Microcredit, a non-profit lending approach that is often championed as a source of women’s inclusion and empowerment, has in the past decade been followed by microfinance, a forprofit sibling of a different temperament. Microfinance in India is now in turmoil, precipitated by legislation in the state of Andhra Pradesh, which has encouraged withholding of payment, which in turn has frozen the market. This paper considers one precipitating condition of the crisis: the remarkable, new, and developing burden of formal economic (...) debt that poor women in the state have only recently come to hold – debt that now surpasses one year’s family income, on average. The development of this lending sector follows upon innovation in lending to the poor of the global north over the past two decades, and the practices show noteworthy parallels. Both lending schemes have produced similar disproportionate burdens upon some low-status individuals within their respective economic orders, and both may exploit a vulnerability that is born of aspiration and produces great dysfunction for borrowers. This paper introduces the two lending schemes, sketches the parallels, and introduces the claim that ethical finance arrangements for the poor require attention to vulnerability, an under-utilized category in both liberal ethical theory and in finance. (shrink)

This is the first visual history of Arunachal Pradesh, a state in northeast India bordering on Tibet/China, Burma and Bhutan. Based on archival and field research, it illustrates a century and a half of cultural change in this culturally diverse and little-known region of the Himalayas. More than 200 photographs, half archival and half contemporary, reveal that tribal cultures in this remote mountainous region have been continually reacting to external forces and initiating internal innovations. The Introduction places the archival (...) photographs in their wider context, emphasising the complexity of the colonial encounter and uncovering personal stories behind many of the images. The sequence of photographs, juxtaposing the historical and the contemporary, shows us the uneven and sometimes confusing mixture of past and present that is emerging in Arunachal Pradesh. (shrink)

Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past: Sculpture from the Buddhist Stūpas of Andhra Pradesh. By Catherine Becker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. xxiv + 321, 108 illustr. $35.

Purpose This study aims to endeavor to explore the extent of gender digital divide in Uttar Pradesh, a most populous state of India, with a particular focus on the first and second order of digital divide, including availability, access time and use of the internet. Design/methodology/approach The authors have adopted stratified multistage sampling procedure for this research and conducted an empirical study on the data set of 600 respondents of six districts of U.P. to perform the inter-regional analysis. Furthermore, (...) χ2 method has been used to reveal the factors responsible for the GDD among selected districts of UP. Findings Statistical results clearly indicate that out of 12 sub-districts, most of the districts suffered from first order as well as second order of GDD, and this gender disparity within an increasing digitization environment is due to the existence of exclusion from basic technological skills, social norms and financial constraints. Practical implications The results have implications for the U.P. Government in general and policymakers behind digitization projects in particular as well as the promoters of gender equality including researchers and fellows. Originality/value This study is the first to illustrate the orders of the digital gender gap in a developing economy such as India and to gain an insight into the factors behind it. This research will also consider a promising avenue for future work. (shrink)

This paper outlines the demographic characteristics of the Baiga tribe, one of the most primitive of the aboriginal tribal groups of Central India. The Baiga population has grown steadily since the first anthropological study of the tribe in the 1930s. Age at menarche, age at marriage, breast-feeding, and time interval between marriage and first conception are natural. There are more females than males. Sub-tribe endogamy is common; consanguineous marriage is favoured (34% of marriages are between first cousins) and marital distance (...) is low (mean 7·1 km). Though the mean menarcheal age is high (15·2 years), mean age at first marriage is low (16·6 years), giving a long reproductive period. (shrink)

Data on patterns of marriage, differential fertility and mortality were collected from 211 Kotia women residing in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, India. Consanguineous marriages made up just over a quarter of the total, and of these, father's sister's daughter (FSD) were more common than mother's brother's daughter (MBD). The mean inbreeding coefficient for the sample (F) was 0·0172. Women in consanguineous marriages had a lower mean number of total conceptions, live births and living offspring (net fertility) than women (...) in non[hyphen]consanguineous marriages. Significant heterogeneity was found in the means of living offspring for FSD, MBD and non-consanguineous couples, but not for conceptions and live births. (shrink)

Rgyal ba rdo rje 'chaṅ yab yam gyi rnam thar rin chen gter mdzod -- Saṅs rgyas thams cad kyi rnam 'phrul Rje-btsan Ti-lo-pa'i rnam mgur -- Bde gśegs phag mo gru pa'i rnam thar -- Bram zc chen pos mdzad pa'i ṅoh ha bskor gsum blo gsal mgal brgyan -- Bka' yoṅ dag pa'i tshad ma źes bya ba mkha'i 'gro ma'i man ṅag -- Bya btaṅ stag rtse sku skye'i rtogs brjod med snaṅ chu zla'i zlos gar -- (...) 'Gu-ru rin-po-che'i rnam thar bstod pa dbyid kyi sgra dbyaṅs. (shrink)

Proper utilization of antenatal and postnatal care services plays an important role in reducing the maternal mortality ratio and infant mortality rate. This paper assesses the utilization of health care services during pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery among rural women in Uttar Pradesh and examines its determinants. Data from a baseline survey of UP Community Mobilization project was utilized. A cross-sectional sample of currently married women who delivered a baby 15 months prior to the survey was included. Information was collected (...) from 2208 women spread over five districts of UP. Information on socio-demography characteristics, utilization of antenatal care, delivery and postnatal care services was collected. To examine the determinants of utilization of maternal health services, the variables included were three ANC visits, institutional delivery and PNC within 42 days of delivery. Separate multilevel random intercept logistic regressions were used to account for clustering at a block and gram panchayat level after adjusting for covariates. Eighty-three percent of women had any ANC. Of them, 61% reported three or more ANC visits. Although 68% of women delivered in a health facility, 29% stayed for at least 48 h. Any PNC within 42 days after delivery was reported by 26% of women. In the adjusted analysis, women with increasing number of contacts with the health worker during the antenatal period, women exposed to mass-media and non-marginalized women were more likely to have at least three ANC visits during pregnancy. Non-marginalized women and women with at least three ANC visits were more likely than their counterparts to deliver in an institution. Contacts with health worker during pregnancy, marginalization, at least three ANC visits and institutional delivery were the strong determinants for utilization of PNC services. Self-help group membership had no association with the utilization of maternal health services. Utilization of maternal health services was low. Contact with the health worker and marginalization emerged as important factors for utilization of services. Although not associated with the utilization, SHGs can be used for delivering health care messages within and beyond the group. (shrink)

This paper calculates the mean duration of the postpartum amenorrhoea (PPA) and examines its demographic, and socioeconomic correlates in rural north India, using data collected through 'retrospective' (last but one child) as well as 'current status' (last child) reporting of the duration of PPA.

This entry focuses upon the current state of microlending activity, and particularly for-profit activity, with ethical analysis of such lending, particularly as it pertains to prospects for poverty alleviation and development for the global poor. Several specific events have lately altered the characteristics of microlending and the general assessments of its prospects: most notably the collapse of the for-profit microfinance market in Andhra Pradesh late in 2010 and research previously pursued within the same state of India that would greatly (...) reduce our estimation of the promise of microcredit for poverty alleviation. This brief piece of writing indicates, but can hardly serve to argue fully, two conclusions. First, that current views of microlending, for better or worse, will tend to promote economic exclusion of the poorest. Second, because the advantages and disadvantages of microlending for poverty alleviation and for women's empowerment have a great deal to do with the specific circumstances of lending, unpromising results found in some circumstances may be taken with a grain of salt. (Pre-review draft July 2016, for Robert W. Kolb, ed. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society: 2nd edition. Sage Publications. 2017. Corrected copies may be obtained from the author following publication, March 2017.). (shrink)

This study critiques the idea of a “Western science -- indigenous knowledge” dichotomy in agricultural knowledge by examining the hybrid nature of knowledge use and incorporation by villagers in Madhya Pradesh, India. By analyzing knowledge systems as multi-leveled structures consisting of concrete practices linked to more abstract, explanatory concepts, this paper illustrates how information from multiple sources is integrated into local bodies of knowledge about tree management. Practices such as urea fertilization from formal global science might be explained by (...) concepts such as that of a hot/cold duality from informal folk science. Similarly, other pieces of knowledge stemming from diverse knowledge systems are shown to become mixed and matched on practical and conceptual levels. Additionally, several knowledge elements used locally appear to be held in common by many knowledge systems around the world, rendering the determination of their origins in one system or another nearly impossible. These observations lead to the conclusion that local knowledge systems of tree management are better characterized as “open” systems rather than distinct, “closed” systems. Furthermore, the constant exchange of material between formal and informal, local and global systems renders untenable any strict dichotomy of knowledge systems. (shrink)

India dropped its target of 500 GW of renewable energy capacity fossil fuel sources by 2030. Its responsibilities the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change [UNFCCC],and reducing radiations by one billion tonnes by the end of the decade at the COP26 conference, held in Glasgow in November 2022. Researchers are continually searching for inexhaustible and reasonable energy sources. Solar energy is one of the greenest sources of energy and is also one of the cleanest. The most important factor in using (...) solar energy is the location of the solar power plant. The main objective of this study is to find the best location for a new solar power plant in a specific region called Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh in India. Here we offer an extension of ELECTRE III method as two-phase Pythagorean neutrosophic elimination and choice translating reality PN-ELECTRE-III) method to adapt with fuzzy, ambiguous, unsure, and indeterminate criteria. The Pythagorean neutrosophic numbers [PNNs] used by the group decision support system of PN-ELECTRE III to measure performance of the alternatives. The options are entirely outclassed in the subsequent stage in view of the past stage's evaluations of them. By defining PNN we describe the technique of indifference threshold functions, preference treshold and veto threshold functions, which provide a more stable basis to drop outranking relations. By calculating the concordance credibility, discordance credibility and net credibility degrees of each alternative, the ranking module of the PN-ELECTRE III approach is made simpler. In order to confirm the applicability of the strategy suggested in this paper, the location selection problem for solar plants is finaly solved. (shrink)

A study was carried out from October, 2020 to September, 2021to investigate the diversity of fishes and the conservation status of Chittaura Jheel (Bahraich), Uttar Pradesh. During the study period, 38 fish species belonging to 28 genera, 14 families and 7 orders have been identified. The order Cypriniformes was found the dominated order with 15 species(39.47%) followed by Siluriformes 10 species (26.31%), Perciformes 4 species (10.52%), Ophiocephaliformes 4 species (10.52%), Synbranchiformes2 species (5.26%), Osteoglossiformes 2 species (5.26%) and Clupiformes 1 (...) species (2.63 %), The present investigation showed that the wetland, Chittaura Jheel possesses rich fish biodiversity but proper conservation measures are required to maintain sustainability and richness of the fish species diversity of that wetland of U.P. According to IUCN, 30 were enlisted as Least Concern (LC), 2 species as near endangered (NE), 3 species as near threatened (NT), 2 listed as Endangered (EN) and 1 species was listed as Vulnerable (VU). There is a need of conservation of fish diversity of this natural wetland. The pressure is increasing day by day due to increasing population, leading to loss of fish diversity hence identifying the problem and making a better management plan is the way for conservation of the fish diversity of the Chittaura Jheel, a wetland of Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. (shrink)

These letters were sent to the following schools founded by Krishnamurti: INDIA: Rishi Valley School, Rishi Valley Chittoor District Andhra Pradesh Rajghat ...

In April 2008 over 2,600 single women marched for three days to Shimla, the state capital of the northwestern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, to demand rights to land, health care and ration cards for single women. The march was organized by a new social movement called Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan, comprising divorced, abandoned, never-married women, widows and wives fleeing domestic violence who are demanding rights from the state in their own names (rather than as wives, daughters or mothers); (...) in so doing they are directly challenging the construct of the ‘dependent woman’ naturalized in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial discourses. The most radical of the demands of this new social movement is the struggle for land rights and the creation of new women-centred family formations. Through an analysis of their collective demands, I argue that the normative, dependent woman is mutually constituted not only at the intersections of gender, kinship and heterosexuality, but also spatially, through denial of rights to land. As single women disown their dependence upon husbands/fathers/brothers and demand land rights, they simultaneously re-imagine gendered selves by envisioning new marital families and re-working the division of labour. (shrink)

Résumé L’État indien a fait preuve depuis l’indépendance d’une politique volontariste en matière légale qui, à l’écoute des conventions internationales et des organisations des droits de l’homme, l’a conduit à promulguer une série de lois visant à criminaliser et à déraciner certaines relations d’exploitation, de harassement ou de discrimination centrées sur la caste, le genre ou la religion. Si cette politique volontariste contribue à la diffusion d’une culture légale et d’un activisme juridique jusqu’au sein des catégories vulnérables ou défavorisées de (...) la population, elle n’empêche pas les rapports de dominance et d’exploitation de se maintenir au niveau local. À partir de l’ethnographie d’un procès concernant le viol d’une fillette de basse caste en Himachal Pradesh (Inde du Nord) il s’agira de montrer comment ces relations de pouvoir traditionnelles et les nouveaux rapports de force produits par les lois qui s’opposent à ces mêmes relations, se manifestent au niveau judiciaire, et parviennent à interférer avec les procédures criminelles suivies par le tribunal. (shrink)

Résumé L’État indien a fait preuve depuis l’indépendance d’une politique volontariste en matière légale qui, à l’écoute des conventions internationales et des organisations des droits de l’homme, l’a conduit à promulguer une série de lois visant à criminaliser et à déraciner certaines relations d’exploitation, de harassement ou de discrimination centrées sur la caste, le genre ou la religion. Si cette politique volontariste contribue à la diffusion d’une culture légale et d’un activisme juridique jusqu’au sein des catégories vulnérables ou défavorisées de (...) la population, elle n’empêche pas les rapports de dominance et d’exploitation de se maintenir au niveau local. À partir de l’ethnographie d’un procès concernant le viol d’une fillette de basse caste en Himachal Pradesh (Inde du Nord) il s’agira de montrer comment ces relations de pouvoir traditionnelles et les nouveaux rapports de force produits par les lois qui s’opposent à ces mêmes relations, se manifestent au niveau judiciaire, et parviennent à interférer avec les procédures criminelles suivies par le tribunal. (shrink)

The reliefs carved on the _vedikā_ of the Bharhut _stūpa_ in the Satna District of Madhya Pradesh are some of the earliest artworks extant in India to articulate the Buddha’s life stories and the essence of his teaching in a complex visual form. This article proposes that the reliefs from Bharhut depicting episodes from Śākyamuni’s life and _jātakas_ were informed by narrative practices established in the traditions of Buddhist recitation and performance. The inscriptions engraved on the Bharhut _vedikā_ that (...) function as labels for scenes, characters, and places, point to the use of specific storytelling strategies attested in oral recitation and picture scrolls that likely existed as aide-memoire. (shrink)

In this paper, we employ what we term as ‘the ethical dimension in political market orientation ’ framework to underline how an integration of information from relevant stakeholder groups can inform the formulation of market-oriented, yet ethical policies. Against the backdrop of India’s Look East Policy, we undertake a critical analysis of historic economic data from 1980 to 2014 in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, often termed as the Seven Sisters because of (...) their interdependence. Our analysis of the data, using time-series methods, reveals that policy changes ensuing from the economic reforms of 1990s and the initiation of the LEP in 1991 have resulted in regional income convergence in North-Eastern India. A key contribution of our work emanates from the fact that we determine two structural breaks endogenously from long time-series data, thereby identifying three distinct policy regimes, rather than specifying exogenous breaks based on historic and theoretical conjectures. Overall, our work offers both conceptual insights into processes that enable ethical and inclusive policy making, as well as empirical evidence emerging from stochastic convergence of incomes per capita for the Seven Sister states in the North-Eastern region in India, to illustrate how regional economic inequality can be reduced through targeted market-oriented policies. (shrink)

Of Pain Content Type Journal Article Pages - Authors Saitya Brata Das, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Rashtrapati Nivas, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India Journal Comparative and Continental Philosophy Online ISSN 1757-0646 Print ISSN 1757-0638 Journal Volume Volume 3 Journal Issue Volume 3, Number 1 / 2011.

This article examines India’s response to the global soil health crisis. A longstanding centre of agricultural production and innovation, India has recently launched an ambitious soil health programme. The country’s Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme intervenes in farm-scale decisions about efficient fertiliser use, envisioning farmers as managers and soil as a substrate for production. India is also home to one of the world’s largest alternative agriculture movements: natural farming. This puts farmer expertise at the centre of soil fertility and attends (...) to the wider ecological health of soils. Despite emerging as a mode of resistance to dominant agricultural systems, natural farming is now being delivered in increasingly bureaucratic ways by India’s state governments. This article offers Himachal Pradesh as a case study in how the soil is governed, drawing on 38 semi-structured interviews with scientists, agricultural officers, non-governmental organisation leaders, and activists. Rather than assess approaches to soil health according to their ecological bottom line, we examine the differing forms of knowledge, expertise and ‘truth’ in the SHC and Natural Farming approaches. Our analysis reveals discontinuities in how farmers are imagined, as well as continuities in how quasi-spiritual language combines in a bionationalist project, positing assumptions about the correct arrangement of life in nationalist terms. We point to a shift toward hybrid and pick-and-mix approaches to soil health, as farmers and their organisers are increasingly invested with the capacities to combine multiple options. We see a fracturing of expertise and the opening up of epistemic pluralism in responses to the soil fertility crisis. (shrink)

Gogineni, Babu Ravulapally village in Nalgonda District of Andhra Pradesh was enrolled in the 'Adopt a Dalit Village project' as it received generous support from the Council of Australian Humanist Societies in 2012.

Following their violent suppression of the Indian Revolution of1857, the British founded and consolidated their secular empire in the IndianSubcontinent, which marginalized and bypassed religion as far as possible,particularly Islam, which had been the official religion of the Mughal ancienrégime. Contemporaneous Ottoman efforts to counter European imperialism ledto Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s policy of pan-Islamism, particularlythe call for Islamic unity against the Russian aggression against Turkey in1877. It was at this critical juncture that some Indian Muslim scholars gallantlyvolunteered to counter (...) this threat, and to preserve the Islamic faith and heritageworldwide, despite the severe problems faced by the Muslims in India itself.This study highlights the role of an eminent scholar in this movement, namelyAllama Shibli Nu’mani, who in 1914 conceived the idea offounding the world-famous Islamic research institute Darul Musannefin ShibliAcademy in his home town of Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Shibli was veryactive and instrumental in collecting donations from the wealthy landowners among the Muslim elite in his hometown of Azamgarh for theOttoman cause, raising 3,000 rupees, which was handed to Husain HasibAfendi, the Ottoman Consul in Bombay in 1877. Furthermore, his eloquentpoetry rallied Muslims across India to support the valour and heroism displayedin the jihad by Ghazi Usman Pasha against the Russians. Shibli travelled toIstanbul in 1892 and met with the Pasha, on whose efforts Tamgha-i Majidi was granted to Shibli on 13th Muharram, 1310/7th August, 1892.This article is based on Shibli’s major works in Urdu, particularly his arousingeulogies, Turkish archival reports, newspapers and magazines, andsecondary sources in Urdu and English. (shrink)