Harnessing Wisdom for Managing Watersheds: Honey Bee Perspective on Innovations, Institutions and Policies for Marginal Environments

Participatory approaches for watershed management are now considered essential for sustainable natural resources management and yet there is very little opportunity for intellectual participation by the people. This requires understanding of the local knowledge systems and their institutional context. In this paper, we provide an overview of the conceptual framework which can facilitate such participation. The full report being published separately includes case studies of farmers’ innovations in natural resources management.

Cost of Conservation of Agrobiodiversity

The cost of conservation of germplasm stored in gene banks i.e., ex-situ collections has been studied in other parts of the world to estimate direct and indirect contributions by various actors involved in conservation. This is the first study of its kind in India done in collaboration with National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi. This was part of a sponsored research by Centre for Development Research, Germany. The limitations of this study are also listed so that future research in this regard can be pursued better. One of the costs not included is the cost of sharing data with local communities for enabling them to access germplasm in times of need. This is an important component of conservation and would require translation of gene bank and associated database in local language, making them available through public kiosks. This cost has not been included in any study on the subject so far. Separately, studies are underway to look at the conservation of germplasm under in-situ conditions.

Privacy And Security Concerns In Electronic Health Records - A Comparative Study Between India And USA

With the pandemic hitting hard, the realization that India needs to increase investments and improve healthcare sector in the country is sinking in, each passing day. The induction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in healthcare system is revolutionizing the healthcare system across the globe by increasing the availability and accessibility of healthcare to the patients. Electronic Medical Record or Electronic Health Record is a fundamental pre-requisite in using ICT in healthcare. It is a digital record that integrates patients' health data and is used for the purposes of education, research, referral, and management of data. Many developed countries including USA have a well-established system of Electronic Health Records in place. Although with numerous benefits, many concerns are raised regarding the protection of the information and privacy of the individuals as it includes sensitive personal data. The Government have proposed two new legislations namely, the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 and the Digital Information Security Healthcare Act, 2018, to tackle the setbacks of current law. The objective of the paper is to discuss the issues related to privacy and security of health data and analyse the lacuna in the existing and proposed legislations in India. Furthermore, the paper provides suggestions for improvement in data protection laws in India and highlights those measures that can be borrowed from the federal legislations related to health privacy in USA (HIPAA, 1996 and HITECH Act, 2009). Keywords: Electronic Health Records, Health Information Privacy, DISHA, Data Protection Bill, Aarogya Set

CHSI costing study-Challenges and solutions for cost data collection in private hospitals in India

INTRODUCTION: Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) has enabled the Government of India to become a strategic purchaser of health care services from private providers. To generate base cost evidence for evidence-based policymaking the Costing of Health Services in India (CHSI) study was commissioned in 2018 for the price setting of health benefit packages. This paper reports the findings of a process evaluation of the cost data collection in the private hospitals. METHODS: The process evaluation of health system costing in private hospitals was an exploratory survey with mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative). We used three approaches-an online survey using a semi-structured questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and a review of monitoring data. The process of data collection was assessed in terms of time taken for different aspects, resources used, level and nature of difficulty encountered, challenges and solutions. RESULTS: The mean time taken for data collection in a private hospital was 9.31 (± 1.0) person months including time for obtaining permissions, actual data collection and entry, and addressing queries for data completeness and quality. The longest time was taken to collect data on human resources (30%), while it took the least time for collecting information on building and space (5%). On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) difficulty levels, the data on human resources was the most difficult to collect. This included data on salaries (8), time allocation (5.5) and leaves (5). DISCUSSION: Cost data from private hospitals is crucial for mixed health systems. Developing formal mechanisms of cost accounting data and data sharing as pre-requisites for empanelment under a national insurance scheme can significantly ease the process of cost data collection

Should we save, what servesonly human ends? A review on Environmental Ethics

Ethical dilemma arise in pursing conservation of environment at different levels. In this paper, we review various ethical philosophies and identify the determinants of responsibility. Boundary of pain, responsibility arising out of greater human purpose, eco centrism or deep ecological ethics, and socio-psychological roots of ethical consciousness are some of the guiding forces generating this responsibility. The paper concludes by identifying the process of internal commands replacing the external demands as a dominant institutional process for resolving ethical dilemma. The emergence of global responsibility, invariably generates pressure for evolving ethical norms with universal application. A discourse on ecological ethics we argue, must become much more pervasive if environmental conservation has to move beyond the concern of urban, intellectual advocates and become a grassroots movement.

Elements of Life

30-34Depending on their varied function and requirements, elements have been categorised as essential, non-essential and toxic elements

Building Upon Grassroots Innovations: Agticulating Social And Ethical Capital

The healthy growth of democracy depends upon the emergence of decentralized, dispersed, polycentric spurs of social, ecological and economic entrepreneurship. Networking among these seemingly disparate cross currents some times gives enough momentum to the civil society initiatives to transform the social and cultural values of the society. There is always networking taking place among stronger economic and cultural forces, not withstanding the nature of state. But some times, this transformation also takes place through subtle networking among the grassroots deviants, innovators, and other marginal but creative forces in society. Gerlach and Palmer (1981) called these forces as SPIN (segmented, polycentric, integrated networks) while I tend to view these SPLICES that need attention today since these have the potential to take the society by surprise when their real power manifests, if it does. It is true that due to loose coordination, may times these forces remain on the margin and thus their potential does not get realized for a long time. I want to take the case of HoneyBee network that has helped provide a sort of loose platform to converge creative, but uncoordinated individuals across not only Indian states having varying cultural, language and social ethos but also in 75 other countries around the world. What it is trying to do in a rather quiet manner may transform the way the resources in which poor people are rich are used in future. These resources are their knowledge, innovations and sustainable practices. I first argue that classical concept of social capital does not distinguish between the trust in society created for social good versus social ‘bad’. For instance, the trust among members of mafia and other socially undesirable networks does not constitute social capital. I am also trying to distinguish that part of social trust which is guided by higher ethical values which may not have become social norms as yet. This is being distinguished as ethical capital. Finally, I conclude that Honey Bee Network has tried to articulate the social and ethical capital of the society at the grassroots.

Cost of Conservation of Agrobiodiversity

The cost of conservation of germplasm stored in gene banks i.e., ex-situ collections has been studied in other parts of the world to estimate direct and indirect contributions by various actors involved in conservation. This is the first study of its kind in India done in collaboration with National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi. This was part of a sponsored research by Centre for Development Research, Germany. The limitations of this study are also listed so that future research in this regard can be pursued better. One of the costs not included is the cost of sharing data with local communities for enabling them to access germplasm in times of need. This is an important component of conservation and would require translation of gene bank and associated database in local language, making them available through public kiosks. This cost has not been included in any study on the subject so far. Separately, studies are underway to look at the conservation of germplasm under in-situ conditions.