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Climate Change Photographs in Online Newspapers: A Gender Representation Perspective
No full textBackground: Climate change has emerged as the most pressing concern for humankind, given the rapidly depleting natural resources and burgeoning issues of pollution and waste posing grave threat to the planet’s survival. News media bear the onus of not only reporting on climate change to spread awareness, but they’re in fact educators for a large part of the population. Photographs embedded in news stories have a profound effect on the audiences in that they immediately reduce the distance between the readers and ground zero.Objective: The present study has been designed to conduct a visual content analysis of photographs incorporated in climate change news stories in mainstream online newspapers in India. Online newspapers have been incorporated owing to the growing propensity of a large populace to receive their news through digital devices like smartphones, laptops and tablets. SIt would help in examining the climate change imagery being employed by the online newspapers, which goes a long way in shaping readers’ perceptions about the burning issue.Methodology: The newspapers chosen are the online editions of The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, and The Times of India, keeping in view their wide reach and popularity. The newspapers are scanned for climate change stories over a period of two months (December 2020 and January 2021) with the accompanying photograph each the news story as the unit of analysis. The stories with key words ‘climate’, ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’ in the headline or lead paragraph were selected for data collection.The corpus of images thus obtained is quantified and analyzed to ascertain the depiction of gender in terms of activity. Further, the data is scrutinized from several perspectives, ranging from analysing gender representation in the stories from various sources (internal staff, or national/international news agencies) to the spectrum of topics covered.Implications: The study follows a unique approach as it inspects gender portrayal along several dimensions not undertaken hitherto by any other study. It would be pertinent to understand the visual representation of gender in people’s daily dose of online news, which has strong agenda-setting influences on the society
A study on the adoption, innovation and current status of the ancient craft of Durrie weaving
Get PDFThe craft of Durrie weaving has undergone many changes over the last few decades. This traditional craft, which was a common household practice initially, is still practiced in some districts of Punjab. The craft is learned mainly from the elders of the family as there are no formal training centres to impart the skill and preserve the art form. Majority of the respondents are involved with the craft along with the senior members of the family. Durrie, rugs and foot mats are the most common articles prepared by the artisans. High cost of production and low wages for the artisans as well as lack of a good marketing network are the major challenges faced by the respondents. Absence of attractive promotion opportunities on a regular platform is hampering the demand for these traditional products which are a part of our heritage and need to be preserved for our future generations.
Pokkali Rice Production under Geographical Indication Protection: The Attitude of Farmers
Get PDFThe study tries to identify the problems in GI production under three major heads marekting factor sustainability factor and intermediary factor. The study tries to establish the attittude towards farmers under GI protectio
Oppositions against European patents: Three successful examples of oppositions lodged by Indian opponents
Get PDFIndian companies planning to do business in Europe should consider the possible hurdles raised by patents. In Europe, patent protection may be awarded by so-called European patents. Third parties interested to challenge the validity of European patents can do so in opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO). Opposition proceedings before the EPO are less cost-intensive than national nullity actions against national parts of European patents. Opponents are not always successful, but there are typically good chances to have a weak patent revoked. After addressing some general aspects of oppositions before the EPO, three examples of successful opposition proceedings are discussed in this paper. The examples refer to pharmaceutical patents in which Indian companies were involved as opponents. As these case studies show, there are various objections which might be raised against the validity of a European patent, all of which could ultimately lead to the revocation of the attacked protective right. European opposition procedures can therefore be a powerful tool to remove unjustified patent protection and to clear the way for business in Europe
Analysing the pitfalls of Indian patent injunctions based on fear of infringement
Get PDFThis article seeks to examine the emergence and implications of quia timet injunctions in patent cases in India. A quia timet action is an action based on a possible future injury and therefore stems from a threat of infringement. This article examines the common law remedy of quia timet injunctions and its application in recent cases in jurisdictions such as Canada, Europe and India. The analysis reveals that there are no set standards for granting such injunctions, making them subjective and speculative. It is argued that patent cases are not appropriate matters to grant and allow such actions. The recent emergence of such actions in Indian patent cases is worrisome. Given that patents are not presumed valid in India, that India doesn’t follow the principle of ‘clearing the way’ and the questionable quality of patents being issued by the overburdened Indian Patent Office, quia timet actions may adversely impact innovation and public interest in India
Community-based conservation in Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot- a case study
Get PDFBiodiversity resources of southern bank of Yarlung Tsangbo river valley in South Tibet and Bumdelling-Tawang corridor in the eastern Bhutan are less explored by tourism and urbanization. Institutional initiatives for the conservation of these rich biodiversity areas under the traditional ownership of local communities of Arunachal Pradesh led to a community-based conservation model of Community Conserved Areas (CCA). Spontaneous participation of the stakeholders in these CCA was lacking because conservation objective was conflicting with traditional livelihood practices. To create new livelihood opportunities, the village institutions mobilized community-based leisure models and aligned these alternate livelihood objectives with ecological conservation. These economic initiatives met the challenges of bureaucratic administration, restricted access being close to international boundary with Bhutan & China, ineffective promotion by government agencies, and, the threats caused by the hydroelectric dam project. Strategy implementation was flawed because of the information sharing mechanism between China-India and India-Bhutan is constrained due to international borders. Internal challenges of indigenous CCA were limited customer integration, skewed societal acceptance of leisure-based livelihood practices, and capital cost of conservation capacity. Marketing of tourism in CCAs of Thembang and Zemithang as nature tourism destination requires all-weather road, sustained technical and financial support, and distribution linkages. This research discusses the critical success factor of Zemithang as an expanding CCA and limitations of Thembang CCA in mobilizing host community support. The authors argue that the community-based biodiversity conservation in the western Arunachal Pradesh must be supported by a participatory format of alternate livelihood opportunities
In vitro starch digestibility and in vivo glucose response of minor tuber-based vermicelli & upma
Get PDFAfter grains and legumes, minor tubers are the third most significant food crop, and they have vital nutritional and nutraceutical qualities that offer additional health benefits in addition to fullness. A study was conducted to develop minor tuber-based vermicelli and to evaluate its upma. Five different minor tubers were selected and processed to flour and used for development of vermicelli with replacement of refined wheat flour and further to upma. Results indicated that100% replacement had higher acceptability index (92.24%) compared to control. Lesser Yam vermicelli upma had higher acceptability scores for all sensory parameters. Energy, protein, fiber, calcium, iron and vitamin A contents of vermicelli upma were lower than tuber vermicelli. Further, when compared to wheat vermicelli upma, Lesser Yam vermicelli upma had low glycemic index (52.34). Hence, the refined wheat flour can be replaced with tuber flour in vermicelli
Pre and post test clinical study to assess the combined effect of Brahmigritha-Nasya, Ksheerabalataila-Abhyanga and Saraswatha-Churna in reducing the symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder on Hamilton anxiety rating scale
Get PDFGeneralized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is the most frequently occurring anxiety disorder. It is characterized by tension, persistent worry about a variety of everyday problems and other anxiety symptoms for at least 6 months. Although there have been significant improvements over the years in its treatment, GAD remains the least successfully treated among anxiety disorders. This paper aims to explore the efficacy of Ayurvedic treatment protocol in providing a remedy for GAD. A clinical trial was conducted with 20 patients in the proposed age group of 20 years to 60 years, diagnosed with GAD according to ICD 10 F 41.1 Criteria, and having a score between 17-24 (mild to moderate) on Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. The patients were administered 7 days of Sarvanga-Abhyanga (full body massage) with Ksheerabalataila and Brahmigritha-Nasya, followed by internal intake of Saraswatha-Churna for 21 days. The assessment was done using Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale at baseline and after treatment. Patients ranged in the age from 27 to 60 years. Maximum incidence of the disease was seen in the age-wise classification group 20-29 years. There were 8 male subjects and 12 female subjects. After 28 days of treatment, the mean scores of Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, which was 21 before treatment, reduced to 9.8 with a mean difference of 11.2 and a statistically significant p-value of 0.01. Thus the present protocol was effective in reducing the symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder within a short time-span and without producing any side effects.
A study on variation in spatial voltage distribution pattern across tissue layers between non-excitable plant and excitable plant
Get PDFUnderstanding the mechanism of information processing in plants remains a challenging task even in the era of machine learning and artificial neural networks. Sir J.C. Bose had demonstrated through his experiments that the various modes of stimulation which effectively initiated nervous impulse in animals led to impulse generation in the excitable plant Mimosa pudica as well. In order to localize the tissue responsible for conduction of excitation in the petiole of Mimosa, Bose had constructed a specialized ‘Electric Probe’ (glass tip electrode). From this experiment, Bose found that there were different intensities of transmitted excitation in different tissue layers of the petiole. In this backdrop, an experimental research has been conducted to comparatively study the pattern of spatial voltage distribution across different tissue layers in both, a non-excitable plant Alternanthera philoxeroides (in stem) and an excitable plant Mimosa pudica (in petiole), by following experimental principles similar to that of Sir J. C. Bose. For the present experimental study, the electrical probes (glass tip electrode), similar to the one designed by J.C. Bose and the whole experimental setup has been constructed and developed completely in the laboratory. The results indicated a striking difference in the spatial voltage distribution pattern between the non-excitable and the excitable plant. Since Mimosa is an excitable plant having specialized mechanoreceptor cells, the change in spatial voltage distribution in the different layers of petiole, following excitation (uniform electrical stimuli) of a sub-petiole has been also studied, as an additional segment of the present research. In the present study a notable difference in the intensities of the transmitted excitation was also found upon electrical stimulation of one of the sub-petioles of the excitable plant M. pudica