Degree of Instant Competition: Estimation of Market Power in India Instant Coffee Market

The new competition policy of the Government of India seeks to promote competition to protect consumer interests and increase market efficiency. In fact, the degree of price transmission between farmers and final consumers also depends on the degree of competition in the processing sector. Moreover, policy of trade liberalization too is expected to have impact on domestic markets. It becomes imperative, therefore, that one knows the degree of competition in various domestic industries. Instant coffee market in India is a duopoly of Nestl� and Hindustan Lever for decades. They also differentiate their products through branding. At the same time, however, incumbents might have perceived potential competition from another firm, Tata Coffee. In fact, instant coffee can be considered as a part of a larger beverage market with numerous competing products. With trade liberalization, imports have also started trickling in. Thus, circumstantial evidence regarding degree of competition or the market power in the instant coffee market is rather mixed one. By econometrically estimating the perceived first-order supply relation and the demand function, we calculate the market power parameter. Results indicate that the market is not characterized by collusive behaviour. It is quite close to perfectly competitive behaviour although we cannot reject the Cournot-Nash behaviour as well. The econometric study may be complemented by in-depth case study on coffee procurement, processing, and pricing by leading producers. Similar estimations of market power and case studies may be undertaken for other industries as well.

Social positioning matters: A socialized affordance perspective of mHealth in India

Existing research on technology affordance rarely considers the role of social structures in shaping the interaction between human actors and technology. In this paper, we draw upon the concept of social positioning to explore how socialized affordances of technology adoption, as well as their impact in work and social life, are shaped by the social positions that human actors occupy within multiple social structures. We do so by examining the adoption of mHealth devices by community health workers in India. The study generates theoretical implications for research on affordances of technology and social structures by integrating social positioning of actors in the analysis of a digital practice, and enriching IS research by incorporating the broader social arrangements and power relations

Nonlinear Volatility of River Flux Fluctuations

We study the spectral properties of the magnitudes of river flux increments, the volatility. The volatility series exhibits (i) strong seasonal periodicity and (ii) strongly power-law correlations for time scales less than one year. We test the nonlinear properties of the river flux increment series by randomizing its Fourier phases and find that the surrogate volatility series (i) has almost no seasonal periodicity and (ii) is weakly correlated for time scales less than one year. We quantify the degree of nonlinearity by measuring (i) the amplitude of the power spectrum at the seasonal peak and (ii) the correlation power-law exponent of the volatility series.Comment: 5 revtex pages, 6 page

Interstellar extinction in the open clusters towards galactic longitude around 130 degrees

In this paper we present a detailed study of the intra-cluster reddening material in the young open clusters located around $l \sim 130^o$ using colour-excess diagrams and two-colour diagrams. The study supports the universality of the extinction curves for $\lambda \geq \lambda_J$, whereas for shorter wavelengths the curve depends upon the value of the $R_{cluster}$ (total-to-selective absorption in the cluster region). The value of $R_{cluster}$ in the case of NGC 654, NGC 869 and NGC 884 is found to be normal, whereas the value of $R_{cluster}$ in the cluster regions NGC 1502 and IC 1805 indicates an anomalous reddening law in these regions. It is also found that the extinction process in the $U$ band in the case of NGC 663 seems to be less efficient, whereas in the case of NGC 869 the process is more efficient

Interstellar extinction towards open clusters and galactic structure

We study the distribution of interstellar matter near the galactic plane on the basis of open star clusters and reviewed the correlation of extinction with different physical parameters of the clusters to understand the galactic structure. It is seen from the extinction towards open clusters that about 90% of the absorbing material lie within -5<b<5 deg of the galactic plane. The mean thickness of the absorbing material, which is determined in terms of half-width value \beta, is estimated to be about 125+/-21 pc. We show that the interstellar absorption follows a sinusoidal variation with galactic longitude and maximum and minimum absorptions occur at l ~ 48+/-4 deg and l ~ 228+/-4 deg respectively. It is found that the galactic plane defined by the reddening material is inclined by an angle of 0.6+/-0.4 deg to the formal galactic plane and inclination is maximum at l ~ 54+/-6 deg. The reddening analysis has been used to constrain the Solar offset which is found to be about 22.8+/-3.3 pc above the reddening plane. We obtained a scale height of 53+/-5 pc for the distribution of open clusters while it is 186+/-25 pc for the distribution of reddening material from the reddening plane.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, accepted for the publication in MNRA