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3721 items in total found

Working Papers | 1990

Livestock Component of Farming Systems Research

Rao V M

Farming systems research is an innovative approach to address the problems of resource poor farmers in less developed countries. FSR stemmed largely from the pioneering work of Collinson and that of Norman. The primary objective of FSR is to improve the well being of individual farming families by increasing productivity of their farming system. However, the work on FSR conducted in various international institutes is focussed by and large on crop systems. Multiple roles of livestock are analyzed in this paper with reference to Indian. They include (a) livestock as a source of food (b) as a source of power (c) as a source of manure (d) as a source of capital (c) risk against insurance (f) in the context of environmental stability; etc.

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Working Papers | 1990

Cost of Quality - Their Determination and Relationships

Korgaonkar M G

With a renewed emphasis on Management of Quality, the question of collecting and quantifying Cost of Quality (COQ) has assumed special significance. It is realized that organizations intending to launch quality improvement programs need to first deploy a suitable COQ system to support and direct the quality improvement process. Although the various components of COQ i.e. prevention, appraisal, external and internal failure costs have been recognized for a long time, it is only recently that the various issues connected with it have been systematically studied. In this paper we take a comprehensive look at the COQ issues and the kind of answers that research has yielded. More specifically, we are interested in the analysis of the following questions: 1. What are the various elements of quality of costs and how are they classified into COQ Companies? What are the company practices regarding these? 2. What are appropriate indicators of COQ? In general, how much do companies spend on quality, as reflected by COQ indicators? 3. What are the relationships between the COQ Components? How do they influence the COQ? 4. What are the effects of COQ on unit product cost and product profitability? 5. Can suitable analytical model be developed to predict the effect on COQ of changes in company efforts on prevention and appraisal? 6. How should a quality cost systems be set up? The above issues are analyzed in detail. The results from prevailing research are reviewed in seeking answers to the above issues. Finally we summarize the conclusions drawn from the study.

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Working Papers | 1990

An Axiomatic Characterization of the Value Function for Bimatrix Games

Lahiri Somdeb

In this paper we obtain an axiomatic characterization of the value function for the class of all bimatrix games satisfying the equivalency and efficiency properties.

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Working Papers | 1990

Politics of Articulation, Mediating Structures and Voluntarism: From "Chauraha" to "Chaupal"

Anil K. Gupta

There is a considerable concern in India about the 'silence' of a large number of disadvantaged groups who have either learned to be helpless or articulate their problems rather feebly. The nature of articulation, mediating structures or platforms for dialogue or negotiation be it political channels or voluntary arenas have to analysed as a basis of alienation of masses from the state. Emergence of the social movements encompassing ecological struggles particularly in backward regions indicates the limits of the patience of the poor disadvantaged people. One can hypothesize that NGOs emerged or became stronger when the political channels got partly choked so that people could neither remodel the nature of their representation nor communicate with/through state bureaucracy. The transition in mediating structures has been studies through five metaphors i.e. from counter to corridor; corridor to courts; courts to 'Chaurahas' (cross roads); 'Chaurahas' to Char diwaris' (four walls) and finally from 'Char diwaris to 'Chaupal' as a future solution. The voluntary initiatives in this context could also reflect a way of reducing transaction costs, fulfilling ones urge to go beyond the mandated responsibilities or just to provide a channel of articulation to those who find the existing channels and platforms non accessible or non fulfilling. We have presented discussion on articulation, mediating platforms and voluntarism through following four questions in different parts of this paper. 1) What are the major transitions in the process of articulation? Does the design of platform for negotiation influence the nature of discourse? What are the trends in articulation at central, state, district and local level with particular reference to the problems deprived groups in backward drought prone regions?; 2) what are the mediating structures or set of strategies providing a basis of dialogue or conflict resolution between state and the people particularly around environmental issues? To what extent voluntary initiatives and bureaucratic channels of communication?; 3) what are some of key trends in rural development voluntarism? How does one contrast the spirit of voluntarism with the nature of voluntary organization?; 4) what are the implications of increasing international attempt to bypass state structures for routing aid through NGOs instead of existing public or private channels? The future scenarios are discussed in the last part.

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Working Papers | 1990

Expert System for Cost Variance Investigation

Jayanth R. Varma

In a typical standard costing or budgetary control system, a manager might receive a variance analysis reporting several hundred variances, of which many may have arisen due to random factors, or may be too insignificant to merit attention. The managers uses his knowledge and experience to identify the important variances which demand further investigation. Both management accounting theory and statistical decision theory can make significant contributions towards improving this decision, but both make extravagant demands on the manager in terms of the theoretical and factual knowledge expected of him. Much of this knowledge, even if available, is scattered throughout the organization with very little readily accessible to top management itself. This research takes the view that a knowledge. Base / Expert System approach can be useful in this context. An expert system was implemented in Turbo Prolog using fuzzy logic and MYCIN type certainty factors to handle uncertainty. Though traditional Prolog interpreters can be used directly to write Expert Systems without using an Expert System Shell, this is not the case with the Turbo Prolog compiler. It becomes necessary to write an interpreter/Expert System Shell in Turbo Prolog using some of the software tools (scanner and parser)available along with the Turbo Prolog compiler itself. The expert system was tried out on a case on cost variance investigation from a well known book on management control systems (Antony, Dearden and Bedford, 1984). The substantive performance of the system in this armchair case study was quite encouraging. In terms of speed and memory requirements, the system is close to the limits of what is possible in the PC environment with Turbo Prolog. It is likely that further work in this area will have to move out of the PCs to the workstations or to other more powerful computing platforms. The most important enhancement that is needed in the current system is a natural language interface; the current Prolog-like interface is acceptable only in classroom/research settings. The system has had considerable success in its principal research objectives. However, on the question of integrating statistical decision theory with fuzzy logic and certainty factors, the expert system methodology appears to be at a dead end; perhaps real progress in this area will come from purely statistical approaches to the problem.

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Working Papers | 1990

Sustainable Development of Indian Agriculture: Green Revolution Revisited

Anil K. Gupta

Indian experience of technological change through 'Green Revolution' in now an internationally acclaimed achievement. Several countries in Africa are being advised to follow Indian experience. We have reappraised the lessons of Indian experience for the point for new sustainability. Decline productivity of agriculture inputs is causing concern in India. Emerging scenarios has been renewed to raise some question about the so called consensus of India Experience.

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Working Papers | 1990

Linkages for Lateral Learning Among Farmers, Scientists and Extension Workers: Story of Match Makers and Lessons for Link Breakers

Anil K. Gupta

The linkages between farmers, scientists and extension workers have been studied through several angles. The barriers to learning at individual and organizational level have been listed. The relation between the type of linkages and the portfolio of enterprises households have, is discussed through Mean-Variance Matrix. Finally, lessons for making and breaking links are reviewed. In appendix one channels of communication between farmers and scientists are analysed. In Appendix two a critique of study by ISNAR, The Hague, on the subject is presented. In Annex-3 a research review on inter-organizational linkages between research institutions engaged in research for rainfed regions is presented. Annex-4 includes discussion on institutional context for lateral learning. It is argued that to forge new links between disadvantaged farmers, scientists and extension workers, some of the old links will have to be broken. After all, one could not add indefinitely without subtracting. The technology transfer paradigm has emphasized the demand side individual oriented approach too much. There is a need for making a transition to portfolio approach to designing technology development and diffusion in high risk environments.

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Working Papers | 1990

Migration: A Case of Gujarat

Moulik T K and Mehta Swati

Despite massive investments in rural development programmes during the last ten years, the problem of unemployment has assumed alarming proportions causing migration of the rural population. Although there are several factors responsible, lack of employment opportunities in the rural sector and the 'urban pull' factor caused by relatively greater employment opportunities are equally important. Over the years, economic factors have eclipsed other factors like environment, socio-cultural, political etc. Besides, along with selective permanent migration, temporal, spatial and seasonal migration has also become common. This is due to the greater absorption capacity of the rural labour force in commercial agriculture, new industrial activities, dam construction and field channels of irrigation etc. Experience has also shown that migration was of higher magnitude and in greater grequency in the underdeveloped regions and in tribal regions. Although it is difficult to assess the qualitative and quantitative impact of rural migration in the under developed regions, two effects can be pointed out, 1) due to the migration there would be a decline in the qualitative aspect of human resources which are so vital in devising need based developmental plans for rural development, 2) once the migrants come under the influence of the urban environmental factors, the 'rural pull' factor may not be so attractive any longer.

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Working Papers | 1990

Fractile Correlated Equilibria Under Bounded Rationality

Lahiri Somdeb

In this paper we define and establish the existence of fractile correlated equilibria under rationality.

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Working Papers | 1990

Biogas Technology: The Indian Scenario

Moulik T K and Mehta Swati

Energy in many forms is vital for nations, economic and social development. The importance of energy was brought into sharp focus since the 1970's oil shortage which escalated the prices of conventional energy. Since then attention has shifted to alternative sources of energy. For a country like India, where resources are scarce and development essential, it is imperative that a strong infrastructural base be achieved for it's growth. One of the critical components is the generation and supply of cheap energy. As an alternative source of energy, biogas technology is being promoted in India in a mass scale in order to meet India's one of the most important energy needs i.e. Cooking energy (constituting technology has received special attention because of the easy applicability, the vastness of the country and infrastructural deficiencies which exists regarding the supply of power to all corners of India. Along with providing an economic and practical alternative for energy generation, biogas technology also provides various advantages to the user. Biogas provides cheaper fuel and energy for lighting and domestic purposes, prevents or decreases deforestation, provides the farmers with cheaper and enriched manure for their fields, and lastly but not the least, improves the environment by keeping the kitchen clean and hygienic and decreases the drudgery for women.

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