Suchergebnisse

This book follows on previous works addressing sustainable development research in the Asia-Pacific region. It mainly focuses on India, a country currently facing immense challenges in the form of climate change, rapid urbanisation, and population pressures in its journey to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Expecting to surpass China in terms of population in the near future, India needs to develop its own solutions in order to uphold its commitments under the Paris Agreement. This book makes a contribution in that direction by presenting case studies on various aspects of the built environment, from education to managing cities, procurement, and considerations for a circular economy. The papers gathered here offer a vital resource for government policymakers, educators, and current and future professionals, equipping them with the knowledge and expertise they need in order to overcome today's complex challenges in the built environment.

This article's purpose is to report on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) program in South India that provides information and communication technology (ICT) to rural elementary schools. The article examines the current status of rural, government-run elementary schools in India by reviewing reports like the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) in India. Challenges like teacher absences, student drop-outs, lack of electricity, lack of separate toilets for genders, and a lack of teaching resources will be discussed. To meet these challenges, the article will describe the rise in popularity of India's PPPs. Then the article moves to a case study investigation of a PPP, called the SSA Foundation, which implements a "one laptop per school" program in rural areas in the Indian States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Using ethnographic data from field research, the case study includes a description of how the students in a rural Karnataka elementary school use their school's laptop. The school is situated in a small village where most travel is non-motorized. Walking, usually without shoes, is the main form of transportation. A bicycle is considered a luxury. Most villagers work in the surrounding ragi and millet fields; laboring, often with only simple tool blades. Wood fires are the main source of fuel for cooking. In this village, the school's laptop has become a prized possession. The case study offers a "thick description" (Geertz, 1973) of how the village school's students use the laptop for learning basic computing skills and for learning English. Keywords: elementary schooling; educational technology, Public Private Partnerships, rural India, sociotechnical narratives

The policy of mandated representation (reservation) for disadvantaged social groups in Indian village councils or Gram Panchayats has been the subject of numerous studies. The implicit, and often unstated, assumption that underlies most of these studies is that the president of the council is the only one who wields effective power. However, the Gram Panchayat is comprised of several elected representatives, each of whom represents a village; and, in principle, a voting mechanism governs decision making within the Gram Panchayat. In this context, the focus on the president as the de-facto decision maker is equivalent to assuming a model of "Sarpanch Raj," or a model of local government where the president (Sarpanch) dominates the council. This model is typically based on the premise that the president of the council possesses –either on account of her informal powers or on account of her formal agenda setting powers- the de-facto power to dominate. However, whether these informal or formal powers of the president translate into such de facto power may well depend on other factors, such as local power structures. Indeed, extensive anecdotal evidence suggest that presidents elected on reserved seats—i.e. members of the disadvantaged Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), and women —face considerable difficulties when they are situated amid representatives who come from powerful castes or belong to the local elite. Whether a Sarpanch Raj is indeed the de facto model of local governance in India is therefore an unanswered empirical question. This paper examines the question of Sarpanch Raj, using a unique data set from 80 Gram Panchayats and 225 villages in the Indian state of Karnataka. We exploit the design of the policy of mandated representation in order examine whether the Sarpanch Raj model is robust to the inclusion of elected representatives of the village council. The model of Sarpanch Raj is critically examined in the context of two key mandates of the Gram Panchayat: public good provision, and the targeting of household-level benefits under various anti poverty programs. The results suggest that the president is not the sole decision maker of the council, and that the council is in fact a more broad-based body where the voices of other elected village representatives matter. Decision making in the council is, however, not one among equals. In particular, the results suggest that the effectiveness of Scheduled Caste representatives depends on the caste of the president. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP32 ; DSGD

This research aims to investigate the effect of green packaging on a sustainable environment. A double-layered complex conceptual model was developed, and the relationships between green packaging awareness (GPA), green packaging behavior (GPB), and environmental benefits were tested. A carefully crafted survey instrument was used in collecting data from 389 respondents from 41 villages in southern India. After checking the psychometric properties of the survey instrument using the LISREL package of structural equation modeling (SEM), the hypothesized relationships were tested using Hayes's PROCESS macros. The results indicate (i) GPA and GPB are positively associated with environmental benefits and (ii) GPB mediates the relationship between GPA and environmental benefits. The findings also support the three-way interaction between GPA, green packaging initiatives (GPI), and environmental concern in enhancing GPB. The double-layered moderation tested in this research adds to the novelty of the study, thus making a unique contribution to the bourgeoning literature on sustainability.

Not Available ; Earlier efforts under various national programmes in the area of farm mechanization have registered around 15 - 20% higher productivity in various crops at field level apart from 30% savings in the cost of cultivation. This is because of timeliness of selective agricultural operations in addition to the precision use of inputs. However, it is pertinent to note that there is a wide gap in technology absorption capacity across various farm categories and farming systems. Inspite of government departments support under various schemes, the small and marginal farm holders are unable to take the advantage, once they are withdrawn. Farmers owning less than 2 ha of land are not finding viability of owning costly farm implements and machinery as they are capital intensive. Periodic maintenance of the costly equipment followed by need based repairs are posing a big problem to the unskilled farming community because of which the individual ownership is found to be non-viable. ; Not Available

The goal of this article is to analyse the scheme of arrangement as a debt restructuring tool in India and the extent to which it has been utilised. It finds that the scheme has been used sparingly for debt restructuring in India, and primarily in large and complex transactions. This is contrary to jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and Singapore that have witnessed a rise in the use of this mechanism. This trend clearly indicates that the presence of an efficient restructuring mechanism in the legal rules is by itself inadequate to ensure its full utilisation. Apart from law on the statute books, necessary regard must be had to other legal and institutional considerations as well as a complex web of other factors, including historical and business considerations, which ultimately determine the success (or failure) of a mechanism such as the scheme of arrangement in each jurisdiction. In India, the scheme has been overshadowed by other mechanisms (both informal and formal), and that wide-ranging reforms to the law relating to corporate resolution have paid short shrift to the scheme. The article concludes with some recommendations to rejuvenate the use of schemes in India to exploit its full potential as an effective tool for debt restructuring.

Europe's overseas expansion became a challenge for its simultaneously developing sci ences, especially from the eighteenth century onwards. Geography was certainly the most prominent scientific means that was applied to comprehend the earth. As a sub-discipline, cartography enabled overseas territorial penetration. It will be argued in this paper that it had been the cartographical construction of Bengal, and later on India. by British geographers and cartographers in the second half of the eighteenth century that made Britain 's economic, political and eventually military expansion into India possible. Maps became the vital instrurnent for the military control of the land and its population. This was in stark contrast to Europe's development of scientific cartography where cadastral maps were drawn for the fiscal and juridical centralisation of the country and the tight administration of its people. Hence, science was applied to intensify the political regime's grip on the land. In India, cartography was developed in a rather unknown environment to serve the colonial state's immediate needs. Cartography gained its own momentum, along with natural history, geology and botany, creating a specific 'arhive of knowledge'. Thus, besides facilitating the penetration of India, it made colonial rule possible. Science was, therefore, rather applied to legitimise the colonial regime's impact on a foreign country.

Introduction: The mere presence of a dog in a therapeutic setup is known to bring about more positive outcomes when incorporated in therapy, dogs can bring about multifarious benefits which are not entirely tapped upon. Aim: This research aimed to study the effect of animal-assisted therapy (AAT), with therapy dogs, on depressive symptoms, emotional regulation, memory and attention of individuals. Method: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design was used. Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL) for memory and attention, Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were used for pre and post-testing 1 week before and post the intervention. Results: The findings reveal a positive impact of AAT on the given domains of memory, attention, emotion regulation and depressive symptoms, in the experimental group. No significant changes were obtained for the control group. Discussion: The results help validate the module of AAT to improve an individual's cognitive functioning and alleviate depressive and emotional dysregulations. Further implications are discussed.