Monetary and Multidimensional Poverty in Kerala: A Review of Recent Evidence

Although income based poverty estimates and assessment still guide much of the national policies in India, there is wider recognition of non-income dimensions of poverty than twenty years back. The last ten years especially has seen significant developments in the conceptualization and application of multidimensional poverty. The original capabilities idea became theoretically more robust and its measurement improved with the application of the multidimensional poverty index (MPI). Even before multidimensional conceptualizations of development and poverty made their way into the mainstream, this was discussed and debated in the special context of Kerala, which showed the paradox of low income-high human development. Further, Kerala had made its own contribution to the multidimensional analysis toolkit by developing a risk index through participatory methods to assess poverty

Addressing water stress through wastewater reuse: Complexities and challenges in Bangalore, India

Wastewater reuse is an important adaptation option for mitigating water stress in rapidly growing urban centres. But, wastewater reuse is easier said than done, particularly in developing countries. The task becomes even more challenging when one takes a basin-level perspective. We illustrate these challenges by studying the Vrishabhavathy River in Bangalore, India, which carries almost half of the city’s wastewater. First, we find that the sewage treatment plant (STP) located on this river does not function efficiently and no positive impact of effluent discharge on river water quality was observed. Second, while the Sewerage Board has implem ented conventional centralized sewage treatment and proposed its expansion and even larger scale projects, decentralized wastewater treatment, advocated by many civil society groups, may be more cost effective. Options at all scales, however, face several institutional challenges in implementation. Third, while untreated wastewater is a health hazard for downstream farmers using this water for irrigation, substantial wastewater recycling upstream would have a negative impact on their livelihoods by reducing the quantity of water available for irrigation. In addition, as the Vrishabhavathy is a tributary of the inter-state river Cauvery, reduced flows might impact on inter-state water sharing commitments complicating matters further. Realizing the potential of wastewater reuse in Bangalore will thus require techno-institutional integration and thinking at a basin scal

Benzimidazole-modified polyaniline micro-shells for electrochemical detection of cadmium in aqueous solution

Benzimidazole-functionalized polyaniline (BMPANI) was synthesized by interfacial poly­merization technique and used for electrochemical sensing of cadmium ions in an aqueous solution. The material was characterized for its structural and morphological features using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The BMPANI has a micro-shell structure produced from the self-assembly of the monomer units in solution before the polymerization reaction. The material was trialed for cadmium ion sensing using a BMPANI-modified carbon paste electrode (BMPANI-CPE). Electrochemical techniques, i.e., cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV), were performed to assess the sensing characteristics of the material. Various electrode preparation parameters, i.e., deposition potential, pH of deposition solution, and thickness of the active layer, were optimized to achieve the highest level of sensitivity. The selectivity towards cadmium ions, interference from other ions, as well as stability and reusability of the BMPANI-CPE, were also examined and found to be satisfactory

Going with the flow? Urban wastewater and livelihoods change in peri-urban Bengaluru

As cities grow, peri-urban areas and surrounding villages undergo rapid changes in land use, environment and livelihoods. The conventional view on change in peri-urban areas is one of shifts in livelihoods away from agriculture towards urban jobs, as well as keeping lands fallow, to be taken up by real estate or industries. Further, people in peri-urban areas experience huge changes in the nature of and control over local natural resources. This is particularly so in the case of water resources. The demand for water from expanding cities is often met by sourcing it from peri-urban areas. In addition, domestic sewage and industrial discharges from cities put pressure on lakes and rivers, and the impact of pollution is felt in surrounding landscapes. Planners and policymakers have been grappling with the implications of such transformations for both agricultural production and environmental sustainability. Here we examine the case of peri-urban Bengaluru to ask the questions: is abandoning agriculture inevitable in the wake of urbanisation or can there be other trajectories? How have peri-urban farmers been responding to water pollution and changes in irrigation water quality

Water Management in Arkavathy basin: a situation analysis

The Arkavathy sub-basin, which is part of the Cauvery basin, is a highly stressed, rapidly urbanising watershed on the outskirts of the city of Bengaluru. The purpose of this situation analysis document is to summarise the current state of knowledge on water management in the Arkavathy sub-basin and identify critical knowledge gaps to inform future researchers in the basin. It is hoped that such an analysis will help those studying or working on water issues in the basin itself, and also provide useful insights for other such urbanising basins. The Arkavathy sub-basin is located in the state of Karnataka in India (see Figure 1). It covers an area of 4,253 km2, and is part of the inter-state Cauvery River basin. The sub-basin covers parts of eight taluka – Doddaballapur, Nelamangala, Magadi, Bangalore North, Bangalore South, Ramanagara, Anekal and Kanakapura within three districts – Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural and Ramanagara. The total population in the sub-basin was 72 lakhs in 2001 and is estimated to be approximately 86 lakhs in 2011. This is distributed approximately 50:50 between urban and rural settlements (although the urban share is growing rapidly), with 33 lakhs from Bengaluru city (more than one-third of Bengaluru’s total population). There are also four major Class II towns: Doddaballapur, Nelamangala, Ramanagara, and Kanakapura with populations ranging from 35,000 to 95,000. In spite of rapid urbanisation, there are still 1,107 revenue villages with populations ranging from less than 10 to 6,0001, and agriculture continues to be the mainstay of a large number of them

Whose river? The changing waterscape of the upper Arkavathy under urbanisation

Urban areas in India have been experiencing unprecedented population and economic growth in the last decade. As cities grow and incomes rise, a new challenge has arisen: that of supplying domestic water reliably, and of reasonable quality, to this rapidly growing urban population, while ensuring that the well-being of future generations is not jeopardised

Thinking about Urban Resilience: The Case of Water Scarcity and Wastewater Reuse in Bengaluru

WITH ORIGINS in the ecological sciences, the concept of resilience gained currency in the context of climate change. The ‘classical’ ecological notions of resilience emphasize recovery to a prior state in the aftermath of stress or shock. The broader social-ecological notion of resilience focuses on learning, innovation, adaptive capacity and transformation (Folke, 2006: 259). The literature on urban resilience (Leichenko, 2011; Romero Lankao and Qin, 2011: 145-6) discusses systems bouncing back to ‘equilibrium’ in the aftermath of shocks, such as natural disasters (drawing from the classical literature), as well as the adaptive capacities of systems to long-term stressors or shifts such as climate change

Stroke from Delayed Embolization of Polymerized Glue Following Percutaneous Direct Injection of a Carotid Body Tumor

A 52-year-old male with right carotid body tumor underwent direct percutaneous glue (n-butylcyanoacrylate [NBCA]) embolization. Several hours later, he developed left hemiparesis from embolization of the polymerized glue cast. Migration of glue during percutaneous tumor embolization is presumed to occur only in the liquid state, which may lead to stroke or cranial nerve deficits. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of delayed glue embolization from a treated hypervascular tumor of the head and neck

Quality of Life determinants in women with breast cancer undergoing treatment with curative intent

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of breast cancer and its subsequent treatment has significant impact on the woman's physical functioning, mental health and her well-being, and thereby causes substantial disruption to quality of life (QOL). Factors like patient education, spousal support and employment status, financial stability etc., have been found to influence QOL in the breast cancer patient. The present study attempts to identify the determinants of QOL in a cohort of Indian breast cancer patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) Version 4 Malayalam was used to assess quality of life in 502 breast cancer patients undergoing treatment with curative intent. The data on social, demographic, disease, treatment, and follow-up were collected from case records. Data was analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 47.7 years with 44.6% of the women being pre-menopausal. The FACT-B mean score was 90.6 (Standard Deviation [SD] = 18.4). The mean scores of the subscales were – Physical well-being 19.6 (SD = 4.7), Social well-being 19.9 (SD = 5.3), Emotional well-being 14 (SD = 4.9), Functional well-being 13.0 (SD = 5.7), and the Breast subscale 23.8 (SD = 4.4). Younger women (<45 years), women having unmarried children, nodal and/or metastatic disease, and those currently undergoing active treatment showed significantly poorer QOL scores in the univariate analysis. However multivariate analysis indicated that the religion, stage, pain, spouse education, nodal status, and distance travelled to reach the treatment centre as indicative of patient QOL. CONCLUSION: QOL derangements are common in breast cancer patients necessitating the provisions for patient access to psychosocial services. However, because of the huge patient load, a screening process to identify those meriting intervention over the general population would be a viable solution