Islamic Banking and its Legal Validity in India

Islamic banking is an emerging model of banking which is currently practiced in several countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and United Kingdom. The most intriguing aspect of Islamic banking is that it works on a purely no interest basis. Given the fact that India is a country with one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, the researchers believe it is important to understand the public awareness, acceptability and feasibility of introducing this system of banking in India. This paper primarily aims at discussing the legal viability of introducing Islamic banking in India, taking into account the current legal regime. In analyzing how forthcoming the population will be towards this banking system, a sample of the population was chosen from Pune and New Delhi and surveyed with the help of a questionnaire, leading to the inference that most people are open to the concept of interest free banking but are unwilling to accept the Islamic ideology it is derived from

Analyzing the Stability and Kinetics of Ceramic Electrolyte/Organic Electrolyte Interfaces for LI Metal Batteries

The need for high-energy-density Li-ion batteries has provided the impetus to replace graphite anodes with Li metal anodes. Unfortunately, the liquid electrolytes (LEs) used in state-of-the-art (SOA) Li-ion batteries are unstable with Li metal. Owing to its high ionic conductivity, stability against Li and safety, Lithium Lanthanum Zirconium Tantalum Oxide (LLZTO), a solid ceramic electrolyte (SE), has been suggested as a promising alternative. However, the implementation of the SE in an all-solid-state battery could lead to cycling instabilities due to the formation of a resistive, electrochemically, and mechanically unstable cathode/SE interface. One potential approach to overcome the challenges is by introducing a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) as a catholyte. In this hybrid electrolyte scheme, the LLZTO protects Li metal and a GPE improves the LLZTO/cathode interfacial stability and kinetics. The success of this approach, however, is reliant on two main assumptions – a) electrochemical properties of the GPE would not be affected by volumetric changes in the cathode during operation and b) the polymer and liquid electrolyte in the GPE will be (electro)chemically stable against LLZTO. The overarching goal of this thesis was to identify potential shortcomings of these assumptions and provide solutions to address them. To achieve this goal, the thesis was subdivided into three studies - 1) studying the effects of temperature and pressure on electrochemical performance of a model polymer electrolyte 2) understanding the factors controlling the polymer/LLZTO interfacial kinetics 3) evaluating the stability of LLZTO with potential LEs used in the GPE. With the aid of various characterization techniques including SEM, XRD, Raman Spectroscopy, XPS, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and galvanostatic cycling and unique experimental designs, several important implications were derived from each study. First, the roles of temperature and pressure on the electrochemical properties of the PEO-LiTFSI model system were evaluated. The results indicate that both, the bulk ionic conductivity and electrode/electrolyte charge transfer kinetics, are affected by temperature and stack pressure. It was observed that activation energy for Li-ion conduction shows a sharper transition at the melting point of the polymer for bulk conduction than for the electrode/electrolyte interface. It was also observed that a critical stack pressure was required to form an optimized electrode/electrolyte interface. Second, the factors controlling the kinetics and stability of LLZTO with both constituents of the GPE were analyzed. First, using PEO-LiTFSI the underlying factors that control the LLZTO/polymer interfacial kinetics were studied. It was found that the LLZTO surface impurities and Li-ion concentration gradient between the two electrolytes were responsible for the high interfacial resistance (Rinterface). The fundamental knowledge gained in this study enabled a reduction in the Rinterface from ~95 kOhms.cm2 down to 180 Ohms.cm2. Lastly, the stability of LLZTO was evaluated with different organic solvents and Li salts present in LEs. It was found that LiPF6-containing LE reacts with LLZTO to form LiF, LaF3, and ZrF4 at the interface leading to an increased SE/LE Rinterface. It was concluded that the chemical instability at LLZTO/LE interface was specific to the Li salt used. Thus, by selecting Li salts that exhibit stable behavior with LLZTO, the potential chemical instabilities can be avoided. Further, the optimization of Li salt concentration resulted in a low Rinterface (~30 Ohms.cm2). The culmination of the knowledge gained from the studies can be used for the development of hybrid electrolytes for enabling Li metal anodes.PHDMacromolecular Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163066/1/arushig_1.pd

MacRuby: User Defined Macro Support for Ruby

Ruby does not have a way to create custom syntax outside what the language already offers. Macros allow custom syntax creation. They achieve this by code generation that transforms a small set of instructions into a larger set of instructions. This gives programmers the opportunity to extend the language based on their own custom needs. Macros are a form of meta-programming that helps programmers in writing clean and concise code. MacRuby is a hygienic macro system. It works by parsing the Abstract Syntax Tree(AST) and replacing macro references with expanded Ruby code. MacRuby offers an intuitive way to declare macro and expand the source code based on the expansion rules. We validated MacRuby by adding some features to the Ruby language that didn’t exist before or were removed as the user base for the feature was small. We fulfilled this by creating a library using the simple and easy syntax of MacRuby, thus demonstrating the library’s utility

Usefulness of Digital Marketing to the Government of India

Digital Marketing is the new way of connecting and informing people across the globe. In this age of Internet and the connectivity provided by it, organizations are getting rapidly connected. The coming of power of the current Modi lead government has set in a new face of the world’s largest democracy and its functioning. With numerous digital initiatives the current government has turned the attention of the world towards the rising development. This paper aims to throw light on the various initiatives taken up by the government under the Digital India Initiative. The websites launched and the applications created to connect the citizens of India to the central structure through the efficient use of internet enabled technologies

Investigating intraplate seismicity in the Central and Eastern US: Linking observations and numerical models

Earthquakes far from the plate boundaries pose a significant hazard to human life, and damage to property. Intraplate seismicity has piqued interest among many researchers to understand the risks associated with it. Several models have been proposed to explain seismicity in regions far from the influence of tectonic stresses, the nature of which depends on the depth and time scale of the geological process invoked in the model. However, these mechanisms are debatable and often require revision compatible with new observations.The Central and Eastern US (CEUS) is an ideal location for investigating intraplate seismicity. The CEUS hosts numerous seismic zones, including the largest intraplate seismic zone of the US, the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), and has undergone extensive deformation from past episodes of the Wilson cycle. The recent deployment of a dense seismic network by EarthScope Transportable Array in the CEUS has revealed complex upper-mantle heterogeneity of unknown physical origin. The link between these current upper-mantle observations and the ongoing crustal seismicity in the CEUS is not yet understood and needs attention for a comprehensive model of seismicity within the CEUS. Additionally, the network coverage has presented an opportunity to image the structure beneath the CEUS better and answer new research questions in this region.The presented work provides new and updated models that can illuminate better than before on the factors responsible for the seismicity and the unexplained anisotropy within the CEUS, that are consistent with the seismological observations. Lithospheric layering is also constrained using receiver functions in this region. A systematic analysis of the possible origins of large negative Vp and Vs anomaly found beneath the NMSZ shows that in addition to temperature effects, an increase in orthopyroxene contents is required to explain the observed Vp and Vs magnitudes. Viscoelastic models based on all of the possible scenarios show concentration of differential stress from the upper mantle into the upper crust of the NMSZ. However, it is demonstrated that among the three factors considered---temperature, water content, and orthopyroxene content---, the temperature is most sensitive to the computed differential stress. Another model, which includes all the major CEUS seismic zones and the upper mantle extends down to 660 km depth, employs diffusion and dislocation creep with temperatures inverted from a different P-wave tomography study. Results from this model show stress concentration at all the seismic zones due to the buoyancy flow arising from the upper-mantle heterogeneity. The third work on the upper mantle within the CEUS using S-wave receiver functions shows a continuous low-velocity mid-lithospheric layer starting at depths of 60 to 100 km in the Mississippi Embayment. A detailed investigation using the synthetic seismograms points to both temperature and compositional variations to explain the origin of this layer. Lastly, a numerical model is found that incorporates an ancient mafic pluton and a low-velocity structure beneath the NMSZ, to explain the observed spiral-like Pn anisotropy