Women empowerment and micro finance : Case study from Kerala

The subject of micro-finance is considered as significant and emerging trend in the present scenario for the empowerment of women. Micro finance programmes are promoted as an important strategy for women’s empowerment. Micro finance builds mutual trust and confidence between bankers and rural poor to encourage banking in a segment of population where formal financial institutions usually find difficult to reach. The present paper examines the economic impact of micro finance beneficiaries and whether the economic empowerment has resulted in the generation of a set of self reliant women. The Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala State was selected for the case study. The survey shows about the positive impact of the development programme of Kudumbashree, a micro financial institution in Kerala, India.women empowerment micro finance poverty.

Modelling shared space users via rule-based social force model

The promotion of space sharing in order to raise the quality of community living and safety of street surroundings is increasingly accepted feature of modern urban design. In this context, the development of a shared space simulation tool is essential in helping determine whether particular shared space schemes are suitable alternatives to traditional street layouts. A simulation tool that enables urban designers to visualise pedestrians and cars trajectories, extract flow and density relation in a new shared space design and achieve solutions for optimal design features before implementation. This paper presents a three-layered microscopic mathematical model which is capable of representing the behaviour of pedestrians and vehicles in shared space layouts and it is implemented in a traffic simulation tool. The top layer calculates route maps based on static obstacles in the environment. It plans the shortest path towards agents' respective destinations by generating one or more intermediate targets. In the second layer, the Social Force Model (SFM) is modified and extended for mixed traffic to produce feasible trajectories. Since vehicle movements are not as flexible as pedestrian movements, velocity angle constraints are included for vehicles. The conflicts described in the third layer are resolved by rule-based constraints for shared space users. An optimisation algorithm is applied to determine the interaction parameters of the force-based model for shared space users using empirical data. This new three-layer microscopic model can be used to simulate shared space environments and assess, for example, new street designs

Rainfall dynamics at different temporal scales: A chaotic perspective

International audienceThis study of the behaviour of rainfall dynamics at different temporal scales identifies the type of approach most suitable for transformation of rainfall data from one scale to another. Rainfall data of four different temporal scales, i.e. daily, 2-day, 4-day and 8-day, observed over a period of about 25 years at the Leaf River basin, Mississippi, USA, are analysed. The correlation dimension method is employed to identify the behaviour of rainfall dynamics. The finite correlation dimensions obtained for the four rainfall series (4.82, 5.26, 6.42 and 8.87, respectively) indicate the possible existence of chaotic behaviour in the rainfall observed at the four scales. A possible implication of this might be that the rainfall processes at these scales are related through a chaotic (scale-invariant) behaviour. However, a comparison of the correlation dimension and coefficient of variation of each of the time series reveals an inverse relationship between the two (higher dimension for lower coefficient of variation and vice versa). The presence of a large number of zeros in the higher resolution time series (that could result in an underestimation of the dimension) and the possible presence of a higher level of noise in the lower resolution time series (that could result in an overestimation of the dimension) might account for such results. In view of these problems, it is concluded that the results must be verified using other chaos identification methods and the existence of chaos must be substantiated with additional evidence. Keywords: rainfall, chaos, scaling, correlation dimension, number of variables, coefficient of variation, data size, noise, zero

A Study about the Impact of Nutrition Education and Awareness of Food Safety among Women SHG Members

Foods prepared in unorganized sector is unique in India as these measures food processing units are diverse in size and location, in the absence of quality control measures, poor quality packaging material, improper transportation, use of contaminated water, high turn-over of food handlers, lack of personnel hygiene and non judicious use of colorants and preservatives, these unit pose considerable food safety hazards. These days the women Self Help Groups (SHG) are implementing a large number of village cottage industries especially food processing industries. These industries are considered as unorganized sector .These informal sector need food safety education. Hence the present study has been designed with the aim to create awareness amongst women who are involved in food processing trade in unorganized sector with regard to various parameters like adopting food safety and hygienic method, food safety laws for food production.Food Safety; Nutrition Education; Women Self Help Groups; India

A chaotic approach to rainfall disaggregation

The importance of high-resolution rainfall data to understanding the intricacies of the dynamics of hydrological processes and describing them in a sophisticated and accurate way has been increasingly realized. The last decade has witnessed a number of studies and numerous approaches to the possibility of transformation of rainfall data from one scale to another, nearly unanimously pointing to such a possibility. However, an important limitation of such approaches is that they treat the rainfall process as a realization of a stochastic process, and therefore there seems to be a lack of connection between the structure of the models and the underlying physics of the rainfall process. The present study introduces a new framework based on the notion of deterministic chaos to investigate the behavior of the dynamics of rainfall transformation between different temporal scales aimed toward establishing this connection. Rainfall data of successively doubled resolutions (i.e., 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, and 192 hours) observed at Leaf River basin, in the state of Mississippi, United States of America, are studied. The correlation dimension method is employed to investigate the presence of chaos in the rainfall transformation. The finite and low correlation dimensions obtained for the distributions of weights between rainfall data of different scales indicate the existence of chaos in the rainfall transformation, suggesting the applicability of a chaotic model. The formulation of a simple chaotic disaggregation model and its application to the Leaf River rainfall data provides encouraging results with practical potential. The disaggregation model results themselves indicate the presence of chaos in the dynamics of rainfall transformation, providing support for the results obtained using the correlation dimension method

A deterministic width function model

International audienceUse of a deterministic fractal-multifractal (FM) geometric method to model width functions of natural river networks, as derived distributions of simple multifractal measures via fractal interpolating functions, is reported. It is first demonstrated that the FM procedure may be used to simulate natural width functions, preserving their most relevant features like their overall shape and texture and their observed power-law scaling on their power spectra. It is then shown, via two natural river networks (Racoon and Brushy creeks in the United States), that the FM approach may also be used to closely approximate existing width functions

Globalization Of Entrepreneurship: Policy Considerations For SME Development In Indonesia

SMEs are of overwhelming importance to the young and growing economies of most Southeast Asian nations, including Indonesia.  The country is a vast polyglot archipelago, struggling with poverty and unemployment, poor and inadequate infrastructure, rampant corruption, insufficient capital, and unequal distribution of resources.  It has recently experienced fundamental changes in political governance, regional empowerment, and economic structures as a result of the Asian Financial Crisis, coupled with widespread social unrest which resulted in the ouster of the authoritarian regime of President Suharto. This paper evaluates the existing private sector development policy in Indonesia, which has been found to be both ambivalent and inconsistent. The Guided Democracy and Guided Economy policies of the post-independence era were socialist in nature.  The subsequent New Order regime provided preferred treatment to selected segments of society.  In order to succeed in promoting SME development to advance the welfare of the economically weak groups, the newly launched programs need to be fine-tuned to allow for the establishment of a favorable and non-discriminative investment climate. There is much that Indonesia can learn from the experience of India and Singapore in implementing meaningful policy that can effectively promote SME development, especially in the production, distribution and service sectors in a global context.  Policies have to be market-oriented, demand-driven and not dominated by government agencies which, in the past, have failed to provide services relevant to the actual needs of SMEs

Modeling geophysical complexity: a case for geometric determinism

International audienceIt has been customary in the last few decades to employ stochastic models to represent complex data sets encountered in geophysics, particularly in hydrology. This article reviews a deterministic geometric procedure to data modeling, one that represents whole data sets as derived distributions of simple multifractal measures via fractal functions. It is shown how such a procedure may lead to faithful holistic representations of existing geophysical data sets that, while complementing existing representations via stochastic methods, may also provide a compact language for geophysical complexity. The implications of these ideas, both scientific and philosophical, are stressed

Development Of SMEs In Myanmar In The Globalization Era

SMEs are of overwhelming importance to the young and growing economies of most Southeast Asian nations, but this is exceptionally the case for Myanmar. The country is rich with resources but has not managed to rid itself of post colonial mismanagement, socialist and bureaucratic tendencies. This paper evaluates the existing private sector development policy in Myanmar which can only be defined as lacking any substance, coherence and coordination. Myanmar needs to create a meaningful and comprehensive policy for the development of its private sector. This includes trade and investment liberalization and creation of infrastructure. Much can be learned from other members of ASEAN, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, that have succeeded in similar endeavors