Causes and Consequences of Supply-Demand Gap for Labour in Sugarcane in India

The paper has estimated the demand for human labour use in sugarcane and other competing crops and changes over time in its use in major cane-growing states. It has also examined the supply-demand gap in human labour for sugarcane and has provided some coping strategies. The study, based on the primary as well as secondary data on the use of human labour for sugarcane for the past 30 years (1980 to 2010), has found that sugarcane cultivation is least mechanized and most labour-intensive in almost all major canegrowing states of India. The labour-use per hectare has increased in all the cane-growing states, except Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Study has revealed that the proportion of casual labour has increased over the years in sub-tropical states because of less availability of family labour for cane cultivation. The assured labour in the form of family + attached labour is on decline, impacting sugarcane cultivation adversely. Arduous work and inhuman working conditions, lack of female participation and disintegrating traditional system of cane harvesting have been identified as the major constraints for the increasing demand and supply gaps in sugarcane cultivation. The shortage of labour is reported to hit all sugarcane cultivation operations, driving up the costs and a decline in the profit margin of farmers. The study has also found that area under cane cultivation has reduced drastically in Haryana and cane yield is stagnant or declining in Maharashtra. The coping strategies for reducing demand-supply gap suggested in the paper are: R&D efforts towards development of sugarcane harvester; development of suitable crop geometry to facilitate the movement of machineries up to the knee-high stage of the crop; change in the traditional system of cane planting for fast germination to avoid weed menace and curtailing labour requirement; popularization of cane planting by machines developed at IISR, Lucknow and popularization of multifunctional ratoon management device. The sugar mills must evolve a sound cane development plan in their cane command areas for purchase of machinery and tie up with the manufacturers and research organizations. This will help in ensuring mechanization of cane operations and avoid forced scarcity of labour in situations of labour diversion to schemes like MGNREGS.Labour supply, Supply-demand gap, Labour demand, Sugarcane, Agricultural and Food Policy, J22, J23,

Congestion Management in Hybrid Electricity Markets with FACTS Devices with Loadability Limits

Congestion management (CM) is one of the most important challenging tasks of the Independent System Operator (ISO) in the deregulated environment. In this paper, generators’ rescheduling based CM approach to manage transmission line congestion considering loadability limit has been presented for hybrid based electricity market model. The main contribution of the paper is (i) to obtain secure transactions for hybrid market model, (ii) optimal rescheduling of generators with loadability limits taken into account with secure transactions, (iii) and impact of FACTS devices on transmission line congestion management. The ISO ensures secure bilateral transactions in a hybrid market model and CM is managed with minimum preferred schedule to obtain minimum congestion cost. The results have been obtained for IEEE 24 bus test system.  Keywords: Generator re-dispatch, congestion management, pool electricity market, bid function, loadability limit.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v2i1.11

ACPTDF for Multi-transactions and ATC Determination in Deregulated Markets

Abstract—Available transfer capability in the transmission network has become essential quantity to be declared well in advance for its commercial use in a competitive electricity market. Its fast computation using DC load flow based approach is used worldwide for on line implementation. Many authors have proposed the ATC calculation based on DC/AC load flow approach. In this paper, AC PTDF based approach has been proposed for multi-transaction cases using power transfer sensitivity and Jacobian calculated with three different methods. The methods can be implemented for any number of transactions occurring simultaneously. The results have been determined for intact and line contingency cases taking multi-transaction/simultaneous as well as single transaction cases. The main contributions of the paper are: (i) ATC determination for multi-transactions environment, (ii) ATC determination and comparison with three approaches of PTDF calculations, (iii) LODFs with line contingency cases for multi-transaction environment and thereby ATC determination. The results have also been obtained with DC method for comparison. The proposed method have been applied for IEEE 24 bus RTS. Keywords: Available transfer capability, AC load flow, AC power transfer distribution factors , line outage contingency, line outage distribution factors, multi-transactions, simultaneous transactions.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v1i1.6

GAMS applications to capacitors location and its sizing in a RDS

This paper presents a new approach for finding capacitor's location and it's sizing in a radial distribution system (RDS) optimally with an aim of reducing the active power loss. In this paper, the problem of minimizing power loss is converted into a Mixed Integer Non-Linear Program (MINLP) problem, and it will be solved by using Generalized Algebraic Modeling Systems (GAMS) software with MINLP-SBB Solver. The proposing GAMS approach is tested on IEEE 10 bus RDS. By using GAMS, the programming will be simple and more accurate results can be achieved with less execution time. The MATLAB R2020b is used to run the load flows program and analyze results. The results are compared with the other optimization techniques results

H. SABDARIFFA CALYCES ASH: ANTIANXIETY AND ANTIDEPRESSANT ACTIVITY EVALUATION AND PREPARATION OF ITS TABLETS

Objective: Ash and its preparations have been used in Ayurveda for the treatment of various ailments since 7th century AD. Numerous studies suggest that the elements present in ash have significant role in affective disorders. Thus, the present study aimed at evaluating the antianxiety and antidepressant activity of total ash of H. sabdariffa calyces, and also of the tablets of total ash. Methods: Powdered calyces were taken in tared silica crucible, and were incinerated at a temperature not exceeding 450 °C. The resultant ash was cooled and weighed. This was evaluated for antianxiety and antidepressant activity using an elevated plus maze and Porsolt’s swim test, respectively. Further, the ash samples were analysed through ICP-MS to know their composition. The ash was formulated into tablets using the wet granulation technique, using only organic excipients. Results: Results indicated that the total ash of H. sabdariffa calyces exhibited significant (p<0.001) antianxiety and antidepressant activity at 50 and 100 mg/kg, po, respectively. The activities were comparable to the standard drugs. ICP-MS analysis showed the presence of magnesium, phosphorous, potassium and calcium as major elements. Tablets of H. sabdariffa total ash were as effective (p<0.001) as the total ash. Conclusion: Magnesium, phosphorous, potassium and calcium have been reported to play a significant role in affective disorders, explaining, thereby, as to why ash of H. sabdariffa calyces exhibited anti-anxiety and antidepressant activity