Financial sector de-regulation in Emerging Asia: Focus on foreign bank entry

Over the last decade many emerging Asian economies have been liberalizing their financial sectors, including opening up of their banking systems to foreign competition. This paper examines the extent of de jure and de facto policies in Asia with regard to the introduction of greater foreign competition. To preview the main conclusion, while there has clearly been greater international financial liberalization in the region, Asia lags behind emerging Europe and Latin America when it comes to the relative significance of foreign banks in their respective domestic economies. The paper goes on to discuss possible reasons behind Asia’s relatively cautious approach towards this policy.Financial sector de-regulation; Foreign bank entry; Emerging Asia

A preliminary account of the fisheries of Vizhinjam

As a part of the research programme of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Station, it was decided in 1948 to conduct a survey of the Indian coastline to estimate the marine fish landing s,and to find out the types of fish stocks available. As very little work (Bal and Banerji, 1951) has been done in the past regarding the fishery resources of our country, a preliminary survey was found essential before embarking on the final programme. With this in view, the author conducted a preliminary survey in 1949 to ascertain the number of fishing villages, boats, nets and fishermen along the coastal strip extending from Cape Comorin in the south to Ponnani River in Malabar District in the north. Based on the data thus collected, the final design to estimate the landings was made. Initially five observation centres, Blangad in South Malabar, Narakkal and Malippuram in Trichur District, Wadi in Quilon District, and Vizhingam in Trivandrum District, of the erstwhile Travancore-Cochin State, were selected. Regular observations were taken at these centres in 1950. From 1951 onwards observations were restricted to two centres, Narakkal and Vizhingam, and from January 1953 to August 1954 observations were confined to Vizhingam alone. From September 1954 onwards two more centres. Cape Comorin and Wadi, were also included for the estimation of fish landings. As Vizhingam is a very important fishing centre, and as data for five consecutive years were available it was decided to embody the observations in the present paper as suggested by Dr. N. K. Panikkar, the then Chief Research Officer, Central Marine Fisheries Research Station, Mandapam Camp

The informed consent process for anaesthesia: perspectives of elective surgical patients at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, Durban, South Africa

Background: Amongst state hospitals in the eThekwini municipality, obtaining informed consent for anaesthesia is often an informal interaction between the patient and anaesthetist, lacking structure and standardisation.Objectives: To evaluate the informed consent process from the patients’ perspective in an attempt to modify current practice.Methods: Competent adult patients presenting for elective surgery were presented pre- and postoperatively with structured questionnaires addressing various aspects of the consent process.Results: Of 143 included patients, only 57% of patients were given information about their anaesthetic preoperatively. With regard to complications experienced during anaesthesia, 36% of patients preferred not to be informed of any possible sequelae, while 17% wanted to be informed of all possible complications. In total, 83% of patients who had signed the surgical consent form with the surgeon thought that they had signed an anaesthetic form with the anaesthetist. Some 56% of patients felt that written consent on a specific standardised anaesthetic consent form should be introduced.Conclusion: Even though the majority of patients are being seen preoperatively by the anaesthetist, the quality of this assessment is concerning, in terms of the amount and depth of information imparted and the lack of standardisation of information given.Keywords: anaesthetic risk, bioethics, complications and anaesthesia, informed consent, patient and anaesthesi

Association between conflict and usage of maternal health services in Egypt: an uncontrolled before and after study

Background: United Nations’ data indicate that conflict-affected low- and middle-income countries contribute considerably to global maternal deaths. Usage patterns during conflict have not been examined in-depth and a cause-effect analysis is relevant for policy insights. This study assessed the association between the acute Egyptian conflict of 2011-2012 and maternal services usage and quality. Methods: An uncontrolled before-and-after study used data from the 2014 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey. The hierarchical nature of data was addressed using multi-level modelling. The pre-conflict sample included 2,569 births occurring from January 2009 to January 2011 and the peri-conflict had 4,641 births from February 2011 to December 2012. Results: After adjusting for potential socioeconomic confounders, conflict was not associated with antenatal service usage. Compared to pre-conflict births, peri-conflict births had lower odds of at least 24 hours post-delivery stay (8%; OR 0.92), delivery in public institutions (1%; OR 0.99), and institutional postnatal care (PNC) (1%; OR 0.99); and relatively higher odds of doctor-assisted deliveries (2%; OR 1.02), institutional deliveries (2%; OR 1.02), private institutional deliveries (3%; OR 1.03), and doctor-assisted PNC (2%; OR 1.02). During conflict, odds of doctor-assisted delivery increased more for oldest (>35 years) women (3%; OR 1.03); odds of receiving PNC decreased more for women aged 25-29 (8%; OR 0.92); and odds of skilled birth attendance increased more for rural women (2%; OR 1.02), primary-educated (4%; OR 1.04), employed (4%; OR 1.04), less poor (3%; OR 1.03) and middle household wealth quintiles (2%; OR 1.02). Odds of physician-assisted delivery increased more for rural women (3%; OR 1.03), primary-educated (5%; OR 1.05), employed (4%; OR 1.04), less poor and middle household wealth quintiles (3%; OR 1.03 each), and richest household wealth quintiles (2%; OR 1.02). Conclusions: Conflict-associated changes in maternal care were minimal, generally reflecting pre-conflict usage patterns. Association between acute conflict and maternal care indicated vertical equity had changed from recent trends. Policy intervention may help improving post-delivery stay. Maternal policy requires ‘specific in-built equity strategies’ to address unpredictable effect of conflict

Studies on Raschel knotless netting

Production of knotless webbings is of recent origin in India. An attempt has been made to evaluate the quality of the product consequent to its introduction in the fishing industry. A method has been presented to fix up yarn specification for Raschel knotless nettings equivalent to a given knotted netting

Synthetic fibres for fishing gear

A variety of synthetic fibres are at present in use as fishing gear material, the earliest one being the polyvinyl chloride group introduced for traps in 1936 (von. Brandt 1957). Since then synthetic fibres became increasingly popular among the advanced fishing nations of the world. The latest synthetic fibre which has been successfully used in fishing is polypropylene developed in Italy in 1954

Exploring the effectiveness of various screening criteria used in gestational diabetes mellitus

Hyperglycemia during pregnancy leads to fatal maternal and perinatal outcomes. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is diagnosed by 75 grams oral glucose tolerance test at 24-28 weeks of gestational age as insulin resistance increases during the second trimester. Increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus, sedentary lifestyle, Family history of DM predisposes women, particularly the Indian women to develop GDM. Existence of multiple criteria like IADPSG (International association of diabetes and pregnancy study groups), WHO (World health organisation), ADA (The American diabetes association criteria, DIPSI (Diabetes in pregnancy study groups criteria) creates serious confusion in screening of GDM. Therefore, there is a need to find a effective single screening criteria.