Fiscal Deficits and Debt Dimensions of Pakistan

Pakistan continues to suffer from a syndrome of high fiscal deficits and severe incidence of debt. Its annual fiscal deficit has stayed constantly at over 6 percent of GDP especially since 1990 [Pakistan (1997-98)]. The prevalence of such a high fiscal deficit over the years in a row has propelled increased borrowing from both internal and external sources to cover the resource gap. With inadequate improvement in the repayment capacity of the country debt has continued to accumulate at a massive rate. Serving as the cause and effect of each other, the volumes of both the fiscal deficit and debt have soared continuously. The most devastating consequence of high fiscal deficit and soaring debt has been the continuous accrual of massive debt-servicing. In fact, both the debt and debt-servicing have reached unaffordable limits. How to alleviate this situation has become the foremost issue of the country. While complete elimination of all the debt and thereby debt-servicing may not be easy to accomplish in the short run, efforts are needed to systematically bring the fiscal deficit down to a minimum affordable limit. What may be the minimum financeable level of fiscal deficit and how it may be reduced to that level are the issues addressed in this paper.

EAST: Energy Efficient Adaptive Scheme for Transmission in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose Energy-efficient Adaptive Scheme for Transmission (EAST) in WSNs. EAST is IEEE 802.15.4 standard compliant. In this approach, open-loop is used for temperature-aware link quality estimation and compensation. Whereas, closed-loop feedback helps to divide network into three logical regions to minimize overhead of control packets on basis of Threshold transmitter power loss (RSSIloss) for each region and current number of neighbor nodes that help to adapt transmit power according to link quality changes due to temperature variation. Simulation results show that propose scheme; EAST effectively adapts transmission power to changing link quality with less control packets overhead and energy consumption compared to classical approach with single region in which maximum transmitter power assigned to compensate temperature variation

A New Weighting Scheme in Weighted Markov Model for Predicting the Probability of Drought Episodes

Drought is a complex stochastic natural hazard caused by prolonged shortage of rainfall. Several environmental factors are involved in determining drought classes at the specific monitoring station. Therefore, efficient sequence processing techniques are required to explore and predict the periodic information about the various episodes of drought classes. In this study, we proposed a new weighting scheme to predict the probability of various drought classes under Weighted Markov Chain (WMC) model. We provide a standardized scheme of weights for ordinal sequences of drought classifications by normalizing squared weighted Cohen Kappa. Illustrations of the proposed scheme are given by including temporal ordinal data on drought classes determined by the standardized precipitation temperature index (SPTI). Experimental results show that the proposed weighting scheme for WMC model is sufficiently flexible to address actual changes in drought classifications by restructuring the transient behavior of a Markov chain. In summary, this paper proposes a new weighting scheme to improve the accuracy of the WMC, specifically in the field of hydrology

Fiscal Deficits and Debt Dimensions of Pakistan

Pakistan continues to suffer from a syndrome of high fiscal deficits and severe incidence of debt. Its annual fiscal deficit has stayed constantly at over 6 percent of GDP especially since 1990 [Pakistan (1997-98)]. The prevalence of such a high fiscal deficit over the years in a row has propelled increased borrowing from both internal and external sources to cover the resource gap. With inadequate improvement in the repayment capacity of the country debt has continued to accumulate at a massive rate. Serving as the cause and effect of each other, the volumes of both the fiscal deficit and debt have soared continuously. The most devastating consequence of high fiscal deficit and soaring debt has been the continuous accrual of massive debt-servicing. In fact, both the debt and debt-servicing have reached unaffordable limits. How to alleviate this situation has become the foremost issue of the country. While complete elimination of all the debt and thereby debt-servicing may not be easy to accomplish in the short run, efforts are needed to systematically bring the fiscal deficit down to a minimum affordable limit. What may be the minimum financeable level of fiscal deficit and how it may be reduced to that level are the issues addressed in this paper

EFFECT OF PLANTING METHODS ON PERFORMANCE OF ONION VARIETIES UNDER COLD DESERT CONDITIONS

A study was conducted at Research Farm of High Mountain Arid Agriculture Research Institute (SKUAST-K), Stakna, Leh to investigate the impact of three planting methods (Flat bed, Middle of Ridge, Both sides of Ridge) on the performance of four onion varieties in Split plot design with three replications. Flat bed system produced statistically highest net bulb weight (66.00g), bulb diameter (51.33mm) and yield per ha (440.2 qt). Net bulb weight, diameter and yield per ha of onion hybrid Rosy was highest but at par with Local Red and Nasik Red.  It can be concluded that planting on flat land is best method for onion production in cold desert conditions

Microscopic Investigation of Ground State Properties and Shape Evolution in Osmium Isotopes

The present study focuses on investigating the shape evolution of neutron-rich even-even Osmium (Os) transitional nuclei within the range of neutron number N = 82 to N = 190. The investigation is conducted using density-dependent meson-nucleon and point-coupling models within the framework of the covariant density functional theory (CDFT). Additionally, the results obtained from the CDFT calculations are compared with those obtained using the relativistic mean-field model with a non-linear meson-nucleon interaction. The potential energy curve for Os isotopes (ranging from $^{158}$Os to $^{260}$Os) is analyzed in order to identify phase shape transitions, such as oblate-spherical-prolate. Furthermore, ground state bulk properties are calculated to gain insights into the structure of Os isotopes. The self-consistent calculations reveal a clear shape transition in the even-even Os isotopes, and overall, good agreement is observed among the different models employed as well as with the available experimental data.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figure

Wind-driven estuarine turbidity maxima in Mandovi Estuary, central West coast of India

Systematic studies on the suspended particulate matter (SPM) measured on a seasonal cycle in the Mandovi Estuary, Goa indicate that the average concentrations of SPM at the regular station are ~20mg/l, 5mg/l, 19mg/l and 5mg/l for June–September, October–January, February–April and May, respectively. SPM exhibits low-to-moderate correlation with rainfall indicating that SPM is also influenced by other processes. Transect stations reveal that the SPM at sea-end stations of the estuary are at least two orders of magnitude greater than those at the river-end during the monsoon. Estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) of nearly similar magnitude occurs at the same location in two periods, interrupted by a period with very low SPM concentrations. The ETM occurring in June–September is associated with low salinities; its formation is attributed to the interactions between strong southwesterly winds (5.1–5.6ms-1) and wind-induced waves and tidal currents and, dominant easterly river flow at the mouth of the estuary. The ETM occurring in February–April is associated with high salinity and is conspicuous. The strong NW and SW winds (3.2–3.7ms-1) and wind-driven waves and currents seem to have acted effectively at the mouth of the estuary in developing turbidity maximum. The impact of sea breeze appears nearly same as that of trade winds and cannot be underestimated in sediment resuspension and deposition