Managing resource-constrained innovation in emerging markets: Perspectives from a business model

This study examines the organization of resource-constrained innovation from a business model perspective. Using a multiple case study design, we demonstrate that the ability to organize resource-constrained innovation is built on cost, good-enough, frugal, and reverse innovation capabilities. Cost innovation does not always lead to a new product, rather it is a way to reduce operational costs through the value creation activities of a business model to achieve resource-constrained innovation. Good-enough innovations are developed through existing platform reengineering and localization through value creation activities. We demonstrate that frugal innovations are developed based on new product architectures and applications that can create completely new market segments to compete against non-consumption. Reverse innovations refer to frugal innovations that are characterized by higher market novelty because they create completely new market segments in developed and developing markets for value capture.     

Risk assessment of China-Pakistan Fiber Optic Project (CPFOP) in the light of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM)

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is considered as an excellent breakthrough for improving the economic and security situation in the region. The estimated worth of CPEC is 62$ billion which is comprising of 49 developmental projects. China-Pakistan Fiber Optic Project (CPFOP) is one of the core projects among these, which will deliver safe route of voice traffic between both countries. CPFOP is greatly beneficial in terms of enhanced security and revenue generation. Currently, Pakistan’s international connectivity is via submarine cables. CPFOP will provide an alternative route for international telecom traffic and also assist in achieving the rapidly growing internet traffic demand in Pakistan. It is estimated that 17 million people will get benefit from this project. However, every project has some undesirable impacts. The aim of this research paper is twofold; 1st to trace out the pros and cons of CPFOP. 2ndly, performing a risk assessment of CPFOP by using Fuzzy VIKOR technique. This approach will help in prioritizing a list of failure modes of Fiber Optic Cable (FOC). Lastly, this paper will help authorities for optimizing and safeguarding national interest in the wake of CPFOP.     

Status of fertilizer products under development in India

This paper describes the status of various fertilizer materials in the process of development and testing. These include a range of products such as urea supergranules, urea coated with an array of coating agents, nitrogen solution, partially acidulated phosphate rocks, polyphosphates, compost-enriched or cattle-dung incubated rock phosphates, and single superphosphates fortified with boron or zinc. To the extent possible, economic aspects and future needs are also commented upon.     

Design and analysis of a passive heated/cooled building for composite climate of India

This communication presents design considerations and thermal performance of a hostel building (using passive techniques) for a composite climatic condition of Delhi, India. The place experiences three definite seasons: hot-dry early summer, warm-humid late summer (monsoon period) and cold-dry period in winter. The design meets the demand of cooling during summer, dehumidification and ventilation in monsoon and winter heating. In order to ascertain the performance of the design, its thermal analysis has been carried out; the performance is seen to be quite satisfactory.     

Institutional organizers and collective action: the case of water users' associations in Gujarat,India

Setting up water users' associations (WUAs) and involving them in the management of delivery systems is an important innovation in improving the performance of public irrigation systems. Most Indian states are in a great hurry to turn over management of “below-the outlet” systems to WUAs. Yet the crucial link between the work done by the institutional organizers who set up these WUAs, the efficacy of the WUAs and the eventual performance of the irrigation systems remains unexplored. This paper attempts to explore this link. It shows that overdrive in the formation of WUAs may reduce their institutional sustainability.     

An inquiry into collective action and sustainable participatory watershed management: evidence from Southern India

Policies of devolution have been widely adopted in both developing and developed countries. This study investigates how the devolutionary policies ensure collective action in watershed management. It examines the factors that affect collective participation in watershed management and how collective action changes once the state withdraws and hands control over management to village panchayats (local governments) and other groups. The analysis of factors that influence ongoing maintenance of watershed structures indicates that collective action emerges when user groups are small and homogenous and communities are dependent on a large number of wells. Further, greater success is likely where user groups have more knowledge and control over funds available for maintenance activities after the state withdraws.     

Drought,distress, and a conditional cash transfer programme to mitigate the impact of drought in Bihar,India

Paddy – Bihar’s staple crop – is vulnerable to drought, primarily due to the high cost of irrigation. In 2008, the Bihar government launched a conditional cash transfer scheme to subsidize diesel for irrigation in drought-affected areas. We show that this scheme has not been effective in mitigating the impact of drought on paddy production. A primary survey of potential and actual beneficiaries shows that low awareness and penetration among smallholders, alongside uncertainties and delays in the disbursal of the subsidy, make it ineffective. We suggest that in states with limited capacity, such ad hoc subsidies are unlikely to protect smallholders from weather shocks.     

Estimation of Optimum Genetic Control Parameters for Job Shop Scheduling

Genetic algorithms (GA) have demonstrated considerable success in providing good solutions to many non-polynomial hard optimization problems. GAs are applied for identifying efficient solutions for a set of numerical optimization problems. Job shop scheduling (JSS) has earned a reputation for being difficult to solve. Many workers have used various values of genetic parameters. This paper attempts to tune the control parameters for efficiency, that are used to acceleate the genetic algorithm (applied to JSS) to converge on an optimal solution. The genetic parameters, namely, number of generations, probability of crossover, probability of mutation, are optimized relating to the size of problems. The results are validated in job shop scheduling problems. The results indicate that by using an appropriate range of parameters, the genetic algorithm is able to find an optimal solution faster. RID=" ID=" <E5>Correspondence and offprint requests to</E5>: Dr S. G. Ponnambalam, Department of Production Engineering, Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirapalli, 620 015, India. E-mail: pons&commat;rect.ernet.in     

Iron Age beta (23% tin) bronze: Peninsular Indian bowls of Adichanallur,Nilgiris, and Boregaon

ABSTRACT

As-cast binary copper–tin alloys with over 15% were generally not much in use in antiquity as they get embrittled at higher tin contents due to the increasing presence of the intermetallic delta phase compound. Even so, the unusual and skilled use of a higher tin binary bronze alloy, known as wrought and quenched high-tin beta bronze, is found, especially from some Iron Age or megalithic sites in southern and peninsular India, around the early first millennium BCE. They are closely approximating to the composition of the pure beta phase of 22.9% tin, which is an intermetallic compound. This article presents some of the micro-structural evidence of heavily hot-forged, carinated, and perforated bowls from the site of Adichanallur, Tamil Nadu. They rank amongst the most finely wrought examples of beta bronze known in the world, with continuing traditions into the medieval Chola Tamil region and contemporary period. A process of experimentation with thermomechanical processes in the Peninsular Indian Iron Age is also suggested, since it slightly differed from an example of a vessel with 21% tin that was only cast and quenched, found in Boregaon from the Vidarbha megaliths of Maharashtra in the Central Deccan.     

Impact of renewed solar dimming on streamflow generation in monsoon dominated tropical river basins

From 1950s to 1980s, various observational studies around the globe found a significant decrease in surface solar radiation (SSR), which reversed in late 1980s for most of the countries including India. SSR observations at 12 stations located across India revealed that a much stronger dimming has reappeared during the last decade (2006–2015) after a brightening during 1996–2005. In the present study, effects of renewed solar dimming on actual evapotranspiration and runoff were analyzed using a semi-distributed hydrological model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in 24 river basins (ranging from 1260 to 40000 km²) located in peninsular India. For these river basins, calibration (2003–2009) and validation (2010–2014) were performed using the observed daily discharge data, obtained from water resources information system (WRIS) of India, with a 3 year warm up period (2000–2002). The sequential uncertainty domain parameter fitting algorithm (SUFI-2) of SWAT-CUP (calibration and uncertainty program) was used with modified Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (MNS) as the objective function to calibrate 13 model parameters, which can potentially affect streamflow. In nearly all the river basins, the p- and r-factor of 95 percentage prediction uncertainty (PPU) were more than 0.7 and less than 1, respectively. At daily timescale, MNS values were more than 0.5 in most of the river basins, reaching up to 0.66 and 0.71 during calibration and validation periods, respectively. Calibrated model was used to analyze the water balance of these river basins and different sets of experiments (with observed SSR trends) were performed to find SSR impacts on it. The model was simulated with and without the observed declines in SSR trends. The average change in SSR (in terms of evaporation equivalent) was −267.93 ± 100.92 mm/day/year (−5.62 ± 2.12%) with maximum reaching up to −417.12 mm/day/year (−8.99%). Due to this SSR change, actual evaporation was reduced resulting in 18.97 ± 9.78 mm/day/year (4.13 ± 2.50%) change in percolation. The percolation changes were higher for river basins having areas covered by forests and cropland/woodland, and having loam and sandy-clay soils. The increase in runoff generated was 6.90 ± 3.42 mm/day/year (2.14 ± 1.58%) with a maximum of 15.25 mm/day/year (7.56%) whereas corresponding increase in streamflow was found to be 9.93 ± 5.27 mm/day/year(4.21 ± 2.38%) with a maximum of 26.71 mm/day/year (11.86 %). The study reveals that the recent observed SSR changes are significant enough to have resulted in increased streamflow in the monsoon dominated tropical river basins of India.