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In present era of extensive requirement of energy for domestic, agricultural and industrial applications it is pertinent to search for the alternate fuel. There is lots of research going on in this direction. It has been reported that the Jatropha oil and blends of Jatropha oil with diesel is a potential source of such alternate fuel to produce energy. Whereas the use of such alternate fuel is examined, it is also equally important to study the effect of utilization of such fuel on engine hardware. In this research work the engine has been operated with Jatropha oil and the blend of Jatropha oil & diesel and endurance test has been carried out. It has been found that the injectors were getting choked under prolonged use when the Jatropha oil was used in large quantity. However the use of Jatropha oil to extent of 50% diesel did not exhibit such problem in injector. Also, the dimensional measurements were carried out before and after the test. It was observed that the wear on inner surface of cylinder was uneven and the traces of pitting of material took place. The pitting of material was observed on piston head and inner surface of cylinder head also. The metallic particles were observed during Tribological study through engine oil analysis. In this investigation five numbers of self governed indirect injection (IDI) diesel engines were used. The test fuel used were Diesel, 10%, 20%, 50% and 100% Jatropha oil . The long term engine endurance test as per IS: 10000 (part IX) – 1980 on five numbers of IDI diesel engines was carried out. The results of Tribological analysis (wear and tear) with 100% Jatropha oil showed comparatively less wear and tear over the entire range of endurance test. The brake thermal efficiency was observed maximum with diesel fuel and hence the specific fuel consumption was observed minimum. The overall emission characteristics were found to be best for the case of engine fuelled with diesel over the entire range of long term endurance test.

The economy of Himachal Pradesh is dependent upon the Agriculture & Horticulture and any fluctuation in the production impacts the economy at large. Districts of Himachal Pradesh have been ranked on the basis of their levels of development obtained with the help of optimum combination of 35 indicators related to agriculture, social and industrial sectors. The district wise data in respect of the indicators published by Himachal Pradesh government for the year 2014–15 were used for all 12 districts in Himachal Pradesh for the present study. Techniques adopted by Narain et al. (1991, 1995) have been used in addition to principle component analysis and factor analysis for ranking the districts. The districts Kangra, Mandi, Sirmaur and Shimla were found to be most developed whereas the districts Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur, Bilaspur and Hamirpur were found to be low developed districts in the overall development.

In the present study, western districts of Uttar Pradesh were under the study area and currently in developing stage and have undertaken several policy measures to enhance the levels of the development in agriculture, social and industrial sectors. This study attempted to capture the development of districts of western Uttar Pradesh. The secondary data on a number of indicators published by Uttar Pradesh government for the year 2011–12 have been used in the study. The principal component analysis, factor analysis and techniques adopted by Narain et al. (1991) have been used. The ranking of the districts in respect of performance in agriculture, Social and Industry have been obtained in this study. The Composite Indices (C.I.) of development in respect of 18 developmental indicators in which 6 indicators were directly concerned with agricultural development and the rest of 12 indicators describe the availability of social and industrial facilities for 26 districts of western Uttar Pradesh. District Hathras (C.I.=0.81) was showed a higher level of development in Agricultural development followed by the districts Badaun (C.I.=1.14) and Bareily (C.I.=1.16) while district Sambhal (C.I.=0.88) was found to be most developed district in social sector followed by Firozabad (C.I.=1.08) and Ghaziabad (C.I.=1.09) district. G.B. Nagar (C.I.=0.57) showed a higher level of development in Industrial sector followed by Ghaziabad (C.I.=0.75) and Firozabad (C.I.=0.76) district.

Sustained crop production efforts have resulted in self sufficiency in food grains in India with production increasing to 264.77 Mt during 2013- 2014. During 2014–15, 60.18 Mt food grains comprising of 32.16 Mt of rice and 28.02 Mt of wheat was procured for the Central Pool for meeting the requirement of Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes. Capacity available with major storage agencies in the public sector for storage of food grains is about 60 Mt thus requiring utilization of private and cooperative sector storage capacity and storing some quantity of food grains in open temporary storage structures. There are sustained efforts to augment storage capacity, both for bulk and bag storage, through private sector participation by extending various fiscal incentives. However, in order to modernize the system of handling and storage of food grains there is an urgent need to fast track the private sector participation in creating grain storage silos in procurement and consuming areas, particularly for strategic/buffer stocking of wheat. Handling, storage and transportation of food grains in India is done mostly in bags of 50 kg capacity each. Food grains are liable to deterioration due to various biotic and abiotic factors. Prerequisites of scientific storage of food grains for loss minimization is by execution of regular hygiene monitoring, prophylactic, and curative treatments. Though, there is a greater reliance on phosphine fumigation for longer preservation of food grains, an integrated approach is suggested to minimize chemical pesticide application. Recent efforts of Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority for registration of warehouses for issuing Negotiable Warehouse Receipts for easy credit to farmers on their deposited goods will go a long way in revolutionizing the food grain storage system in the country.