Institute of Rural Management Anand
Programme in Rural Management
Cow Urine Distillate (CUD), is a modern pharmaceutical product with five US patents for use in cancer treatment and for other ailments. Many published papers in medical literature, including those in MEDLINE, document many therapeutic... more
Cow Urine Distillate (CUD), is a modern pharmaceutical product with five US patents for use in cancer treatment and for other ailments. Many published papers in medical literature, including those in MEDLINE, document many therapeutic properties of CUD. Unfortunately, none of these papers have any information on minimum quality standards for CUD manufacturing: for use in pharmaceutical products for human health care. There also does not seem to exist any published paper discussing pharmaceutical quality standards for manufacturing CUD. Some possible pharmaceutical manufacturing quality standards have been suggested in this paper to start a discussion.
Presented at the first annual symposium of rural management at Xaviers Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar on November 9th 2012. Presents some experimental findings and theorises some action hypothesis, for developing a cow based economy... more
Presented at the first annual symposium of rural management at Xaviers Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar on November 9th 2012. Presents some experimental findings and theorises some action hypothesis, for developing a cow based economy - in the present ecological, economic and social context of the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand state.
Reports progress in action research projects around development of cow based economy in Garhwal region - specifically on using falling film evaporator technology, for distilling cow urine.
A field experiment was conducted to study the efficacy of organic bio-inputs developed by an agricultural biotechnology research institute: for summer cucurbits in loamy sandy soil of Terai plains of Garhwal, irrigated by the Ganges:,... more
A field experiment was conducted to study the efficacy of organic bio-inputs developed by an agricultural biotechnology research institute: for summer cucurbits in loamy sandy soil of Terai plains of Garhwal, irrigated by the Ganges:, during the summer season of 2013. The vegetables experimented on were: Lagenaria siceraria (bottlegourd) and Momordica charantia (bittergourd). The experiment was conducted at the experimental field of Patanjali Bio Research Institute (PBRI),located in Padartha village, Haridwar district, Uttarakhand, India. The experimental design had one control, four treatments and two crops-bitter gourd and bottle gourd The experiment was laid out in a modified Latin Square design (LSD): with four treatment plots replicated twice, for each crop.. The control plots were replicated four times for both the crops... Seed was procured from a neighbouring village agro input outlet, to simulate actual farming conditions. Two experiments were conducted: the first around germination, and the second around yield of vegetables. In the germination experiment: all the experimental plots received soil treatment of granular compost mixed with amino acid, humic acid, cow urine, and some nutrients. The four soil treatments, consisted of increasing dosage of powdered organic compost ,inoculated with beneficial microbes, mixed with amino acids, with added micronutrients. Using the statistical test of significance of proportions, all the treatments, and the control plots showed significance. However higher dosage seems to have had relatively lesser germination count. Beyond a certain limit, addition of these biological inputs could be counterproductive for germination of summer cucurbits. A pest attack by red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollis), was successfully treated with neem oil extract. In the yield experiment, all the four treatments received organic NPK. The first treatment (T1) added amino acid liquid; the second treatment (T2) added vitamin, amino acid growth promoter and Humic acid; the third treatment (T3) added amino acid liquid, vitamin and amino acid based growth promoter, and the fourth treatment (T4) added amino acid liquid, Humic acid, vitamins and amino acid based growth promoter. One way ANOVA (analysis of variance), did not show significance at 10% level of significance. There was a big range of variation in the yields of treatment plots. However incremental analysis, of treatments, again seemed to reveal that the lowest combination of inputs had the highest yields, for both the crops. The preliminary learning seems to indicate that the agricultural economics " Law of Diminishing returns " seems to hold?
The Government of India (GoI) " Digital India " program, forms the context of this study. The world of rural poor women organised in microfinance Self Help Groups (SHG)s and their households formed another context of the study. The... more
The Government of India (GoI) " Digital India " program, forms the context of this study. The world of rural poor women organised in microfinance Self Help Groups (SHG)s and their households formed another context of the study. The exploratory study was located in Kottampatti block of Melur Taluka (Madurai district) of Tamil Nadu state. This block had a a nearly three decade long history of functioning microfinance SHGs: with the village economy dependent on an rainfed agriculture ecology: which appears typical of much of rural Tamil Nadu. A total of 121 respondents who were all longstanding members of microfinance SHGs, were studied through the questionnaire method. (n=121): from four hamlets located in three revenue villages (Grama Panchayats).. The Backward Castes, the Most Backward Castes and Other Backward Castes, dominated the respondent profile: with particular communities dominating particular hamlets: which is similar to demographic profiles of villages dependent on rainfed agriculture across rural Tamil Nadu. 87% of the respondents were in the age group 22-50. 74% of the households had 3-5 members. Network failure in accessing digital communication media, appeared to be a localised phenomenon linked to built up spaces or natural barriers like hillocks. Availability of power and facilities for charging mobile phones and internet access equipment did not seem to be an issue. Solar charging facilities though available in the larger market space, did not seem to find favour with the respondents. Digital citizenship was investigated in terms of access to digital identification documents like the 12 digit Aaadhar, issued by the Central Government of India: and the " QR code " household smart card issued by the State Government of Tamil Nadu. (Both linked in Tamil Nadu to a mobile phone number) Digital citizenship appeared to be near universal, which perhaps can be extrapolated to the rest of rural Tamil Nadu. Digital inclusion was assessed in terms of " compulsory access " and " voluntary access ". Compulsory access was defined in terms of the benefits of some Government schemes, being accessed only through electronic means. Central Government programs with relatively high access or universal access: like the rural employment guarantee program (MNREGA), the Public Distribution Systems (PDS) and subsidised cooking gas. (LPG) were studied. The households accessing the internet due to program compulsion of availing the benefits, formed 60% of the sample. (n=72). These households seemed to be relying exclusively on Short Messaging Service (SMS) alerts on numeric pad technology mobile phones with 2G SIM cards for accessing the Government welfare programs. 49/121 (40%) of the households accessed the internet voluntary, in terms of navigating and searching the net. Those households who voluntary accessed the net seemed to have even higher benefits from these " compulsory access " Government schemes, as compared to households which only accessed the internet due to program compulsions. Four " cradle to grave " welfare programs of the State Government of Tamil Nadu, which mandate application through the internet, were investigated. Although, the overall proportion accessing the State Government schemes was much less (around one third to one tenth): here again households voluntarily accessing the internet seemed to have higher access to these State Government schemes. Tamil Nadu has a universal health insurance scheme, for which an identification card is required .Voluntarily accessing households had a higher proportion of houses covered in this insurance scheme, then those accessing only due to program compulsions. (58% to
A field experiment was conducted to study the efficacy of organic bio-inputs developed by an agricultural biotechnology research institute: for summer cucurbits in loamy sandy soil of Terai plains of Garhwal, irrigated by the Ganges:,... more
A field experiment was conducted to study the efficacy of organic bio-inputs developed by an agricultural biotechnology research institute: for summer cucurbits in loamy sandy soil of Terai plains of Garhwal, irrigated by the Ganges:, during the summer season of 2013. The vegetables experimented on were: Lagenaria siceraria (bottlegourd) and Momordica charantia (bittergourd). The experiment was conducted at the experimental field of Patanjali Bio Research Institute (PBRI),located in Padartha village, Haridwar district, Uttarakhand, India. The experimental design had one control, four treatments and two crops - bitter gourd and bottle gourd The experiment was laid out in a modified Latin Square design (LSD): with four treatment plots replicated twice, for each crop.. The control plots were replicated four times for both the crops.
Seed was procured from a neighbouring village agro input outlet, to simulate actual farming conditions. Two experiments were conducted: the first around germination, and the second around yield of vegetables. In the germination experiment: all the experimental plots received soil treatment of granular compost mixed with amino acid, humic acid, cow urine, and some nutrients. The four soil treatments, consisted of increasing dosage of powdered organic compost ,inoculated with beneficial microbes, mixed with amino acids, with added micronutrients. Using the statistical test of significance of proportions, all the treatments, and the control plots showed significance. However higher dosage seems to have had relatively lesser germination count. Beyond a certain limit, addition of these biological inputs could be counterproductive for germination of summer cucurbits. A pest attack by red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollis), was successfully treated with neem oil extract. In the yield experiment, all the four treatments received organic NPK. The first treatment (T1) added amino acid liquid; the second treatment ( T2) added vitamin, amino acid growth promoter and Humic acid; the third treatment ( T3) added amino acid liquid, vitamin and amino acid based growth promoter, and the fourth treatment (T4) added amino acid liquid, Humic acid, vitamins and amino acid based growth promoter. One way ANOVA (analysis of variance), did not show significance at 10% level of significance. There was a big range of variation in the yields of treatment plots. However incremental analysis, of treatments, again seemed to reveal that the lowest combination of inputs had the highest yields, for both the crops. However incremental analysis, of treatments, again seemed to reveal that the lowest combination of inputs had the highest yields, for both the crops. The preliminary learning seems to indicate that the agricultural economics “Law of Diminishing returns” seems to hold?
Seed was procured from a neighbouring village agro input outlet, to simulate actual farming conditions. Two experiments were conducted: the first around germination, and the second around yield of vegetables. In the germination experiment: all the experimental plots received soil treatment of granular compost mixed with amino acid, humic acid, cow urine, and some nutrients. The four soil treatments, consisted of increasing dosage of powdered organic compost ,inoculated with beneficial microbes, mixed with amino acids, with added micronutrients. Using the statistical test of significance of proportions, all the treatments, and the control plots showed significance. However higher dosage seems to have had relatively lesser germination count. Beyond a certain limit, addition of these biological inputs could be counterproductive for germination of summer cucurbits. A pest attack by red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollis), was successfully treated with neem oil extract. In the yield experiment, all the four treatments received organic NPK. The first treatment (T1) added amino acid liquid; the second treatment ( T2) added vitamin, amino acid growth promoter and Humic acid; the third treatment ( T3) added amino acid liquid, vitamin and amino acid based growth promoter, and the fourth treatment (T4) added amino acid liquid, Humic acid, vitamins and amino acid based growth promoter. One way ANOVA (analysis of variance), did not show significance at 10% level of significance. There was a big range of variation in the yields of treatment plots. However incremental analysis, of treatments, again seemed to reveal that the lowest combination of inputs had the highest yields, for both the crops. However incremental analysis, of treatments, again seemed to reveal that the lowest combination of inputs had the highest yields, for both the crops. The preliminary learning seems to indicate that the agricultural economics “Law of Diminishing returns” seems to hold?
Abstract: Context: In Western Tamilnadu, 36% of all faculty in engineering colleges are women. These engineering colleges had contributed many engineers to the globalized corporate Information Technology (IT) industry:. Women faculty... more
Abstract:
Context:
In Western Tamilnadu, 36% of all faculty in engineering colleges are women. These engineering colleges had contributed many engineers to the globalized corporate Information Technology (IT) industry:. Women faculty using IT for teaching of Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics, (STEM) subjects, formed the social and technological context.
Aims:
The study framed 12 Null hypothesis (Ho) statements related to their opinion on information technology in their research and teaching: and . 36 Null hypothesis (Ho) statements related to their self perception in specific information literacy (IL) skills.
Settings and Design:
The study methodology used a questionnaire instrument, to investigate attitudes towards Information Literacy (IL) and its use for classroom teaching and research
Methods and Material:
.. The Cronbach alpha scores of the instrument, of five sections and 13 constructs: was moderately high. 41 engineering.., affiliated to Anna University, Chennai: located in nine Western Tamilnadu districts, formed the study population. Of the 1476 women engineering faculty, 103 women responded. The non probabilistic “snowball” sampling methodology was used.
Results:
Women engineering faculty perceived themselves to have specific (IL) skills in information seeking: including the skills related to internet use. Their self perception regarding Information retrieval skills (IRS) using printed sources, was positive.. Their self perception regarding IRS using internet sources was low. They found minimal benefits of changing information into action for research and classroom teaching:. The reasons stated were a lack of facilities, and lack of orientation in pedagogy..
Conclusions:
Their self confidence need to be supplemented with skill building and incentivising the applying of IL/IRS skills to the classroom (249 words)
Context:
In Western Tamilnadu, 36% of all faculty in engineering colleges are women. These engineering colleges had contributed many engineers to the globalized corporate Information Technology (IT) industry:. Women faculty using IT for teaching of Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics, (STEM) subjects, formed the social and technological context.
Aims:
The study framed 12 Null hypothesis (Ho) statements related to their opinion on information technology in their research and teaching: and . 36 Null hypothesis (Ho) statements related to their self perception in specific information literacy (IL) skills.
Settings and Design:
The study methodology used a questionnaire instrument, to investigate attitudes towards Information Literacy (IL) and its use for classroom teaching and research
Methods and Material:
.. The Cronbach alpha scores of the instrument, of five sections and 13 constructs: was moderately high. 41 engineering.., affiliated to Anna University, Chennai: located in nine Western Tamilnadu districts, formed the study population. Of the 1476 women engineering faculty, 103 women responded. The non probabilistic “snowball” sampling methodology was used.
Results:
Women engineering faculty perceived themselves to have specific (IL) skills in information seeking: including the skills related to internet use. Their self perception regarding Information retrieval skills (IRS) using printed sources, was positive.. Their self perception regarding IRS using internet sources was low. They found minimal benefits of changing information into action for research and classroom teaching:. The reasons stated were a lack of facilities, and lack of orientation in pedagogy..
Conclusions:
Their self confidence need to be supplemented with skill building and incentivising the applying of IL/IRS skills to the classroom (249 words)