Reassessing the earthquake hazard in Kerala based on the historical and current seismicity

Given the lack of proper constraints in understanding earthquake mechanisms in the cratonic interiors and the general absence of good quality database, here we reassess the seismic hazard in the province of Kerala, a part of the aEuro cent stable continental interioraEuro cent, based on an improved historical and instrumental database. The temporal pattern of the current seismicity suggests that > 60% of the microtremors in Kerala occurs with a time lag after the peak rainfall, indicating that hydroseismicity may be a plausible model to explain the low-level seismicity in this region. Further, an increment in overall seismicity rate in the region in the recent years is explained as due to increased anthropogenic activities, which includes changes in hydrological pathways as a consequence of rapid landscape changes. Our analyses of the historical database eliminate a few events that are ascribed to this region; this exercise has also led to identification of a few events, not previously noted. The improved historical database essentially suggests that the central midland region is more prone to seismic activity compared to other parts of Kerala. This region appears to have generated larger number of significant earthquakes; the most prominent being the multiple events (doublets) of 1856 and 1953, whose magnitudes are comparable to that of the 2000/2001 (central Kerala) events. Occurrences of these historical events and the recent earthquakes, and the local geology indicative of pervasive faulting as shown by widely distributed pseudotachylite veins suggest that the NNW-SSE trending faults in central midland Kerala may host discrete potentially active sources that may be capable of generating light to moderate size earthquakes. The frequency of earthquakes in central Kerala evident from the historical database requires that the seismic codes stipulated for this region are made mandatory.

The Archaeometallurgical Implications of New Findings of Traditional Crafts of Making High Tin ‘Delta’ Bronze Mirrors and ‘Beta’ Bronze Vessels in Kerala State of South India

New metallurgical and ethnographic observations of the traditional manufacture of specular high-tin bronze mirrors in Kerala state of southern India are discussed, which is an exceptional example of a surviving craft practice of metal mirror-making in the world. The manufacturing process has been reconstructed from analytical investigations made by Srinivasan following a visit late in 1991 to a mirror making workshop and from her technical studies of equipment acquired by Glover in March 1992 from another group of mirror makers from Pathanamthita at an exhibition held at Crafts Museum, Delhi. Finished and unfinished mirror from two workshops were of a binary, copper-tin alloy of 33% tin which is close to the composition of pure delta phase, so that these mirrors are referred to here as ‘delta’ bronzes. For the first time, metallurgical and field observations were made by Srinivasan in 1991 of the manufacture of high-tin ‘beta’ bonze vessels from Palghat district, Kerala, i‥e of wrought and quenched 23% tin bronze. This has provided the first metallurgical record for a surviving craft of high-tin bronze bowl making which can be directly related to archaeological finds of high-tin bronze vessels from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. New analytical investigations are presented of high-tin beta bronzes from the Indian subcontinent which are some of the earliest reported worldwide. These coupled with the archaeometallurgical evidence suggests that these high-tin bronze techniques are part of a long, continuing, and probably indigenous tradition of the use of high-tin bronzes in the Indian subcontinent with finds reported even from Indus Valley sites. While the source of tin has been problematic, new evidence on bronze smelting slags and literary evidence suggests there may have been some sources of tin in South India.

Evaluation of the Quality of Drinking Water in Kerala State, India

The quality of tap water from water supplies from 14 districts of Kerala state, India was studied. Parameters like pH, water temperature, total dissolved solids, salinity, nitrates, chloride, hardness, magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, fluoride, sulphate, phosphates, and coliform bacteria were enumerated. The results showed that all water samples were contaminated by coliform bacteria. About 20% of the tap water samples from Alappuzha and 15% samples from Palakkad district are above desirable limits prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standards. The contamination of the source water (due to lack of community hygiene) and insufficient treatment are the major cause for the coliform contamination in the state. Water samples from Alappuzha and Palakkad have high ionic and fluoride content which could be attributed to the geology of the region. Water supplied for drinking in rural areas are relatively free of any contamination than the water supplied in urban area by municipalities, which may be attributed higher chances of contamination in urban area due to mismanagement of solid and liquid wastes. The study highlights the need for regular bacteriological enumeration along with water quality in addition to setting up decentralised region specific improved treatment system.

Total Factor Productivity Growth and Output Growth in Indian Electronics Industry in the Liberalization Era: An Empirical Examination

This paper analyses the efficiency and productivity growth of Electronics industry, which is considered one of the vibrant and rapidly growing manufacturing industry sub-sectors of India in the liberalization era since 1991. The main objective of the paper is to examine the extent and growth of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and its components namely, Technical Efficiency Change (TEC) and Technological Progress (TP) and its contribution to total output growth. In this study, the electronics industry is broadly classified into communication equipments, computer hardware, consumer electronics and other electronics, with the purpose of performing a comparative analysis of productivity growth for each of these sub-sectors for the time period 1993-2004. The paper found that the sub-sectors have improved in terms of economies of scale and contribution of capital.The change in technical efficiency and technological progress moved in reverse directions. Three of the four industry witnessed growth in the output primarily due to TFPG and the contribution of input growth to output growth had been negative/negligible, except for Computer hardware where contribution from both input growth and TFPG to output growth were prominent. The paper explored the possible reasons that addressed the issue of low technical efficiency and technological progress in the industry.

Operations research applications in the plywood industry

There are several areas in the plywood industry where Operations Research techniques have greatly assisted in better decision-making. These have resulted in improved profits, reduction of wood losses and better utilization of resources. Realizing these, some of the plywood manufacturing firms in the developed countries have established separate Operations Research departments or divisions. In the face of limited raw-material resources, raising costs and a competitive environment, the benefits attributable to the use of these techniques are becoming more and more significant.

Understanding the Knowledge Needs of Designers During Design Process in Industry

Product success is substantially influenced by satisfaction of knowledge needs of designers, and many tools and methods have been proposed to support these needs. However, adoption of these methods in industry is minimal. This may be due to an inadequate understanding of the knowledge needs of designers in industry. This research attempts to develop a better understanding of these needs by undertaking descriptive studies in an industry. We propose a taxonomy of knowledge, and evaluate this by analyzing the questions asked by the designers involved in the study during their interactions. Using the taxonomy, we converted the questions asked into a generic form. The generic questions provide an understanding about what knowledge must be captured during design, and what its structure should be.

Influence of subcontracting on innovation and economic performance of SMEs in Indian automobile industry

Trans-national corporations (TNCs) expanding their production bases to developing countries having better conditions of manufacturing and domestic markets provide increasing opportunities for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to have subcontracting relationships with these TNCs Even though some theoretical and a few empirical studies throw light on the nature of assistance provided by TNCs to local SMEs through subcontracting relationships none of the studies so far quantitatively analysed the role of this assistance on the innovative performance of SMEs leading to better economic performance This paper probes the extent and diversity of assistance received by SMEs from a TNC through subcontracting and its influence on technological innovations and economic performance of SMEs in the Indian automobile industry Indian SMEs were able to receive mainly product related and purchase process assistance thereby implying that subcontracting is largely confined to purchase-supply relationships However assistance received through subcontracting is beneficial as It promoted technological innovations of SMEs the higher the degree of assistance the higher the level of innovations carried out by these SMEs which in turn facilitated their economic performance Thus this paper substantiates in the Indian context that subcontracting relationship with a TNC can be an important source of technological innovations and enhanced economic performance for SMEs (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

Role of Management Decision Variables in Determining Technology Progress and Technical Efficiency in Indian Electronic Industry

This paper analyses the influence of management on Technical Efficiency Change (TEC) and Technological Progress (TP) in the communication equipment and consumer electronics sub-sectors of Indian hardware electronics industry. Each sub-sector comprises 13 sample firms for two time periods.The primary objective is to determine the relative contribution of TP and TEC to TFP Growth (TFPG) and to establish the influence of firm specific operational management decision variables on these two components. The study finds that both the sub-sectors have strived and achieved steady TP but not TEC in the period of economic liberalisation to cope with the intensifying competition. The management decisions with respect to asset and profit utilization, vertical integration, among others, improved TP and TE in the sub-sectors. However, R&D investments and technology imports proved costly for TFP indicating inadequate efforts and/or poor resource utilisation by the management. Management was found to be complacent in terms of improving or developing their own technology as indicated by their higher dependence on import of raw materials and no influence of R&D on TP.

BIOMASS GASIFICATION TO SUBSTITUTE FOSSIL FUEL IN FOOD INDUSTRY

Food industries like biscuit and confectionary use significant amount of fossil fuel for thermal energy. Biscuit manufacturing in India is carried out both by organized and unorganized sector. The ratio of organized to unorganized sector is 60 : 40 (1). The total biscuit manufacturing in the organized sector India in 2008 was about 1.7 million metric tons (1). Accounting for the unorganized sector in India, the total biscuit manufacturing would have been about 2.9 million metric tons/annum. A typical biscuit baking is carried in a long tunnel kiln with varying temperature in different zones. Generally diesel is used to provide the necessary heat energy for the baking purpose, with temperature ranging from 190 C in the drying zone to about 300 C in the baking area and has to maintain in the temperature range of +/- 5 C. Typical oil consumption is about 40 litres per ton of biscuit production. The paper discusses the experience in substituting about 120 lts per hour kiln for manufacturing about 70 tons of biscuit daily. The system configuration consists of a 500 kg/hr gasification system comprising of a reactor, multicyclone, water scrubbers, and two blowers for maintaining the constant gas pressure in the header before the burners. Cold producer gas is piped to the oven located about 200 meters away from the gasifier. Fuel used in the gasification system is coconut shells. All the control system existing on the diesel burner has been suitably adapted for producer gas operation to maintain the total flow, A/F control so as to maintain the temperature. A total of 7 burners are used in different zones. Over 17000 hour of operation has resulted in replacing over 1800 tons of diesel over the last 30 months. The system operates for over 6 days a week with average operational hours of 160. It has been found that on an average 3.5 kg of biomass has replaced one liter of diesel.