Multi Dimensional Deprivation in India during and after the Reforms: Do the Household Expenditure and the Family Health Surveys Present Consistent Evidence?

This paper uses the recent approach of multidimensional deprivation measures to provide a comprehensive and wide ranging assessment of changes to living standards in India during the period, 1992/93-2004/5.This covers the reforms and the immediate post reforms time periods. The study is based on the simultaneous use of two parallel data sets, namely the NSS and NFHS data sets covering proximate rounds and near identical time periods. The study is conducted both at regionally disaggregated levels and by socio economic groups. The deprivation dimensions range widely from the conventional expenditure dimensions to non expenditure dimensions such as access to drinking water and clean fuel, to health dimensions such as child stunting and the mother’s BMI. The use of decomposable deprivation measures allows the identification of regions, socio economic groups and deprivation dimensions that are contributing more than others to total deprivation.Multidimensional Deprivation, Social Exclusion, Decomposable Deprivation Measures, Scheduled Classes and Tribes, Clean Fuel, Stunted Children.

Multi Dimensional Deprivation in the Awakening Giants: A Comparative Study on Micro Data

This paper evaluates and compares multidimensional deprivation in India and China during the 1990s and beyond. The exercise is conducted on two micro data sets that have been tailor made for this study. It departs from the recent comparisons between India and China that are based on macro aggregates such as trade, investment and growth rates and undertakes a systematic and comprehensive analysis of living standards in the two countries based on unit record data. The paper disaggregates the overall deprivation by categories, and compares the deprivation distribution between the two countries. This study reports that the high growth rates did not translate into an unambiguous improvement in living standards in either country. Deprivation is still unacceptably high in some categories. While rural deprivation is much higher in India than in China, they face similar levels of urban deprivation. Special attention is paid to a comparison of child health, and its link with mother’s health, between the two countries. China outperforms India on child health with lower incidence of stunting and wasting. While both countries still record high rates of child stunting in the new millennium, wasting is much more of an issue in India than in China. The study provides evidence of strong link between deprivation in access to basic facilities, such as drinking water and clean fuel for cooking, and child undernourishment. The Indian evidence suggests that children of undernourished mothers are at high risk from stunting and wasting, but this does not extend to China. Notwithstanding evidence of decline in mother’s BMI over this period, China outperforms India on women’s health as well.Multi Dimensional Deprivation, Stunting, BMI, Anaemic Rates,Decomposability

Prices, Inequality and Poverty: Methodology and Indian Evidence

The contribution of this paper is both methodological and empirical. It proposes a methodology for evaluating the distributional implications of price movement for inequality and poverty measurement. The methodology is based on a distinction between inequalities in nominal expenditures, where the expenditures are either measured in nominal terms or a common price deflator is applied for all households, and that in real expenditures which takes into account the varying household preferences and differences in household composition in converting the nominal to real expenditures. Changes in relative prices will cause the inflation to affect different household groups differently depending on their household size and composition and their level of relative affluence. The empirical application to the Indian budget data sets shows the usefulness of the proposed procedures. The Indian empirical evidence is of particular interest since the period chosen (1993-2005) covered both first and second generation reforms in India. The results suggest that while rural poverty rates, in both nominal and real terms, fell sharply during this period, they were accompanied by an increase in both nominal and real expenditure inequality. In contrast, the urban poverty rates were mostly static or even increased over this period. Of further interest is the result that the price movement in both areas has been inequality reducing throughout much of this period. The study also contains a decomposition analysis of the movement in inequality and poverty rates. The decomposition is done both between family types and between social groups.Real Expenditure Poverty, Inequality Decomposition, Scheduled Class, Equivalence Scales, Price Scaling

Multi criteria decision making methods for location selection of distribution centers

In recent years, major challenges such as, increase in inflexible consumer demands and to improve the competitive advantage, it has become necessary for various industrial organizations all over the world to focus on strategies that will help them achieve cost reduction, continual quality improvement, increased customer satisfaction and on time delivery performance. As a result, selection of the most suitable and optimal facility location for a new organization or expansion of an existing location is one of the most important strategic issues, required to fulfill all of these above mentioned objectives. In order to sustain in the global competitive market of 21st century, many industrial organizations have begun to concentrate on the proper selection of the plant site or best facility location. The best location is that which results in higher economic benefits through increased productivity and good distribution network. When a choice is to be made from among several alternative facility locations, it is necessary to compare their performance characteristics in a decisive way. As the facility location selection problem involves multiple conflicting criteria and a finite set of potential candidate alternatives, different multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods can be effectively applied to solve such type of problem. In this paper, four well known MCDM methods have been applied on a facility location selection problem and their relative ranking performances are compared. Because of disagreement in the ranks obtained by the four different MCDM methods a final ranking method based on REGIME has been proposed by the authors to facilitate the decision making process

EFFECT OF CULTURE PARAMETERS ON PROTEASE AND CELLULASE PRODUCTION BY TWO BACTERIAL STRAINS, Corynebacterium alkanolyticum ATH3 AND Bacillus licheniformis CBH7 ISOLATED FROM FISH GUT

Microbial protease and cellulase are in high demand by different industries due to their minimal cost and availability. This study was aimed to maximize the production of protease and cellulase using two bacteria, Corynebacterium alkanolyticum ATH3 and Bacillus licheniformis CBH7, isolated from fish gut. This study demonstrated the effect of different culture parameters in protease and cellulase production using two different bacterial strains. Results of this study clearly indicated the importance of different parameters such as moisture content, pH, incubation temperature, incubation period, inoculum size, carbon sources and nitrogen sources in enzyme production. The most critical parameters affecting the enzymes production were pH, temperature, carbon and nitrogen sources. Further investigations are required to enhance the enzymes production using genetic engineering

Electronic structure of Pr2MnNiO6 from x-ray photoemission, absorption and density functional theory

The electronic structure of double perovskite Pr2MnNiO6 is studied using core x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. The 2p x-ray absorption spectra show that Mn and Ni are in 2+ and 4+ states respectively. Using charge transfer multiplet analysis of Ni and Mn 2p XPS spectra, we find charge transfer energies {\Delta} of 3.5 and 2.5 eV for Ni and Mn respectively. The ground state of Ni2+ and Mn4+ reveal a higher d electron count of 8.21 and 3.38 respectively as compared to the atomic values of 8.00 and 3.00 respectively thereby indicating the covalent nature of the system. The O 1s edge absorption spectra reveal a band gap of 0.9 eV which is comparable to the value obtained from first principle calculations for U-J >= 2 eV. The density of states clearly reveal a strong p-d type charge transfer character of the system, with band gap proportional to average charge transfer energy of Ni2+ and Mn4+ ions.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Nutritional evaluation of soybean meal after fermentation with two fish gut bacterial strains, Bacillus cereus LRF5 and Staphylococcus caprae CCF2 in formulated diets for Labeo rohita fingerlings

Twelve isonitrogenous (35 % crude protein) and isocaloric (18.0 kJ/g) diets were formulated incorporating raw and fermented soybean meal (SBM) at 15%, 30%, 45% and 60% levels by weight. Two phytase-producing bacterial strains, Bacillus cereus LRF5 and Staphylococcus caprae CCF2 isolated from the gut of adult Labeo rohita and Catla catla, respectively were used for fermentation of SBM. Fermentation of SBM was effective in reducing the anti-nutritional factors, trypsin inhibitor and phytic acid and enhancing protein, lipid and mineral concentration. The response of L. rohita, fingerlings (initial weight 3.33±0.07 g) fed the experimental diets for 100 days was compared with fish fed a fish meal based diet. In terms of growth, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio, diet S7 containing 45% SBM fermented with B. cereus LRF5 resulted in a significantly (P<0.05) better performance of fish. The overall performance of L. rohita fed fermented SBM incorporated diets was better in comparison to those fed raw SBM incorporated diets. The apparent digestibility of nutrients and minerals was significantly (P<0.05) higher in fish fed diet S7. The maximum deposition of protein in the carcass was recorded in fish fed diet S7. Diets containing fermented SBM reduced fecal P levels.&nbsp

Immobilized enzymes as potent antibiofilm agent

Biofilm has been a point of concern in hospitals and various industries. They not only cause various chronic infections but are also responsible for the degradation of various medical appliances. Since the last decade, various alternate strategies are being adopted to combat the biofilm formed on various biotic and abiotic surfaces. The use of enzymes as a potent anti-fouling agent is proved to be of utmost importance as the enzymes can inhibit biofilm formation in an eco-friendly and cost-effective way. The physical and chemical immobilization of the enzyme not only leads to the improvement of thermostability and reusability of the enzyme, but also gains better efficiency of biofilm removal. Immobilization of amylase, cellobiohydrolase, pectinase, subtilisin A and β-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase (DspB) are proved to be most effective in inhibition of biofilm formation and removal of matured biofilm than their free forms. Hence, these immobilized enzymes provide greater eradication of biofilm formed on various surfaces and are coming up to be the potent antibiofilm agent.Universidade de Vigo/CISU

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Prices, Inequality and Poverty: Methodology and Indian Evidence

The contribution of this paper is both methodological and empirical. It proposes a methodology for evaluating the distributional implications of price movement for inequality and poverty measurement. The methodology is based on a distinction between inequalities in nominal expenditures, where the expenditures are either measured in nominal terms or a common price deflator is applied for all households, and that in real expenditures which takes into account the varying household preferences and differences in household composition in converting the nominal to real expenditures. Changes in relative prices will cause the inflation to affect different household groups differently depending on their household size and composition and their level of relative affluence. The empirical application to the Indian budget data sets shows the usefulness of the proposed procedures. The Indian empirical evidence is of particular interest since the period chosen (1993-2005) covered both first and second generation reforms in India. The results suggest that while rural poverty rates, in both nominal and real terms, fell sharply during this period, they were accompanied by an increase in both nominal and real expenditure inequality. In contrast, the urban poverty rates were mostly static or even increased over this period. Of further interest is the result that the price movement in both areas has been inequality reducing throughout much of this period. The study also contains a decomposition analysis of the movement in inequality and poverty rates. The decomposition is done both between family types and between social groups.Real Expenditure Poverty, Inequality Decomposition, Scheduled Class, Equivalence Scales, Price Scaling