Indian Words in English

Thumb through an English dictionary and you will be surprised to see the number of words that are derived from Hindi and other Indian languages. Most have been so acclimatized all over the English-speaking world that nobody thinks of their origin

High-Value Agricultural Products of the Fiji Islands Performance and Prospects

This paper analyses the performance of high-value agricultural products of Fiji Islands in terms of their production and exports during 1975-2004. Problems and key issues affecting this are discussed. The performance of agriculture was poor for traditional, semi- and highly processed products during 1975-2004. Primary products, such as copra declined by 51 percent, paddy rice by 27 percent, cocoa by 91 percent, and beef by 7 percent. Sugarcane production increased only by 12 percent in three decades. There was a substantial increase in pork, chicken, eggs, and fish production. Production of processed products, such as sugar and coconut oil decreased during the period. Butter of local content increased by 24 percent, saw log by 16 percent and stock feed by 134 percent. Volume of export of sugar declined by 12 percent, canned fish by 50 percent and coconut oil by 79 percent. There is a great potential for diversification of exports from traditional to semi- and highly processed products. Improvements in competitiveness coupled with favourable domestic trade policies are crucial for successful export performance.High-value products, less developed countries, South Pacific Islands, agricultural trade, Agribusiness,

A note on a class of pp-valent starlike functions of order beta

In this paper we obtain sharp coefficient bounds for certain $p$-valent starlike functions of order $\beta$, $0\le \beta<1$. Initially this problem was handled by Aouf in "M. K. Aouf, On a class of $p$-valent starlike functions of order $\alpha$, Internat. J. Math. $\&$ Math. Sci. 1987;10:733--744". We pointed out that the proof given by Aouf was incorrect and a correct proof is presented in this paper.Comment: 6 pages, 1 table, submitted to a journa

Small Islands, New Technologies and Globalization: A Case of ICT adoption by SMEs in Mauritius

This paper sets out to locate Mauritian SMEs in the present context of global competition and more particularly to identify the extent to which they have adopted ICTs as a tool to meet the challenges which they now face. The essence of the argument that comes to the fore is that despite having an impressive number of SMEs which contribute enormously to employment creation in the country, the latter are in many ways ill-equipped to confront the challenges of global competition. The findings clearly show that the adoption of ICTs in SMEs is far from being an integral feature of Mauritian SMEs despite recent claims to be a cyber-island. Cost of communication and the lack of learning opportunities have been found as the major impediments in the adoption of ICTs. In turn this raises serious implications and challenges for the SMEs themselves and the Government in order to adapt to the requirements of globalisation.Small Island Economies, ICT, SME, Probit Analysis

Farming System Approach for Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Mountain Regions — A Case of Himachal Pradesh

This paper has examined the emerging issues, extent of transitions and their implications for the sustainable and balanced development of agriculture in the mountain areas of the country. The study undertaken in low and mid-hill regions of Himachal Pradesh is based upon the data collected during the period 2002-03 from 200 sample households selected from 10 villages, representing five major mountain farming systems (MFS), viz. maize-based, paddy-based, vegetable-based, fruit-based and livestock-based. It has been found that over a period of time lot of changes have taken place in the socio-economic milieu and agricultural practices in mountains. The cropping pattern, extent of diversification and commercialization have been found to vary considerably across different MFS. A high degree of externalities has developed particularly under vegetable- and fruit-based farming systems. The proportion of purchased inputs has increased while the share of farm-produced inputs (own seeds, FYM, family labour, bullock labour, feed and fodder, etc.) has decreased. Thus, the system interlinkages and in-built complementary relations among sub-systems are getting distorted with commercialization through vegetables and fruits. The shortage of fodder, decrease in the number of farm animals and thus FYM-scarcity, are the burgeoning signs of unsustainability, particularly on vegetable- and fruit-based systems. Therefore, the sustainable plans developed for different systems have revealed the possibility of increasing profitability by optimum combination of sub-components like cereals, pulses, vegetable crops, fruits, fodder resources and livestock and thus maintaining the crucial balance to harness in-built complementary relations of the sub-systems. The increasing externalities in the MFS clearly show the crucial role of markets and marketing in the agricultural development that needs greater policy support in future.Agricultural and Food Policy,

System Synergy of Farming System and Common Property Resources in Mountain Regions: A Case Study of Himachal Pradesh

The study conducted in the hilly region of Himachal Pradesh has revealed that the average size of operational holding in the region is small (0.69 ha) and therefore the common property resources (CPRs) assume significant importance for sustaining the livelihood of people. The ‘kuhls’ emanating water of CPRs are the main sources of irrigation. The consumption of different products from CPR lands has been found to increase with decrease in the size of landholdings, which underlines the need to increase the productivity of CPR lands. The analysis of linkages between different farm sectors has revealed strong forward linkages of CPRs with livestock and agriculture and weak backward linkages with other sectors. The farm forestry and CPR lands have depicted weak linkage, but strong indirect linkages. The gravity water irrigation kuhls (channels) have also revealed strong linkages with agriculture and livestock. The analysis of linkages has suggested that there is a need to strengthen the backward linkages of agriculture, livestock and farm forestry with CPRs. The study has suggested to strengthen the management and conservation of CPRs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Maximal area integral problem for certain class of univalent analytic functions

One of the classical problems concerns the class of analytic functions $f$ on the open unit disk $|z|<1$ which have finite Dirichlet integral $\Delta(1,f)$, where $$\Delta(r,f)=\iint_{|z|<r}|f'(z)|^2 \, dxdy \quad (0<r\leq 1).$$ The class ${\mathcal S}^*(A,B)$ of normalized functions $f$ analytic in $|z|<1$ and satisfies the subordination condition $zf'(z)/f(z)\prec (1+Az)/(1+Bz)$ in $|z|<1$ and for some $-1\leq B\leq 0$, $A\in {\mathbb C}$ with $A\neq B$, has been studied extensively. In this paper, we solve the extremal problem of determining the value of $$\max_{f\in {\mathcal S}^*(A,B)}\Delta(r,z/f)$$ as a function of $r$. This settles the question raised by Ponnusamy and Wirths in [11]. One of the particular cases includes solution to a conjecture of Yamashita which was settled recently by Obradovi\'{c} et. al [9].Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 3 table

Magic Words

Liberation from the here and now is recognized as the true mark of the escapist as well as the ascetic and is, by no means, a common experience. That there might be a different sort of mystery about the collocation of there and now is seldom realized