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Solid Waste Management (SWM) has been under government's control. Governments have been providing SWM and other services like sanitation, water supply, etc., through municipalities. But the level of service provided by these municipalities is not up to the mark. Also there is a need of infusing capital into this sector to cope with the emerging needs and increasing the level of service. This paper suggests a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model based on cross-subsidized approach: a nominal fee for garbage collection would be charged from commercial and households residing in organized apartment (societies) and the same money would help provide better services to the lower group of society. In return of this fee the garbage would be collected from their door steps. But for applying this model there has to be an optimal ratio of payers to subsidizers. If this ratio is not optimal then it will again make this model economically unviable. To overcome this problem, this paper suggests an integrated infrastructure development approach in which the private players who would be involved in collection and transportation of waste, would also process it. This means an 'end-to-end' solution. Selling electricity generated by waste would be the main source of revenue. However, as the power plant would be generating clean electricity, there would be carbon credits for this, which again is a source of income. And apart from this, municipality would pay a certain amount per truck of waste processed, i.e., tipping fee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a study on the seismic performance and vulnerability of school buildings in the rural areas of Uttarakhand. Masonry is a common material of construction for buildings, but it is well-known for its seismic vulnerability. A typical building plan was selected on the basis of a preliminary survey of schools in three districts of Uttarakhand. Four quality levels of masonry reported in the literature were considered in the analysis to represent the variability in the material properties. Equivalent frame method was used for modeling the building. Nonlinear static (pushover) analysis was carried out to determine the performance of the building using SAP 2000. A new model to simulate the nonlinear behavior of masonry piers was developed, incorporating the sliding, rocking and diagonal shear in a single set of plastic hinges. Fragility curves were obtained using an approach based on spectral displacements and the damage probability matrices were obtained for the expected peak ground acceleration (PGA) values in the region. It is observed that the buildings have unacceptable performance and very high vulnerability for severe ground shaking represented by the maximum considered earthquake for the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]