Sustainable Land Use and Water Management in Mountain Ecosystem - Case Study of a Watershed in the Indian Himalayas

The paper proposes to analyze the problem of choice of land use and technology for forest regeneration with minimum adverse impacts on the ecosystem. As the nature of the problem of such choice of land use and technology would depend upon the local characteristic of the ecosystem we propose to take up a case study through developing a model of analysis at the watershed level economies in the Himalayan mountains. The issue of choice, which is involved in the analysis of the particular case study, is supposed to yield valuable analytical and policy insights, which can be generalized for rural situations with similar geomorphic, eco-regional and agro-climatic conditions. This work develops a quantitative optimization framework of analysis using the mathematical tool of linear programming for structuring and articulating the problem of choice. The modeling framework essentially focuses on optimal use of land and energy resources in two alternate exercises of net revenue maximization and cost minimization. The range of options that the model would attempt to articulate through the case study would cover the following aspects: (a) Use of land for agriculture, pasture and forestry including conversion from one use to the other. (b) Choice of technology as determined by (i) seed (ii) water (iii) fertilizer (iv) animal energy and (vi) human labour. (c) Choices in commercial and non commercial fuel use for household and agriculture in the rural system taking account of the nexus between food and energy linked with the pattern of land use. The scope of analysis also covers the implication of choice in terms of the following impact on the global and local ecosystem. (a) Emissions in the form of carbon di oxide and methane from agricultural process and fuel use. (b) Soil erosion. While the model based case study work out the total water requirement for any land use pattern it has not considered any choice of source of water use, as there was no effective choice for the case study considered. The constraint of water availability has been taken into account to show how it drives the choice of technology and land use. A dynamic analysis of the problem would have been insightful however due to paucity of time series data on certain variables dynamic analysis wouldn’t be possible, instead the attempt here is to determine an alternate combination of inputs and land use pattern in an optimization exercise for a given year under different technologies. The attempt is to identify cost effective technologies, optimal land use pattern, input combinations and prescribe policies for adopting these technologies and help in attaining the optimal land use and input combinations for various outputs such that the impact on ecosystem is minimal.

Health damage cost of automotive air pollution: Cost benefit analysis of fuel quality upgradation for Indian cities.

The paper has analysed the economic implication of judicial activism of the apex court of India in the regulation of automotive air pollution. It estimates the health damage cost of urban air pollution for 35 major urban agglomerations of India arising from automotive emissions and the savings that can be achieved by the regulation of fuel quality so as to conform to the Euro norms. It has used the results of some US based study and has applied the transfer of benefit method from the US to the Indian situation for the purpose. The paper finally makes a benefit cost analysis of refinery upgradation for such improvement of fuel quality.Urban air pollution ; Health damage cost ; Benefit-cost comparison

Overlapping fiscal domains and effectiveness of environmental policy in India

The paper analyses the assignment systems and implementation aspects of environmental regulation in regard to water, air, and forests. The assignment of environmental functions and its overlapping is analysed in terms of not only the different levels of government, but also between the executive and judiciary. Specifically, the paper examines judicial intervention in environmental protection in India and argues that judicial activism although can be construed as a part of "checks and balances" in a federal system, it cannot be a substitute to the failure of executive in undertaking the task of environmental protection. The paper also analyses the implementation aspects of environmental policy, particularly the effectiveness of policies and institutions relating to environmental governance. Despite a reasonably clear assignment system, the implementation of environmental functions has not been satisfactory. In most cases, an important factor impeding effective implementation is seen in the structure of incentives to bureaucracy and policy makers and influence of polluters on them. Besides, the environmental regulators do not have access to modern technology and inadequate resources to measure and regulate pollution levels. The paper highlights overlapping roles of executive and judiciary in implementing environmental regulation. In other words, failure of the executive to regulate and monitor pollution levels as well as forest cover has led to the Supreme Court intervention. Interpreting that access to clean water and air as a fundamental right, the courts have pronounced several judgements on the implementation of environmental regulation virtually taking over the role of executive. This has helped to resolve the issues in the short term and in some cases has led to the improvement in environmental quality. However, the solution is ad hoc as the courts cannot undertake the task of implementation nor do they have the technical knowledge to deal with complex problems of environmental regulation. Besides, technology is not static and mandating a technical solution through a judgement such as the use of a particular technology or particular fuel for running of commercial vehicles can create serious problems in the long term. The solution lies in reforming the incentive structure and institutions of governance to make the executive much more sensitive and accountable to environmental issues.

SO(8)SO(8) unification and the large-N theory of superconductor-insulator transition of two-dimensional Dirac fermions

Electrons on honeycomb or pi-flux lattices obey effective massless Dirac equation at low energies and at the neutrality point, and should suffer quantum phase transitions into various Mott insulators and superconductors at strong two-body interactions. We show that 35 out of 36 such order parameters that provide Lorentz-invariant mass-gaps to Dirac fermions can be organized into a single irreducible tensor representation of the $SO(8)$ symmetry of the two-dimensional Dirac Hamiltonian for the spin-1/2 lattice fermions. The minimal interacting Lagrangian away from the neutrality point has the $SO(8)$ symmetry reduced to $U(1) \times SU(4)$ by finite chemical potential, and it allows only two independent interaction terms. When the Lagrangian is nearly $SO(8)$-symmetric and the ground state insulating at the neutrality point, we argue it turns superconducting at the critical value of the chemical potential through a ``flop" between the tensor components. The theory is exactly solvable when the $SU(4)$ is generalized to $SU(N)$ and $N$ taken large. A lattice Hamiltonian that may exhibit this transition, parallels with the Gross-Neveu model, and applicability to related electronic systems are briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, including 4.5 pages of supplemental materia

STUDIES ON SCREENING AND HISTOCHEMICAL LOCALISATION OF PHYTOCHEMICALS IN THE MEDICINAL PLANT BARLERIA LUPULINA LINDL

ABSTRACT The genus Barleria lupulina Lindl of the family Acanthaceae belongs to the sub tribe Barlerieae of the tribe Justicieae sensu Benth & Hook. The present investigation mainly emphasized on the histochemical localization of phytochemicals like alkaloids, starch, tannins, reducing sugars, proteins, flavonoids, amino acids and lignins. These localization were determined through colouristion using different reagents like Wagner's, Iodine Solutions, 10% Lead Acetate, Benedict's, Lugol's, 10% NaOH, Fehling's(A&B), Millon's, 0.2% Ninhydrin and 1% Phloroglucinol, The active compounds were identified prominently in different locations of the stem, leaf petiole and root of the medicinal plant B lupulina under study. It was found that presence of number of phytochemicals in xylem is higher than other tissues

Synthesis of 2-Substituted 9-Oxa-Guanines {5-Aminooxazolo 5,4-D Pyrimidin-7(6H)-Ones} and 9-Oxa-2-Thio-Xanthines{5-Mercaptooxazolo 5,4-D Pyrimidin-7(6H)-Ones}

Oxazolo[5,4-d] pyrimidines can be considered as 9-oxa-purine analogs of naturally occurring nucleic acid bases. Interest in this ring system has increased due to recent reports of biologically active derivatives. In particular, 5-aminooxazolo[5,4-d]pyrimidine-7(6H)-ones (9-oxa-guanines) have been shown to inhibit ricin. The preparation of a series of 2-substituted 5-aminooxazolo[5,4-d] pyrimidin-7(6H)-ones and related 5-thio-oxazolo[5,4-d] pyrimidines is described, including analogs suitable for further elaboration employing "click" chemistry utilizing copper-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions. Two of the compounds prepared were found to inhibit ricin with IC(50) ca. 1-3 mM.Pharmac