107 research outputs found
Installing Automobility
No full textAn examination of the process of prioritizing private motorized transportation in Bengaluru, a rapidly growing megacity of the Global South. Automobiles and their associated infrastructures, deeply embedded in Western cities, have become a rapidly growing presence in the mega-cities of the Global South. Streets once crowded with pedestrians, pushcarts, vendors, and bicyclists are now choked with motor vehicles, many of them private automobiles. In this book, Govind Gopakumar examines this shift, analyzing the phenomenon of automobility in Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), a rapidly growing city of about ten million people in southern India. He finds that the advent of automobility in Bengaluru has privileged the mobility needs of the elite while marginalizing those of the rest of the population. Gopakumar connects Bengaluru's burgeoning automobility to the city's history and to the spatial, technological, and social interventions of a variety of urban actors. Automobility becomes a juggernaut, threatening to reorder the city to enhance automotive travel. He discusses the evolution of congestion and urban change in Bengaluru; the “regimes of congestion” that emerge to address the issue; an “infrastructurescape” that shapes the mobile behavior of all residents but is largely governed by the privileged; and the enfranchisement of an “automotive citizenship” (and the disenfranchisement of non-automobile-using publics). Gopakumar also finds that automobility in Bengaluru faces ongoing challenges from such diverse sources as waste flows, popular religiosity, and political leadership. These challenges, however, introduce messiness without upsetting automobility. He therefore calls for efforts to displace automobility that are grounded in reordering the mobility regime, relandscaping the city and its infrastructures, and reclaiming streets for other uses
Comparison of several author indices for gauging academic productivity
No full textBackground
Many author indices exist to gauge academic productivity. Several of these indices are calculated based upon an author's scholarly publication record, but the measurement methodology to calculate each index varies considerably, and the precise function being used, as well as the end result, is often complex and difficult to assess.
Method
Two straightforward methods to weigh author productivity from the publication and citation record were evaluated as possible means for providing a clearer assessment of scholarly activity. The author characteristic index (termed c-index) assigns author rank for each publication based upon author position. The characteristic prime (c') -index normalizes author rank from author position, so that the total weight per publication is unity. The top 10 scholars with keyword 'celiac disease' in the Google Scholar database were then assessed using these metrics. Rankings according to total number of publications, h-index, and c- and c'-indices were compared, then tabulated along with total papers included for assessment, and mean values per paper for author position, number of authors, citations, and year of publication.
Results
The order of the top ten authors with keyword 'celiac disease' varied substantially depending upon whether the h-index, c-index, or c'-index was used as a gauge. The characteristic indices assign credit to authors according to their position in an author list. The affiliated metrics provided a more complete picture of scholarly activity.
Conclusions
Academic achievement by scholars, based upon quantitative publication characteristics, has recently become of interest for evaluating job candidates, for determining work performance, and for bestowing awards and honors. The characteristic indices as described herein are readily calculated and interpreted, and may improve the assessment of scholarly activity
Scientometric Insights into Research Contributions of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology
No full textThis study evaluates the research productivity and impact of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology using Scopus data (2001–2021). A total of 4,897 publications receiving 53,059 citations were analyzed with scientometric indicators including AGR, RGR, DT, collaboration measures, authorship, citations, and keywords. Results show a gradual growth in research output, with peak productivity during 2017–2021 and Kumar, A. as the most prolific author (165 publications)
Transforming Water Supply Regimes in India: Do Public-Private Partnerships Have a Role to Play?
No full textPublic-private partnerships (PPP) are an important governance strategy that has recently emerged as a solution to enhance the access of marginalised residents to urban infrastructures. With the inception of neo-liberal economic reforms in India, in Indian cities too PPP has emerged as an innovative approach to expand coverage of water supply and sanitation infrastructures. However, there has been little study of the dynamics of partnership efforts in different urban contexts: What role do they play in transforming existing infrastructure regimes? Do reform strategies such as partnerships result in increased privatisation or do they make the governance of infrastructures more participative? Reviewing some of the recent literature on urban political analysis, this article develops the concept of water supply regime to describe the context of water provision in three metropolitan cities in India. To further our understanding of the role of PPP within regimes, this article sketches five cases of water supply and sanitation partnerships located within these three metropolitan cities. From these empirical studies, the article arrives at the conclusion that while PPP are always products of the regime-context they are inserted within, quite often strategic actors in the partnership use the PPP to further their interests by initiating a shift in the regime pathway. This leads us to conclude that PPPs do play a role in making water supply regimes more participative but that depends on the nature of the regime as well as the actions of partners
Vandana Asthana. 2009. <i>Water Policy Processes in India: Discourses of Power and Resistance</i>. New York: Routledge. 182 + xiv pp. $130. ISBN 13: 978-0-415-77831-2
No full textThe global embedding of automobility: Making a case for a hybrid STS framework of analysis
No full textPolicy transmission: the emerging policy dynamic of water supply infrastructure development in India
No full textThe focus of this paper will be to investigate the nature of policy reform in the water supply infrastructure sector in India. In the formal division of powers, much of the authority to implement policies in this sector rests with state governments and the role of the national government is largely restricted to recommending broad policy directions. Since the late 1990s, with the diffusion of the reform agenda into this sector, the national government has taken a number of measures that try to intervene more confidently in setting policy agendas in the states. However, this intervention has not proceeded along expected lines and more assertive policy articulations have been made by different states. A host of factors, such as the proliferation of regional parties and the diverse political logics behind reform implementation in each state are behind this. Using the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India as examples, this paper will develop a model of how water supply policy reforms are being transmitted.</jats:p
Experiments and Counter-Experiments in the Urban Laboratory of Water- Supply Partnerships in India
No full textPublic Leadership Framework: Studying Approaches to Diversify Engineering Education
No full textDespite the recent interest in diversifying engineering education there has been very little analysis regarding the nature of interventions needed to refashion engineering education. This article proposes a preliminary framework referred to here as the Public Leadership Framework (PLF) to examine efforts to diversify engineering education. By comparing three highly regarded programs, the PLF is used here to reveals not just their topical differences but also the differences in their orientations and the nature of engagement with society
Developing Durable Infrastructures: Politics, Social Skill, and Sanitation Partnerships in Urban India -super-1
No full textAccelerated national and international efforts to redress the acute lack of infrastructures in the developing world have focused on forging partnerships to spur infrastructure development. This article finds a sore lack in attempts to grasp how infrastructures implemented through multiactor partnerships within entrenched, often volatile, political environments, become durable. Durability is understood here through field analysis, an approach common within the "new institutional" literature. Two case studies of sanitation infrastructure-making from cities in India are presented as empirical evidence. Failure of the first case and the success of the second in acquisition of durability clearly illustrate the vital role political strategy plays in making infrastructures durable. Copyright 2009 by The Policy Studies Organization.
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