Indian Nanoelectronics Users Program An Outreach Vehicle to Expedite Nanoelectronics Research in India

The worldwide research in nanoelectronics is motivated by the fact that scaling of MOSFETs by conventional top down approach will not continue for ever due to fundamental limits imposed by physics even if it is delayed for some more years. The research community in this domain has largely become multidisciplinary trying to discover novel transistor structures built with novel materials so that semiconductor industry can continue to follow its projected roadmap. However, setting up and running a nanoelectronics facility for research is hugely expensive. Therefore it is a common model to setup a central networked facility that can be shared with large number of users across the research community. The Centres for Excellence in Nanoelectronics (CEN) at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB) are such central networked facilities setup with funding of about USD 20 million from the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Government of India, in 2005. Indian Nanoelectronics Users Program (INUP) is a missionary program not only to spread awareness and provide training in nanoelectronics but also to provide easy access to the latest facilities at CEN in IISc and at IITB for the wider nanoelectronics research community in India. This program, also funded by MCIT, aims to train researchers by conducting workshops, hands-on training programs, and providing access to CEN facilities. This is a unique program aiming to expedite nanoelectronics research in the country, as the funding for projects required for projects proposed by researchers from around India has prior financial approval from the government and requires only technical approval by the IISc/ IITB team. This paper discusses the objectives of INUP, gives brief descriptions of CEN facilities, the training programs conducted by INUP and list various research activities currently under way in the program.

New Ventures’ influence on the Growth of SME Employment, Production and Exports in India: Does Institutional Credit matter?

New ventures are considered to be a major source of small firm growth. In Indian context the contribution of new ventures in terms of new employment, production and exports has largely remained unexplored. It is equally important and unexplored, the significance of the contribution of bank credit to the growth of new ventures in India. This paper is an attempt to throw light on these two aspects. The research is based on secondary data of the liberalized period provided by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India and Reserve Bank of India. To analyze the influence of bank credit growth on new ventures and the influence of new ventures on growth of additional employment, additional production and additional exports, we used a Bi-Variate Vector Auto Regression. Based on the model generated, Granger causality tests are conducted to obtain the results. The study found that rate of growth of bank credit causes the number of new ventures, implying any increase in the rate of growth of bank credit will be beneficial to the growth of new ventures. The study also concluded that new ventures are not causing the growth of additional employment or additional production. However new ventures cause the growth of additional exports. This is reasonable as entrepreneurs start their new ventures with minimum possible employment and relatively low rate of capacity utilization and they come up to take advantage of the process of globalization by catering to the international market.

Ecological Assessment of Lentic Water Bodies of Bangalore

The restoration, conservation and management of water resources require a thorough understanding of what constitutes a healthy ecosystem. Monitoring and assessment provides the basic information on the condition of our waterbodies. The present work details the study carried out at two waterbodies, namely, the Chamarajasagar reservoir and the Madiwala Lake. The waterbodies were selected on the basis of their current use and locations. Chamarajasagar reservoir serves the purpose of supplying drinking water to Bangalore city and is located on the outskirts of the city surrounded by agricultural and forest land. On the other hand, Madiwala lake is situated in the heart of Bangalore city receiving an influx of pollutants from domestic and industrial sewage. Comparative assessment of the surface water quality of both were carried out by instituting the various physico–chemical and biological parameters. The physico-chemical analyses included temperature, transparency, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, nitrates, phosphates, sodium, potassium and COD measurements of the given waterbody. The analysis was done based on the standard methods prescribed (or recommended) by (APHA) and NEERI. The biological parameter included phytoplankton analysis. The detailed investigations of the parameters, which are well within the tolerance limits in Chamarajasagar reservoir, indicate that it is fairly unpolluted, except for the pH values, which indicate greater alkalinity. This may be attributed to the natural causes and the agricultural runoff from the catchment. On the contrary, the limnology of Madiwala lake is greatly influenced by the inflow of sewage that contributes significantly to the dissolved solids of the lake water, total hardness, alkalinity and a low DO level. Although, the two study areas differ in age, physiography, chemistry and type of inflows, they still maintain a phytoplankton distribution overwhelmingly dominated by Cyanophyceae members,specifically Microcystis aeruginosa. These blue green algae apparently enter the waterbodies from soil, which are known to harbour a rich diversity of blue green flora with several species common to limnoplankton, a feature reported to be unique to the south Indian lakes.Chamarajasagar water samples revealed five classes of phytoplankton, of which Cyanophyceae (92.15 percent) that dominated other algal forms comprised of one single species of Microcystis aeruginosa. The next major class of algae was Chlorophyceae (3.752 percent) followed by Dinophyceae (3.51 percent), Bacillariophyceae (0.47 percent) and a sparsely available and unidentified class (0.12 percent).Madiwala Lake phytoplankton, in addition to Cyanophyceae (26.20 percent), revealed a high density of Chlorophyceae members (73.44 percent) dominated by Scenedesmus sp.,Pediastrum sp., and Euglena sp.,which are considered to be indicators of organic pollution. The domestic and industrial sewage, which finds its way into the lake, is a factor causing organic pollution. As compared to the other classes, Euglenophyceae and Bacillariophyceae members were the lowest in number. Thus, the analysis of various parameters indicates that Chamarajasagar reservoir is relatively unpolluted except for the high percentage of Microcystis aeruginosa, and a slightly alkaline nature of water. Madiwala lake samples revealed eutrophication and high levels of pollution, which is clarified by the physico–chemical analysis, whose values are way above the tolerance limits. Also, the phytoplankton analysis in Madiwala lake reveals the dominance of Chlorophyceae members, which indicate organic pollution (sewage being the causative factor).

Network pricing for QoS: A 'Regulation' approach

V. S. Borkar’s work was supported in part by grant number III.5(157)/99-ET from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. D. Manjunath’s work was supported in part by grant number 1(1)/2004-E-Infra from the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India.