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Peri-urban catchment areas are increasingly susceptible to floods due to rapid land use transformations and unplanned urban expansion. This study comprehensively examines flood vulnerability in the rapidly developing peri-urban areas of North Bhubaneswar, focusing on significant changes in Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) and hydrological dynamics from 2004 to 2024, utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) tools. The analysis reveals substantial shifts in land use patterns, with the urban footprint expanding by 71.8%, cropland decreasing by 21.7%, and forest areas by 13.6%. These changes have led to increased impervious surfaces, resulting in higher surface runoff and decreased groundwater recharge, thereby exacerbating flood risks in the region. The GRID-based vulnerability analysis classifies 90 villages within the catchment area based on their vulnerability levels, identifying 20 villages as high-risk areas requiring urgent attention, 44 villages as medium vulnerable, and 26 villages as low vulnerable. These classifications are based on factors such as proximity to drainage networks, slope, geomorphology, and LULC characteristics, with areas near drainage channels and low-lying regions being prone to flooding. The analysis integrates multiple factors to provide a comprehensive assessment of flood risk, highlighting the need for sustainable land use planning, conservation of vegetated areas, and the implementation of advanced flood prevention strategies in the peri-urban areas. Extending this research to other fringe regions could offer further valuable insights, guiding flood prevention and sustainable development strategies for areas undergoing significant land use transformations to effectively mitigate future flood risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban fringes are experiencing a significant surge in surface temperature during the transition from rural to urban, inducing imperceptible disturbances. The present study analyses the temperature modulations from 2000 to 2022 in Kalarahanga and Raghunathpurjali fringes in North Bhubaneswar to understand the relationship between spatiotemporal changes and land-surface temperature in the fringes. The investigations reveal a consistent decrease in the area under water bodies and crops, with an increase in the builtup area. Besides, there exists an inverse correlation between the area under high and medium temperature with the area under cropland (-0.820) and the area under water bodies (-0.799), and a positive correlation coefficient (0.813) with the built-up area/impervious surfaces. This insists on eco-sensitive planning of the urban fringes with consistent monitoring of land use and thermal dynamics for apt control of the changes in the urban microclimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the contemporary context to the evolution of different categories of farmer institutions evolved in India. The paper adopted Transaction Cost Economics (TCE)as the main theoretical perspective to evaluate the evolution of farmer institutions from welfare approach to economic enterprise model. The study is based out of secondary literatures and policy documents collected from authentic source. The study also conducted expert and practiotners interview involved in supporting farmer institutions. It was found that the welfare oriented farmer institutions has helped farmers to a limited extent and failed in transforming the existing institutions to match the expectations of modern value chain in agriculture. The evolution from welfare approach to enterprise model at present has been effectively linking small holders across the agribusiness verticals. The existing model of farmer institutions i.e. farmer producercompany is at its nascent stage and evidence revealed it has positive impact on farmers' income and transforming agriculture to a commercial level. The future of the farmer institutions is based out of effectiveness, resilience and sustainability which are possible out of continuous innovations in and out of framer institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid 19 has unleashed unprecedented challenges in terms of sharply dwindling employment and health care vulnerability in India, as never seen before. The closest parallel is Economic Depression of the 1930s. The Government of India has announced a series of fiscal stimulus to resuscitate the most vulnerable sections of Indian economy like peripatetic migrant laborers, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), street vendors, small farmers and unskilled MNREGA workers. This paper specifically looks at the likely impact of Rs.41000/- crore additional allocations to by Finance Minister in April 2020 MNREGA in mitigating disruption caused to about 80 million migrant workers. It also takes stock of allocation to National Health mission; its poor impact on Human Development Index (HDI), high Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) compared to global trends and suggests a way forward. The paper makes a strong case to eschew populist moves like relying on doles and Universal Basic Income (UBI), but instead opt for a strong push to neglected public sector investment in merit goods like good primary health care and quality grassroots education, sanitation and skilling. It makes a strong pitch to make right to health care a fundamental right and change our public policy discourse in health care from insurance based to building adequate health infrastructure, as is in vogue in NHS (National Health Scheme) of UK [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, has been declared as an outstanding smart city and is under continuous process of urbanization. The escalating population of the city along with massive influxes of migrants, is triggering unplanned, uncontrolled, and unrestricted urban sprawl, which is contributing to exorbitant changes in the spatial footprints of the city. It is irony that although being surrounded by rivers on three sides of the city, ground water resources are based for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses due to lack of piped water supply system in many parts of the urban area and the fringes. The rapid growth of the city has led to profound pressure on the precious groundwater resource degrading both quality and quantity. In addition, most of the unsewered parts of the urban areas are elevating the nitrate and other contaminants in the groundwater. The remediation of the resource under incessant threat by both contamination and inappropriate use may be practically impossible in future. Since trend detection of hydrologic data is useful in the investigation of water quality parameters, in this study, eight physical chemical variables of groundwater quality of Bhubaneswar obtained from Odisha Pollution Control Board from 2010 to 2017 were analyzed using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test. Spatial variations of Sen Slope displaying the positive values with large magnitude in the Secretariat area indicates that the groundwater quality is declining at a higher rate. The quality may not be an issue presently but may be alarming in next few decades [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]