Institutional and policy reforms in water sector in India: review of issues, concepts and trends

The paper looks at the institutional and policy reforms in the context of sources and uses of water. Although the reform measures have been specific about surface water, there still is ambiguity on the groundwater situation in India. The reforms have failed to de-link the conventional linkages between right to land and right to (ground) water. Most policy reforms have been in response to the emerging crisis of water allocation, use and management. The current perspective towards water has been holistic in nature in contrast to the excessive importance to technoengineering approach that characterized the earlier period of water sector. Further, there have been changes acknowledging the rights of farmers, women and end-users as stakeholders in the whole process of water governance. In this regards, the policy changes have proceeded hand in hand with other reforms in decentralized governance, providing greater emphasis on user participation in decision making concerning water governance.Length: pp.665-678Water governanceFarmer participationInstitutional reformWater rightsProperty rightsWater policy

Quantum theory and the mind brain relation

In reductionist biology, mental states are brain states and the brain obeys the laws of a physical world existing independently of and prior to minds. This account is invalidated if the physical laws themselves involve essential reference to mental states.. The quantum theory has usually been presented in a form making such reference. .To remove the need for this, the first step is to accept that quantum theory applies only to fields and to entities embedded in fields. Ehrenfest's theorem then shows how systems obeying Newtonian mechanics, including objects of everyday life, appear as persistent patterns showing none of the indeterminacy associated with features of the underlying field. The theorems of Gleason, Kocken and Specker demand that the quantum theory should leave a degree of indeterminacy in the pattern of the fields it describes. Any interaction of a quantum system with its environment therefore requires a definite selection of a unique pattern of behaviour within the range of indeterminacy. Such interaction is continuous, and there is no role for a mental state in this selection. It would be consistent with the formalism of quantum theory if a localised interaction in a system caused an instantaneous removal of indeterminacy over an arbitrarily large volume, in apparent conflict with the special theory of relativity. This conflict is not removed by any appeal to the effects of mental states.. However, a consistent interpretation of quantum systems as fields throws doubt on the claim that the event correlations in the experiments of Aspect and his colllaborators are evidence of causal propagation at speeds greater than that of light

GENDER INEQUALITY IN HOUSEHOLD HEALTH EXPENDITURE: THE CASE OF URBAN ORISSA

Biologically determined sex and socially constructed gender have strong bearing on the household out-of-pocket health expenditure. In this connection, the present makes an modest attempt to study the gender inequalities in household health expenditure in urban Orissa. The study shows that there is a significant difference between male and female out-of-pocket health expenditure in urban area. But the female out-of-pocket health expenditure in urban area is more than that of rural and tribal areas. The regression model indicates that the male out-of-pocket health expenditure influences per head out-of-pocket health expenditure by fifty-nine per cent where as female influence is fifty-four per cent. It means male influences out-of-pocket health expenditure more than the female in urban area. In this connection, to reduce this gender inequality, men, first, recognize the roles and contributions of female in family as well as in the society. Secondly, women actively participate in all household decision making process and have the power to speak out their problems. Thirdly, cooperation, coordination, sharing and understanding between men and women is essential. Fourthly, male and female educational level has a positive role to bring equality between men and women in household and societal decision making process.Out-of-pocket Health Expenditure, Sex and Gender, Urban area

INFLUENCE OF INCOME AND EDUCATION ON HOUSEHOLD HEALTH EXPENDITURE: THE CASE OF TRIBAL ORISSA

Most of the health economics researches dealt with macro aspects of it. Little attention has been given to the micro aspects of Health Economics by the researchers, government, policy makers and development planners. In this context the present study examines the effect of income and education of the household on its health expenditure based on primary data. The descriptive statistics for tribal area shows that per head income (PHI) is Rs. 5143.75 per annum with 2555.27 and 0.5 as standard deviation and coefficient variation respectively where as per head health expenditure (PHE) is Rs. 108.13 per annum with 91.36 and 0.84 as standard deviation and coefficient variation respectively. The mean education is 0.22 with 0.41 and 1.91 as standard deviation and coefficient variation respectively. To find out the impact of household income (PHI) and education of the head of the household (EDN) on the pattern of health expenditure (PHE) a linear regression model is found to be fitted as PHET = 31.37 + 0.43PHI + 0.06EDN with R2 value 0.18, which indicates that, ceteris paribus, a rupee increase income brings about forty-three paise increase health expenditure and an educated person on an average spends six paise more in a rupee than the uneducated person on health expenditure in tribal area.Household health expenditure, Income, Education

KMS states on generalised Bunce-Deddens algebras and their Toeplitz extensions

We study the generalised Bunce-Deddens algebras and their Toeplitz extensions constructed by Kribs and Solel from a directed graph and a sequence $\omega$ of positive integers. We describe both of these $C^*$-algebras in terms of novel universal properties, and prove uniqueness theorems for them; if $\omega$ determines an infinite supernatural number, then no aperiodicity hypothesis is needed in our uniqueness theorem for the generalised Bunce-Deddens algebra. We calculate the KMS states for the gauge action in the Toeplitz algebra when the underlying graph is finite. We deduce that the generalised Bunce-Deddens algebra is simple if and only if it supports exactly one KMS state, and this is equivalent to the terms in the sequence $\omega$ all being coprime with the period of the underlying graph.Comment: 30 pages. This version includes a section on the topological graph $E(\infty)$, which allows us to use the work of Katsura to obtain a uniqueness theorem for $C^*(E,\omega)$, and a characterisation of the ideal structure of $C^*(E,\omega)$ when $E$ is finite and strongly connected. The introduction and references have been updated. Minor typos have been correcte

Draft Genome Sequence of the Biofilm-Forming Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Strain 53

A clinical strain of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (designated strain 53) was obtained, and a whole-genome sequence was generated. The subsequent draft whole-genome sequence demonstrated the presence of a number of genes encoding for proteins involved in resistance to a number of antimicrobial therapie

Determinants of Household Health Expenditure: Case of Urban Orissa

The main objective of the paper is to increase awareness – not only among health researchers but also among policy makers and practitioners who use health research findings – about the influence of socioeconomic characteristics in terms of income and education on household health expenditures, as well as to encourage improved approaches. The study finds that income of the household has significant influence on its health expenditure where as the effect of education is insignificant. From the study it is found that as disposable income of the household increases, individual takes more care of his life, hence, health expenditure increases but at a particular level of income, due to high life risk, health expenditure becomes independent of income and perfectly elastic, which is termed as “High Life Risk Path (HLRP)”. The health expenditure during HLRP depends on household’s past saving and loanable capacity.Household Health Expenditure, Income and Health