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Wind energy, the most commercialized prospect of renewable energy, is being developed and utilized on a large scale. Major institutions and universities have invested a lot of manpower, capital and technology in researching the wind power technology, which has made remarkable progress. In the era of green economy, the leading technology of wind power deserves more attention. Dominant technology represents the development direction of technology area. Identification of the dominant technology is of great significance for the technological choice and strategic layout of enterprises. In contrast to traditional technology identification methods, here we propose a visual analysis model based on patent citation relationship. First, the patent mutual citation data are input into the visualization software Gephi to identify the leading technology in the visual processing stage. The PageRank algorithm is used to cross contrast the technical value to build the leading technology recognition model. Second, we evaluate the technical value of each patent with five indices, including 'number of patent cited', 'patent number of the same family', 'scope of patent coverage', 'claim number of each patent', and 'number of patent litigations' to verify the accuracy of the visual model. Taking the database of wind power generation technology from European Patent Office as an example, we obtain 7421 patents from 1900 to 2017. The results of visual processing, evaluation of the index and PageRank judgment show that the visual model has a significant effect in the identification of the leading technology. The results also explain the applicability of the PageRank algorithm and the five indicators are the most scientific and reasonable for dominant technology identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The banking industry has been going through rapid transformation due to progressive economic reforms, changing demographics and fast-paced technological developments. Banks in India have been facing multitudinous challenges such as regulatory risks, upgradation of technology, intense competition, workforce challenges and operational risk. Workforce challenge plays a vital role among other challenges. The extant literature review shows that several studies have identified various workforce challenges of banks. However, their impact has not been quantified for effective risk mitigation. Such studies are more observatory than investigational. The present study aims to identify the major workforce challenges of banks through a structured approach that includes literature review, focus group discussion, assimilation of consultancy reports and conducting risk perception survey. The scope of the current study is limited to Indian public and private sector banks. As per literature review, the major workforce challenges identified are lack of required skills, performance management, inadequate recruitment and career planning and increasing staff cost. The workforce challenges are identified using factor analysis and a conceptual model is proposed for mitigation of key challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapidly growing solar and wind energy programmes in India have created a techno-economic opportunity in the energy market. Apart from the possibility of providing the much-needed energy solution to our citizens, the promise to young academicians and workforce is significant in the new clean energy sector. All these have happened in the last four to five years and, if the country were to take the National Solar Mission initiative forward, developments in solar photovoltaic power generation are likely to realize grid parity within the next few years and mitigate the energy deficiency to a great extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There exists great demand for a skilled workforce, especially in the context of globalization and when Indian economy is growing at an unprecedented rate. Availability of such skilled workforce is closely associated with the kind of vocational education and training system existing in the country. This article maps the various government initiatives towards skill development by reviewing and analysing the prevailing programmes/schemes under various institutional arrangements, to promote a meaningful and employable skill development system. In doing so, it is found that skill deficiency is present across all levels despite new institutional arrangements from the government and several ongoing schemes and programmes operating in the country. Finally, the article makes an attempt to identify the limitations in the above-mentioned context and suggests some mechanism to fill the existing gaps in the skill development area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An elegant definition for the Earth System was put forth by Schellnhuber as consisting of the ecosphere and the anthroposphere, where the ecosphere includes all natural spheres such as the geosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere and the biosphere. Human being has evolved into a dominant anthroposphere with his impact on the functioning of the Earth System so dominant now that a new geologic period called the Anthropocene is underway. As the global human is beginning to realize his dependence on the ecosphere for future survival, global governance is being contemplated for navigating the future evolution of the Earth System. For all denizens of planet Earth, it is absolutely crucial to attain development to be more in harmony with the ecosphere and use natural resources sustainably. A critical component of ecosphere-anthroposphere balance will depend on the education of future generations. A careful planning of higher education is called for to achieve such development to not only produce a globally aware workforce but also train Earth System scientists who are ecospheric doctors and surgeons capable of monitoring the pulse of the planet, diagnosing the ailments, and devising the remedies needed for sustainable functioning of Gaia's body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the new emerging trend of internationalization of R&D, MNCs are targeting developing countries in Asia for setting up their dedicated R&D centres. The resource scarcity in developed countries, due to escalating demand on S&T infrastructure and the prohibitive cost of highly skilled manpower has brought in this new trend. The skilled manpower and the reasonably developed S&T infrastructure have been drawing MNCs to the shores of India for setting up their dedicated R&D centres. Presence of foreign R&D will have some impact on the host country; it could be negative or positive. As more and more R&D centres are being allowed to operate in India, we presume that foreign R&D has been allowed here expecting some positive impact (or benefits) on our innovation system. The benefits to India, however, is the grey area. The available literature suggests that the presence of foreign R&D centres can trigger the spillover effect onto the host country's innovation system depending on the ability, preparedness and conducive policy package of the host country. This article proposes the need for a detailed investigation into the dynamics of interaction between foreign R&D centres and the Indian production and R&D system, to understand the positive impact. This would help in developing a conducive policy package for maximizing the benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modified hand-operated mechanical device has been developed to facilitate precise sectioning of the aqueous sediment in a core liner. The device allows the core liner to remain vertical on the disk protecting physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the sediment. The disk rotations are initially calibrated for moving unit distance on the threaded rod and later used proportionately for desired increment of the sediment. The sediment is exposed on the top of the liner when the disk and liner are lowered. A collapsible scale provided with the coupler on the top of the liner helps verify the required thickness of the sediment to be sectioned. Disk rotation does not cause compaction of sub-core sediment, and sub-samples are not mixed or contaminated. The apparatus is low-cost (< Rs 2000), portable, user-friendly, lightweight (about 9 kg) and occupies small floor area (0.25 sq. m). The apparatus is made up of non-magnetic and anti-rusting material for wide-scale application. It can be taken to the field or on a small boat or a research vessel, and quickly assembled and or dissembled. It is especially useful in a team with limited manpower. The core liners can be cleaned, washed and reused number of times, thus saving expenditure and making it environmental friendly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses aspects of industry imperatives on generation of human capital. He comments that there is a small overlap between the selfish and competitive market place of the industry and the corruption of the research institutions. Also investigated is the process of the formation of human capital in the industry.

The article offers information on the increasing number of start-ups in the biotech sector of India. Topics discussed include role of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) of the Government of India (GoI) with initiatives such as the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) in this sector; contribution of entrepreneurs in making the Indian economy more innovation-driven; and challenges faced by the start-ups due to inadequate funding, insufficiently trained manpower, and others.

The author discusses the development of academic laboratories in India. He mentions the status of laboratories in India including their instrumentation, power supply and computers. He also focuses on the usage of various instruments including visible spectrometers, NMR spectrophotometers and light microscopes for research purpose. He highlights the development of new institutions with centralized facilities and limited assessment of manpower and supporting infrastructure.

The article discusses the new disciplines emerged in the field of biology. It informs about the fields of biology such as protein structure that had increased in demand due to the need of research. It presents concern over the quality of manpower in biological science that may become worse if attention is not provided along with the proper education system in India which needs to retain exposure to the basic chemistry, physics and mathematics.

The article offers the author's view regarding the effects of budget cuts to the research and development (R&D) of the science and technology sector in India. The author states the manpower retrenchment, roll-back of plan objectives, and restrictions on new employees. The author notes that institutions without buffers such as financial cushions, organizational strengths, and cash flows are the worst affected by the budget cuts. The author mentions that the quality of the R&D will be affected.

The article focuses on the number of scientific researches that are taking place around the world. It includes information on the number of science and engineering (S&E) articles published from 1995 to 2009 along with information on a comparative report of the factors related to the publication of articles among various countries. The article urges the need of expenditure in research and development and quality S&E manpower in India to emerge as a knowledge-base economy of the world.