A Critique on Current Paradigms of Economic ‘Growth’ and ‘Development’ in the Context of Environment and Sustainability Issues

This paper critically evaluates different models of economic progress and development using concepts based on the idea of the ‘political economy’. It explores the influence of globalization on these different models and explores the nexus between the International Financial Institutions, trade bodies, and agreements that continuously exert economic pressure on governments. This paper also attempts to understand the environment and society in the context of markets and valuation mechanisms, and questions the effectiveness of economic instruments used to tackle complex environmental issues such as climate change and deforestation. The rest of this paper focuses on the technology-market interface; technologically oriented economic solutions seem to have a limited understanding of the root causes of the issues they are created to remedy. They also fail to acknowledge the intricate relationship between humans and their environments. This paper expounds the perceived inability of conventional economic frameworks to capture the dynamism, complex interactions, and organic nature of life sustaining phenomena in the biosphere is emphasized

Designing of a Small Wearable Conformal Phased Array Antenna for Wireless Communications

In this thesis, a unique design of a self-adapting conformal phased-array antenna system for wireless communications is presented. The antenna system is comprised of one microstrip antenna array and a sensor circuit. A 1x4 printed microstrip patch antenna array was designed on a flexible substrate with a resonant frequency of 2.47 GHz. However, the performance of the antenna starts to degrade as the curvature of the surface of the substrate changes. To recover the performance of the system, a flexible sensor circuitry was designed. This sensor circuitry uses analog phase shifters, a flexible resistor and operational-amplifier circuitry to compensate the phase of each array element of the antenna. The proposed analytical method for phase compensation has been first verified by designing an RF test platform consisting of a microstrip antenna array, commercially available analog phase shifters, analog voltage attenuators, 4-port power dividers and amplifiers. The platform can be operated through a LabVIEW GUI interface using a 12-bit digital-to-analog converter. This test board was used to design and calibrate the sensor circuitry by observing the behavior of the antenna array system on surfaces with different curvatures. In particular, this phased array antenna system was designed to be used on the surface of a spacesuit or any other flexible prototype. This work was supported in part by the Defense Miroelectronics Activity (DMEA), NASA ND EPSCoR and DARPA/MTO.DMEANASA NDEPSCoRDERPA/MT

Diffraction of light by interfering liquid surface waves

Interfering liquid surface waves are generated by electrically driven vertical oscillations of two or more equispaced pins immersed in a liquid (water). The corresponding intensity distribution, resulting from diffraction of monochromatic light by the reflection phase grating formed on the liquid surface, is calculated theoretically and found to tally with experiments. The curious features of the diffraction pattern and its relation to the interference of waves on the liquid surface are used to measure the amplitude and wavelength of the resultant surface wave along the line joining the two sources of oscillation. Finally, a sample diffraction pattern obtained by optically probing surface regions where interference produces a lattice--like structure is demonstrated and qualitatively explained.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Role of AMRUT Project in Urban Governance of West Bengal: A Review of Barddhaman Municipality (2015-2020)

The term "urban governance" refers to the effective planning, financing, and reforms in the delivery of urban services to people. Deficits in India's urban basic infrastructure pose a threat to inclusive governance. As a result, schemes such as AMRUT have been developed to fill infrastructure gaps and improve service delivery through effective planning, financing, decentralized-digital reforms, and people's participation. This paper will critically investigate the underlying process that projects like AMRUT use to develop urban planning, financing, reforms, and services more accountable, effective, transparent, and inclusive