Search results for: export and import

Authors: Ashok Kumar, Parveen Parveen

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India is bestowed with an extremely high population of plant species with medicinal value and even has two biodiversity hotspots. Indian systems of medicine including Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani have historically been serving humankind across the world since time immemorial. About 1500 plant species have well been documented in Ayurvedic Nighantus as official medicinal plants. Additionally, several hundred species of plants are being routinely used as medicines by local people especially tribes living in and around forests. The natural resources for medicinal plants have unscientifically been over-exploited forcing rapid depletion in their genetic diversity. Moreover, renewed global interest in herbal medicines may even lead to additional depletion of medicinal plant wealth of the country, as about 95% collection of medicinal plants for pharmaceutical preparation is being carried out from natural forests. On the other hand, huge export market of medicinal and aromatic plants needs to be seriously tapped for enhancing inflow of foreign currency. Asparagus racemosus Willd., a member of family Liliaceae, is one of thirty-two plant species that have been identified as priority species for cultivation and conservation by the National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB), Government of India. Though attention is being focused on standardization of agro-techniques and extraction methods, little has been designed on genetic improvement and selection of desired types with higher root production and saponin content, a basic ingredient of medicinal value. The saponin not only improves defense mechanisms and controls diabetes but the roots of this species promote secretion of breast milk, improved lost body weight and considered as an aphrodisiac. There is ample scope for genetic improvement of this species for enhancing productivity substantially, qualitatively and quantitatively. It is emphasized to select desired genotypes with sufficient genetic diversity for important economic traits. Hybridization between two genetically divergent genotypes could result in the synthesis of new F1 hybrids consisting of useful traits of both the parents. The evaluation of twenty seed sources of Asparagus racemosus assembled different geographical locations of India revelled high degree of variability for traits of economic importance. The maximum genotypic and phenotypic variance was observed for shoot height among shoot related traits and for root length among root related traits. The shoot height, genotypic variance, phenotypic variance, genotypic coefficient of variance, the phenotypic coefficient of variance was recorded to be 231.80, 3924.80, 61.26 and 1037.32, respectively, where those of the root length were 9.55, 16.80, 23.46 and 41.27, respectively. The maximum genetic advance and genetic gain were obtained for shoot height among shoot-related traits and root length among root-related traits. Index values were developed for all seed sources based on the four most important traits, and Panthnagar (Uttrakhand), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Chandigarh (Punjab), Jammu (Jammu & Kashmir) and Solan (Himachal Pradesh) were found to be promising seed sources.

Keywords: asparagus, genetic, genotypes, variance

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Authors: Kristina Horvat Blazinovic

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In the context of a work of art, one can talk about the idea-concept-term-intention expressed by the artist by using various forms of repetition (external, material, visible repetition). Such repetitions of elements (images in space or moving visual and sound images in time) suggest a "covert", "latent" ("dressed") repetition – i.e., "hidden", "latent" term-intention-idea. Repeating in this way reveals a "deeper truth" that the viewer needs to decode and which is hidden "under" the technical manifestation of the multiplied images. It is not only images, sounds, and screens that are repeated - something else is repeated through them as well, even if, in some cases, the very idea of repetition is repeated. This paper examines serial images and single-channel or multi-channel artwork in the field of video/film art and video installations, which in a way implies the concept of repetition and multiplication. Moving or static images and screens (as multi-screens) are repeated in time and space. The categories of the real and the symbolic partly refer to the Lacan registers of reality, i.e., the Imaginary - Symbolic – Real trinity that represents the orders within which human subjectivity is established. Authors such as Bruce Nauman, VALIE EXPORT, Ragnar Kjartansson, Wolf Vostell, Shirin Neshat, Paul Sharits, Harun Farocki, Dalibor Martinis, Andy Warhol, Douglas Gordon, Bill Viola, Frank Gillette, and Ira Schneider, and Marina Abramovic problematize, in different ways, the concept and procedures of multiplication - repetition, but not in the sense of "copying" and "repetition" of reality or the original, but of repeated repetitions of the simulacrum. Referential works of art are often connected by the theme of the traumatic. Repetitions of images and situations are a response to the traumatic (experience) - repetition itself is a symptom of trauma. On the other hand, repeating and multiplying traumatic images results in a new traumatic effect or cancels it. Reflections on repetition as a temporal and spatial phenomenon are in line with the chapters that link philosophical considerations of space and time and experience temporality with their manifestation in works of art. The observations about time and the relation of perception and memory are according to Henry Bergson and his conception of duration (durée) as "quality of quantity." The video works intended to be displayed as a video loop, express the idea of infinite duration ("pure time," according to Bergson). The Loop wants to be always present - to fixate in time. Wholeness is unrecognizable because the intention is to make the effect infinitely cyclic. Reflections on time and space end with considerations about the occurrence and effects of time and space intervals as places and moments "between" – the points of connection and separation, of continuity and stopping - by reference to the "interval theory" of Soviet filmmaker DzigaVertov. The scale of opportunities that can be explored in interval mode is wide. Intervals represent the perception of time and space in the form of pauses, interruptions, breaks (e.g., emotional, dramatic, or rhythmic) denote emptiness or silence, distance, proximity, interstitial space, or a gap between various states.

Keywords: video installation, performance, repetition, multi-screen, real and symbolic, loop, video art, interval, video time

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Authors: Faruk Inaltekin, Imran Gurakan

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This paper will aim to discuss the importance of value-added services provided by Science and Technology Parks for entrepreneurship development in Turkey. Entrepreneurship is vital subject for all countries. It has not only fostered economic development but also promoted innovation at local and international levels. To foster high tech entrepreneurship ecosystem, Technopark (Science and Technology Park/STP) concept was initiated with the establishment of Silicon Valley in the 1950s. The success and rise of Silicon Valley led to the spread of technopark activities. Developed economies have been setting up projects to plan and build STPs since the 1960s and 1970s. To promote the establishment of STPs, necessary legislations were made by Ministry of Science, Industry, and Technology in 2001, Technology Development Zones Law (No. 4691) and it has been revised in 2016 to provide more supports. STPs’ basic aim is to provide customers high-quality office spaces with various 'value added services' such as business development, network connections, cooperation programs, investor/customers meetings and internationalization services. For this aim, STPs should help startups deal with difficulties in the early stages and to support mature companies’ export activities in the foreign market. STPs should support the production, commercialization and more significantly internationalization of technology-intensive business and foster growth of companies. Nowadays within this value-added services, internationalization is very popular subject in the world. Most of STPs design clusters or accelerator programs in order to support their companies in the foreign market penetration. If startups are not ready for international competition, STPs should help them to get ready for foreign market with training and mentoring sessions. These training and mentoring sessions should take a goal based approach to working with companies. Each company has different needs and goals. Therefore the definition of ‘success' varies for each company. For this reason, it is very important to create customized value added services to meet the needs of startups. After local supports, STPs should also be able to support their startups in foreign market. Organizing well defined international accelerator program plays an important role in this mission. Turkey is strategically placed between key markets in Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East. Its population is young and well educated. So both government agencies and the private sectors endeavor to foster and encourage entrepreneurship ecosystem with many supports. In sum, the task of technoparks with these and similar value added services is very important for developing entrepreneurship ecosystem. The priorities of all value added services are to identify the commercialization and growth obstacles faced by entrepreneurs and get rid of them with the one-to-one customized services. Also, in order to have a healthy startup ecosystem and create sustainable entrepreneurship, stakeholders (technoparks, incubators, accelerators, investors, universities, governmental organizations etc.) should fulfill their roles and/or duties and collaborate with each other. STPs play an important role as bridge for these stakeholders & entrepreneurs. STPs always should benchmark and renew services offered to how to help the start-ups to survive, develop their business and benefit from these stakeholders.

Keywords: accelerator, cluster, entrepreneurship, startup, technopark, value added services

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Authors: Syed Jamil H. Kazmi, Faiza Sarwar

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The Indus delta of Sindh Province forms the largest creeks zone of Pakistan. The Sindh coast starts from the mouth of Hab River and terminates at Sir Creek area. In this paper, we have considered the major creeks from the site of Bin Qasim Port in Karachi to Jetty of Keti Bunder in Thatta District. A general decline in the mangrove forest has been observed that within a span of last 25 years. The unprecedented human interventions damage the creeks habitat badly which includes haphazard urban development, industrial and sewage disposal, illegal cutting of mangroves forest, reduced and inconsistent fresh water flow mainly from Jhang and Indus rivers. These activities not only harm the creeks habitat but affected the fish stock substantially. Fishing is the main livelihood of coastal people but with the above-mentioned threats, it is also under enormous pressure by fish catches resulted in unchecked overutilization of the fish resources. This pressure is almost unbearable when it joins with deleterious fishing methods, uncontrolled fleet size, increase trash and by-catch of juvenile and illegal mesh size. Along with these anthropogenic interventions study area is under the red zone of tropical cyclones and active seismicity causing floods, sea intrusion, damage mangroves forests and devastation of fish stock. In order to sustain the natural resources of the Indus Creeks, this study was initiated with the support of FAO, WWF and NIO, the main purpose was to develop a Geo-Spatial dataset for fish stock assessment. The study has been spread over a year (2013-14) on monthly basis which mainly includes detailed fish stock survey, water analysis and few other environmental analyses. Environmental analysis also includes the habitat classification of study area which has done through remote sensing techniques for 22 years’ time series (1992-2014). Furthermore, out of 252 species collected, fifteen species from estuarine and marine groups were short-listed to measure the weight, health and growth of fish species at each creek under GIS data through SPSS system. Furthermore, habitat suitability analysis has been conducted by assessing the surface topographic and aspect derivation through different GIS techniques. The output variables then overlaid in GIS system to measure the creeks productivity. Which provided the results in terms of subsequent classes: extremely productive, highly productive, productive, moderately productive and less productive. This study has revealed the Geospatial tools utilization along with the evaluation of the fisheries resources and creeks habitat risk zone mapping. It has also been identified that the geo-spatial technologies are highly beneficial to identify the areas of high environmental risk in Sindh Creeks. This has been clearly discovered from this study that creeks with high rugosity are more productive than the creeks with low levels of rugosity. The study area has the immense potential to boost the economy of Pakistan in terms of fish export, if geo-spatial techniques are implemented instead of conventional techniques.

Keywords: fish stock, geo-spatial, productivity analysis, risk

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Authors: Wiseman Emmanuel Nkhomah, Chiyembekezo Kachimanga, Julia Huggins, Fabien Munyaneza

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Background: Partners In Health – Malawi introduced one of Operational Researches called Primary Health Care (PHC) Surveys in 2020, which seeks to assess progress of delivery of care in the district. The study consists of 5 long surveys, namely; Facility assessment, General Patient, Provider, Sick Child, Antenatal Care (ANC), primarily conducted in 4 health facilities in Neno district. These facilities include Neno district hospital, Dambe health centre, Chifunga and Matope. Usually, these annual surveys are conducted from January, and the target is to present final report by June. Once data is collected and analyzed, there are a series of reviews that take place before reaching final report. In the first place, the manual process took over 9 months to present final report. Initial findings reported about 76.9% of the data that added up when cross-checked with paper-based sources. Purpose: The aim of this approach is to run away from manually pulling the data, do fresh analysis, and reporting often associated not only with delays in reporting inconsistencies but also with poor quality of data if not done carefully. This automation approach was meant to utilize features of new technologies to create visualizations, reports, and dashboards in Power BI that are directly fished from the data source – CommCare hence only require a single click of a ‘refresh’ button to have the updated information populated in visualizations, reports, and dashboards at once. Methodology: We transformed paper-based questionnaires into electronic using CommCare mobile application. We further connected CommCare Mobile App directly to Power BI using Application Program Interface (API) connection as data pipeline. This provided chance to create visualizations, reports, and dashboards in Power BI. Contrary to the process of manually collecting data in paper-based questionnaires, entering them in ordinary spreadsheets, and conducting analysis every time when preparing for reporting, the team utilized CommCare and Microsoft Power BI technologies. We utilized validations and logics in CommCare to capture data with less errors. We utilized Power BI features to host the reports online by publishing them as cloud-computing process. We switched from sharing ordinary report files to sharing the link to potential recipients hence giving them freedom to dig deep into extra findings within Power BI dashboards and also freedom to export to any formats of their choice. Results: This data automation approach reduced research timelines from the initial 9 months’ duration to 5. It also improved the quality of the data findings from the original 76.9% to 98.9%. This brought confidence to draw conclusions from the findings that help in decision-making and gave opportunities for further researches. Conclusion: These results suggest that automating the research data process has the potential of reducing overall amount of time spent and improving the quality of the data. On this basis, the concept of data automation should be taken into serious consideration when conducting operational research for efficiency and decision-making.

Keywords: reporting, decision-making, power BI, commcare, data automation, visualizations, dashboards

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Authors: James Brown, Stella Kortekaas, Ian Finnie, George Zhang, Christine Devine, Neil Healy

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The use of GIS as an analysis tool for engineering decision making is now best practice in the offshore industry. GIS enables multidisciplinary data integration, analysis and visualisation which allows the presentation of large and intricate datasets in a simple map-interface accessible to all project stakeholders. Presenting integrated geoscience and geotechnical data in GIS enables decision makers to be well-informed. This paper is a successful case study of how GIS spatial analysis techniques were applied to help select the most favourable pipeline route. Routing a pipeline through any natural environment has numerous obstacles, whether they be topographical, geological, engineering or financial. Where the pipeline is subjected to external hydrostatic water pressure and is carrying pressurised hydrocarbons, the requirement to safely route the pipeline through hazardous terrain becomes absolutely paramount. This study illustrates how the application of modern, GIS-based pipeline routing techniques enabled the identification of a single most-favourable pipeline route crossing of a challenging seabed terrain. Conventional approaches to pipeline route determination focus on manual avoidance of primary constraints whilst endeavouring to minimise route length. Such an approach is qualitative, subjective and is liable to bias towards the discipline and expertise that is involved in the routing process. For very short routes traversing benign seabed topography in shallow water this approach may be sufficient, but for deepwater geohazardous sites, the need for an automated, multi-criteria, and quantitative approach is essential. This study combined multiple routing constraints using modern least-cost-routing algorithms deployed in GIS, hitherto unachievable with conventional approaches. The least-cost-routing procedure begins with the assignment of geocost across the study area. Geocost is defined as a numerical penalty score representing hazard posed by each routing constraint (e.g. slope angle, rugosity, vulnerability to debris flows) to the pipeline. All geocosted routing constraints are combined to generate a composite geocost map that is used to compute the least geocost route between two defined terminals. The analyses were applied to select the most favourable pipeline route for a potential gas development in deep water. The study area is geologically complex with a series of incised, potentially active, canyons carved into a steep escarpment, with evidence of extensive debris flows. A similar debris flow in the future could cause significant damage to a poorly-placed pipeline. Protruding inter-canyon spurs offer lower-gradient options for ascending an escarpment but the vulnerability of periodic failure of these spurs is not well understood. Close collaboration between geoscientists, pipeline engineers, geotechnical engineers and of course the gas export pipeline operator guided the analyses and assignment of geocosts. Shorter route length, less severe slope angles, and geohazard avoidance were the primary drivers in identifying the most favourable route.

Keywords: geocost, geohazard, pipeline route determination, pipeline route optimisation, spatial analysis

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Authors: Ajay Ivan

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This paper focuses on the cultural politics of health-promotional and disease-preventive pedagogic practices in the context of the national tobacco control programme in India. Tobacco consumption is typically problematised as a paradox: tobacco poses objective health risks such as cancer and heart disease, but its production, sale and export contribute significantly to state revenue. A blanket ban on tobacco products, therefore, is infeasible though desirable. Instead, initiatives against tobacco use have prioritised awareness creation and behaviour change to reduce its demand. This paper argues that public health communication is not, as commonly assumed, an apolitical and neutral transmission of disease-preventive information. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, it examines such campaigns as techniques of disciplining people rather than coercing them to give up tobacco use, which would be both impractical and counter-productive. At the level of the population, these programmes constitute a security mechanism that reduces risks without eliminating them, so as to ensure an optimal level of public health without hampering the economy. Anti-tobacco pedagogy thus aligns with a contemporary paradigm of health that emphasises risk-assessment and lifestyle management as tools of governance, using pedagogic techniques to teach people how to be healthy. The paper analyses the pictorial health warnings on tobacco packets and anti-tobacco advertisements in movie theatres mandated by the state, along with awareness-creation messages circulated by anti-tobacco advocacy groups in India, to show how they discursively construct tobacco and its consumption as a health risk. Smoking is resignified from a pleasurable and sociable practice to a deadly addiction that jeopardises the health of those who smoke and those who passively inhale the smoke. While disseminating information about the health risks of tobacco, these initiatives employ emotional and affective techniques of persuasion to discipline tobacco users. They incite fear of death and of social ostracism to motivate behaviour change, complementing their appeals to reason. Tobacco is portrayed as a grave moral danger to the family and a detriment to the vitality of the nation, such that using it contradicts one’s duties as a parent or citizen. Awareness programmes reproduce prevailing societal assumptions about health and disease, normalcy and deviance, and proper and improper conduct. Pedagogy thus functions as an apparatus of public health governance, recruiting subjects as volunteers in their own regulation and aligning their personal goals and aspirations to the objectives of tobacco control. The paper links this calculated management of subjectivity and the self-responsibilisation of the pedagogic subject to a distinct mode of neoliberal civic governance in contemporary India. Health features prominently in this mode of governance that serves the biopolitical obligation of the state as laid down in Article 39 of the Constitution, which includes a duty to ensure the health of its citizens. Insofar as the health of individuals is concerned, the problem is how to balance this duty of the state with the fundamental right of the citizen to choose how to live. Public health pedagogy, by directing the citizen’s ‘free’ choice without unduly infringing upon it, offers a tactical solution.

Keywords: public health communication, pedagogic power, tobacco control, neoliberal governance

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Authors: Marcelo Pereira Introini

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The global value chains (GVC) approach contributes to a better understanding of the international production organization amid globalization’s second unbundling from the 1970s on. Mainly due to the tools that help to understand the importance of critical competences, technological capabilities, and functions performed by each player, GVC research flourished in recent years, rooted in discussing the possibilities of integration and repositioning along regional and global value chains. Regarding this context, part of the literature endorsed a more optimistic view that engaging in fragmented production networks could represent learning opportunities for developing countries’ firms, since the relationship with transnational corporations could allow them build skills and competences. Increasing recognition that GVCs are based on asymmetric power relations provided another sight about benefits, costs, and development possibilities though. Once leading companies tend to restrict the replication of their technologies and capabilities by their suppliers, alternative strategies beyond the functional specialization, seen as a way to integrate value chains, began to be broadly highlighted. This paper organizes a coherent narrative about the shortcomings of the GVC analytical framework, while recognizing its multidimensional contributions and recent developments. We adopt two different and complementary perspectives to explore the idea of integration in the international production. On one hand, we emphasize obstacles beyond production components, analyzing the role played by intangible assets and intellectual property regimes. On the other hand, we consider the importance of domestic production and innovation systems for technological development. In order to provide a deeper understanding of the restrictions on technological learning of developing countries’ firms, we firstly build from the notion of intellectual monopoly to analyze how flagship companies can prevent subordinated firms from improving their positions in fragmented production networks. Based on intellectual property protection regimes we discuss the increasing asymmetries between these players and the decreasing access of part of them to strategic intangible assets. Second, we debate the role of productive-technological ecosystems and of interactive and systemic technological development processes, as concepts of the Innovation Systems approach. Supporting the idea that not only endogenous advantages are important for international competition of developing countries’ firms, but also that the building of these advantages itself can be a source of technological learning, we focus on local efforts as a crucial element, which is not replaceable for technology imported from abroad. Finally, the paper contributes to the discussion about technological development as a two-dimensional dynamic. If GVC analysis tends to underline a company-based perspective, stressing the learning opportunities associated to GVC integration, historical involvement of national States brings up the debate about technology as a central aspect of interstate disputes. In this sense, technology is seen as part of military modernization before being also used in civil contexts, what presupposes its role for national security and productive autonomy strategies. From this outlook, it is important to consider it as an asset that, incorporated in sophisticated machinery, can be the target of state policies besides the protection provided by intellectual property regimes, such as in export controls and inward-investment restrictions.

Keywords: global value chains, innovation systems, intellectual monopoly, technological development

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Authors: Sarah Niklas, Lynne Chester, Mark Diesendorf

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Geopolitical tensions, climate change and recent movements favouring a transformative shift in institutional power structures have influenced the economics of conventional energy supply for decades. This study takes a multi-dimensional approach to illustrate the potential of renewable energy (RE) technology to provide a pathway to a low-carbon economy driven by ecologically sustainable, independent and socially just energy. This comparative analysis identifies economic, political and social drivers that shaped the adoption of RE policy in two significantly different economies, Germany and Australia, with strong and weak commitments to RE respectively. Two complementary political-economy theories frame the document-based analysis. Régulation Theory, inspired by Marxist ideas and strongly influenced by contemporary economic problems, provides the background to explore the social relationships contributing the adoption of RE within the macro-economy. Varieties of Capitalism theory, a more recently developed micro-economic approach, examines the nature of state-firm relationships. Together these approaches provide a comprehensive lens of analysis. Germany’s energy policy transformed substantially over the second half of the last century. The development is characterised by the coordination of societal, environmental and industrial demands throughout the advancement of capitalist regimes. In the Fordist regime, mass production based on coal drove Germany’s astounding economic recovery during the post-war period. Economic depression and the instability of institutional arrangements necessitated the impulsive seeking of national security and energy independence. During the postwar Flexi-Fordist period, quality-based production, innovation and technology-based competition schemes, particularly with regard to political power structures in and across Europe, favoured the adoption of RE. Innovation, knowledge and education were institutionalized, leading to the legislation of environmental concerns. Lastly the establishment of government-industry-based coordinative programs supported the phase out of nuclear power and the increased adoption of RE during the last decade. Australia’s energy policy is shaped by the country’s richness in mineral resources. Energy policy largely served coal mining, historically and currently one of the most capital-intense industry. Assisted by the macro-economic dimensions of institutional arrangements, social and financial capital is orientated towards the export-led and strongly demand-oriented economy. Here energy policy serves the maintenance of capital accumulation in the mining sector and the emerging Asian economies. The adoption of supportive renewable energy policy would challenge the distinct role of the mining industry within the (neo)-liberal market economy. The state’s protective role of the mining sector has resulted in weak commitment to RE policy and investment uncertainty in the energy sector. Recent developments, driven by strong public support for RE, emphasize the sense of community in urban and rural areas and the emergence of a bottom-up approach to adopt renewables. Thus, political economy frameworks on both the macro-economic (Regulation Theory) and micro-economic (Varieties of Capitalism theory) scales can together explain the strong commitment to RE in Germany vis-à-vis the weak commitment in Australia.

Keywords: political economy, regulation theory, renewable energy, social relationships, energy transitions

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