Does Subsidising the Cost of Capital Help the Poorest? An Analysis of Saving Opportunities in Group Lending

This paper shows that subsidising the cost of capital restricts the ability of the poorest to participate in the group lending mechanisms that include saving opportunities. We document the group lending mechanism used by a typical microfinance lender in Haryana, India. Individuals can participate in the group either as a borrower or a saver. The lender requires that the borrower partly self-finance their project with their own cash wealth. Consequently, a borrower requires a minimum amount of cash wealth to borrow. The poorest participate in the group by co-financing the borrower's project with their meagre savings. In return, they obtain higher than market returns on their savings. Subsidising the cost of capital reduces the cash wealth required to participate in the group as a borrower. Conversely, it increases the cash wealth required to participate as a saver, thus curtailing the opportunity for the poorest to enrich themselves.Group Lending, Microfinance, Savings, Outreach

Genetic divergence in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

A study of genetic divergence in 40 brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) genotypes for various characters to study the diversity based on qualitative and quantitative characters. Significant variations were observed among the brinjal lines for all the parameters under study. Based on D2 values, the accessions were grouped into seven clusters. Average intra- and inter-cluster D2 values among 40 genotypes revealed that cluster II showed a minimum intra-cluster value of 3.793, indicating that the genotypes within this cluster were similar, while the cluster I showed maximum intra-cluster D2 value (4.681) revealing the existence of diverse genotypes in these clusters. The inter-cluster D2 values ranged from 4.657 to 7.174. The minimum inter-cluster D2 value was observed between cluster III and IV (4.657), indicating the close relationship among the genotypes included in these clusters. The maximum inter-cluster value was observed between cluster V and II (7.174), indicating that the genotypes included in these clusters had maximum divergence. Hence, hybridization between the genotypes included in these different clusters may give high heterotic responses and thus better segrigants are greatly suggested for selection and improvement of brinjal crop with good consumer preference and high fruit yield

Effect of spacing, fertilizers and varieties on growth and yield parameters of okra (Abelmoschus esculantus (L.) Moench)

The experiment was conducted during spring summer seasons of 2013 and 2014 conducted at Research Farm of Vegetable Science, CCS HAU, in summer season. There were three spacing, three fertilizer levels and two varieties in split-split plot design with three replications. Growth parameters of okra crop were significantly affectedby spacing, fertilizer and varieties. Highest plants were observed in wider spacing with fertilizer application of 187.5 kg N + 75kg P2O5 + 60 kg K2O per hectare in variety HBT-49-1. However, numbers of branches were highest in variety Hisar Unnat. Yield attributes like first fruiting node, intermodal length, fruit length and diameter etc. were highest in variety HBT-49-1 resulting in highest fruit yield (q/ha) in spacing 30 cm x 10 cm with the application of 187.5 kg N+75 kg P2O5 + 60 kg K2O per hectare. The seed yield attributes and yield was significantly affected by spacing, fertilizer and varieties. Finally, spacing 30 cm × 10 cm resulted in higher growth parameters, yield attributes and yield with the application of 187.5 kg N +75 kg P2O5 + 60 K2O in variety HBT-49-1 of okra

Self Help Groups: Use of modified ROSCAs in Microfinance

The paper documents the group lending mechanism used by a typical microfinance lender in Haryana, India. The mechanism had three interesting features. Firstly, the groups were initially formed as Rotating, Saving and Credit Associations. This enabled the lender to screen the groups. Second, there was significant heterogeneity within the group in terms of income and educational achievements. Third, the relatively wealthy individuals dominated the decision making process in the group and were able to obtain a disproportionate amount of credit allocated to the group.

Adaptive dung beetle optimization-based agile perturb and observe technique for energy management system

Energy storage system (ESS) plays a significant role in maximizing the use of renewable energies to ensure a balance between power generation and demand. ESS assists in maintaining grid stability by providing backup power during fluctuations or outages and smoothing out the variability of renewable energy source (RES). However, EMS fails to effectively balance dynamic interactions due to the unpredictable nature of renewable energy sources (RES) which results in a suboptimal performance. This research proposes an adaptive T-distribution dung beetle optimization-based agile perturb and observe technique (ADBO-APO) for EMS. Photovoltaic (PV) module, battery, and wind turbine are the three sources utilized to establish an effective EMS in a grid-connected system. The ADBO is applied to manage the switching between battery storage and wind turbines. The APO is utilized for triggering the bidirectional DC-DC switch to obtain stable power from wind, PV, and battery. APO enhances EMS by involving perturbation levels for optimal power extraction. It improves the stability and efficiency across variable energy sources. The proposed ADBO-APO achieves a superior average index of 1.2598×104 when compared to the existing method, levy flight quasi oppositional based learning smell agent optimization (LFQOBL-SAO)

Fact-based Court Judgment Prediction

This extended abstract extends the research presented in "ILDC for CJPE: Indian Legal Documents Corpus for Court Judgment Prediction and Explanation" \cite{malik-etal-2021-ildc}, focusing on fact-based judgment prediction within the context of Indian legal documents. We introduce two distinct problem variations: one based solely on facts, and another combining facts with rulings from lower courts (RLC). Our research aims to enhance early-phase case outcome prediction, offering significant benefits to legal professionals and the general public. The results, however, indicated a performance decline compared to the original ILDC for CJPE study, even after implementing various weightage schemes in our DELSumm algorithm. Additionally, using only facts for legal judgment prediction with different transformer models yielded results inferior to the state-of-the-art outcomes reported in the "ILDC for CJPE" study