Indian agriculture and food security: problem and prospects

Agriculture plays an important role in the process of economic development of less developed countries like India. Besides providing food to nation, agriculture releases labour, provides saving, contributes to market of industrial goods and earns foreign exchange. Agricultural development is an integral part of overall economic development. In India, agriculture was the main source of national income and occupation at the time of Independence. Agriculture and allied activities contributed nearly 50 per cent to India’s national income. Around 72 percent of total working population was engaged in agriculture. Though Indian agriculture is very important, but it largely depends on the climate and weather conditions. India has Monsoon climate in which a year has been divided into two distinct seasons of summer and winter. Rainfall occurs mainly in summer. Solar radiation, temperature, and precipitation are the main drive of crop growth; therefore, agriculture has always been highly dependent on climate patterns and variations. It is clear that India’s agricultural sector has made huge strides in developing its potential. The green revolution massively increased the production of vital food grains and introduced technological innovations into agriculture. This progress is manifested in India’s net trade position. Where once India had to depend on imports to feed its people, since 1990 it is a net exporter of agri-food products. Its agriculture is large and diverse and its sheer size means that even slight changes in its trade have significant effects on world agricultural markets.Agriculture, Climate, Foodgrains, Agricultural Finance, Agricultural Exports and Imports

International Forced Migration and Pak- Afghan Development Concerns: Exploring Afghan Refugee Livelihood Strategies

This study investigates the livelihood strategies employed by Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan. These refugees were forced to take refuge in Pakistan after Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1978. Three decades after their migration, and after repeated Pakistani government attempts to resettle them in Afghanistan, scores of Afghan refugees still reside in Pakistan. This paper discusses the evolving relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the years and their respective implications. Researching the various livelihood strategies that Afghan refugees pursued their impact on the Pakistani labor market is discussed. By means of taking a case study of an Afghan refugee woman, this study concludes that there exists a gender dimension in Afghan refugee population. In doing so two developmental concerns are identified i) development projects focused on refugee assistance in Afghanistan and Pakistan ignore the development concerns of the women population ii) countries that provide refuge to victims of war are exposed to a new set of development challenges in addition to their already burdened economy. This paper furthers the academic debate on achieving the development challenge of attaining a stable South Asia, in light of the AfPak strategy initiated by President Obama in 2010, and reflects on potential areas for policy making for Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States

Role of Effective Feed Back in Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) Designing for Faculty Development

errors in multiple choice questions (MCQs) designing by the faculty members and to obtain need assessment feedback for faculty development for MCQ designing. Methods: In this study, all MCQs submitted by faculty members of Islamic International Medical College (IIMC) over a period of one year and three months from January 2009 to April 2010 were reviewed from time to time by the assessment committee. A total of 922 MCQs were reviewed. The reviews were compiled and analyzed to find out the frequency and types of errors made inadvertently in the structure and design of MCQs. Results: During the study period, the faculty members submitted a total of 922 MCQs. Spectrum of errors in MCQs ranged from spellings to complex questions to question cues. A total of 40% items qualified for being included in final assessment Conclusion: Review process is very important in improving the quality of items

Neural Processing at the Speed of Smell

AbstractOlfaction is typically described as behaviorally slow, suggesting neural processes on the order of hundreds of milliseconds to seconds as candidate mechanisms in the creation of olfactory percepts. Whereas a recent study challenged this view in suggesting that a single sniff was sufficient for optimal olfactory discrimination, a study by Abraham et al. in this issue of Neuron sets out to negate the challenge by demonstrating increased processing time for discrimination of similar versus dissimilar stimuli. Here we reconcile both studies, which in our view together support the notion of a speed-accuracy tradeoff in olfactory discriminations that are made within about 200 ms. These findings are discussed in light of the challenges related to defining olfactory perceptual similarity in nonhuman animals

Literature survey about elements of manufacturing shop floor operation key performance indicators

In the era of globalisation, manufacturing industries are compelled to continuously monitor their manufacturing operations to maintain competitiveness. As a result, manufacturers have integrated several measurement models to inspect their manufacturing operations. These models comprise of a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which are capable to enumerate the effectiveness, competence, efficiency and proficiency of manufacturing operations. This paper presents a review of manufacturing shop floor operation KPIs that has been studied in the recent literature. Based on the reviewed literature author proposes various KPI elements such as: description, category, scope, formula, unit of measure, range, trend, mode of display, viewers and manufacturing approach. These elements can help manufacturers to better describe, classify, analyze and measure the appropriate KPIs for their shop floor operations. Thus, enabling manufacturers to accomplish and uphold great quality, increased productivity and throughput

Comparative analysis of the perception of medical students and pharmaceutical industry executives regarding the future of pharmaceutical sales

Thesis (S.M.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-73).The leading publicly traded pharmaceutical companies ("Big Pharma) in the US are facing a commercial crisis - their sales structure collectively consisting of more than 100,000 pharmaceutical sales representatives, originally setup to launch blockbusters, is suffering as a result of shrinking pipelines and low NME approvals. Although sales and marketing constitutes by far the largest corporate expense at 33% of revenues, sales productivity continues to decline. The goal of this study is to explore how pharmaceutical sales will change over the next 5 - 7 years and more specifically explore the role technology (including the internet) will play in the sales process. The study focuses on testing the perceptions of two key stakeholders -pharmaceutical executives and current medical students (future physicians) regarding the future of pharmaceutical sales process. Accordingly, 33 individuals were interviewed of which 18 were pharmaceutical executives and 15 were future physicians. The study tests three hypotheses: 1. Pharma executives believe that sales representative based detailing will continue to be the predominant method to engage and sell to physician customers while future physicians believe that technology will play a dominant role in the pharmaceutical detailing process. 2. Pharmaceutical executives agree that the most effective and ethical method to convey the benefits and challenges of an ethical pharmaceutical product are via a trained sales representative while future physicians believe that the sales representative does not effectively and ethically convey the merits of the relevant pharmaceutical therapy. 3. Person to person contact is not essential in conveying the merits of a particular ethical therapy - pharmaceutical executives disagree with this premise while future physicians agree.(cont.) The data sets were compared using the following statistical tests: Yates' chi-square test, Armitage's chi-squared test and Two sample test of binomial proportions. In conclusion, the data showed that the perceptions of pharma executives and future physicians were in concurrence with each other.by Rehan A. Khan.S.M

Manufacturing enhancement through reduction of cycle time using time-study statistical techniques in automotive industry

Within the complex and competitive automotive manufacturing industry, manufacturing Cycle Time (CT) remains one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Its reduction is of strategic importance as it contributes to time-to-market shortening, faster bottleneck detection, achieving throughput targets and improving production-resource scheduling. This paper presents a case study on CT analysis for early stage identification of the bottleneck stations and the processes in a manual assembly line that is responsible for increased manufacturing CT. The case study is conducted on an automotive seat manufacturing plant in the UK. For detailed CT analysis, CT of each station is recorded. Results of the case study shows that bottlenecks identification at an early stage can significantly enhance the overall performance of the production line

Effects of bupivacaine infiltration on postoperative tramadol consumption in elective day care unilateral inguinal hernia repair

Objective: To determine the difference in analgesic requirement in terms of mean postoperative narcotic consumption and mean postoperative pain score in patients undergoing unilateral inguinal hernia repair with or without bupivacaine infiltration as day-care patients.Methods: The randomised controlled trial was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from June to December 2011, and comprised patients who were randomly divided into groups A and B. Tramadol 1.5 mgkg-1 was used as intraoperative analgesia. At the time of closure of surgical incision, 20ml of bupivacaine 0.25% plain was infiltrated in the subcutaneous tissue sub-facially and in the deeper layers along the incision line in patients of group A. In group B, which was the control group, the surgical wound was closed without infiltrating bupivacaine. On arrival in post-anaesthesia care unit, the patient\u27s pain scores was assessed using Visual Analogue Scale every 15 minutes for the first hour, every 30 minutes for next one hour, and hourly for the next two hours by a blinded observer. Postoperative narcotic consumption was also noted.Results: There were 80 patients in the study; 40(50%) in each of the two groups. Mean postoperative narcotic consumption and mean pain scores were high in group B in all follow-ups (up to 4 hours) compared to group A patients (p \u3c 0.05).CONCLUSIONS: Wound infiltration with 0.25% bupivacaine diminished post-operative pain and decreased narcotic analgesic consumption for the first four hours after unilateral inguinal hernia repair