Conducting Controlled human infection model studies in India is an ethical obligation

Weighing competing obligations and achieving the “greatest balance” of right over wrong guides an individual, an agency or a country in determining what ought to be done in an ethically challenging situation. Conducting controlled human infection model (CHIM) studies in India is one such situation. The ethical challenge in conducting a CHIM study lies in completing the difficult task of introducing standardised, attenuated strains of micro-organisms into normal healthy volunteers, at the same time ensuring the safety of these healthy individuals from potential and completely informed risks in a fashion that is transparent and accountable. The bar is further raised against the background of already fragile public confidence in biomedical research in India; especially when “deliberate” introduction of microbial agents into healthy individuals is involved, with the larger altruistic objective of gain to society as a whole. This paper discusses the uses of CHIM studies with respect to the larger scientific Indian research enterprise of the 21st century. It further explores etic and emic perspectives in conducting such trials in India and seeks to generate an ethical coherence to the justification for conducting CHIM studies in India. The paper deliberates on ethical issues arising out of conducting CHIM studies and reflects on how developing the capacity for CHIM studies in India is likely to strengthen the health research and development sector in the country

MODERNIZATION OF AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE INDIAN EXPERIENCE

Indian Agricultural Development, Agricultural Modernization, International Development,

Measurement Issues in Comparing Fiscal Performance of States

Interstate comparison of fiscal performance requires use of appropriate concepts and proper measurement of state income, fiscal deficit and debt. GSDP at market prices and a comprehensive concept of debt consistent with the fiscal deficit of a state government are the right concepts to use for the purpose. The rating agencies and the Finance Commissions have not used the right concepts so far. Illustrative estimates for Gujarat show that it can lead to misleading target setting and wrong perceptions about the fiscal performance of the states. CSO, RBI and the rating agencies have to ensure that right concepts are used in interstate comparison.

Regional Sources of Growth Acceleration in India

Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were the major contributors to the growth acceleration in India after 1991-92. Although the Regional Disparity may increase temporarily, causality test provides support to the hypothesis about spread effects. The Regional growth targets assigned by the 11th Plan in India seem to rely on the spread effects of economic growth acceleration in the better off states to achieve its 9 percent growth target and reduce regional disparity in the long run. To strengthen spread effects, the domestic economy should be further integrated and interlinked with free flow of goods, services and factors of production.

Economic Reforms and Development Strategy in Gujarat

The paper examines the development strategy followed by Gujarat state government during the nineties. It has followed the strategy focussed on industrialisation and urbanisation with an open door policy eversince its inception in 1960. Economic reform measures at the Centre with an explicit emphasis on trade and industry considerably benefited Gujarat making its economic performance outstanding. The state government only facilitated the growth of private enterprise since its strategy was already consistent with the changes in the policy reforms at the Centre. Since mid-nineties, however, when the reform process at the Centre slowed down, the state government in Gujarat started taking major initiative to liberalise and reform its policies further. In this process, the focus of the development strategy seems to have shifted away from the organised manufacturing to the unorganised sectors and giving protection to the SMEs. It is argued that Gujarats performance would again pick up as the national reform process gets back on the track.

Exports of Agri-Products from Gujarat: Problems and Prospects

Agri-products are defined to include products of agriculture & allied activities, fishing, forestry, and manufacturing industries, like food & food products, tobacco, textiles, paper, furniture, etc. Gujarat has a revealed comparative advantage in the exporting activity over the other states since, as per GITCO Study (November 2001), more than one-fifth of the exports of the country originate from Gujarat. Gujarat has the revealed comparative advantage in ground-nuts, oilmeals, castor oil, poultry & dairy product, spices, sesame & niger seeds, processed food & vegetables & fruits, cotton yarn & fabric, man-made textiles, handicrafts, and cotton raw including waste. Fresh fruits & vegetables, floriculture, and fish are not the areas of strength for Gujarat so far. Based on the large sample survey conducted by GITCO (November 2001), several features of the exports originating from Gujarat are also examined. Exports of agri-products originating from Gujarat represent excess supply rather than exclusive supply to the foreign markets. The prospects of the domestic demand and production of the agricultural sector in Gujarat are examined. The dismal picture of the declining real income in Gujarat agriculture during the late nineties is not supported by several other evidences. On the contrary, Gujarat has a very vibrant and responsive agricultural sector. It has an achievable potential to grow at 4.5% to 5% p.a. over the next 8 to 10 years. The paper concludes by identifying some areas for further research.

Exploiting multimode waveguides for pure fibre-based imaging

We acknowledge support from the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research CouncilThere has been an immense drive in modern microscopy towards miniaturisation and fibre based technology. This has been necessitated by the need to access hostile or diffcult environments in-situ and in-vivo. Strategies to date have included the use of specialist fibres and miniaturised scanning systems accompanied by ingenious microfabricated lenses. We present a novel approach for this field by utilising disordered light within a standard multimode optical fibre for lensless microscopy and optical mode conversion. We demonstrate the modalities of bright-field and dark-field imaging and scanning fluorescence microscopy at acquisition rates allowing observation of dynamic processes such as Brownian motion of mesoscopic particles. Furthermore, we show how such control can realise a new form of mode converter and generate various types of advanced light fields such as propagation-invariant beams and optical vortices. These may be useful for future fibre based implementations of super-resolution or light sheet microscopy.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Downsizing: Some Aspects ofCommunication and Social Impact

This study, being essentially empirical in nature, is based on primary data relating to Indian organizations. The primary data has been collected through a sample survey based on a questionnaire focusing on the following aspects of organizational communication: (a) Nature of Communication, focusing on the proportion of working time spent in talking and listening and also the perceived extent of non-verbal communication. (b) Communication Content, focusing on the communication of compliments and criticism across levels. (c) Communication Outcomes, focusing on the communication goof-ups and the degree of satisfaction with ones communication dealings within the organization. An attempt has been made in the study to try and examine communication dealings by differentiating between the people working in the Corporate & Academic organizations; and Males & Females. The study highlights significant differences between males and females in terms of several aspects of organizational communication. There are a few differences in some aspects of organizational communication between the people working in the corporate and academic organizations. In most cases, the differences in the given aspects of organizational communication across categories and levels observed in this study seem to corroborate the broad conceptual patterns emerging from the available literature on organizational communication.

Determinants of Export Performance of Indian Firms – A Strategic Perspective

Macroeconomic policy reforms initiated in India since 1991 have brought about a significant improvement in the export performance of Indian firms. This paper examines the export performance of firms with the help of balance sheet data of 557 firms for the years 1980-81 to 1995-96. Applying panel Tobit model, it explains the improved export performance through changes in various firm level variables as well as economic environmental factors derived from existing literature on experiences of different countries. The paper also draws certain strategic and policy implications likely to be relevant for emerging economies from its findings on India.