67 research outputs found
Strengthening Rural Decentralisation: A Study on the Role of International Organisations
No full textThe term ‘decentralisation’ has generally been used to refer to a variety of institutional reforms. It has sometimes been considered as a change in the organisational framework in which political, social and economic decisions are made and implemented. It is also understood as a mechanism to transfer responsibility and authority. In recent years, decentralisation has received singular attention all over the world. It has been considered as one of the most important elements in development strategy. It is a global and regional phenomenon, and most countries have attempted to implement it as a tool for development, as a political philosophy, and as a mechanism for sharing responsibility at different levels.
Since 1980s, developing countries have increasingly adopted decentralised form of governance. Decentralisation means the transfer of authority and responsibility from central to intermediate and local governments. Although the democratic decentralisation in terms of Panchayati Raj Institutions (village councils) was a post-Independence phenomenon, there has been a legacy and tradition of village panchayats since time immemorial in India. The 73rd and 74th Amendment Act, 1993 of the Constitution of India has made the Panchayat an institution of self-government. As per the constitution, Panchayats shall prepare plan for economic development and social justice at their level. The District Planning Committee shall integrate the plan so prepared with the plans prepared by the local bodies at district level. The success and failure of the Panchayats would depend on planning and implementation. It also depends on maximum people’s participation at every stage of planning process, from proposal to implementation. People’s participation in local-level development has been exercised through the formulation of the Panchayat-level development plan, project coordination at intermediate and district levels of the Panchayats.
The Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in West Bengal are very strong bodies, which function as real institutions of self-governance. In West Bengal, the planning process of grass-root level has some stages from proposal to implementation. After introduction of 3-tier Panchayat system in 1978, the Government of West Bengal brought about need-based reforms in the system from time to time from the very beginning. Encouraged by the State Government’s strong commitment to rural decentralisation, Department for International Development (DFID), Government of UK came forward to support the ongoing rural decentralisation initiatives and upscale the bottom-up planning process. In the present study, an attempt has been made to understand the role of DFID for strengthening decentralisation in rural Bengal
“THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND ITS AFTERMATH IN THE NORDIC AND BALTIC COUNTRIES DO AS WE SAY AND NOT AS WE DO”
No full textThe book The Economic Crisis and its Aftermath in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Do As We Say and Not As We Do written by Professor Dr. Hilmar Þór Hilmarsson is unique in many respects. It provides a broad view about the Nordic-Baltic countries, their response to the crisis of 2008/09 and the post-crisis consequences. Both regional and international aspects have been analyzed, namely regional institutions such as the European Union (EU) and global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the operational sphere where policy choices of these nations get influenced. The author points out that Barry Eichengreen (Professor of Economics and Political Science at UC Berkeley) suggested that the title of this book should include: ‘Do as we say and not as we do’, reflecting author’s view mainly to a comparison between how Nordic countries may want the Baltic States to respond to crisis as compared to how they would respond themselves in comparable situations. In order to support this statement, the author mentions some instances, for example, comparison of how Finland and Sweden responded to the banking crisis they experienced in the early 1990s with how the Baltic States responded to the 2008/09 global economic and financial crisis, arguably under Nordic (mainly Swedish) influence. All those countries are then influenced by regional and global institutions. Thus, the author framed the title of the book as “The Economic Crisis and its Aftermath in the Nordic and Baltic Countries: Do as we say and not as we do”
A review of the characteristic features of supervisory and distributed control architecture and its implementation scenarios
No full textLink to publisher's homepage at http://www.myiem.org.my/The paper presents the SCADA architecture, their interface to process hardware and its applications. The characteristics of SCADA are reviewed and salient features are illustrated. The development opportunity and application flexibility are clearly mentioned. Some expectations of the users and its limitations are discussed. The scope and need for further development are described. The industrial standards as well as the potential benefits are summarised. Two case studies presented to illustrate the effectiveness of its application. The use of SCADA in intelligent product development and their services including prototyping control strategy, test and implementation are indicated
Consolidation Characteristics of Soil- Porous Geotextile-Fly Ash Layers placed Successively Debasree Pal
No full textABSTRACT Industrial wastes have been gaining importance as construction site turns difficulties in many ways such as transportation of good quality soil at working site, procurement of admixtures to increase the stability of soil etc. which are also adding extra cost in construction work. Cost of Construction can be controlled to the extent possible by introducing the innovative ideas of using the fly ash, a waste generates from coal based thermal power plants, and porous geotextile sheet. In this paper a laboratory investigations have been carried out to evaluate the effect of porous geotextile sheet on consolidation characteristics of soil-fly ash-soil and fly ash -soil-fly ash layers. From the present experimental study on soil and fly ash layer along with geo textile sheet, it has found that the compression index (C c ), coefficient of compressibility (a v ) and coefficient of volume change (m v ) values decreases with increase of fly ash and geotextile layers. Settlement also reduces as coefficient of consolidation (c v ) increases than soil alone
Conversational Intelligence for All: Speech Recognition Systems for Inclusive Digital Access
No full textDigital service accessibility confronts enduring challenges in multilingual societies, where technological and linguistic barriers limit participation for numerous population segments. Voice-based interfaces operating through telephone systems present valuable pathways to narrow these divides, facilitating interaction without literacy prerequisites or technical proficiency. Telephone-based speech recognition faces distinctive technical obstacles, including limited bandwidth, ambient noise interference, and natural conversational patterns substantially different from laboratory speech inputs. Modern algorithmic techniques, especially those employing probabilistic modeling frameworks, show remarkable capacity to function within these demanding audio environments while handling regional accents and language variations. Practical implementations across transit networks, administrative service systems, and learning platforms demonstrate how these technologies establish vital access points for traditionally underserved communities. Such systems support transportation schedule inquiries, social program registration, and educational material engagement via conventional telephone infrastructure instead of demanding broadband connections or advanced mobile devices. Widespread implementation requires thoughtful attention to information security protocols, recognition fairness across accent variations, and strategic language selection to prevent perpetuating societal imbalances. This contribution outlines system architectures, deployment methodologies, and performance assessment frameworks for developing genuinely inclusive conversational technologies that broaden digital participation across communication and technological boundaries
Critical Factors Determining Innovative Activities in Indian Pharmaceutical Industry
No full textAbstract Technological progress through research and development (R&D) activities has been widely recognized as a key factor contributing to the overall growth of the economy. At the firm level R&D activities can be seen as a strategic tool for the firm to gain competitive advantage in the market. The literature of industrial organization considers R&D activities as an important conduct variable which shapes the structure of the market and performance of the firm. The decision to invest in R&D activities is crucial one and it competes with other investments. In pharmaceutical industry, the role of R&D is even more important as the market is highly competitive and well protected by patent laws. Using Tobit model this paper explores the critical factors that affect the decision to go for R&D activities in Indian pharmaceutical industry. The results shows that import intensity, royalty, profitability and advertisement play an important role in deciding on R&D intensity of the firm. Affiliation to group or business houses is not a significant factor with respect to R&D Intensity. Keywords: Research and Development, Market, Pharmaceutical Industry
Matrix partial orders through generalized inverses: unified theory
No full textAbstractThe unified theory presented here covers as special cases the star order of Drazin, the minus order of Hartwig and Nambooripad, the sharp order, and other partial orders introduced by the author
Ann based prediction of blast furnace parameters
No full textLink to publisher's homepage at http://www.myiem.org.my/The paper presents a method to predict blast furnace parameters based on artificial neural network (ANN). The prediction is
important as the parameters cause the degradation of the production process. The productivity as well as quality can be
improved by knowing these parameters in advance. In this context, the iron making process in the modern blast furnace is briefly
illustrated. Characterisation of the input and the output parameters as well as the design of a feed forward neural network
(FFNN) is outlined. The implementation issues are discussed to predict the parameters like hot metal temperature (HMT) and
percentage of impurity of silicon content in molten iron. The simulation and plant trial results are compared to show the
effectiveness of the approach
AHP in Assessing Performance of Diploma Institutes – A Case Study
No full textPresent paper shows application of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as potential tool in decision making in assessing performance of diploma institutes. Parameters for assessing diploma level institutes are used as example. A hierarchical structure is framed for the parameters and the diploma institutes from where feedback received against the parameters for this study. By applying the AHP, the parameters can be prioritized and a descending order list of diploma institutes can be made in order to identify the best performing institutes. A sensitivity analysis can be performed to check the sensitivity of the final selection (decision) to minor changes in the judgement. Step by step approaches for applying AHP will be used by using AHP Calculation Software by CGI (web-based free software). It is hoped that this will encourage the application of the AHP in assessing institutional performance of similar institutions
- …
