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The paper analyses publication output of India on cereal crops as reflected by its coverage in Scopus international database during 1965-2010 in gaps of five years. Analysis indicates that highest number of papers (40%) was published on rice, followed by wheat (29%). Agricultural universities and institutions under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) were most productive. A significant number of papers were published in journals originating from the advanced countries with low impact factor. The highest number of papers was published in Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences, followed by Indian Journal of Agronomy. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi topped the list among the prolific institutions followed by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The major research was focused on 'genetics and plant breeding' followed by 'agronomic aspects'. The authorship pattern reveals that co-authored papers accounted for 94% of total output. Citation analysis of the study reveals that 22% of the papers remained uncited. Most of the prolific authors were affiliated to Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of 801 papers published in the area of bibliometrics and scientometrics during 1995-2014 indicates a steep increase in the number of papers published by Indian researchers as compared to the number of papers published during 1970-1994. This indicates a growing interest of Indian scholars in scientometrics and bibliometrics. The paper provides several reasons for this steep increase. The main focus of research is on bibliometric assessment of India and other countries followed by cross national assessment and bibliometric analysis of individual journals. CSIR-NISTADS is the top producing institute contributing about one-third (31.4%) of the total output followed by the output of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and CSIR-NISCAIR. The distribution of citation data indicates that about one-fifth (21.7%) papers remained uncited. The paper identifies journals in which these uncited papers were published. Only 15% papers were cited more than 20 times. Most of the prolific authors as well as highly cited authors were from the institutions belonging to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Among all authors B.M. Gupta (CSIR-NISTADS) produced the highest number of papers, but the impact as seen in terms of citation per paper and relative citation impact, S. Arunachalam (MSSRF) topped the list. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global public health has emerged as a formidable challenge in modern times. India's patent opposition model shows how this legitimate safeguard can be used to alleviatesome of the burden on global health systems by improving access to affordable health technologies. India smartly linked its patentability threshold provisions, Sections 3(d) and 2(ja) of The Patents Act, 1970 (amended in 2005), with its procedural safeguard of patent opposition. This paper presents empirical data on the use of patent opposition procedures in India. The three-step method is adopted to statistically evaluate the practical use of India's patent opposition proceedings. Statistical data is collected on 249 patent opposition cases from IP India's official websiteto answer and analyse around 150 questions designed to highlight overall trends in the use of the Indian patent opposition mechanism. This paper summarizes the important findings of the statistical data. The main finding of this study is that India's well-thought-out patent opposition model has remained under-utilised, especially by non-corporate entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores traditional knowledge in four coastal districts of Odisha to understand its nature, role and relevance in negotiating cyclonic storms. It draws from fieldwork carried out in two phases 2007-2009 and 2015-2019 from the district of Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Ganjam and Puri. In each of these locations, people have experience of cyclonic phenomena both as major disasters and as relatively smaller scale recurrent occurrences. The study shows that there is an extensive, informal rule based traditional knowledge system that makes use of multiple observational attributes in association with meteorological warning. In this perspective, prevalent traditional knowledge is neither privileged nor static and as a matter of fact is in a continual dialogue with meteorological information provided through India Meteorological Department's (IMD) cyclone warning services. Based on findings of this analysis, a framework is proposed that integrates traditional and meteorological knowledge systems for a more comprehensive understanding of local rural communities' response to cyclones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Paper seeks to critically analyze and evaluate the concept of compulsory licensing under the Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911, and the Patents Act, 1970. The Paper further: (i) traces its evolution from the French Patent Law of 1791 to the amendment of the TRIPS Agreement in 2017 that introduced Article 31bis; (ii) analyzes the detailed procedure and consideration for the grant of compulsory license in India; and (iii) in the light of Natcov Bayer decision, discusses the rejection of the compulsory license applications on the grounds of procedural non-compliance. In the end, paper develops an argument that the provisions relating to compulsory license under the Indian patent regulatory framework have remained a dead letter during COVID-19 pandemic at the cost of public health and welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Web of Science data for the period 1987 to 2012, the paper analyses the research carried on mycobacterial tuberculosis and leprosy in India. It is seen that India contributes eight percent to the global research output occupying the third position in terms of quantity of research output and ranks 12th when considering the quality and quantity together. Apart from collaboration pattern, the paper also identifies the major institutions, prolific authors and preferred journals. Three-dimensional performance indicator combining quantity, quality and consistency have been used to rank the productivity of Indian institutions and authors in the field of mycobacterial tuberculosis and leprosy research. From the study it can be concluded that India needs to concentrate more on Mycobacterium research because the cases of tuberculosis and leprosy including multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) strains are emerging each year, and there is a necessity to develop effective controlling programmes for eradicating leprosy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper revisits a wide variety of health hazards in the library workplace. Through an exhaustive review, it explores the underlying causes of occupational risk & injuries to library workers; aiming to raise the awareness of healthy working practices and statutory requirements. It reflects the viewpoints surrounding the health and safety in libraries to illustrate possible health hazards of library workers in an Indian context. The paper informs about a variety of burdens that persist in the library workplace. It also outlines the major causes of occupational risk in terms of physical, chemical, biological, technological, emotional, and psychosocial hazards. It reveals how occupational hazards emanate in the library workplace and how library managers can prevent these hazards by creating health & safety compliance in the workplace. The paper concludes that there is a need for transforming the library profession to improve the level of occupational health practices ensuring standard norms and follow-up actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, governments of different countries have promulgated or considered legislation aimed at promoting collaboration between research institutions, namely, universities and other national research councils and industries to ensure that public or government-funded research conducted at these research institutions feeds into industries' needs, and lead to the manufacture of tangible products. These laws require research institutions to transfer technologies they develop to industry for further development, translation into tangible products, and commercialisation. In India, given the high level of research and development (R&D) and manufacturing capacity in the biopharmaceutical technology sector, this model could play a significant role in boosting local innovation and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, considering the high burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases currently prevalent in India, the need for such a strategic approach to optimise research output cannot be overemphasised. This paper therefore examines the Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill, 2008 (the Bill) tabled before the Rajya Sabha in 2008 and its potential impact on access to medicines manufactured out of government-funded research, by analysing some of its main provisions. The paper posits that some of these provisions do not seem to tally with the laudable aim of the Bill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plagiarism is a growing concern for academia across the globe. Several factors influence the behaviour of the researcher towards plagiarism. The UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in HEIs) Regulation, 2018 was notified to promote academic integrity in HEIs and curb plagiarism. However, this regulation has many gaps which need to be addressed in the quest for achieving academic integrity. This paper is an attempt to identify these gaps in the regulation. It also attempts to address the over reliance of academic fraternity on Plagiarism Detection Tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This part of the study highlights the contents of the published articles in terms of various disciplines or sub-disciplines and the bibliometric aspects discussed in these articles. The analysis of 902 papers published by Indian scholars during 1995-2014 indicates that the main focus of bibliometrics/scientometrics is on assessment of science and technology in India in different sub-disciplines including contributions by Indian states and other individual countries followed by bibliometric analysis of individual journals. Papers dealing with bibliometric laws received a low priority as compared to other sub-disciplines of bibliometrics/scientometrics. The analysis of data indicates that the share of theoretical studies using mathematical and statistical techniques which were missing in the earlier period (1970-1994) has increased during 1995-2014. The field of medicine as a discipline received the highest attention as compared to other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the outsourcing of library activities and services in university libraries in Maharashtra. A survey was employed to collect data using an online questionnaire. The study (covering 27 university libraries) revealed that outsourcing is common in academic libraries. The paper identifies the activities that have been outsourced and draws a strategy that can be followed while outsourcing library functions. It concludes that outsourcing non-core activities can save the time of library professionals which can be invested by them in providing other services like literacy skills, quality research support services etc. Concludes that there should be a proper balance of outsourcing activities and duties of the library professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As technological developments continue to disrupt creative industries, they put to test our copyright doctrine. The recent litigation initiated against Sci-Hub and LibGen by three publishers raises complex questions permeating the Indian copyright regime. In this context, it is important to determine the values our copyright system serves and the standards of 'fairness' it demands to exempt certain infringements. This paper studies the Indian fair dealing jurisprudence from a theoretical standpoint to argue that it lacks a robust normative foundation. It first maps the prevalent theories of copyright and suggests that the cultural theory not only exposes gaps in the dominant incentive theory but also offers a more comprehensive understanding of copyright. It then analyses Indian fair dealing cases from this viewpoint. While the jurisprudence is largely inconsistent, analysis of two important cases reveals that while their outcome was desirable from a cultural theory perspective, their doctrine is insufficient to excuse certain socially-valuable infringements. Their emphasis on transformativeness coupled with an implicit bar on verbatim reproductions is critical. It is suggested that the Indian fair dealing jurisprudence is unfit to foster a just and attractive culture; one that strives to attain pluralistic values essential for the 'good life'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of the family Truncatellidae Gray, 1840 are widely distributed globally, but their presence in India is unclear. So far, only one species Truncatella guerinii A. Villa & J. B. Villa, 1841 has been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but most malacologists were unsure of its occurrence due to the lack of appropriate descriptions and proper identification. In this paper, we confirm its presence in the Andaman Islands and also in Pondicherry in Indian waters. In addition, its natural history, distribution and the detailed taxonomy of the species is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the conformity of Lotka’s law to authorship distribution in the field of Artificial Neural Networks research (ANNs) in India during 1991–2014 using Science Citation Index-Expanded. There were 3411 articles contributed by 5654 unique authors. Lotka’s law was tested using methodology suggested by Pao and compared with maximum likelihood method advocated by Nicholls. The main elements involved in fitting in Lotka’s law were identified. These includes criterion for taking a certain pair of observed data points for calculating Lotka’s gradient, the constant for measurement of single author productivity and assessing goodness-of-fit. The results suggested that author productivity distribution, predicted by the modified Lotka’s Law suggested by Pao, was confirmed to the ANNs discipline in India whereas methodology suggested by Nicholls was not able to explain the author productivity distribution for the same. Evaluation of the prolific authors indicated that most of them are among the top position in their respective institutions. However, they were not listed as first author in their publications supporting that all the authors should be considered while analysing author productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current study reports Jaydia novaeguineae (Valenciennes, 1832) for the first time along northern part of east coast of India based on one specimen collected from Arjyapalli fish landing centre, Ganjam, southern part of Odisha, India. The species was only reported from Madras coast from Indian waters and since then this is the second report from the country. This paper also reports the extension of geographical territory towards the north of eastern Odisha coast, India. The species is characterized by having the posterior margin of preopercle weakly serrated, white colour stripe on lower rays of caudal fin, pelvic-fin spine, anterior part of anal fin and outer half of the first dorsal fin black. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on breast cancer research data obtained from Scopus multidisciplinary database, it is seen that with 6696 (1.82% global share) articles from India on breast cancer during 1975-2014, India ranks 12th in the world in terms of research paper output. About 80% of the Indian publications appeared during the period 2004-14. Hospitals are more productive with Tata Memorial Hospital publishing the highest number of papers during the period. About 30.35% Indian publications are a result of international collaboration with 94 countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the current status of university presses in India, and how they are interlinked with their prestigious fellowship programmes and academic research. Indian university presses were identified from DELNET union catalogue of books. Their publishing patterns are studied based on MIS reports available or generated from their respective websites. The paper also analyzes global visibility and availability of produced knowledge through institutional and external web catalogues, e-commerce sites and utilization of book promotion avenues. It is found that, as of now, Indian university presses don't publish e-books. Many of these presses don't even have a dedicated website for disseminating detailed bibliographic information on available titles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic chemistry as a research area contributes to more than one percent of world publication output. The present paper attempts to draw a detailed, in-depth bibliometric analysis of organic chemistry research activity during the last decade (2004 to 2013) with special emphasis on the Indian contribution. The Indian output is compared with that of world's leading countries using exergy, an indicator which combines quantity and quality of publications. A three-dimensional approach combining quantity, quality and consistency is used for analysing the performance of various institutions and authors. It is found that organic chemistry research activity in India during 2004-2013 is equal to the world average and its growth pattern is positive and similar to the worldwide research growth. India ranks at the 9th position based on the Exergy(X), the performance indicator while USA, Germany and China occupy first, second and third positions.Among others, the most productive organisations and authors are also identified using h-index and z-index. The paper identifies countries, international organisations and journals that cite the Indian contributions in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journals are the main vehicles for disseminating research publications and one can gauge the standard of research in the country through its publications. India has a growing population of researchers and academics who want to publish and search for easy outlets guaranteeing quick publication. Indian journals as a whole and LIS journals in particular fail miserably when it comes to maintaining quality. There should be a first received first reviewed and first published policy to be adopted by Indian LIS journals. Indian journal editors need to be more communicative with authors and they should adopt the best practices followed by the international journal editors. Indian LIS researchers have few journals and conference proceedings to publish their papers on the one hand and there is a need to publish more papers for professional progress. This has become important especially in the aftermath of the Academic Performance Indicators (APIs) introduced by the UGC after the VI Central Pay Revision where 55% of API scores can be claimed through publications. Through consortia based access, LIS researchers are exposed to what is being studied in the advanced countries. Thus more number of papers by LIS researchers from India are appearing in international journals. There are also many papers getting wasted in conference proceedings and festschrift volumes and editor interest driven book chapters. Such publications never have a wider reach and suffer from poor bibliographic control. Authors and researchers need to conserve their research output by opting for its wider dissemination and better visibility by opting to publish in quality journals and they can strengthen Indian journals only by publishing their best papers in these journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pioneering study on food and feeding habits and seasonal variation in diet of Chrysochir aurea was conducted along the Digha coast of West Bengal, India, from October 2021 to September 2022. The analysis involved a total of 562 specimens with lengths ranging from 124 mm to 417 mm that were collected by commercial trawlers. The indices of preponderance and relative importance revealed that the crustaceans dominated the stomach content of C. aurea, followed by fishes, unidentified digested matter and molluscs. Among crustaceans, the important food items recorded were penaeid shrimps, Acetes spp., crabs, Squilla spp., and semi-digested shrimps; among teleosts Secutor spp., Bregmaceros sp., Stolephorus spp., ribbon fish, flatfishes, Coilia spp., and semi-digested fish bodies were recorded; whereas, among molluscs Octopus spp. and Sepia spp. were recorded occasionally. Relative length of gut for both sexes was less than one, indicating C. aurea is a carnivore fish. Males and females had the highest gastro-somatic index during the monsoon (2.716 %) and pre-monsoon (2.856 %) seasons, respectively; whereas, the highest hepato-somatic index (male: 1.134 %, female: 1.080 %) was observed during the monsoon and lowest during the post-monsoon (male: 0.777 %, female: 0.769 %) seasons. Based on the overall vacuity index (31.14 %), C. aurea could be categorized as a 'relatively edacious feeder'. During the monsoon season, the feeding intensity observed was low compared to the other seasons, as revealed in the stomach fullness index (males: 0.656 %, females: 0.907 %). Cluster analysis performed with seasonal percentage gravimetric values of the prey groups revealed that the similarity of food items between monsoon and post-monsoon varied between 87.5 and 90.0 %, respectively. The current findings would abridge an existing knowledge gap in the feeding biology of C. aurea, and, thus, will aid in fisheries management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the information needs, information source selection and barriers in information seeking of the residents regarding cyclones. Fifty semi-structured interviews and 471 questionnaires yielded data from the population sample of Sundarbans, a coastal region of West Bengal, India. Findings show that after receiving the warnings, respondents preferred to depend on human sources and, to some extent, media sources for alert verification and confirmation. Human sources were most trusted in informal discussion for subsequent information seeking to pursue informed decisions against cyclones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports the first time record of the patchy coral reef (~ 2 km²) of Terekhol in North Goa, the western coast of India during January - February 2020. There were more than 07 genera/species of hard corals in the reef and is dominated by a reef building Turbinaria mesenterina (Dendrophylliidae), which is considered as a sediment tolerant coral species. A total of 25 fish species were counted and the major species recorded were Chromis viridis, Chromis sp., Dascyllus sp., Abudefduf saxatilis, Abudefduf bengalensis, Acanthurus blochii, Acanthurus nigroris, Acanthurus sp., and Odonus niger that contributed 80 % of the total fish community. The documentation and record of the reef area could give identity to the ecosystem in the spatial platform and the conservation efforts can be planned for the reef by limiting the anthropogenic activities in and around the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous people have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation. A study was conducted in Meghalaya state on 2 traditional occupations, blacksmithy and manufacturing of bows and arrows. A representative sample of 15 families in blacksmithy and 10 families involved in the manufacture of bows and arrows were chosen. Observational and interview surveys were done by the first author through personal visits. The analysis of data shows many positive factors for promoting traditional occupations that are worth preserving such as creativity, traditional knowledge, uniqueness, identity, self-worth and contribution to the economic and social factors of the community. The agricultural implements are still traditional and perhaps can be improved to provide better mechanical advantage and higher incomes. Traditional occupations continue to play a major role in the social and economic lives of the people and must be encouraged to develop further to enhance rural economy and also capture the unique identity of the people. Educational institutions, NGOs, concerned government ministries and private organisations through social responsibilities schemes can help preserving and promoting this unique but rich and wonderful knowledge of the indigenous people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]