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This paper presents the assessment of solar resources, investigation of performance, and estimation of normalized performance indices of a 1 kWp Solar PV system in India's climatology of an isolated hilly area. The monthly and yearly mean normalized performance indices are estimated. The annual mean values of the daylight hours, cell temperature, and ambient temperature are 12.7 h/d, 10.89°C, and 1.25°C, respectively. The yearly mean values and corresponding ranges of monthly mean values of capacity factor, performance ratio, array yield, reference yield, final yield, array capture loss and system loss are obtained as 23.60%, 59.82%, 2.83 h/d, 4.63 h/d, 2.69 h/d, 1.8 h/d, 0.14 h/d and (17.56–29.07)%, (47.93–75.55)%, (2.24–3.42) h/d, (2.85–6.1) h/d, (2.13–3.25) h/d, (0.60–2.99) h/d and (0.11–0.17) h/d, respectively. The Levelized Cost of energy is reduced to 85% and 68.22% by using the proposed solar PV/ battery system compared to DG and DG/Battery systems. A saving of 14.8 kl of diesel and the corresponding reduction of emissions of carbon monoxide (244.22 kilograms), unburned hydrocarbons (10.66 kg), particulates (1.48 kg), and nitrogen Oxides (229.42 kg) have also been achieved per year. These findings effectively provide optimal power solution strategies for policymakers in the concerned area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the empowerment literature, "freedom of movement" or "mobility" are frequently used as indicators to assess empowerment programmes or whether women have become socially empowered. As women's self‐help groups (SHGs) engaged in saving/lending and livelihood schemes have emerged as the de facto vehicles for women's empowerment over the past two decades, their propensity for increasing women's opportunities for mobility has been an oft‐lauded benefit. This has been especially pronounced as the empowerment agenda's prerogative to collectively transform power structures became co‐opted by a neoliberal focus on fostering responsible financial subjects with entrepreneurial savvy. In this paper, I draw on multi‐year ethnographic research of women's SHG interventions in eastern and central India to critically explore the ways different mobile practices intersect with empowerment goals. I contend it is necessary to examine mobility as more than physical movement and also to analyse it as a meaning‐laden and embodied practice intimately bound up in the neoliberal development agenda. Using this analytic, I find that although newfound mobility is often experienced positively by women, it is far from "free," and remains embedded in power relations where women continue to engage on unfavourable terms – exemplified in women's inability to leisurely tour/wander. I conclude by reflecting on how empowerment interventions might more productively engage mobility less as a practice of increased economic and political participation and more as a site where women can experiment with new forms of being. Women's spatial mobility is seen as central to empowerment, yet remains undertheorised in critical and mainstream literature. This paper builds on scholarship examining how women navigate normative spaces of development through creative forms of self‐fashioning by analytically unpacking how mobility is central to these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Hindu religious concepts in their broadest form in general, and the philosophy and teachings of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (a religious sect with its headquarters in Punjab, India) in particular, to access whether and in what ways the Indic spiritual value system is dovetailed with ecological ethics to make a case for climate action. Considering the influence of this sect in India and the size of its faith community, its role in propagating ecological ethics through the notion of karma, practice of vegetarianism, and service are examined here. The paper concludes that although the philosophical teachings of Radha Soami Satsang Beas like living a lighter life by practising vegetarianism and service do have great ecological values, the ethnographic account of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas shows that the devotees do not show any proclivity toward climate action due to the lack of direct teaching by their guru on the subject and therefore do not establish any relation between philosophical underpinnings of the sect and ecological stewardship. Nevertheless, the ecological sensibilities of this community are more aligned with their spiritual goal and are reflected in their behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we probe the determinants of crop diversification agricultural technique for the North‐Eastern region/zone (NER/NEZ) of India. We use a balanced panel data for the period 1990 through 2015 subject to the availability of the data and employ the cointegration and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) models to identify the variables that promote the requirement of crop diversification technique for NEZ of India. Our findings show the evidence of cointegration among the variables included in the system and the results of DOLS model explain that agricultural credit, and cropping intensity positively explain the crop diversification while fertilizers, rural road density, and operational holdings are negatively related to crop diversification for north eastern states of India. Our results further merit the demand of effective government policies pertaining to agriculture so that the agricultural output of NEZ and farm earnings of the agriculturists can be increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to document the impact of movies/cinema on Indian culture and to investigate the ongoing cultural transformations that have happened over a point of time in India owing to the contributions made by Indian cinema. Moreover, an attempt is made to understand how Indian movies have initiated various changes with regards to thought process on one hand and lifestyle on the other. A purposive sampling of 20 young individuals from various universities were selected. Methodology adopted is qualitative in nature, based upon structured and in‐depth interviews which enabled the respondents to opine regarding their understanding of the change. There has been changes with regards to the institutions of marriage and instances of live in relationships have come of age and there has been a constant and continuous shift from joint families to nuclear families. Elaborating on the changes in the cultural practices; preferences have changed with regards to food habits, clothing, choice of career options and belief system. The distinctive contribution of the present paper is to offer an understanding of the impact of movies on Indian culture especially on the youth extracting information from the structured and in‐depth interviews. This paper also tries to document the behavioral changes in the youth as a bi‐product of films. Moreover, the present study attempts to view youth from cultural film theory perspective for India in general and on youths in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents play in the context of technoscience education in India. Drawing on data from an ethnography of a pharma college, it describes youthful, pedagogic, and professional play. Youthful masti subverted rigor. At the college, it was amplified into a festival and monetized by social networking sites. Pedagogic and professional play could subvert and rescue rigor. The ubiquity of play and its diverging directions show how play opened life and learning to capitalist extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The typification of names validated in a paper of 1803 concerning the plants encountered on a journey through what is now Tamil Nadu in southern India is reviewed. A number of name changes are necessitated. Psilotrichum patulum becomes the correct name for P. elliotii, Euphorbia glaucescens is the correct name for E. corrigioloides, Oldenlandia pusilla is the correct name for O. attenuata and Kohautia attenuata is the correct name for K. aspera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on ethnographic material to analyse how unemployed youth create work in the private educational sector. It shows how a set of educated young men, who moved from rural areas to a north Indian city to find work, are seeking to create jobs after an extended period of unemployment. Having attended coaching clinics and private tuition centres to prepare for white‐collar jobs, they draw on the experience, knowledge, and skills they have gained to create work in those same institutions. They do so by running errands and creating services for institutions, as well as undertaking administrative duties and teaching classes. Our main argument is that young men creatively engage with notions of enterprise to make an income and acquire a measure of respect. Studies of enterprise culture and neoliberal subjectivity formation often emphasise how individuals shore up their own value by competing with others and promoting their own interests. But we highlight how youth also maintain their value by making sense of their strategies in terms of assisting other young people. At the same time, however, their practises work to reproduce gender norms and class inequalities. This paper draws on ethnographic material to analyse how unemployed youth create work in the private educational sector in north India. Our main argument is that young men creatively engage with notions of enterprise to make an income and acquire a measure of respect. Studies of enterprise culture and neoliberal subjectivity formation often emphasise how individuals shore up their own value by competing with others and promoting their own interests, but we highlight how youth also maintain their value by making sense of their strategies in terms of assisting other young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both China and India are adopting information and communication technologies to facilitate openness and transparency in their governments, and hence reduce corruption. Distinctive from their traditional anticorruption approaches, is the innovative e‐government approach an effective solution to corruption in these two large developing countries? This paper addresses the question through comparative in‐depth interviews with 44 mid‐ or senior‐level officials in the public sector in these two countries. The first study of its kind, our research shows that civil servants in both countries overall think positively about transparency and technology in reducing corruption. However, to what extent these innovative measures will be effective is conditional on various factors, such as political willingness, income inequality, and infrastructure readiness. What is worth noting is that the Chinese respondents were more positive regarding the role of transparency, whereas the Indian respondents were more positive about the role of technology, which may reflect the different facilitators of corruption and the constraints of anticorruption in China and India. Both China and India are increasingly adopting information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate openness and transparency in the government. Is this innovative e‐government approach an effective solution to corruption in the two countries? This paper addresses the question through investigating the important yet underexplored perceptions of the senior and mid‐career civil servants on anti‐corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on gendered politics of the field has delved into the practices of accompaniment and its implications on research and knowledge production, particularly through the case of researchers' children and partners. In comparison, the tendency to seek assistance from parents is neglected within the scholarship. Drawing on the PhD fieldwork experiences of two researchers in their "native" country, specifically a Sri Lankan researcher conducting fieldwork in Sri Lanka and a North Indian scholar researching in South India, the paper reveals parents' contribution to the research process, in terms of enhancing researcher credibility, facilitating contact‐making and access, and providing emotional and practical care. The discussion illuminates two aspects of parents' involvement in fieldwork: (1) how the unique nature of parent–child relationships shapes the research process at multiple stages, and (2) how the gendered notions of knowledge production result in parents' contributions being typically unacknowledged. The paper emphasises that a researcher's positionality as a daughter shapes her ability to navigate gendered field sites in her "native" country and is implicated in the wider research process. This paper will illuminate why researchers take their parents to field sites and how this strategy helps them to negotiate gendered challenges in the field. Despite the benefits of parental accompaniment, parents' roles are frequently underplayed. This invisibility of certain actors' contributions to the research process reveals the gendered politics of knowledge construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a two-period Overlapping Generations (OLG) model of endogenous growth in which a two-way relationship between social capital and human capital is studied. In order to illustrate the impact of public policies, the model is calibrated using the data for a low-income country, India and a sensitivity analysis is reported under different parameter values. Based on the numerical analysis, this paper focuses on possible trade-offs in the allocation of government spending between two productive components, that is, social capital-related activities and education. The results of this paper show that an increase in the share of public spending on social capital-related activities through a cut in spending on education or vice versa entails trade-offs. However, the trade-off fades away and the net impact on long-run growth turns out to be positive for different parameter values in the case where a higher share of spending on education is financed by a cut in spending on social capital-related activities but a policy in improving social capital accumulation at the expense of education is always detrimental to long-run growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, only 52% of children aged 6-23 months meet the minimum meal frequency and a mere 29% meet the minimum dietary diversity, with large disparities across and within regions. With most of the stunting occurring during the first thousand days-from conception to age 2 years-improving complementary feeding in children 6-23 months old is an urgent priority. With this evidence in mind, UNICEF collaborated with the governments of India and Maharashtra to convene a global meeting in Mumbai, India, under the theme: First Foods: A Global Meeting to Accelerate Progress on Complementary Feeding in Young Children (November 17-18, 2015). The global meeting provided a platform that aimed to (a) synthesize the biological and implementation science on complementary feeding; (b) review the practice and experience in improving access to nutritious complementary foods and good complementary feeding practices; and (c) consolidate a strong evidence base that can inform the development of strategies and approaches to improve complementary feeding that are fit to context. This overview paper summarizes the rationale on why improving complementary foods and feeding for infants and young children matters and what it takes to improve them. It builds on the papers presented at the First Foods Global Meeting and those commissioned as a follow on to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present community‐anchored counterstorytelling as a form of epistemic justice. We—the Miya Community Research Collective—engage in counterstorytelling as a means of resisting and disrupting dehumanization of Miya communities in Northeast India. Miya communities have a long history of dispossession and struggle – from forced displacement by British colonial rulers in the early 19th century to the present where they face imminent threats of statelessness. Against this backdrop, we theorize "in the flesh" to interrogate knowledges and representations systematically deployed to dispossess Miya people. Simultaneously, we uplift stories and endeavors that (re)humanize Miya people, creating/claiming cultural, knowledge, and political spaces that center peoples' struggles and resistance. Across these stories, we offer counterstorytelling as a powerful mode of recentering knowledges from the margins—a decolonial alternative to neoliberal epistemes that maintain institutions/universities as centers of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater depletion in India is a result of water, energy, and food policies that have given rise to a nexus where growth in agriculture has been supported by unsustainable trends in water and energy use. This nexus emanates from India's policy of providing affordable calories to its large population. This requires that input prices are kept low, leading to perverse incentives that encourage groundwater overexploitation. The paper argues that solutions to India's groundwater problems need to be embedded within the current context of its water‐energy‐food nexus. Examples are provided of changes underway in some water‐energy‐food policies that may halt further groundwater depletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article makes a critical estimation of the impact of pandemics on the Global South consumer's well‐being. Our paper moves beyond the concerns of the other papers of this Special Issue. Instead, we focus on the issues of the vulnerable, marginal, and subaltern consumers of the Global South—experiences and anxieties, distinct from those of more "modern," capitalized, industrialized, democratized, and economically liberated Global North consumers. We offer the North–South comparisons across national lines or from block to block that bring in a series of promising directions and new currents in the critical, interdisciplinary studies of consumer affairs. Primary perspectives and associated topics for future agenda impacting TCR highlighted are (i) socio‐economic inequalities and injustices, (ii) environmental injustice and sustainable future. We finally suggest an innovative research paradigm, "altruistic‐activist consumer research," to address the concerns and impact the well‐being of marginal consumers from the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to revisit theories of internationalization and explore their export commencement processes from emerging market lenses. The paper combines the two important concepts, the pre‐export phase and lateral rigidity to deliberate the internationalization phenomenon of SMEs. The paper draws on extant literature on the SME internationalization process and applies qualitative methods to provide deep insights into the pre‐export phase. The study uses four longitudinal context‐based case studies based at India for generalization. The conceptualization and findings show that SMEs in emerging markets require processes and innovations from a strategic and planning perspective. Emerging market SMEs require a combination of resource‐building in the pre‐export phase and the right stimuli to overcome lateral rigidity to start internationalization. This paper addresses the phase before internationalization and the concept of lateral rigidity to provide a holistic view of SME internationalization from the emerging country's perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the newly created, and in terms of coverage and detail, the most complete household income data from more than 130 countries, the paper analyzes the changes in the global income distribution between 2008 and 2013. This was the period of the global financial crisis and recovery. It is shown that global inequality continued to decline, largely due to China's and India's high growth rates that explain about two‐thirds of the global Gini decrease between 2008 and 2013. Income growth of the global top 1 percent slowed significantly. The slowdown is present even after survey data are corrected for the likely underestimation of highest incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The change in price of a group of goods and services is reflected in terms of consumer price index (CPI), making it one of the most important economic indicators. This is also the mostly used measure of inflation. Forecasted CPI values help the Government to take corrective measures to control the economic conditions of the country. This paper implements and examines two machine learning models such as artificial neural network (ANN) and ANN model optimized with particle swarm optimization (PSO) known as ANN‐PSO to assess the accuracy in predictability of CPI. The data set for four groups such as food and beverages, housing, clothing, and footwear used for the calculation of all India CPI has been taken from the official website of the Government of India. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) has been used as the validator for model accuracy. The MAPE calculated for all experiments are less than 10% which indicates that the ANN‐PSO models used are highly accurate for prediction of CPI of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the twin deficit hypothesis in case of India. Furthermore, this paper examines the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis and the Feldstein‐Horioka puzzle to complement the twin deficit hypothesis. To substantiate objectives, annual time series data for the period 1970 to 2012 have been used. Time series econometrics techniques such as vector autoregressive model and auto regressive distributive lag model have been employed wherever necessary. The empirical findings suggest the rejection of twin deficit hypothesis and Feldstein‐Horioka puzzle. However, it validates the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis i.e the fiscal deficit does not affect the current account deficit. Fiscal deficit retaining strategy may not be all in controlling current account deficit, than taking wholesome strategy that includes export promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to focus on climatic risk as a potential determinant of temporary labour migration in Semi‐Arid Tropics (SAT) village in India for the year 2013–2014. Specifically, we address the question of how households use temporary labour migration as a coping mechanism to minimise the risk posed by climate variables such as drought, floods, cyclone etc. In doing so, the paper uses a binary choice model (logistic regression) to examine the potential socioeconomic and demographic factors along with climatic risk that determine the probability of migration of workers in select Indian semi‐arid villages. The paper uses data from International Crops Research Institute for the Semi‐Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The results show that among all climatic risk anomalies, maximum households in SAT villages are affected by drought risk. It is accounted that 69% of households are influenced by the drought risk. With respect to compensation of climatic risk, around 17% of non‐migrant households received government support, while only 9% of migrant households received such assistance in this study. Also, the logistic regression models predict that the probability of household having any temporary migrants is significantly determined by climatic risk along with other demographic and socio‐economic factors. To the best of the authors' knowledge, perhaps this is the first paper that makes a direct approach of linking climatic risk with temporary labour migration in semi‐arid tropics region of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Property tax is the most important municipal tax in India. Theoretically, property tax subscribes to efficiency, ability to pay, benefit and equity principles of public finance. However, it is grossly under‐exploited. The reasons why the potential of property tax is far from being realized include systemic problems and inefficiency in municipal tax administration. Considering the importance of property tax for municipal autonomy and its huge unexploited potential, property tax reform in India assumes critical significance. This paper attempts to look to theory and international practice, including innovative initiatives launched by select cities and states in India in the past for designing and pursuing a robust agenda of property tax reforms. In particular, it critically examines the property tax performance of two pioneering municipal corporations: Hyderabad and Bengaluru. We suggest municipal reforms with a focus on user charges for measurable services, move to capital value‐based property tax with land tax component linked to the market value of land, tax mapping and benchmarking, addressing tax base, exemptions, coverage, valuation and collection efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's indigenous communities represent 8% of the total population and 25% of them are listed as the most impoverished (Government of India, 2011). The COVID-19 pandemic has already infected over 70 000 indigenous people with 2000 deaths (WHO, 2020). A quick search of the word "COVID-19" in Web of Science database for 2020 has yielded 41 798 papers and when the phrase "COVID-19 indigenous people" was used, it yielded only 38 papers. Likewise in March 2020, the Chhattisgarh state government reported only six COVID-19 cases (Raju, 2020). [Extracted from the article]

Nepal, the world's second most water‐rich country, nevertheless struggles to provide sufficient domestic electricity. Despite Nepal's potential to become the hydropower source for South Asia, it still relies heavily on importing electricity from India. This paper investigates why Nepal's hydropower capacity is inadequately utilized from both domestic and international perspectives and finds that domestic factors such as geo‐climate features, weak infrastructure, political instability, and institutional deficiencies significantly hinder Nepal's hydropower development. From an international perspective, Nepal's geopolitical bonds and energy dependency with India and the regional power‐sharing configuration have significantly influenced its hydropower policy‐making. Furthermore, this paper proposes how Nepal could sustainably develop its hydropower for self‐sufficiency by establishing better policy instruments, attracting foreign investments, and upgrading its electricity infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for and the use of different data assimilation techniques to improve the quality of streamflow forecast is now well established. In this paper, the goal is to demonstrate the power of a new class of methods known as the forward sensitivity method (FSM) which is based on the temporal evolution of model sensitivities with respect to the control variables consisting of initial conditions and parameters. FSM operates in two phases: the first phase provides a simple algorithm for placing observations at or near where the square of forward sensitivities attains their maximum values. Using only this selected subset of observations in a weighted least squares method, the second phase then provides an estimate of the unknown elements of the control variables. In this paper, FSM based assimilation is applied to a simple class of two parameter model in a medium‐sized agriculture dominant watershed lying in the Krishna River Basin, India. Four assimilation scenarios were tested to determine the effect of assimilating only sensitive observations as well as the impact of temporally evolving initial condition sensitivity. Sensitivity results showed that observations during the monsoon time alone are enough for assimilation purposes, which has helped in reducing the computational time greatly. Assimilation and forecast results also indicated that the scenarios which assimilated only sensitive observations are better in estimating daily streamflow. From the obtained results, it is concluded that FSM based assimilation has significant potential to improve the streamflow simulations, especially in places where data availability remains a major challenge. Key Points: The potential of assimilating only sensitive soil moisture observations on streamflow forecast was demonstrated using a novel forward sensitivity method (FSM) methodImpact of temporally evolving sensitivity of initial condition on hydrological model performance during assimilation was determinedThe sensitivity‐based soil moisture assimilation was effective up to 45 lead days during streamflow forecast [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on agrarian change in India has largely employed class categories based upon data on land, assets and occupational status, which collapse women's class relations into those of (mostly male) households heads. In this paper, we interrogate this understanding of class building on the work of Carmen Diana Deere. Employing the first ever national time use survey conducted in India in 2019, we interrogate class as a labour process that intersects with caste and gender. Our analysis of the data using a Marxist‐feminist framework suggests the following. First, there exist intra‐household gendered differences in class locations. This calls to question theoretical frameworks that assign a cohesive class location to all household members that underlie data collection in India and elsewhere. Second, individuals participate in multiple labour processes depending on their caste and gender. Hence, they may be subsumed to capital in varied and sometimes contradictory ways. Finally, we find that both men and women engage in reproductive labour in addition to other forms of labour, which varies by caste categories. This finding further underscores and supports previous research on the importance of an expanded conception of work that includes reproductive labour. In sum, we argue for a more complex understanding of class in India, one that incorporates its caste and gender dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cricket in India has evolved much beyond its fundamental definition as a game or form of entertainment in the present century. The liberalization process in the 1990s, followed by the drastic social changes in the country, impacted the game, leading it to acquire new meanings as cultural text. Currently, Indian cricket forms part of collective enjoyment, forming people's habitus and playing a central ideological role in the politics of ethnonationalism. This article attempts to analyze Indian Cricket using Slavoj Zizek's concept of "national Thing," to critically understand its potential to evoke hyper‐nationalism in the Indian polity. The concept of "national Thing," proposed by Zizek, postulates that the recourse to nationalism can cause a pleasure‐in‐pain situation and evoke extreme "enjoyment" (jouissance), which functions on the idea of sudden sense of loss. Drawing insights from this, this paper theoretically investigates sport‐induced nationalism in cricket in the backdrop of escalating neo‐nationalist sentiments in India. Additionally, the article expounds on how cricket becomes a "lost Thing" in Indian popular culture by critically analyzing the Indian film Kai Po Che (2013), in which cricket emerges as a social and political entity, intervening with the lives of ordinary youths in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has had a low divorce rate only recently, but the divorce rate is rising following the international trend. The rising divorce rate has gained considerable attention among social scientists. The paper identifies gaps in spouses' educational attainment as a potential cause of rising failed marriages in India. Using a nationally representative large survey dataset, namely the fourth round of the District Level Household Survey, we show that the likelihood of divorce and separation is higher among women who are comparatively more educated than their partners. Moreover, the likelihood increases as the positive education gap increases. The incidences of divorce are significant among those residing in rural areas, educated up to secondary and beyond, and unemployed despite being more educated than their husbands. Although the results show that women are gaining autonomy in deciding whether to move out of marriages, the government must provide free education for women, at least up to the secondary standard, as being more educated than their partner does not provide them the autonomy to dissolve their marriages unless they are educated at least up to secondary standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While India's low female labor force participation in urban areas is often attributed to its demographic and labor market characteristics, education, and cultural aspects, attention is not paid to the labor market opportunity structure limiting women's labor market participation. We examine the role of transport infrastructure in gendergap in labor force participation and its variations by gender-norms across communities. Using India Human Development Survey and city-level data on transport infrastructure, the causal effects of differential employment status of women and men are related to size and quality of transport in twelve Indian cities. Interaction effects are explored to understand varying impacts of transport on employment by gender-context in communities. We find that an improvement in the size and quality of transportation infrastructure improves women's labor market participation more than that of men. In gender egalitarian communities, stronger positive effect of transport on female labor and reduction of gender gap in employment. Along with generation of new job opportunities suitable for women, it is important to encourage a gender-friendly institutional and social fabric to allow women to connect to new jobs. Using a novel data, the paper highlights the importance of ostensibly gender-neutral development policies for shaping gender inequalities in outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sexuality, Gender & Policy Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper explores how restrictions of credit affect the turning point of the non‐linear relationship between financial performance and the environmental sustainability of manufacturing firms in India. Our results are in support of the inverted U‐shaped relationship between financial performance and environmental sustainability. The study builds upon an alternative long‐run specification, which avoids the non‐linear transformations of potentially non‐stationary regressors in panel estimation and finds evidence that the higher the firm's degree of credit constraints, the lower is its financial performance at the turning point, indicating the different finance‐sustainability paths across firms due to credit frictions. We also investigate the aforementioned relationship by considering the exporting potential of the firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of public programs involving legal protection may depend on the duration of exposure, especially in developing countries with persistent social norms. A longer duration of the program is likely to be associated with gradual positive changes in these norms that beneficiaries could leverage in their favor. However, program effects might also decay if the norms do not change with time, even several years after the legal reforms. This paper examines the heterogeneous impact of the duration of exposure to gender‐neutral reforms in the inheritance law in India on women empowerment. We use the time lag between the year of the amendment in the respective states and the year of marriage to generate exogenous variation in reform exposure among women. The findings indicate a significant non‐linear increase in empowerment because of higher exposure. The gains are more pronounced for instrumental empowerment that relates to the ability to make decisions and to a lesser extent, albeit positively for intrinsic, which pertains to expansion of agency. The impact remains significant across women from rural/urban sector or social groups. At a more disaggregated level, greater exposure led to higher mobility, higher household decision‐making ability, reduced husband controlling behavior, and lesser emotional violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overwhelming body of evidence supports a negative relationship between women's empowerment and fertility. In this paper, we evaluate whether this relationship holds in a setting with a high degree of son preference and limited access to abortion services by focusing on rural India. We exploit the reforms to the Hindu Succession Act that improved female empowerment by mandating equal inheritance rights for women to assess the reform's impact on women's fertility. Using NFHS‐3 data and a difference‐in‐differences estimation, our results show that women who benefitted from the reform had more children than their counterparts. We attribute this increase in fertility to women's ability to use the stopping rule to achieve son preference. Finally, women impacted by the reform had a higher proportion of sons for a given family size, indicating stronger inherent son preference among treated women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment, development and abandonment and/or destruction of ancient civilizations were catalytically controlled by geomorphic features such as lakes and rivers and the climate. This paper examined the possible influence of tectonism and climate on six habitations of the ancient Vaigai River Basin civilization in South India, using multiple proxies such as grain size, geochronology and geochemistry of the sedimentary archives. The tectonic setting of the basin changed between the active margin and passive margin; the discriminant diagrams suggested varying provenance and changing climatic conditions over the mid‐ and‐late Holocene. Tectonic activism and quiescence, base‐level change in the channel morphology led to the burial/marooning of the first habitation surface. Overall, arid conditions were punctuated with catastrophic flooding and peak discharge (flood) destroyed the second, third and fourth habitation sites. These flooding events were characterized by moderate weathering (CIA) and high values of Al, Fe and Rb/Sr and low Ca/Mg in the sediment records. The abandonment/destruction of the fifth habitation also occurred during an arid interval (droughts), possibly caused by weak monsoon. Along with the interactions between tectono‐climatic and fluvial geomorphic factors, the new results provided avenues to (a) check and recognize the archives for 8.2 and 4.2 ka‐like events in this part of the world, and (b) the utility of integrated analyses to constrain on the civilizational histories of the mankind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the heterogeneous preferences of farmers towards groundwater pump technologies. The research uses primary field data drawn from West Bengal, India, where the progressive feminisation of agriculture has been well‐documented. We employ a paired comparison technique to explore how gender impacts the preferences towards different attributes of pumping technology. Our findings illustrate that preferences for irrigation pump attributes vary significantly between farmer groups, and policies that put technologies in the hands of some groups versus others could have significantly different impacts on how pumps are ultimately used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian official data points out a progressive decline in child labour during last three decades.Nevertheless, there are several gaps that need to be addressed for targed policy intervention. This paper highlights the key socioeconomic vulnerabilities among children in rural and urban India and also summarize the key focus areas to be prioritized. We posit that children's entry into the labour force is driven by varied access to resources such as education, societal status and gender. The children in Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes households are the most vulnerable. We recommend prioritizing easy‐to‐access quality education among the key strategies for eradicating child labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years concerns have been raised regarding the environmental consequences of over-use of nitrogen fertilizers on a global level. However, the balance between sustainability and agricultural productivity, a central concern for policy makers in developing countries, has not been sufficiently addressed. In this paper, I evaluate farmers' fertilization practices and their effect on yield using unique plot level data from India. I estimate quadratic crop response functions for different crops and cropping systems. To address endogenous input choices, I use input prices and cost shifters from the fertilizer industry as instrumental variables for the fertilization practice. I find that a large share of Indian cultivators overuse nitrogen relative to the other two nutrients, and could benefit from simply reducing the amount of nitrogen used while keeping the other nutrients fixed. This suggests a potential win-win situation where both productivity and sustainability can be improved by changing fertilizer application. The widespread "nitrogen-only" fertilization pattern is rejected as optimal in most cases. [EconLit Citations: Q12, Q15, Q16, E23, C26, C14]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformative research agenda encourages the pursuit of questions emphasizing societal welfare and well‐being outcomes rather than (just) focusing on narrow, incremental business‐related outcomes. This paper addresses that premise by examining those households at the social and economic bottom of the pyramid (BOP) that are intended to benefit most from the removal of trade barriers. The removal of these barriers should enable supply chains to yield commercial and welfare efficiency in terms of economic surpluses. The Goods and Services Tax legislation implemented in India in 2017 sought to do just that, serving as the experimental testbed for our investigation. Yet, as our analysis of more than 50,000 unique households in the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey data indicates, those at the social and geographic BOP see less benefit than others from the same policy intervention. This runs counter to the intended consequences of such policies. We employ a middle‐range theorizing approach grounded in the Theory of Customs Unions to inform and substantiate our hypotheses, which are tested using a stochastic frontier analysis and truncated regression. The results hold implications for policymakers and organizations seeking to elevate the efficacy of supply chains orchestrated by and serving BOP populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular bio‐economy of biogenic resources designates the plunging use of such resources, adopting a systemically formatted pathway towards sustainable economic development. Aquaculture has been perceived to play a pivotal role in supplying protein and mineral rich organic food to a growing human population. The exponential growth of aquaculture sector during the last four decades has established itself in a fundamental way to supply the global need of valuable animal protein. However, the on‐going production strategies may likely be proved unsustainable if the present level of exploitation and resource use continues. Emphasis only on augmenting productivity and yield with insufficient and/or inefficient pollution control measures, and water quality clean‐ups, direct discharge of effluents in the open ambient environment from aquaculture production systems have manifested in variable degrees of pollution particularly in the open water bodies; thereby causing significant impairment of these ecosystems. The paper discusses the various techniques of bioprocessing in re‐circulatory aquaculture system, aquaponics, biofloc technology, waste water aquaculture and circular enclosure culture for inland water bodies to recycle the waste generated from fisheries and aquaculture and converting the same to fish flesh, at the same time reducing the impact on environment. The study also highlights the potential attributes and benefits of circular bio‐economy, discusses recent advances and updates the current status of knowledge base for future research planning towards sustainability. Rationality perspectives of the system design with regards to simplicity, energy efficiency and budget in attaining circularity emerged as pertinent factors in bio‐circularity in resource use in aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Recent studies highlight the negative impact of social isolation and involvement in leisure activities on enhanced well‐being of individuals. However, there is dearth of evidence on relationship between social isolation and leisure activities on cognitive abilities and depression of older adults in the Indian context. The paper reports the impact of social isolation and leisure activities on cognitive functioning and depression of older adults. Methods: Data were collected from the Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (LASI), and 63,806 participants aged 45 years or above were considered for the study with adherence to the exclusion criteria. Multivariate analysis was carried out to analyse the group‐based differences. Results: Social isolation (F = 102.09, p < 0.01; η2 = 0.09) and leisure (F = 224.54, p < 0.01; η2 = 0.07) had a statistically significant impact on the cognition and depressive symptoms of participants. Socially isolated older adults with little involvement in leisure activities had the worst cognitive functioning (M = 32.76, SD = 4.41), whereas middle‐aged adults who were actively involved in leisure activities and experienced the least social isolation exhibited the best cognitive functioning (M = 32.76, SD = 4.41). However, leisure and age as independent factors did not have a significant impact on depression. Conclusion: Socially isolated participants, irrespective of age, and involvement in leisure activities exhibit poor cognitive functioning and are more likely to suffer from depression as compared to their counterparts. The findings of the study can be used to design intervention strategies aimed at reducing social isolation by incorporating leisure activities to ensure the optimal functioning of middle‐aged and older adults. Key points: Socially isolated older adults with least involvement in leisure activities reported the worst cognitive functioning.Socially isolated participants reported a positive association with depressive symptomatology.Both middle‐aged and older adults who engaged in leisure activities reported better cognitive functioning as compared to their counterparts who did not engage in any form of leisure activities.Leisure as an independent factor is not significantly associated with depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the effect of monetary policy on liquidity creation (LC) by banks in India. We also study the role of bank characteristics in the transmission of monetary policy to LC. We apply static and dynamic panel regressions to bank‐level data from India, spanning the period 1999–2020. We find a negative impact of monetary policy tightening on total as well as on‐balance sheet LC. We also find that the capital, size and profit of banks support the monetary policy transmission to LC. Finally, the LC channel seems to operate for both public sector and private sector banks. Our findings suggest that the monetary policy authority must closely monitor bank‐level characteristics to improve the efficacy of the LC channel of monetary policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restrictions on the collection of forest products to preserve the natural environment often affect the livelihood of forest‐fringe dwellers. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the existing and potential livelihood opportunities of the forest dwellers who use various forest products for daily consumption in the regions surrounded by Simlipal National Park in India. The study uses Herfindahl–Hirschman Index to score livelihood diversification at the household level. A regression analysis was used to determine the key factors responsible for livelihood diversification. Women of Simlipal have a high potential to manage forest resources along with their daily household chores. But their efforts are undermined and their work often remains unpaid. The present study explores how empowerment of women in terms of both access and control over resources might add to livelihood diversification. With the help of a strength‐weakness‐opportunity‐threat analysis, the study establishes if the strength and opportunities of women are focused in a positive direction through gender‐inclusive development policies, then women's involvement would support livelihood, and also in maintaining ecological integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current scenario, consumers' approach and decision to go for green products is a result of the environmental challenges faced by society at large. The benefits of using green products are well known in society. Green products are user‐friendly and contribute towards sustainable consumption. This paper investigates the effect of varied aspects of sustainable consumption on the consumption of green products. The empirical evidence focused on product quality, perceived value and trust as significant factors. A survey of 350 Indian consumers using green products was used to perform a descriptive quantitative study. The proposed hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. Findings revealed that product quality, perceived value and trust all had an impact on green product consumption. The study has found that consumers prefer green products because of their attribute of maintaining the natural environment. Therefore, based on the associated quality of green products, the relative value obtained and developed trust, an increase in green‐concept‐based product consumption can be achieved. This study recommends that future research should focus on further micro‐level aspects that constitute these important factors, namely product quality and perceived value, and trust all having a vital effect on green product consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling hydrological processes for managing the available water resources effectively is often complex due to the existence of high nonlinearity, and the associated prediction uncertainty mainly arising from model inputs, parameters, and structure. Despite several attempts to quantify the model prediction uncertainty, reducing the same for improving the reliability of models is indispensable for their wider acceptance. This paper presents a novel modeling framework for minimizing the prediction uncertainty in the streamflow simulation of the conceptual hydrological model (HBV) by integrating with the Bayesian‐based Particle Filter technique (PF) and machine learning algorithm (Random Forest algorithm, RF). Initially, the streamflow prediction interval (PI) is derived from the stochastically estimated parameters of the HBV model through the PF technique (HBV‐PF model). As the HBV‐PF model quantifies only parametric uncertainty, the RF algorithm was employed (HBV‐PF‐RF model) for further minimizing the prediction uncertainty by inherently taking care of different sources of uncertainty. The RF algorithm inherently combines the physics of the hydrological system (i.e., process‐based variables) with machine learning‐based approach to minimize the overall prediction uncertainty. The proposed framework was analyzed on Nepal and India's Sunkoshi and Beas River basins, through several statistical performance indices for assessing the accuracy and uncertainty of the model prediction. The framework was observed to be consistently improving the model performance minimizing the uncertainty in both watersheds. Therefore, the proposed framework can be considered to be more reliable in improving the prediction capability of hydrological models. Key Points: Development of a physics‐aware machine learning based hydrological model for streamflow simulationThe proposed framework characterizes the model prediction uncertainty, accounting different sources of uncertainty implicit/explicitlySignificant reduction in overall prediction uncertainty is achieved [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper outlines the characterization, electrokinetic behaviour, and flotation response of rejected coking coal fines with 32.5% ash generated in a coal washery in Eastern India. The response methodology and central composite rotatable design (RSM‐CCRD) were used for the process modelling and optimization of the flotation process using diesel, methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC), and sodium hexametaphosphate as a collector, frother, and depressant to maximize ash reduction, yield, and combustible recovery. At optimum condition, a 9.7% clean ash coal was achieved with a 63% yield at collector, frother, and depressant dosages of 0.78, 0.31, and 0.80 kg/ton, respectively. The model prediction and experimental data corroborated sufficiently. Subsequently, within 1 year, the fines oxidized and did not float with the collector. Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed surface oxidation on oxidized coal. The oxidized coal responded favourably to acid oil, a vegetable oil refinery waste. With acid oil as a collector, the oxidized coal can upgrade to 12% clean ash coal with a 60% yield; the combustible recovered is 80%. The work indicates successful upgradation of fresh and oxidized coal using the froth flotation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first case of COVID‐19 in India detected on January 30, 2020, after its emergence in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The lockdown was imposed as anemergency measure by the Indian government to prevent the spread of COVID‐19 but gradually eased out due to its vast economic consequences. Just 15 days after the relaxation of lockdown restrictions, Delhi became India's worst city in terms of COVID‐19 cases. In this paper, we propose a variable‐order fractional SIR (susceptible, infected, removed) model at state‐level scale. We introduce a algorithm that uses the differential evolution algorithm in combination with Adam–Bashforth–Moulton method to learn the parameters in a system of variable‐order fractional SIR model. The model can predict the confirm COVID‐19 cases in India considering the effects of nationwide lockdown and the possible estimate of the number of infliction inactive cases after the removal of lockdown on June 1, 2020. A new parameter p is introduced in the classical SIR model representing the fraction of infected people that get tested and are thereby quarantined. The COVID‐19 trajectory in Delhi, as per our model, predicts the slowing down of the spread between January and February 2021, touching a peak of around 5 lakh confirmed cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between talent management (TM) and employee job‐related outcomes in the Indian manufacturing setting. TM practices included talent acquisition, talent development, talent engagement, and talent retention. Employee job‐related outcomes of this study included intent to stay, job engagement, affective commitment, job satisfaction, and employee competency. This study used the social exchange theory and a resource‐based view as the theoretical underpinnings for the proposed TM model. The role of organizational culture as a moderator was also examined in the study. The sample of the study consisted of 992 full‐time employees working in one of the largest textiles and paper manufacturing organizations of India with facilities located in two Indian states. Data were collected online through a questionnaire composed of several existing survey instruments. The response rate for the survey was high (62.98%). The primary method of data analysis was structural equation modeling. The overall relationship between TM and employee job‐related outcome was found to be significant and positive. The findings showed that organizational culture is significantly related to TM and employee job‐related outcomes. In addition, organizational culture does moderate the relationship between TM and employee job‐related outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young caste‐class privileged gender justice workers in Delhi navigate several relations of power—with Euro‐American feminisms, and with less privileged feminisms and recipients of development work within India. Their experiences reveal that decolonial politics in India cannot be conceptualised without consideration of other axes of inequality including caste and religion. There is thus a need to broaden decolonial and intersectional analyses to include multiple spatial scales, from the transnational to the most granular interpretations of the local. By bringing intersectional analyses into greater dialogue with postcolonial feminist theory, this paper demonstrates that patterns of "outsourcing patriarchy" are observable at many scales, and that these patterns at different scales are co‐produced, each in turn shaping the other. Such a framework also explains how young caste‐class privileged gender justice workers outsource patriarchy and reproduce "mainstream" feminisms even as they seek to avoid doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic, governments across the world including India, a South‐Asian country is busy 'strategizing', 'managing' 'containing' the crisis to restrict its spread. But given the vastness and diversity of the Indian territory, one pan Indian model of is not possible and the states have been working in consonance with the centre in a matter of 'cooperative federalism' and are implementing various micro models of Covid 19 governance. This paper explores the micro models of governance strategies taken by states in India namely, Kerala located in its Southern coast and Odisha in the Eastern coast which have been experiencing disasters be it health or natural calamities. Inspite of the differences in social development indicators between both the states, they have managed to keep the death rates lower in the initial phases of the outbreak in comparison to other states. This is reflected in the strategies they took in controlling the pandemic like "preparedness" "decentralisation", "community participation". However, inspite of deploying various governance models, the gradual unlocking led to the explosion of positive cases as a result of which the challenges to deal with the pandemic still looms large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a comparison of various time series forecasting models to forecast annual data on sugarcane production over 63 years from 1960 to 2022. In this research, the Mean Forecast Model, the Naive Model, the Simple Exponential Smoothing Model, Holt's model, and the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average time series models have all been used to make effective and accurate predictions for sugarcane. Different scale‐dependent error forecasting techniques and residual analysis have been used to examine the forecasting accuracy of these time series models. SE of Residuals, Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) are used to analyse the forecast's accuracy. The best model has been selected based on the predictions with the lowest value, according to the three‐performance metrics of RMSE, MAE, and AIC. The estimated sugarcane production shows an increasing trend for the next 10 years and is projected to be 37,763.38 million tonnes in the year 2032. Further, empirical results support the plan and execution of viable strategies to advance sugarcane production in India to fulfil the utilisation need of the increasing population and further improve food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]