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In this study, the phenological stages of peach have been described for the first time according to the BBCH scale (Biologische Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt and Chemische Industrie) and Baggiolini codes for five cultivars (Pratap, Tropic Snow, Tropic Beauty, Redhaven and July Elberta) in sub‐temperate region of India, which markedly differentiates vegetative and reproductive stages occurring in peach. The growing degree days (GDD) are the best indicators for monitoring the different phenological growth stages and were determined from dormancy breaking to fruit harvest when the cultivars reached maturity. Pratap, Tropic Snow and Tropic Beauty were identified as early‐season maturing with 814 ± 5.10, 996 ± 8.13 and 1004 ± 8.72 GDD, respectively. While, Redhaven was mid‐season cultivar with 1502 ± 16.17 GDD, and July Elberta was the late‐season cultivar with 1894 ± 6.00 GDD. Mid‐season cultivar Redhaven performed better in India's sub‐temperate region, accounting for higher yield (54.87 kg per tree), fruit length: diameter (1.11), TSS (12.26%) and total sugars content (10.26%). The description presented in the paper will act as a tool to provide a consensual unified approach for standardisation of phenological stages in peach and also for various cultural inputs and timely planning of harvesting. Moreover, the BBCH scale will act as a tool to assess the impact of climate change on crop phenology and to evaluate the adaptation of particular peach cultivars to different conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forced changes and disruptions in educational systems and learning experiences due to the pandemic has impacted students' mental health and well‐being. The present study aims to understand the effects of the determinants of well‐being on students in India during the second wave (April to August 2021) of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The determinants of well‐being in this study are academic grit, intolerance to uncertainty and students' engagement in an online learning environment. In this study, well‐being is characterized as students' confidence and satisfaction in an online learning and pandemic environment. The data collected from 1174 students (12–19 years) from various states, using standardized tools, were analyzed to find out about the mediating effect of students' engagement on the relationship between academic grit and well‐being, and between intolerance to uncertainty and well‐being. Further, the model fit analysis of the determinants of well‐being is explored. The paper reports that students' classroom engagement does mediate in the path of academic grit and well‐being, and in the path of intolerance to uncertainty and well‐being. It also evidence the model fit of the influence of the determinants of well‐being on that of school students during the second wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The study also draws implications and suggestions for educators using the current model of students' well‐being. Practitioner Points: 1.Classroom engagement mediates in the path of academic grit and well‐being among school students during the pandemic.2.Classroom engagement mediates in the path of intolerance to uncertainty and well‐being among school students during the pandemic.3.Students' classroom engagement, academic grit, and intolerance to uncertainty evidenced to be the determinants of their well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies market distortions due to farm support policies. Using a recently implemented Price Deficiency Payments (PDP) policy in India, we examine how PDP affects farm‐gate prices and crop supply. We document a new channel, the fall in reservation price of farmers under PDP, behind the decline in farm‐gate prices. This impact depends on the magnitude of the deficiency payments and can lead to a supply glut and price crash. Empirically, the scheme led to a 4% decrease in farm‐gate prices and a 51% increase in market arrivals for black‐gram, a crop with a high magnitude of PDP. Using bid‐level data on crop auctions, we rule out collusion among the market participants, another potential channel for price crash under PDP. The effects of the policy are transitory and disappear after the policy is withdrawn. In terms of welfare effects, this scheme is associated with a monetary loss of INR 1 billion. We discuss an alternate payment scheme that can reduce such losses. In summary, our results extend the current understanding of PDP schemes and contribute to the optimal design of such policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The importance of monsoon rainfall cannot be ignored as it affects round‐the‐year activities ranging from agricultural to industrial. Due to the nonlinear and dynamic nature of monsoon rainfall, its accurate forecast becomes a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a novel deep and wide neural network model to predict summer monsoon rainfall using historical time‐series data of 118 years. We have considered Rajasthan as our area of study, which is the largest state of India with varying atmospheric regions. Two different types of datasets are used: gridded rainfall dataset from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and station rainfall data from Water Resources Department (WRD). Results obtained on both the datasets demonstrate that a single model works well in efficiently predicting summer monsoon rainfall in different geographical regions of Rajasthan, ranging from plains and plateaus to deserts and hills. We compare the results with various advanced deep learning algorithms such as 1‐dimensional convolutional neural network, long short term memory, and multilayer perceptron. The comparison results show that the proposed method clearly outperforms these algorithms in terms of its forecasting ability, which is evaluated using root mean square error and mean absolute error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper hunts for zombies – both "real" and "unreal"– in contemporary Indian Science Fiction. It investigates how India's undead appropriate semantic markers of the global zombie industry via metaphors of monstrosity and how they simultaneously propagate a monstrosity of metaphors that disrupts social cohesion and communal harmony. Adopting the filters of genre, form, monster, and location, it advances a neoMONSTERS (Mutating/Mutagenic Ontological Narratives in Space‐Time Echoing Realistic Situations) epidemiology that identifies: (a) etiology (birth/cause) of the zombie, (b) transmission of the infection, (c) treatment/cure of the infected, and (d) teratology, epicentre and ideology of the outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses method skew in India over more than two decades using a new method skew index. The analysis reveals clear regional pattern in method skew in the country. In north and east regions of the country, method skew is average and below average, but it is high or very high in the south region. We investigate roles of such factors as poverty, education, social class, and religion in deciding the method skew at the district level using the classification modeling approach and find that the roles of these factors are different in different regions of the country. An important finding of the analysis is that there is a positive correlation between the degree of the method skew and contraceptive prevalence at the district level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the impact of COVID‐19 on the volatility of stock prices in India with the help of a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model. Daily closing prices of stock indices, Nifty and Sensex from September 3, 2019 to July 10, 2020 has been used for the analysis. Further, the study has been attempted to make a comparison of stock price return in pre‐COVID‐19 and during COVID‐19 situation. Findings reveal that the stock market in India has experienced volatility during the pandemic period. While comparing the result during COVID period with that of the pre‐COVID, we found that the return on the indices is higher in the pre‐COVID‐19 period than during COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate whether COVID‐19 pandemic causes the spot electricity price discovery of the Indian electricity market. To do so, we use the average daily spot electricity price data for five regions of the Indian electricity market (North, East, West, South, and North‐East). The data is considered from March 15, 2020 to May 02, 2020. The results obtained from cross‐sectional augmented Im, Pesaran and Shin (CIPS) unit root test show the stationary of spot electricity price and COVID‐19 at the level. Additionally, we use the Dumitrescu–Hurlin (DH) panel causality test to examine the causality between spot electricity price and COVID‐19. The results reveal the unidirectional causality which is running from COVID‐19 to the spot electricity price discovery but no other way around. Our findings suggests to the policymakers that across different regions of India (North, East, West, South, and North‐East), the ongoing coronavirus outbreak will further disrupt the electricity market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has been hard‐hit by the Covid‐19 pandemic. The virus has exacted a heavy toll in terms of lives lost and deteriorating health outcomes. The economic consequences of the pandemic have been similarly grim. In this paper we attempt an initial, interim, assessment of the impacts of the crisis on poverty. We review the growing literature that considers emerging poverty impacts, noting that there remain significant knowledge gaps due to limited evidence on current welfare outcomes. We analyze pre‐Covid survey data to examine the incidence of chronic poverty and downward mobility during a period of rapid economic growth and declining poverty. A profile of poverty during such a period might offer a plausible, partial, window on population groups currently at risk. We suggest that, notwithstanding the severe initial impacts of the crisis on poverty, there are grounds for expecting further consequences going forward. As the virus has spread out of the relatively affluent cities, and as economic stagnation persists, rural areas, with historically higher rates of chronic poverty and vulnerability, may see particularly sharp increases in poverty. While recent vaccination developments offer some grounds for optimism, there remains an urgent need to identify, implement and amplify effective policy alleviation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trajectory of the academic discipline of sociology is an attestation to the quest for civility and sociability. We believe that the promise of public sociology will rejuvenate scholars to commit to better engagement with one another and with the public. We situate and draw from the scholarly contributions of Michael Burawoy to reflect on sociology's longstanding critical imagination, hoping that the world could be different. We place ourselves on the continuum of what is and what ought to be for better lived experiences and a sustainable planet. We draw from the work of sociologists in India, which continues to guide us to amplify the voices of the unheard and the issues of public concern. To be inclusive, sustainable, democratic, and humane, we need to move beyond structurally ingrained processes within academia and make bridges that are open to all. The deliberation furthered in this paper will encourage young scholars to be more concerned for engaging multiple publics and, thereby, help the discipline of sociology itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, progress against undernutrition has been slow. Given its importance for income generation, improving diets, care practices, and maternal health, the agriculture sector is widely regarded as playing an important role in accelerating the reduction in undernutrition. This paper comprehensively maps existing evidence along agriculture-nutrition pathways in India and assesses both the quality and coverage of the existing literature. We present a conceptual framework delineating six key pathways between agriculture and nutrition. Three pathways pertain to the nutritional impacts of farm production, farm incomes, and food prices. The other three pertain to agriculture-gender linkages. After an extensive search, we found 78 research papers that provided evidence to populate these pathways. The literature suggests that Indian agriculture has a range of important influences on nutrition. Agriculture seems to influence diets even when controlling for income, and relative food prices could partly explain observed dietary changes in recent decades. The evidence on agriculture-gender linkages to nutrition is relatively weak. Sizeable knowledge gaps remain. The root causes of these gaps include an interdisciplinary disconnect between nutrition and economics/agriculture, a related problem of inadequate survey data, and limited policy-driven experimentation. Closing these gaps is essential to strengthening the agriculture sector's contribution to reducing undernutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global network economy involves intensive interactions and flows between places. In this paper, we define a theoretical framework of labour migration in the global economy in which we propose the importance of transnational spaces 'from above' and how formal organisations develop networks for migration processes. This theoretical framework is employed on an empirical study that investigates the increasing flows of highly-skilled labour migration from India to Sweden within the ICT-sector. The paper illustrates how transformations and acting in formal institutions in the political and private sectors have a strong impact on the transnational migration of highly-skilled labour. By integrating theories from migration studies, institutional theory and economic geography the theoretical framework has been able to conceptualise factors that are less visible in migration studies 'from below'. Thereby this paper contributes to a more multi-sided understanding of transnational migration processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the need to integrate migration in future food policy research and practice and, in doing so, examines the role of internal migration as a livelihood strategy in influencing food security among rural households. Migration has become a key component of livelihood strategies for an increasing number of rural households across the developing world. Importantly, there is emerging consensus among academics and policy makers on migration's potentially positive effects in reducing poverty and promoting sustainable human development. Concurrently, the significance of the catch-cry 'food security for all' as an important development objective has been growing, particularly since the 2007-08 global food crisis. However, academic and policy discussions on these two issues have tended to proceed largely in silos, with little attention devoted to the relationship they bear with each other. Using primary survey data collected from 392 rural households from a district in western Bihar in India, this paper seeks to fill this gap in relational dynamics. It first reviews plausible reasons for this disconnect between migration and food security in the wider developing countries' context, and then draws on a primary survey of rural Indian households to provide empirical household-level insights on the linkages between people's movements and households' capacity to secure food. In particular, the paper focuses on the often-overlooked role of migrants' remittances for food security of rural households at points of origin. The findings show that, by equipping households with improved purchasing power and enabling investment in agriculture, remittances contribute positively to household food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW)-Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) Conference to be held in Delhi, India from November 23-25, 2017.

Summary: Intelligent Transport System (ITS) involves a number of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) interventions for efficient road safety management. Over the last few decades, there has been a significant increase in the safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRU's). This study aims to identify the most frequent, regularly occurring causes of road accidents and outline actions that can be used as a baseline for improving road traffic safety. The main contributions in this paper include the following: a graphical investigation for finding out the overall rate of road accidents (injuries and deaths) in India. Based on graphical analysis, major loopholes responsible for road accidents in India are summed up. This paper discusses various issues faced by already available pedestrian and vehicular safety techniques. After analysis of the available techniques and their related case studies in a systematic way, it is observed that they are not able to overcome the loopholes (Collision Occurrence, Traffic Congestion, Pedestrian Crossing alert, Red Light violation, and Non‐Propagation of Distress Signal) present in the current "Road Transport Management (RTM) System" of India. Finally, after deep analysis of already available techniques, a futuristic approach "Mesh‐Networking based Vehicle Ad‐Hoc System (MN‐VAS) using hybrid of Neuro‐Fuzzy and Genetic Algorithm based Load Balancing on Node" is proposed for the safety of VRU's. This hybrid approach has been discussed with domain experts for practical input, and we concluded that this might be a good option for better RTM System in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right‐wing Hindu nationalist "Hindutva" movement in India has political control of the world's most populous democracy. To gain insight into the tools of the movement, this paper examines Hindutva framing rhetoric. Social movement framing entails the crafting of movement messages to motivate collective identity and collective action. This paper takes a new approach to studying social movement framing by using the social psychological principle of metacontrast as an organizing theoretical framework. Metacontrast involves minimizing differences within the group (intragroup homogenization) and maximizing differences between groups (intergroup polarization). We argue dual homogenizing‐polarizing frames work in concert to construct a unified collective identity and mobilize concerted collective action. Using qualitative content analysis of two Hindutva organization websites, we find Hindutva framing rhetoric simultaneously homogenizes and polarizes through two framing strategies: a threat‐counter threat frame that portrays an antagonistic outgroup that must be countered with a unified ingroup, and a striking positive‐negative intergroup contrast that paints the ingroup as a moral protector and the outgroup as a vilified adversary. Notably, key to these efforts is the minimization of deeply entrenched, rigid caste differences. Our findings have implications for the study of social movements, nationalism, collective identity, collective action, and intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper set out to reassess the effects of economic and social determinants of the probability of formal vocational training in India. Applying the four‐level cross‐classified logistic model to the 2011–2012 National Sample Survey data, the paper identified the association between formal training and 'good jobs' in large urban electrified firms that offer permanent employment and regular monthly salary to their skilled occupation workers. Nevertheless, India remains a country of severe training poverty. This study confirms that the traditional mindset of the society does contribute to the training poverty; however, this impact is much limited to the household level and religious groups, such as Christians, which are systematically excluded from formal training as compared to Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. In contrast, the lower castes and deprived social backgrounds do not affect, as predicted by previous studies. Moreover, it is shown that unskilled males from the rural area of India were less likely to receive formal training as compared to educated single women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the widespread use of mobile phones in the Global South, digital tools are attracting growing interest from international aid actors as well as local governments – positioning digital technology as an essential driver of economic growth and an obvious solution to many social problems. Initiated by multiple actors from the digital industry, these programs reconfigure the state, the rights of citizens, the perimeter and access to health services. Through the study of the Motech Global Mobile Health Program (mHealth) implemented in Ghana and India to improve maternal health, this paper explores the way in which processes of medical globalization and privatization come into being through digital technology. It shows how forms of philanthrocapitalism drive such digital programs. By confronting the stories of the techy philanthropists promoting such solutions and the global south's mothers that are supposedly benefiting from it, this paper also illustrates the gap between the promise of better healthcare offered by such digital solution and the realities experienced on the ground by its users, on gender and empowerment issues or accessibility and quality of healthcare. While mobile applications leave no material traces, no physical infrastructures, no specialized skills or knowledge in the countries where they are deployed, they nevertheless offer a new mercantile approach to care and health administration that leaves traces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new dataset of commodity‐specific, bilateral import data for four large Asian economies in the interwar period: China, the Dutch East Indies, India and Japan. It uses these data to describe the interwar trade collapses in the economies concerned. These resembled the post‐2008 Great Trade Collapse in some respects but not in others: they occurred along the intensive margin, imports of cars were particularly badly affected, and imports of durable goods fell by more than those of non‐durables, except in China and India which were rapidly industrialising. On the other hand the import declines were geographically imbalanced, while prices were more important than quantities in driving the overall collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a study on teaching and learning strategies during the COVID‐19 lockdown period (CLP) that were used by the secondary government school teachers and students in Eastern India. These teaching and learning strategies were analysed in relation to their engagement with an initiative called Integrated approach to Technology in Education (ITE). ITE engagement in the pre‐CLP involved using project‐based learning (PBL) with technology and continuous, practise‐based professional development for teachers focusing on integrating constructivist use of technology in their curriculum and pedagogy. A survey and interviews of teachers revealed that teachers with higher ITE engagement in the pre‐CLP were more likely to use PBL with technology during the CLP. Students' interviews indicated that this PBL involved deep research and technical skills that were also practised during the CLP using distance technologies. Thus, the study demonstrated adaptation of ITE innovation into a distance mode; the introduction of WebQuests during the CLP improved the likelihood of teachers engaging in project‐based teaching and PBL during the CLP. Policymakers, practitioners and researchers are recommended to adopt and continue to study the sustainability of ITE approach in new contexts such as the CLP. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Project‐based learning (PBL) with technology is related to constructivist use of technology which leads to higher order thinking skills and the learner's ability to adapt learning and knowledge in new contexts.Effective teacher professional development (TPD) is continuous, uses community of practise (CoP) groups and offers opportunities to practise new knowledge and skills in the classroom context. TPD for technology integration allows the demonstration and practise of constructivist pedagogies.Access to devices, connectivity and digital resources in the local language are major issues faced by students to connect with teaching and learning in the COVID‐lockdown period (CLP), especially students in underprivileged settings.What this paper adds Prior exposure to PBL with technology and effective TPD when combined with demonstrations of this learning in a new context (COVID‐19 lockdown period, CLP required distance mode) will increase the likelihood of implementing PBL with technology in this new context.Besides increased use of technology, the CLP created a scope for adoption of teaching and learning pedagogies in the post‐CLP, such as the use of Instant Messaging Application (IMA) for a flipped classroom experience across home/social and school settings.Implications for practice and/or policy Standardised digital resources may not be the only solution for teaching and learning when schools have to be closed.Constructivist use of technology by students with project‐based learning (PBL), artefact creation on authentic tasks and inquiry‐based learning has the potential to transform students from passive consumers into active adapters in newer contexts like COVID‐19 lockdown period (CLP).Investment in practise‐based continuous professional development of teachers can develop a sense of agency and competence so that teachers can adapt technologies for constructive teaching pedagogies and mitigate access related challenges for students in different contexts.Integrate new teaching and learning strategies that emerged during the CLP in the curriculum and pedagogy of both in‐service and pre‐service teacher professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationships between inflation, output growth and their uncertainties for India over the period from 1971 to 2015. The paper extends the existing empirical literature by employing a regime switching model to understand the dynamics of the above linkages in different inflation and output growth regimes of India. Our estimated results indicate that inflation is a positive determinant of output growth in the low‐growth regime. Furthermore, output growth significantly boosts inflation during low‐inflation regime. Thus in a situation, when both inflation and output growth are low, moderate inflation is helpful to growth as well as rise in growth feeds back into inflation. On the other hand, during high‐inflation regime, nominal uncertainty significantly reduces inflation, thus providing evidence in support of the price "stabilization" motive of the monetary authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aspirations have gained significant attention within educational anthropology and yet the effects (and affects) of the imperative to aspire that undergird educational projects have been underexamined. This paper argues that aspirations within the context of material depravity often produce immaterial precarity, which I index as affective states of anticipation drawing on ethnographic research with non‐elite young women who were alumni of a girls' empowerment intervention in New Delhi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic wounds are associated with significant clinical, economic and quality‐of‐life burden. Despite the variety of wound imaging systems available in the market for wound assessment and surveillance, few are clinically validated among patients of Asian ethnicity. We aimed to clinically validate the accuracy of a smartphone wound application (Tissue Analytics [TA], Net Health Systems Inc, Florida, USA), versus conventional wound measurements (visual approximation and paper rulers), in patients of Asian ethnicity with venous leg ulcers (VLU). A prospective cohort study of patients presenting with VLU to a specialist wound nurse clinic over a 5‐week duration was conducted. Each patient received seven wound measurements: one by a trained wound nurse clinician, and three separate wound measurements using TA on each of the iOS and Android operating systems. Inter‐rater and intra‐rater reliability between clinical and TA‐based measurements were analysed using intra‐class correlation statistics, with values of <0.5, 0.5 to 0.75, 0.75 to 0.9, and >0.9 indicating poor, moderate, good and excellent reliability, respectively. 82 patients (51% males), with a mean age at 65.8 years, completed the 5‐week study duration. 25 (30%) had underlying diabetes mellitus. Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity comprised 68%, 12% and 11%, respectively. The VLU healed in 26 (32%) of patients within the study period. In total, 358 wound episodes with 2334 wound images were analysed. Inter‐rater reliability for length, width and area between wound nurse measurements and TA application measurements was good (range 0.799‐0.919, P < 0.001). Separate measurements of intra‐rater reliability for length, width and area within the iOS or Android systems were excellent (range 0.967‐0.985 and range 0.977‐0.984 respectively, P < 0.001). Inter‐rater reliability between TA used on the iOS and Android systems was also excellent (0.987‐0.989, P < 0.001). Tissue Analytics, a smartphone wound application, is a useful adjunct for wound assessment and surveillance in VLU patients of Asian ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, large parts of India and the global South have experienced a rapid transformation from mud to cement houses, which has been promoted by governments and cement companies for its positive impacts on household socioeconomic status and gender inequalities. But we know little else about how different communities are participating in house transformation. In this paper, I study the embodied and affective dimensions of house transformation in Himachal Pradesh, India. I argue that house transformation is also the transformation of traditional gender and caste identities into new middle‐class identities which benefits some social groups, like upper‐caste women and Dalit men, but not others like Dalit women along intersectional lines. My work extends literature in infrastructure studies and urban political ecology by highlighting how the materiality of infrastructures interacts with everyday dimensions of difference to reproduce the marginalisation of historically oppressed groups along intersectional lines of class, caste, and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to develop a universal diffusion model of drying kinetics that can be applied to a variety of shrinkable products such as fruits and vegetables. The main objective is to examine the physical changes that occur during convective air‐drying process of Thompson seedless type cylindrical grapes. These include changes in the physical properties of the product, such as the moisture content, the temperature of the product, and the size of the product. The authors develop a two‐dimensional transient diffusion model and MATLAB that takes into account convection, radiation, and evaporation phenomena under a variety of operating conditions for simulating grape drying and shrinkage. The differential equations are solved for moisture transfer within a cylinder using the finite difference method. A lab‐scale experimental test setup has also been developed and tests are performed. The results obtained from the mathematical model are compared with experimental results and found to be in agreement with a maximum error of 14%. The model is also validated with the results reported in the literature. Meteorological data are used to determine the time‐dependent radiation flux density (I(t)) on a particular day. For each of the investigated conditions, the effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) is determined using Fick's diffusion equation. Volume reduction of a product due to drying process was assumed to be equivalent to moisture removal. A coefficient of effective diffusivity was calculated using drying data collected at constant cabin air temperatures between 50 and 70°C. The maximum radius and length of the grape were reduced by 40.33% and 42.40%, respectively, when the size of the grape was considered to be 6.5 mm radius and 25 mm length. The results of the present mathematical model may be useful for accurately predicting the temperature, moisture content, and size change of the product. Practical Application: Drying food to preserve it is an energy‐intensive process. Solar drying is one of the oldest methods used to preserve agricultural produce. Solar thermal energy has tremendous potential for commercial and industrial drying applications with air temperatures as high as 80°C. Solar drying is prevalent in India because farmers have easy access to solar drying systems. Through the installation of such a system, agricultural products can be dried in agricultural regions. This work provides farmers with added value for their particular products. Solar dryers system ensure significant fossil fuel energy savings. Solar dryers must meet rigorous requirements for dependability and continuous operation. This research contributes to the design, optimization, and control of food drying processes. For each drying time, the extent of moisture distribution, product temperature, and product size are determined. For dryers operating under a variety of operating conditions, this aids in system performance forecasting. In addition, the effect of interior cabin temperature variation is investigated, which aids in identifying drying characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyze the experiences of the world's largest all‐women community health workforce through the lens of liminality. Originally used to describe transition from one state to the other, the concept of liminality in the study of work and organizations can frame workers' experiences of being in‐between established structures and roles in varying degrees, times, and/or places. India's ASHAs, or Accredited Social Health Activists, are community women at the frontlines of the state's health care provisioning. But the state does not categorize them as workers or employees. ASHAs are considered volunteers. Instead of salaries, they are paid task‐based incentives. Based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including 80 interviews, I find that ASHAs' liminal occupational status as 'paid volunteers' produces conditions of chronic underpayment and control for them, further lowering their already low wages. This has implications for how we understand the gender wage gap. I argue that we need to consider not just how much women are paid, but how the payment is structured, and how that places marginalized women workers in relation to others in the workplace. Moving beyond whether liminality is a negative or positive experience, future research should delineate the conditions under which liminality is negative or positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) convergence has been the face of the global accounting standardisation movement for the past few decades, accounting reforms in the public sector had started to gain momentum from the late 1990s. This paper examines the reasons for the adoption of public sector accrual accounting reforms in India. It explores the various sources of pressure influencing these reforms and the ways in which these pressures are balanced and addressed by key decisionmakers in the national and transnational contexts of an emerging economy like India. This study finds that demands for greater accountability from the public in the national context (demand pressures) as well as requests for greater transparency from international financial institutions in the transnational context (supply pressures) are two major sources of pressure that are balanced by the state in its quest for greater legitimacy. This is demonstrated through a triggering event such as political scandals evoking responses from the government to reinforce its weakened legitimacy by adopting public sector accounting reforms. Extant literature on public sector accounting reforms, mostly focuses on the phases where the standards are being actually implemented by the country. Studies exploring decision‐making processes that lead to actual implementation of accrual accounting reforms are limited. This study contributes to existing literature by examining the decision‐making process that ensues before the actual use of international standards in public sector accounting reforms and demonstrates the significant role that institutional influences play in defining such decision‐making processes. The role of these institutional influences also draw attention to the probable disparities between rationales and actual reasons for government accounting reforms undertaken by developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents data on the U–Pb chronology of detrital zircon grains and radiogenic isotopic composition (87Sr/86Sr, ɛNd) from the Proterozoic clastic successions of the Garhwal‐Kumaon Lesser Himalaya representing the extended northern Indian cratonic margin, NW India. The Proterozoic Lesser Himalayan Basin in Garhwal‐Kumaon Himalaya is divided into two sectors, namely, Inner Lesser Himalaya (ILH) and Outer Lesser Himalaya (OLH) by a tectonic boundary, namely the Tons Thrust (TT). Age distribution from inner and outer sectors of the Lesser Himalaya shows that the U–Pb chronology of most of these zircons provides Palaeoproterozoic (between 1.6 and 1.8 Ga) to Neoproterozoic (800 Ma) ages. The age data suggest sedimentation of the Rautgara Formation (Damtha Group) of ILH continued till the Neoproterozoic (~850 Ma), which was earlier regarded as ≤1.6 Ga. Tracking the detrital U–Pb zircon ages in the near adjacent cratonic parts point towards Aravalli Orogen as the major source region. Whole‐rock ƐNd(0) values for ILH rocks range from −37.6 to −14.6 and for OLH it ranges from −19.6 to −6.7. More negative ƐNd values along with dominance of Neoarchean‐Palaeoproterozoic ages in ILH indicates supply from more evolved protolith or recycled sources and less negative ƐNd values with major Neoproterozic zircon ages from OLH supports for less evolved source rock. The change from more negative ƐNd to less negative ƐNd values progressively upward the stratigraphy can be due to a shift in source with time. Both U–Pb zircon and ƐNd supports for a continuous sedimentation model, rule out the presence of ~500 Ma unconformity within the LH and argues for separate evolution of the Lesser Himalayan Basin on the trailing edge of the extended north Indian craton in "Columbia" configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thrust on insurance‐financed health systems may reduce Out‐of‐pocket health spending. But health insurance penetration among Indian elderly is abysmally low. In this context, the paper intends to examine the factors affecting demand for various types of insurances among Indian elderly. Data were drawn from 71st round (2014–15) "Key Consumption: Health" household survey data collected by National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), Government of India. A total number of 27,245 older adults were selected for this study. In addition to basic descriptive statistics, we employ logistic regression models to conduct the econometric analysis. Socioeconomic, health‐related and contextual predictors are considered in this study. The results show that the probability of health insurance coverage among elderly significantly depends on income, education, disease types, caste, family size, and most importantly, social relationships. The underprivileged groups have higher likelihood to be covered by government‐funded insurance, while the older people with higher income and education, having spouses and less number of children, and residing in urban areas have a higher likelihood of purchasing private health insurance. The study identified the factors responsible for low demand for health insurance among elderly. The study suggests the expansion of private insurance network, especially, in the underserved rural areas, along with generating financial awareness among the elderly. The study also suggests an inclusive model of health insurance demand, which may be adopted by future empirical studies to find out the significant factors affecting health insurance demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occurrences of extreme events, especially floods, have become more frequent and severe in the recent past due to the global impacts of climate change. In this context, possibilities for generating a near‐accurate streamflow forecast at higher lead times, which could be utilized for developing a reliable flood warning system to minimize the effects of extreme events, are highly important. This paper aims to investigate the potential of a novel hybrid modeling framework that couples the random forest algorithm, particle filter, and the HBV model for improving the overall accuracy of forecasts at higher lead times through the dynamic error correction schematic. The new framework simulates an ensemble of streamflow for estimating uncertainty associated with the predictions and is applied across two snow‐fed Himalayan rivers: the Beas River in India and the Sunkoshi River in Nepal. Several statistical indices along with graphical performance indicators were used for assessing the accuracy of the model performance and associated uncertainty. The modeling framework achieved the Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.94 and 0.98 in calibration and 0.95 and 0.99 in validation for the Beas and Sunkoshi river basin respectively for a 7‐day ahead forecast. Thus, the proposed framework can be considered as a promising tool having reasonably good performance in forecasting streamflow at a higher lead time. Key Points: Hybrid hydrological model integrates process‐based model with machine learning algorithm through data assimilation techniqueDynamic error correction framework capable of improving the streamflow forecast at longer lead time is proposedOverall the developed framework improves the forecast accuracy along with quantifying the model prediction uncertainty [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs input‐output analysis to determine the extent of structural changes in the Indian economy, as well as how economic sector linkages changed between 2000 and 2019, and identifies the sectors with profound linkages with other sectors. Furthermore, we use the causative matrix to examine the temporal changes in intersectoral interactions. The analysis shows that manufacturing sectors have stronger intersectoral linkages than sevice sectors, with resource‐intensive and scale‐intensive manufacturing sectors having the most profound linkages. Furthermore, the causative matrix analysis reveals that Indian sectors became more externalized following the global financial crises, while receiving less feedback from other sectors. The results suggest that intersectoral linkages should be taken into account when designing industrial policies, and that investment should be encouraged in India's key economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the environment, heavy metal contamination is a well known problem due to its persistence and toxicity. Heavy metal pollution has significantly affected soil properties and functions, resulting in significantly increased land degradation as a result of anthropogenic interventions that include mining and various industrial and agriculture activities. While heavy metals pollution in soil have been studied very rarely in this District, this paper explores the current status of agricultural soil pollution by heavy metals in Raebareli. This study identifies heavy metals as well as their quantities in the soil and their spatial distribution; our study employed various pollutant indices and geographical information system (GIS) techniques. This research work evaluated the physiochemical properties, the pollution load index (PLI), contamination factor (CF) and the degree of contamination and geoaccumulation (Igeo) in sodic soils of the Raebareli District, Uttar Pradesh, India. Uchahaar site (US) has the most polluted soil, while the Bacharawa site (BS) has the least contaminated soil. The soil quality has degraded due to anthropogenic interventions at most sites. There is slight to moderate contamination by heavy metals at all sites. The Igeo values in subSites US1, US2 and US3 included high levels of Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn and Sr. SubSites BS2 and BS3 have high Sr levels and US1 has a high As level all these Subsites have high anthropogenic influences. The PLI values indicate that most of the study subSites come under a slightly polluted class, except US1 where the PLl was > 3 indicating severe heavy metal pollution at this site. All the pollution indices have then been utilized for building maps using the IDW method of interpolation. The spatial projection of PLI and ecological risk index (Er) values suggest that the northern part of Raebareli has a high pollution load and ecological risk in terms of heavy metal pollution. This study provide valuable information that policymakers could use to develop an appropriate plan to control pollution within the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long tenure of research and development (R&D) employees helps organisations to utilise employees' knowledge over a sustained time period and strengthen their competitive advantage. It also allows organisations to benefit from the training investments made on their R&D employees. Thus, identifying the determinants of R&D employees' tenure is crucial for designing effective R&D employee retention strategies. This paper analyses the factors explaining R&D employees' tenure in the subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs). Building on institutional theory, we claim that formal and informal institutional distance between MNCs' home and host country might lead to R&D employees' short tenure in subsidiaries. We further suggest that R&D employees' international experience and MNCs' host country experience play a moderating role. We find support for our hypotheses by mobilising an original database that combines patent data and the LinkedIn profiles of 939 R&D employees in 256 MNC subsidiaries in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐performance work practices (HPWPs) enacted within public sector undertakings (PSUs) in emerging economies are a relatively underexplored topic. By employing the theoretical lens of social exchange and the ability, motivation and opportunity paradigm, this paper highlights the mediating effects of knowledge sharing on the relationship between employee perceptions of HPWPs and employee and business unit performance. We provide evidence drawn from both manager‐ and employee‐level voices by applying a qualitative case study design to two large Indian PSUs and taking a reverse/inverse approach in order to delineate the commonly understood conceptualizations of HPWPs. Our findings confirm the presence of a combination of high‐commitment, high‐involvement and high‐performance work systems that increase the ability, motivation and opportunity of employees to share knowledge, and thus help achieve positive employee and financial outcomes. We found that our set of HPWPs exhibit a strong paternalistic welfarism ethos. We also discuss the implications of our study for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climatic risk consists of financial and environmental risks, predominantly evolutes from carbon dioxide emissions from coal‐fired power plants. We develop a climatic risk control model to investigate the coexistence of renewable energy and the post‐combustion carbon capture technology as CO2 reduction strategies. Additionally, our proposed framework explicitly considers the acceptance of such strategies based on a balance of electricity supply according to demand. This paper adopts an additive fuzzy mixed‐integer optimization approach to model uncertain parameters and determines the optimal solution focusing on business and the environment. Furthermore, we investigate the feasibility of such emission control strategies with scenario analysis that help to execute the country's emission reduction policies. The usefulness of our methodology is demonstrated using data from the coal‐based power sector in the Eastern part of India. Overall, with the proposed model, we can achieve 30% reduction in emission release, which provides strategies to the decision‐maker for investment towards sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Speech–language pathologists are often involved in the assessment and management of communication, cognition and swallowing deficits in people with Parkinson's. However, speech–language pathologists' self‐perceived competency levels in serving people with Parkinson's remain elusive, especially in the Indian context where there is an increasing disability burden due to Parkinson's disease. Additionally, the challenges faced by speech–language pathologists in India to provide efficient services to this population are unidentified. Aims: To determine speech–language pathologists' self‐perceived competence and challenges faced when providing services to people with Parkinson's in India. Methods & Procedures: A survey questionnaire was sent to speech–language pathologists through emails and social media asking them questions to evaluate self‐perceived competency in serving people with Parkinson's and to identify the challenges to their service delivery. A total of 69 speech–language pathologists responded to the survey. Outcomes & Results: The majority of respondents reported to be competent in dealing with various domains of assessment and management of people with Parkinson's. Although competent, they reportedly faced a few challenges during their service delivery. Conclusions & Implications: This study provides an insight into the speech–language pathologists' self‐perceived competency in serving people with Parkinson's in India, and also identifies the challenges related to interprofessional service delivery. The findings of the study have educational and clinical implications. What this paper adds: The study delineates speech–language pathologists' self‐perceived competency in working with people with Parkinson's in India, a nation that is seeing a constant rise in the incidence of Parkinson's disease.The study the unique challenges within India to speech–language pathologists' service delivery for people with Parkinson's, thus having educational and clinical implications in Parkinson's disease care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of networks has gained interest in public administration and management. They address concerns such as the coordination of multiple actors within the policy process. Networks take both formal and informal forms. As the integration of formal and informal networks in public service delivery is gaining traction, this paper uses the example of diabetes care in Australia and India to provide an analytical framework to examine one of the ways such integration of networks take place. Diabetes, a chronic long‐term disease, poses to be a global problem with a high rate of diagnosis with implications for public health expenditure. A multi‐disciplinary team, which comprises both formal and informal categories, is required to manage diabetes. This paper highlights the integration of networks in diabetes care in different institutional and cultural settings. For such form of integration of networks to work, collaboration among the various actors is important. Lessons learnt from diabetes care will be relevant for other long‐term chronic conditions to help reduce the human resource and financial burden. The analytical framework developed based on the example of diabetes care will provide useful lessons for examining the mechanics and dynamics of the integration between formal and informal networks in the field of public administration and management. The concept of networks is gaining prominence as a useful model. This paper supports the existing literature on the need for both formal and informal networks using the example of diabetes care. It develops an analytical framework to examine the interactions of formal and informal networks, which will be relevant for similar studies related to other long‐term chronic conditions and for public administration and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil Society spaces provide citizens opportunities to frame their collective identities and interests through the formation of voluntary interest groups and organisations set to specific purposes. In the west, historically these interest groups have contributed to the development of political thought that assisted to forge the economic interests of emerging bourgeoisie. This paper situated in the context of India begins with a thematic perspective and reviews the challenges that emerge as a result of the demands that emerge within the civil society space. The paper considered three broad range organizations for this review such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the river Narmada Campaign); National Alliance for People's Movement (NAPM); and the Self‐Employed Women's Association (SEWA). The authors see civil society as a conciliating place—where individual interests appear to mingle with societal requirements while providing adequate representation to the marginalized groups and expression of concerns around economic and environmental rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the socio‐legal and everyday moral geographies of human cohabitation with free‐living dogs in India to think through what is implicated in living with nonhuman difference on a planet where the social and the natural are inextricably entangled. It investigates the contours of canine cosmopolitanism in Chennai city and theorises street dogs as unintentional natures to problematise dominant ideas about valued and pestilent nonhuman life, drawing out implications for biodiversity conservation and other more‐than‐humanisms. Through these analyses, the paper transgresses the silos of domestic/wild and biodiversity conservation/animal protection to advance scholarship on the politics of (non)dualism and offers thought experiments on making and maintaining more‐than‐human society in contemporary times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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India's increased pace of urbanisation is evident, but the question remains as to whether India can harness its developmental potential by providing social infrastructure to meet its projected growth. This paper investigates the urbanisation trajectory with respect to the provision of social infrastructure in the Capital Region of India. First, it applies the differential urbanisation model and predicts counter‐urbanisation to be the next stage of development. Second, using socio‐economic indicators, the paper finds high literacy rates and non‐agricultural employment in small towns. Third, it explains deconcentration of large cities as an outcome of congested social infrastructure provision. Fourth, it determines that small towns continue to have poor provision of social infrastructure. This paper recommends the integration of spatial planning with social infrastructure planning, the empowerment of lower‐tier authorities for social infrastructure delivery, and measures for raising local government revenue in the region and in similar regions throughout the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Gurgaon, India's “millennium city”, is today synonymous with India's embrace of global real estate capital and private sector‐led urban development. This paper asserts that Gurgaon's spectacular urbanisation has been fundamentally underpinned by an uneven process of land acquisition, exemption and agrarian transformation. Shifting away from dispossession‐centred analyses of contemporary urbanisation in India, this paper explores Gurgaon's “urban villages” to consider the uneven integration of agrarian classes into emerging urban real estate markets. Through an examination of differential experiences of land acquisition and agrarian social change among Gurgaon's landowning classes, the paper seeks to trace complex and nonlinear processes of agrarian transformation which make possible landscapes of global accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that learning has become a core element in addressing the ever‐increasing complexities in public sector accountability, we investigate two issues in this paper: (a) how learning was involved in the process of disseminating a competency framework (CF) in four state departments in Kerala, India; and (b) an analysis of the challenges involved in this process, using the theoretical insights from learning accountability. Although the CF would revitalise governance and accountability mechanisms by establishing a conducive environment for administrators to learn in, the nuances of the existing administrative structure limited the scope of this learning exercise. The CF in Kerala generated fear, tension, and resistance amongst the administrators, due to a perceived gap between the very objectives of the CF and the administrative settings, in which learning was insignificant. The paper argues that imposing public administrators' accountability reforms, such as the CF, would be meaningless until an emphasis is placed on learning accountability. Furthermore, there is a need to "unlearn" or "discard" the prevailing traditional learning and accountability practices; unless this is achieved, a conducive environment for learning accountability cannot be institutionalised, nor can reforms such as the CF be materialised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper examines the effect of economic globalization on India's aggregate export performance during the period from 1995:M1 to 2016:M12. We use various macroeconomic variables such as export, relative price, nominal effective exchange rate (NEER), GDP per capita, and economic globalization. We employ Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to find out the long‐run equilibrium relationship among the variables considered. The empirical results indicate that there exists a long‐run equilibrium relationship between export, relative price, NEER, GDP per capita and economic globalization. Further, in the long run, we find that India's export performance is influenced by economic globalization, GDP per capita and relative price. However, in the short run, export performance is influenced by economic globalization, relative price, NEER and GDP per capita. In the short run, 1% increase in economic globalization will lead to increase in the volume of export by 0.77%; whereas, in the long run, it is 3.40%. Hence, sustainability of export in the long run is a matter of concern for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adoption, kinship care, and foster care are the oldest known forms of alternative care in India. Whilst these are recognized as the most appropriate forms of care today, institutional care has become the most dominant form of care in India in the last 100 years, although it is meant to be 'a measure of last resort'. As in most countries, childcare institutions in India cater for children up to 18 years old. The sudden withdrawal of support at 18 leaves these young people facing heightened challenges and poorer outcomes on the journey to independence, not only because of their fractured pasts but also due to a lack of planned interventions towards preparing them for life. This paper, based on an extensive desk review, chronologically examines the evolution of aftercare laws and practices in India along with the factors that contributed to the rise of institutional care. Reference is made to the influence of the criminal justice system on aftercare and the impact of India's ratification of United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child, the movement from a welfare to rights‐based approach. The paper concludes by discussing the current challenges and the possible way forward for care leavers in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite having differing foreign policy objectives against the core Indo‐Pacific fundamentals, Prime Minister Modi is constructing a robust, proactive, and influential role of India in the Indo‐Pacific region without formally aligning with the United States or gesturing for any confrontational behavior against China. To unfold India's Indo‐Pacific positioning, this paper asks how India behaves between the United States and China in the Indo‐Pacific. The authors argue that to address this, Modi's Indo‐Pacific strategy revolves around Pragmatic Balancing between the United States and China in the Indo‐Pacific. The paper highlights Modi's Indo‐Pacific ambitions to explore this pragmatic balancing, keeping in view the US Indo‐Pacific strategy. To deal with the United States on the geostrategic front, ensuring maximum strategic autonomy and building India's maritime security order in the Indian Ocean region are Modi's crucial policy outlooks. On the other hand, to deal with China on the geo‐economics front, maintaining the maritime economy's flow, thereby preventing any confrontational behavior with China on multilateralism, is the critical component of Modi's Indo‐Pacific strategy. The evaluation demonstrates Modi's pragmatism by redefining India's balancing behavior with the United States and China to achieve the desired foreign policy outcomes, before presenting the article's final conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the presence of market discipline in the banking sectors of India and Pakistan, using the CAMEL approach and the stringent calculations of liquidity and capital as per Basel II. It employs a fixed effects model to market discipline as reflected in the capital adequacy, asset quality profitability, management and liquidity of banks, with bank size and changes and GDP as control variables, for the years 2008 to 2017. The results show varying degrees of market discipline in both India and Pakistan, which manifest through different variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expansion in access to public infrastructure can have varied, microlevel impacts. In this paper, we use a discrete and quasi‐random change in the access to paved roads through a large‐scale rural road construction program in India to study how road access impacts fertility decisions and investments in child health. We find that increased access to paved roads at the district level decreases fertility, improves investments in children, and lowers infant mortality. We also provide evidence that highlights the mechanisms that drive this effect. First, we show that local roads improve access to health care facilities and raise immunization rates, which reduces infant mortality. Then, we demonstrate that last‐mile road connectivity has contrasting effects on employment across gender. Overall, the evidence suggests that rural roads can help accelerate demographic transition through their effects on fertility and infant mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) resolves in most children within 3–12 months of diagnosis. Chronic ITP affects 10%–20% of patients, some of whom require treatment. Several second‐line agents are efficacious in this group of patients. This paper describes our experience of using dapsone as a single second‐line agent in children with chronic ITP. One hundred and three children with chronic ITP were seen at our centre from January 2012 to December 2016. Forty‐five children met the inclusion criteria and received dapsone; 17 (37.8%) were boys; and 28 (62.2%) were girls. Early response to dapsone was seen in 37.8% of patients. The median duration of long‐term follow‐up was 50 months, and at least a partial response was seen in 64.4% of the patients. Dapsone offers good initial response rates and sustained remission in paediatric chronic ITP, comparable to other therapeutic agents available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a crucial intervention because of its long‐term impact on child development. However, information concerning the effectiveness of the ECEC in developing countries like India is sparsely available. This empirical study drew upon primary data collected from India's eastern state, West Bengal and investigated whether attending preschool contributed to children's cognitive and social skill development. The study found that attending preschool did not provide dividends in the form of cognitive and social skill accumulation. Furthermore, attending private preschool was associated with socioemotional development but no cognitive development. Moreover, parents' education seems to be a strong predictor for child's development. Given the findings of this paper, preschools in India, both in the public and private sectors, would need considerable quality improvement to deliver developmentally appropriate ECEC to children. It is particularly relevant in the context of the new National Education Policy in India, which emphasises the need to provide universal access to high‐quality ECCE to all young children across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]