infinite. So certain reinforcement algorithms were developed in order to learn on continuous spaces. Among those, two algorithms are Stochastic Synapse Reinforcement Learning (SSRL) and Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG). Previous works used these algorithms on different environments separately in order to understand the behaviour of the algorithms. In this thesis, a comparison study between between SSRL and DDPG is made by using them on the same continuous environments and observing how each algorithm behaves on each environment and what kind of strengths and weaknesses can be inferred by comparing the algorithms. The algorithms are made to run on two continuous environments, namely mountain car continuous and pendulum. They are run 10 times for each set of time steps like 2000, 3000, 4000 for 1000 episodes each and the cumulative reward at the end of each episode is found. The episode is the length of the simulation at end of which the algorithm ends in a terminal state. The average and standard deviation of cumulative rewards across 10 repetitions for each time step and all the repetitions across different time steps are also collected. The results shows different trends across different experiments. Based on the results it can be inferred that overall SSRL performs consistently even though it does not gains rewards like DDPG whereas DDPG performs inconsistently but certain rewards it earns are higher than those of SSRL. Also in the case of the delayed-reinforcement pendulum environment both algorithms do not learn well, showing their weakness towards environments whose terminal state is not definite

Catalytic Enantioselective Stereoablative Alkylation of 3-Halooxindoles: Facile Access to Oxindoles with C3 All-Carbon Quaternary Stereocenters

From 2 to 1! Racemic tertiary halooxindoles proceed to enantioenriched oxindoles bearing all-carbon quaternary stereocenters as a result of a catalytic enantioselective stereoablative process (see scheme). The application of this procedure allows for the rapid asymmetric construction of biologically significant alkaloid core motifs

Case series of trigonal meningiomas

Background Trigonal meningiomas have unique clinical presentation, unlike those in other areas of brain. Situated deep in the brain, the surgical nuances of this tumour are distinctive. We present our experience with this tumour including a discussion of surgical corridors that may be employed. Methods At our centre, 12 trigonal meningiomas were operated over past two decades. A retrospective analysis of case records of these cases was undertaken as regards age, sex clinical presentation, imaging and surgical approach. Results Mean time from heralding symptom to presentation was 10.4 months. At presentation, the most commonly encountered symptoms were those of non-localising symptoms attributable to raised ICP. Majority of lesions were more than 6 cm and on left side and the preferred surgical approach was inferior temporo-parietal. Most symptoms were relieved on long-term follow-up except homonymous hemianopia. Conclusion The incidence of deficit is low on employing the “shortest route” approach, even in the dominant hemisphere and through eloquent area. This may be secondary to possible shift of eloquent area function due to longstanding lesion and may thus be a “workable” surgical option, especially in resource-limited centres where such resources as neuronavigation and tractography may be unavailable

Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas - A Framework for Community Based Resource Management: Vembanad, Kerala 2016

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 emphasizes Conservation and Sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Further, India's National Conservation Strategy and Policy Statement on Environmental and Development, 1992 and the National Environmental Policy, 2006 recognize the importance of multi stakeholder partnership in implementation of conservation plans for sustainable development of natural resources

Implementation of clean coal technologies to comply with "New Emission Norms" for thermal power plants - way forward for the Southern region. Summary Report of NITI Aayog-DST-NIAS Workshop, 17th September 2019

Coal based Thermal Power Plants (TPP) are the backbone of the power generation utilities in the country. Coal based TPPs constitute to around 56.1% of the total installed capacity and generates around 74.2% of the electricity generated in India. Considering the high pollution and resource impacts, of TPPs the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) notified the Environment Protection (Amendment) Rules (EPAR) on December 5, 2015 with a two-year window for TPPs to meet these standards. When implemented, these norms are expected to have positive environmental and health benefits by leading to lower pollution levels from TPPs. However, compliance with the new emission norms would require retrofitting existing thermal power plants with various Pollution Control Technologies (PCT) in the form of auxiliary systems to control SO2, NOX and PM emissions. In order to ensure 24x7 supply of electricity, CPCB (in consultation with CEA) finalized the revised timelines for all TPPs to comply with the new emission norms by December 2022. The team at Energy and Environment Programme (EEP) in NIAS, Bangalore interacted with various Power Plant Generation companies (GENCOs) in Southern Region to understand their challenges and way forward with respect to the huge capital investment and schedules for implementation. This team developed and a “Concept Paper” for a workshop with the theme, “Strategies and Action Plans needed for transition to an environment friendly and sustainable Electricity Source mix for the Southern Region”. This Workshop was held at NIAS on 17th September 2019 to enable key stakeholders - Power Plant Owners (Central & Southern States), Pollution Control Equipment Suppliers, Regulators and Policymakers to share their experience and deliberate on the challenges to develop a road map for implementation. This report presents the gist of each talk by the invited participants, and also consolidates the key findings and recommendations of the Workshop. This summary report will form the basis for further research as well as for policy advocacy with GOI through NITI Aayog. A.V. Krishnan, Shyam Sundar R, Shilpa Srivastava and R. Srikant

Implementation of Clean Coal Technologies to comply with “New Emission Norms” for Thermal Power Plants - Way forward for Southern Region Summary Report of NITI Aayog-DST-NIAS Workshop 17th September 2019 (NIAS/NSE/EEP/U/WR/13/2019)

Coal based Thermal Power Plants (TPP) are the backbone of the power generation utilities in the country. Coal based TPPs constitute to around 56.1% of the total installed capacity and generates around 74.2% of the electricity generated in India. Considering the high pollution and resource impacts, of TPPs the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) notified the Environment Protection (Amendment) Rules (EPAR) on December 5, 2015 with a two-year window for TPPs to meet these standards.  When implemented, these norms are expected to have positive environmental and health benefits by leading to lower pollution levels from TPPs. However, compliance with the new emission norms would require retrofitting existing thermal power plants with various Pollution Control Technologies (PCT) in the form of auxiliary systems to control SO2, NOX and PM emissions. In order to ensure 24x7 supply of electricity, CPCB (in consultation with CEA) finalized the revised timelines for all TPPs to comply with the new emission norms by December 2022. The team at Energy and Environment Programme (EEP) in NIAS, Bangalore interacted with various Power Plant Generation companies (GENCOs) in Southern Region to understand their challenges and way forward with respect to the huge capital investment and schedules for implementation. This team developed and a “Concept Paper” for a workshop with the theme, “Strategies and Action Plans needed for transition to an environment friendly and sustainable Electricity Source mix for the Southern Region”. This Workshop was held at NIAS on 17th September 2019 to enable key stakeholders - Power Plant Owners (Central & Southern States), Pollution Control Equipment Suppliers, Regulators and Policymakers to share their experience and deliberate on the challenges to develop a road map for implementation.  This report presents the gist of each talk by the invited participants, and also consolidates the key findings and recommendations of the Workshop.  This summary report will form the basis for further research as well as for policy advocacy with GOI through NITI Aayog

A Diastereodivergent Synthetic Strategy for the Syntheses of Communesin F and Perophoramidine

An efficient, unified, and stereodivergent approach toward communesin F and perophoramidine was examined. The C(3) all-carbon quaternary center of an oxindole was smoothly constructed by base-promoted indolone-malonate alkylation chemistry. The complementary relative stereochemistry of the crucial vicinal quaternary centers found in communesin F and perophoramidine was selectively installed by substrate-controlled decarboxylative allylic alkylations