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At present municipal solid waste (MSW) has become one of the biggest national concerns because mismanagement of MSW deteriorates the purity and cleanliness of the environment. In this direction, this manuscript discusses the details of generation, characterization of MSW, and current practice of municipal solid waste management in Himachal Pradesh (HP), a state in the northern region of India. Himachal Pradesh generates approximately 342.35 tons per day (TPD). Thus, it is a massive challenge for the municipalities of HP to manage it in a hilly region. Hilly regions of HP are prone to rapid climate change i.e., rainfall and snowfall in winter and hence found to be one of the important factors that affect the collection and treatment process of waste management. Indeed, the generation of waste decisively depends upon the tourism business. Further, the tourism business also depends upon seasonal variation. Difficult terrain and socio-economic condition of local people make waste disposal and transportation more difficult for the appropriate planning of the management of municipal solid waste. The characterization studies show that the biodegradable fraction in MSW is more than 50% which indicates a significant energy potential. The manuscript covers issues and challenges in waste management due to climatic conditions in the hilly regions of HP and also recommends the best suitable remedial measures for the proper management of the existing MSW system and its appropriate treatment alternatives. Hence this manuscript provides a wholesome glimpse of the possibilities of energy, global warming potential, and the economic aspects of MSW in the regions of HP. The findings will help the stakeholders and policymakers in better decision-making.

A field investigation on anaerobic digestion of food waste for 235 days in a 3000 L semi-continuous biogas reactor has been conducted in the hilly area of Solan (1544 m above mean sea level), Himachal Pradesh, India. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which optimized organic loading rate for food waste in ambient condition for summer (0.34 g VS/L/day) and winter season (0.24 g VS/L/day) in Himachal Pradesh, India. On the basis of results obtained from the 3,000L biogas reactor, a detailed investigation of energy potential, techno-economic feasibility and comparison of global warming potential due to landfill, composting and anaerobic digestion is conducted for all 11 hilly states of India. From the analysis, it is found that anaerobic digestion is the best method amongst these for managing food waste and has an approximate energy potential of 13,770 GWh in the next decade. From the techno-economic analysis, it is estimated that capital investment for anaerobic digestion process has a payback time of 5.9 years with a 4.6% internal rate of return and approximately 1400 million £ net profit value.

This work describes mainly the optical absorption, photoluminescence (PL) and decay spectral properties of Sm3+ ions doped borate glasses to understand their possible usage in tricolor w-LEDs and lasers.The XRD spectrum recorded for an un-doped glass confirms glassy nature of the as prepared glass. The Judd-Ofelt (J-O) intensity parameters evaluated from experimental oscillator strengths were used in estimating the various radiative parameters. Under 402 nm excitation, the PL spectra exhibit intense emission at 600 nm for which the decay spectral profiles were recorded.The decay profiles are converting from single exponential to non-exponential with increase in Sm3+ ion concentration ensuing decrease in experimental lifetimes which may be attributed to the efficient energy transfer through cross-relaxation process. The non-exponential decay curves fitted to I-H model reveals the interaction between the Sm3+ ions as dipole-dipole in nature. From the evaluated emission cross-sections, quantum efficiency, branching ratios and CIE co-ordinates, it is concluded that 1 mol% Sm3+ ions in these glasses are aptly suitable to fabricate reddish-orange luminescent devices.

In an Agile workflow, work is divided into sprints and each sprint has a particular activity which needs to be completed. Agile aligns development activity with customer’s requirement. It is an iterative progress methodology, where requirements develop through association between the customer and self-organizing teams. As there is less documentation available in agile methodology, product team, development team and testing team need to work in close association to develop the quality software with minimum defect leakage. In this paper, we analyze empirically the defect life cycle for agile model to determine the correct phases of a defect in the agile workflow. Results obtained may help team to optimize the time and develop the quality software with minimum defect leakage.