A Value-Based Approach for Sustainable Supplier-Customer Relationships: The Case of the Indian Steel Industry

The steel industry, which has endured years of mediocre performance due to a supply glut and consequent depressed world prices, has seen considerable resurgence during the last several months. The ever-widening demand-supply gap, and greatly increased input costs have resulted in prices firming up. The sharp increase in steel prices without any let-up is an issue that steel customers have found difficult to grapple with. Many customers believe that the steel industry is behaving opportunistically. The paper attempts to understand the dynamics of the Indian steel industry. Although the steel industry caters to both consumer (B2C) and business (B2B) markets, the focus of the paper is on the business markets, which accounts for 80% of the market. After presenting a picture of who the suppliers and customers of the steel industry are, the paper presents the various forces at play in the industry, a conceptual model to understand supplier-customer relationships in the industry, and traces the sources of animosity and hostility between the supplier and the customer firms. Forging meaningful value-based long-term relationships between supplier and customer firms as a way forward is explored. The paper presents possible remedies to the malady of distrust between customer and supplier firms. Collaborative working between competing suppliers and active pan-industry collaborative forums to bring better cooperation and trust between customer and supplier firms are essential first steps to bring normalcy back into the industry’s functioning.

Oxygen consumption at rest and after moderate aerobic exercise in sportsmen

The oxygen consumption at rest and after moderate aerobic exercise on a treadmill was estimated in 20 sportsmen of Loyola College, Madra s T.he mean oxygen consumption index at rest was 118 ml/min/m2 end there was a three-fold increase in oxygen consumption after walking at 5 k.m. per hour for five minutes on the treadmill.T he rise in pulse rate and the rise in systolic blood pressure after the exercise did not have any significant correlation with the excess oxygen consumption. However. the product of the rise in pulse rate end the rise in systolic blood pressure (double product) showed a significant correlation with the excess oxygen consum e d . The excess minute ventilation showed a positive correlation with the excess oxygen consumed, whereas the PO2 difference between the inspired and expired air showed a negative correlation. It is suggested that after moderate aerobic exercise in sportsmen, the initial responses are more on the respiratory system rather on the cardiovascular system

DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY STUDIES OF ELECTRONIC AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF ZNSIP SEMICONDUCTOR

First principles calculation within density functional theory (DFT) has been used to calculate the electronic, optical and thermal properties of ZnSiP2 chalcopyrite semiconductor. The result of band structure, total density of state (DOS) and partial density of state (PDOS) have been discussed. The dielectric constant, refractive index, reflectivity, absorption coefficients, extinction coefficient and loss function have been presented in energy range of 0-25 eV. The values of melting point, Debye temperature, heat of formation and bulk modulus have been calculated. The calculated values of these parameters are in good agreement with the experimental values and the value reported by previous researchers

Urbanisation and Growth of Slum Population in Jharkhand: A Spatial Analysis

The objective of this paper is to examine the relation between the pace of urbanisation and growth of slum population in Jharkhand. This paper also attempts to analyse the trends and patterns of growth of slum population at the district level in Jharkhand. In terms of urbanisation process of India, slums have become an integral part of urban scenario. In India, rapid growth of slums is the result of rural-urban migration of the rural poor to the cities/towns in search of employment in the last two decades. In the absence of any affordable housing, there has been growth of slums in the urban areas of the country. In India, out of a total population of 1.21 billion, 31.30% population resides in the urban areas, but 21.68% (61.8 million) of the total urban population live in the slums. Slums are considered as a major problem within the urban areas, particularly in relation to the issues of transportation, population growth, health and safety. The developing states or regions of India are more prone to this problem due to the lack of infrastructural development and heavy urban population pressure. Like other states of India, Jharkhand too is facing the problem of slums. After its separation from Bihar in 2000, the rate of urbanisation and the rate of growth of slums had gone high. The study reveals that in 2001, there were only 11 urban centers consisting of slum population but in 2011, it reached to 31. The slum population registers 23.68% growth while the urban population growth stands at 32%. This paper is primarily based on secondary data collected from different governmental agencies, particularly the Census data of population to analyse the spatial distribution of slum population in the districts of Jharkhand. This study explores the changing urbanisation scenario in Jharkhand and the growth of slums with respect to it

Transfer co-efficient for carbon monoxide in sportsmen

The transfer factor (TLCO) and the transfer coefficient (KCO) for carbon monoxide were measured by the single-breath method in eleven non-smoking college sportsmen. The mean transfer factor for whole lung in the college sportsmen was within normal limits when compared to predicted values of European descent; however, the transfer coefficient was high and is thought to be due to a rise in pulmonary capillary blood volume. It is postulated that continuous and prolonged training of sportsmen causes recruitment of pulmonary capillaries and this causes increased capillary blood volume even at rest

N=4 supergravity for Type IIB on T^6/Z_2 in presence of fluxes

We report on the construction of four dimensional gauged supergravity models that can be interpreted as type IIB orientifold compactification in presence of 3-form fluxes and D3--branes. We mainly address our attention to the symplectic embedding of the U-duality group of the theory and the consequent choice of the gauge group, whose four dimensional killing vectors are the remnant of the ten dimensional fluxes. We briefly discuss the structure of the scalar potential arising from the gauging and the properties of the killing vectors in order to preserve some amount of supersymmetry.Comment: LaTeX, iopart class, 9 pages, Contribution to the proceedings of the workshop of the RTN Network "The quantum structure of space-time and the geometric nature of fundamental interactions",Copenhagen, September 2003 2nd version, references adde

Effect of Substrates Types on CO Gas Sensing of SnO2 Thin Film Prepared by Sol-Gel Method

Tin oxide thin film was synthesized on glass and quartz substrate by sol-gel dip coating process taking tin (II) chloride as precursor and methanol as solvent. XRD study confirmed the tetragonal rutile structure of SnO2. It was concluded that the transmission was higher and grain size was bigger in case of quartz than glass substrate from the study of optical characteristics by UV/VIS Spectrophotometer and SEM micrographs. CO gas sensing property of SnO2 thin film was studied and it was revealed that the sensitivity of SnO2 thin film grown on quartz substrate shows better performance than the film grown on glass substrate under the same conditions. Sensitivity of the film to CO gas was measured at different temperatures and was found to be highly sensitive at 220 C for glass substrate and 210 C for quartz substrate, at 50 ppm concentration. The result of change in conductivity of the sensors in presence of CO gas was also reported. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3554

Cell-mediated immunity in chyluria

Cellular immune response to mitogens phytohemaggluthin (PHA) and poke weed mitogen (PWM) was assessed in 13 patients with chyluria and 32 healthy controls. The mean stimulation Index of the patient group was significantly lower than the control group. The degree of depression was neither related to the duration of excretion of chyle nor to the microfilaraemic status

Ultra fine chromite concentration using spiral concentrator

The conventional chromite beneficiation circuit utilises spiral concentrator for recovering chromite fines and as its efficiency decreases with respect to the decrease in particle size. Pilot scale studies have been performed to understand the effect of different process parameters which influence the separation of ultra fine chromite fines from a typical plant tailing. The process parameters of spiral concentrator such as feed rate (m3/hr), feed pulp density (% solids by weight) and splitter position (cm) are considered for the study. Splitter position has major influence on both grade and recovery of the concentrate fraction of spiral concentrator. Maximum grade of 48.54% Cr2O3 can be achieved in the concentrate fraction of spiral concentrator with 20.41% Cr2O3 recovery. Performance of spiral concentrator at different combination of process parameters was analysed with 3D surface plots