Changes in the industrial structure of India's male working force, 1961-81

The post-Independence period in India has witnessed a gradual decline of some occupations and services and the emergence of others. In the present paper an attempt has been made to analyze the change in the industrial structure of India's male working force by calculating an index of change. The index so calculated for 2 decades separately (1961-1971 and 1971-1981) is portrayed cartographically. The overall low degree of change recorded by the country's male working force establishes the weakness of India's industrial infrastructure. Consequently, the secondary sector seems to have failed in generating employment opportunities on a large scale. Regionally, the peripheral areas have recorded a higher incidence of change than the interior heartland of the country. The areas that were overwhelmingly agricultural and had experienced developments in the field of agriculture alone exhibited a low degree of change in comparison to those that had experienced developments both in the field of agriculture and industry. During the last inter-censal period (1971-1981) the country recorded an accelerated rate of change in the industrial structure of its male working force. Spatially too, the increasing rate of change has spread to new regions.     

Care and Global Migration in the Nursing Profession: a north Indian perspective

ABSTRACT

Globalisation, supply–demand dynamics, uneven development, enhanced connectivity including the better flow of information, communication and the reduced cost of travel have encouraged the global integration of nursing labour markets. Developed regions of the world have attracted internationally educated nurses (IENs) because of growing healthcare needs. India, along with the Philippines, has become a key supplier of nurses in the global economy. Traditionally the supply of nurses was heavily regionalised in south India, especially Kerala, but of late Punjab, in north India, has played an increasing role in nurse training and migration as the profession has become more respected and more international. This paper uses survey and interview data to detail the recent interest in nursing as a channel for independent female international migration from Punjab, and to examine how migratory ambitions have developed over the last decade in parallel with the changing status of nursing as an internationally respected profession. We identify growing interest in international migration for nursing students and their increased intention to pursue employment opportunities in Australia and New Zealand. This research highlights how nursing and care migration are increasingly structured by international circuits of training and employment, and how such circuits alter migrant and occupational geographies on the ground in sending regions.     

The Lost Natural Wetlands of Punjab (India): An Inventory

Wetlands play a vital role in maintaining groundwater levels in an area. This is true for Punjab that was bestowed with several natural wetlands in the flood plains of its rivers. These natural wetlands have never been mapped and their existence has not been acknowledged. The large scale agricultural development in the state has made it India's leading food producing state. This development was done at the cost of certain ecologically sensitive parts, mainly the flood plains thus leading to the demise of wetlands. This paper is an attempt to retrace the lost wetlands that were existed in the flood plains of the three major rivers: Satluj, Beas and Ravi in the present day Punjab at the beginning of 20th century. A majority of these wetlands have not been documented so far and do not even have names. The purpose is to emphasize their elimination in addition to establishing a baseline dataset that can be a tool for wetland planning and management.     

Tectonics or climate: What drove the Miocene global expansion of C4 grasslands?

Investigations into the most plausible causes which triggered the Late Miocene global expansion of C₄ grasslands have reached no consensus and are still being debated. The global decline in CO₂ levels in the Late Miocene has been thought to be the most common driver. Although C₄ grassland expansion was largely confined to the Late Miocene, their first appearance varied significantly in different parts of the Old and New world and therefore emphasizes role of local and/or regional factors may or may not be in combination with one or more global factors. The dynamic Himalayan orogen constitutes a significant global tectonic event that is believed to have affected global climate. Hence, a study of the Himalayan foreland basin sediments could help in gleaning out possible causes behind this major paleoecologic event, which could perhaps be directly or indirectly related. Stable carbon isotope analyses of a total of 141 pedogenic carbonates in the Mio-Pleistocene Siwalik paleosols of the Ramnagar sub-basin are coherent, providing a better insight into paleovegetational changes across the sub-basin on temporal and spatial scales. Furthermore, paleovegetational history during Oligocene is reconstructed from Dagshai paleosols exposed in the Subathu sub-basin. The isotopic results show dominance of C₃ vegetation pre-7 Ma and dominance of C₄ vegetation post-5 Ma. Percentage abundance of C₄ vegetation was less than 20 % pre-7 Ma but increased to more than 40 % post-5 Ma, reaching up to 100 % in the youngest analyzed sediments. There is exclusive dominance of C₃ vegetation during Oligocene. These results conform to the pattern of change in vegetation documented in other parts of the Himalayan belt. The global expansion of C₄ grasslands largely during Late Miocene have long been linked with then climate changes, particularly brought by declining atmospheric CO₂ level, large-scale fires, intensification of monsoon, seasonality, and aridity as demonstrated by various researchers. These major hypotheses explaining expansion of C₄ grasslands during Late Miocene are not very convincing due to significant shortcomings associated with them, for example, expansion of C₄ grasslands in non-monsoonal regions put serious constraints on the monsoonal intensification hypothesis. Likewise, aridity as being the primary driver of C₄ grassland expansion seems hard to support since there is no substantial evidence that could suggest global onset of arid conditions at about same geologic time, and some most arid periods, like the Triassic, show no evidence of C₄ plants. We suggest that the initial lowering of CO₂ below 450 ppmV created an environment for the beginning of C₄ vegetation, but the persistence of this threshold value for a considerable time during Late Miocene appears to be the probable cause of the Late Miocene global expansion of C₄ grasslands irrespective of their time of first appearance. It has been deduced through the correlation of Himalayan tectonic events with atmospheric CO₂ levels and paleovegetational changes since Upper Miocene times that it was indeed the Late Miocene continuous, intense tectonic instability of the Himalayas that significantly decreased atmospheric CO₂ levels and which perhaps played a key role in changing the nature of photosynthetic pathways.     

Estimation of Trophic State Index of Sukhna Lake Using Remote Sensing and GIS

The present study is focussing on that how Landsat 7 ETM⁺ can be effectively used for estimation of Trophic State Index for Sukhna Lake. Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh has undergone lot of changes in last few decades. The depth and area both reduced tremendously. The shrinkage of the lake is due to the siltation and inadequate water volumes flowing to it. The Trophic State Index has been estimated by using secchi disk transparency and Landsat 7 ETM⁺ data. The in situ observations for parameters like pH, DO were measured by using multiparameter water quality instrument TROLL 9500. The best tested interpolation technique has been used to generate in situ images. The results have shown that the lake is in Hypereutrophic condition since 2000.     

The in-plane motion of a Geosynchronous satellite under the gravitational attraction of the sun,the moon and the oblate earth

The in-plane motion of a Geosynchronous satellite under the gravitational effects of the sun, the moon and the oblate earth has been studied. The radial deviation (Δr) and the tangential deviation (r _cΔθ) have been determined. Herer _c represents the synchronous altitude. It has been seen that the sum of the oscillatory terms in Δr for different inclinations is a small finite quantity whereas the sum of the oscillatory terms inr _cΔθ for different inclinations is quite large due to the presence of the low-frequency terms in the denominator     

Geospatial modelling of flood susceptibility pattern in a subtropical area of West Bengal,India

Flood hazards are the most destructive among all natural disasters and are a constant threat to human’s life and property. Effective disaster risk reduction strategies can be improved by geospatial approach in the way of producing information and knowledge that are useful to plan truly effective actions for the protection from floods. This research aims to develop a quantified predictive model of flood susceptibility in the Ghatal and Tamluk subdivision of Medinipur district of West Bengal, India, by means of empirically selected and weighted spatial predictors of flood. The weighted prediction model is used to quantify the spatial associations between individual geospatial factors within the flood inundated study area. Yule’s coefficient and distance distribution analysis are used to assign weights to individual geo-factors, and finally weighted spatial predictors are integrated to a multi-class index overlay analysis to derive the spatially explicit predictive model of flood susceptibility. The resultant susceptibility model reveals that approximately 32.35 and 52.99% of the total study areas (3261.45 km²) are under the category of high-to-moderate flood susceptible zone. Quantitative results of this study could be integrated into the policy process in the formulation of local and national government plans for the future flood mitigation management and also to develop appropriate infrastructure in order to protect the lives and properties of the common people of the Medinipur district.     

A review of cyclone track shifts over the Great Lakes of North America: implications for storm surges

Natural Hazards - Cyclone tracks over the Great Lakes of North America shift, both East–West as well as North–South. The reasons for the shifts are various small-scale as well as...     

Bearing Capacity of Eccentrically–Obliquely Loaded Footings Resting on Fiber-Reinforced Sand

This paper presents the method proposed to calculate the bearing capacity of a square footing under oblique and eccentric oblique loading condition (satisfying both shear failure and settlement criteria) resting on fiber reinforced sand layer underlain by sand with geosynthetic/fabric sheet at the interface. Large direct shear tests were carried out to investigate the shear strength parameters of sand and randomly distributed fiber reinforced sand (RDFS) and soil-plastic fabric sheet bond. The ultimate bearing capacity of RDFS was determined using direct shear results. Non-dimensional charts proposed by Kumar (Behaviour of eccentrically–obliquely loaded footing on reinforced earth slab. Ph.D. thesis, University of Roorkee, Roorkee, India, 2002) were used to consider the contribution of plastic fabric sheet in increasing the bearing capacity. Also, for calculating the settlement, horizontal deformation and tilt at a given pressure the regression analysis of plate load test data have been carried out. The predicted values of ultimate bearing capacity, settlement, horizontal deformation and tilt are compared with the experimental values which are in good agreement with each other. There appeared to be an increase in the residual shear strength and angle of internal friction of RDFS.     

Enhanced removal of dissolved metal ions in radioactive effluents by flocculation

Decontamination of radioactive effluents of low or intermediate level of radioactivity generated from different nuclear industries is done through the chemical precipitation route. The precipitates thus formed are of very fine sizes thereby requiring flocculation for faster settlement. The presence of polyacrylamide-based polymer not only enhances settling velocity but also increases removal of dissolved non-radioactive as well as radioactive metal ions from the liquid. About 99.5% of Cu²⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions are removed due to the presence of cationic Rishabh 611. Flocculation by either cationic or anionic flocculant has shown improvement in removal of radioactive strontium while turbidity of the liquid is reduced to a very low value (0.8 NTU). Decontamination factors (DF) of the effluents from different plants are improved by 3–5 times.