162 research outputs found
Special Treatment and Policy Space for the Developing Economies in the Multilateral Trade Regime
Full text linkThe contemporary multilateral trading system comprises members ranging from high- to very low-income countries; this range has a bearing on the operations of the multilateral trade regime. Presence of a large number of low-income members is the new systemic reality. Special and differential treatment (SDT) has operated for the developing economies, principally for the small, low-income ones, for many decades. The concept of SDT grew in three basic stages, on which this article elaborates. Theoretically this concept was meaningful and significant, but in reality it has not engendered substantial benefits to the intended beneficiary groups, the developing economies. The Uruguay and the Doha Rounds of multilateral trade negotiations (MTNs) reaffirmed faith in SDT. The Doha Development Agenda (DDA) was clear about reaffirming the importance of SDT to the multilateral trade regime and referred to it as an integral part of the WTO Agreement. During the Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancún and the subsequent WTO meeting in Geneva in July 2004, small developing countries held together as the Group-of-Ninety (G-90). They made their presence felt in the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference as well. As SDT has not spawned large benefits for the target groups of countries, there is a pressing need to refine the concept. Academics and policy makers have debated over what future shape SDT should take so that it will be able to meet the expected goals. Taking these concerns into account, this article presents a comprehensive set of recommendations.International Relations/Trade,
Supporting Data for: UltraMNIST Classification: A Benchmark to Train CNNs for Very Large Images
No full textConvolutional neural network (CNN) approaches available in the current literature are designed to work primarily with low-resolution images. When applied on very large images, challenges related to GPU memory, smaller receptive field than needed for semantic correspondence and the need to incorporate multi-scale features arise. The resolution of input images can be reduced, however, with significant loss of critical information. Based on the outlined issues, we introduce a novel research problem of training CNN models for very large images, and present ‘UltraMNIST dataset’, a simple yet representative benchmark dataset for this task. UltraMNIST has been designed using the popular MNIST digits with additional levels of complexity added to replicate well the challenges of real-world problems. We present two variants of the problem: ‘UltraMNIST classification’ and ‘Budget-aware UltraMNIST classification’. The standard UltraMNIST classification benchmark is intended to facilitate the development of novel CNN training methods that make the effective use of the best available GPU resources. The budget-aware variant is intended to promote development of methods that work under constrained GPU memory. For the development of competitive solutions, we present several baseline models for the standard benchmark and its budget-aware variant. We study the effect of reducing resolution on the performance and present results for baseline models involving pretrained backbones from among the popular state-of-the-art models. Finally, with the presented benchmark dataset and the baselines, we hope to pave the ground for a new generation of CNN methods suitable for handling large images in an efficient and resource-light manner. UltraMNIST dataset comprises very large-scale images, each of 4000x4000 pixels with 3-5 digits per image. Each of these digits has been extracted from the original MNIST dataset. Your task is to predict the sum of the digits per image, and this number can be anything from 0 to 27
Gary Cordner, AnnMarie Cordner and Dilip K. Das, Urbanization, Policing, and Security. Global Perspectives, Wyd. CRC Press – Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton – London – New York 2010, 461 s.
Full text linkAuthor positively assessed substantive value of Gary Cordner, AnnMarie Cordner and Dilip K. Das, URBANIZATION, POLICING, AND SECURITY. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES book. The book contains an article delivered at the 14th Annual Conference of the International Police Executive Symposium (IPES), which was held in 2007 in Dubai under the general theme "Urbanisation and Security". Issues covered in the book is particularly relevant in the plane of national and international security. According to the reviewer book should be very interesting not only to academics but also to politicians.Uniwersytet w Białymstok
The Land Acquisition Bill-- A Critique and a Proposal
Full text linkThe new Bill on land acquisition recently tabled in Parliament is well intentioned but seriously flawed. Its principal defect is that it attaches an arbitrary mark-up to the historical market price to determine compensation amounts. This will guarantee neither social justice nor the efficient use of resources. The Bill also places unnecessary and severe conditions on land acquisition, such as restrictions on the use of multi-cropped land and insistence on public purpose, all of which are going to stifle the pace of development without promoting the interests of farmers. We present an alternative approach that will allow farmers to choose compensation in either land or cash, determine their own price instead of leaving it to the government’s discretion, and also reallocate the remaining farmland in the most efficient manner. Our proposed method involves a land auction covering not only the project site but also the surrounding agricultural land.
Globalization: a guide for the concerned policymaker
Full text linkAlthough rolling back of globalization is feasible, the author contends that techno-economic forces will ensure its further expansion. The world economy will be more integrated tomorrow than today. Increasing number of countries and policy mandarins have begun to see the welfare effects of globalization and the constituency for it much larger than that against it. However, capitalizing from it is a challenge because globalization does entail some downside risks. This paper focuses on macroeconomic challenges emanating from the on-ward march of globalization. In the recent past, it has been observed that several globalizing economies suffered from volatility. Therefore, the author devotes a large part of this research to the vexing issue of volatility and how to manage it
Colonial Indology: Sociopolitics of the Ancient Indian Past, by Dilip K. Chakrabarti, Munshiram Manoharial Publishers, New Dehli, India, 1997
No full textColonial Indology is the first extended critique of the
premises underlying the Western study of ancient Indian history and archaeology and, as
such, fills a major gap in the history of archaeology. It complements Ronald Inden's
Imagining India (1390), a general critique of Western Indological scholarship, which
asserts that it has portrayed India in terms of static essences in a way that minimizes
the creativity of the Indian people. Colonial Indology 's author, the
renowned Indian archaeologist Dilip Chakrabarti, who has long been interested in the
history of archaeology in his homeland, argues that views of Indian history that were
created to serve the interests of Western colonialism are still accepted not only by
Western scholars but also by many prominent Indian archaeologists who wish to associate
themselves with the international archaeological community, as well as by India's
modernizing establishment who prefer to emphasize their country's mystical, rather than
its historical, past. More recently world attention has been drawn to Indian
archaeologists who have been using their discipline to promote the cause of Hindu
nationalism
INEFFICIENCY AND ABUSE OF COMPULSORY LAND ACQUISITION--AN ENQUIRY INTO THE WAY FORWARD
Full text linkThis paper focuses on two issues--the problems with the compulsory acquisition of land, and the regulatory and institutional impediments that obstruct voluntary land transactions. We argue that any compulsory acquisition based process is intrinsically inefficient and unfair, even if it is accompanied by presumably benevolent schemes such as land-for-land and the R&R packages. Moreover, it is inherently prone to litigation. We demonstrate how what we call the 'regulatory hold-up' precludes a large number of potential transactions in agriculture land, and puts a downward pressure on land prices. The paper offers suggestions for reforming the legal and regulatory framework governing the land and its use. Finally, we discuss the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement (LARR) Bill 2011. We show that the bill leaves open several backdoors for the states to favour companies. Movreover, it fails to address the fundamental causes behind rampant disputes and litigation over compensation.
RETHINKING INDUSTRIAL POLICY
Full text linkDespite the hold of the neoliberal orthodoxy on policy making in developing countries, industrial policy remains important for the promotion of industrial development. However, the context for the design of industrial policy has profoundly changed as a result of new rules governing international trade, the rise of global value chains and marketing networks, and other aspects of globalization. Traditionally, the case for industrial policy has been framed in terms of “market failures” but the paper argues that that is not a sufficient basis. After addressing the traditional points of criticism, an attempt is made to outline the “domains” of industrial policy in the current circumstances, especially for industrially lagging countries. As country contexts differ widely there are no satisfactory blueprints for policy making that countries can readily adopt. As in production decisions, considerable ingenuity and innovation is needed in designing policies. This is all the more necessary as the WTO rules have become increasingly stringent and the rise of international trading networks has created new barriers for young firms to enter the world market. These developments have changed the context but not the importance of policy in industrial development. The paper identifies areas where government intervention is needed and can still make a positive difference.
The Italian Mafias and Migrant Smuggling
No full textDuring the last decades, the increasing flow of migrants in Mediterranean Sea has become a useful and profitable way to spread the power of organized crime groups. Today, the Italian mafias are non-state globalized actors which joint in complex networks to make illegal business thanks to Migrant Smuggling, exploitation of human capital, from outside the EU, and other criminal activities. The author presents an analysis of the public order, the state of safety in Italy, a main geopolitical gate to the so-called “Fortress Europe”
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