A Study on Variations in Industrial Electricity Tariff & Regulatory Intervention in kerala State

Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

A Study on India’s Trade Relationship with SAARC Countries with Special Reference to SATA

The present study reveals that there are enormous opportunities for forging closer economic relations among SAARC countries. These opportunities could be fully utilized through the twin processes of trade liberalization and industrial restructuring which are complementary to each other. The SAARC Preferential Trade Arrangement (SAPTA) is the first step in trade liberalization. However, the scope of SAPTA has to be sufficiently widened in order to derive substantial benefits from preferential trading agreements. It is suggested that the SAARC countries adopt a combined approach for tariff elimination, tariff reduction and preferential or concessional tariffs. This process will help in moving quickly towards the creation of a Free Trade Area in the SAARC region. It is necessary to emphasis that, in any regional organization, smaller countries may feel that greater trade co-operation with their larger neighbors may result in larger countries taking over their economies. India occupies 70% of the SAARC region, both geographically and economically, and the remaining 6 nations of the SAARC borders only with India and not with each other. As the biggest, and the most industrialized trading partner among the SAARC countries, India has to recognize that a special responsibility devolves on her and take a lead in making the Regional Economic Co-operation a reality in South Asia.

Problems and Prospects of Tea Plantation Industry in Kerala

The overall objective of the study is to examine the problems and prospects of the tea on industry in Kerala. The specific objectives are to trace the historical evolution of the tea plantation industry in India with special reference to Kerala and to study the performance of tea plantation industry in Kerala. In order to analyse the growth performance of tea plantation industry in Kerala in a comparative perspective, growth rates for the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamilnadu are estimated along with the National, South Indian and North Indian estimates. Tea plantation industry is a labour intensive activity. Productivity has been low primarily because of the over aging. In all the factories visited only Black tea is produced. In factories outmoded machines which installed years ago is still used which will increase the cost of production. The major problem is high cost of production and low price realization. The workers are found to be not satisfied with their working conditions- long journey to work place, absence of resting places, latrine facilities etc. and also the problems arising from dust in the factory. At a macro level the tea plantation industry has been facing the adverse impacts of globalisation and trade liberalization. There is only one solution to this problem that is to improve the competitiveness in production of raw leaf and manufacturing of tea. Government has a very important role with specification of strict quality control

Plasma Polymerised Organic Thin Films-A Study on the Structural, Electrical and Nonlinear Optical Properties for Possible Applications

This proposed thesis is entitled “Plasma Polymerised Organic Thin Films: A study on the Structural, Electrical, and Nonlinear Optical Properties for Possible Applications. Polymers and polymer based materials find enormous applications in the realm of electronics and optoelectronics. They are employed as both active and passive components in making various devices. Enormous research activities are going on in this area for the last three decades or so, and many useful contributions are made quite accidentally. Conducting polymers is such a discovery, and eversince the discovery of conducting polyacetylene, a new branch of science itself has emerged in the form of synthetic metals. Conducting polymers are useful materials for many applications like polymer displays, high density data storage, polymer FETs, polymer LEDs, photo voltaic devices and electrochemical cells. With the emergence of molecular electronics and its potential in finding useful applications, organic thin films are receiving an unusual attention by scientists and engineers alike. This is evident from the vast literature pertaining to this field appearing in various journals. Recently, computer aided design of organic molecules have added further impetus to the ongoing research activities in this area. Polymers, especially, conducting polymers can be prepared both in the bulk and in the thinfilm form. However, many applications necessitate that they are grown in the thin film form either as free standing or on appropriate substrates. As far as their bulk counterparts are concerned, they can be prepared by various polymerisation techniques such as chemical routes and electrochemical means. A survey of the literature reveals that polymers like polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, have been investigated with a view to studying their structural electrical and optical properties. Among the various alternate techniques employed for the preparation of polymer thin films, the method of plasma polymerisation needs special attention in this context. The technique of plasma polymerisation is an inexpensive method and often requires very less infra structure. This method includes the employment of ac, rf, dc, microwave and pulsed sources. They produce pinhole free homogeneous films on appropriate substrates under controlled conditions. In conventional plasma polymerisation set up, the monomer is fed into an evacuated chamber and an ac/rf/dc/ w/pulsed discharge is created which enables the monomer species to dissociate, leading to the formation of polymer thin films. However, it has been found that the structure and hence the properties exhibited by plasma polymerized thin films are quite different from that of their counterparts produced by other thin film preparation techniques such as electrochemical deposition or spin coating. The properties of these thin films can be tuned only if the interrelationship between the structure and other properties are understood from a fundamental point of view. So very often, a through evaluation of the various properties is a pre-requisite for tailoring the properties of the thin films for applications. It has been found that conjugation is a necessary condition for enhancing the conductivity of polymer thin films. RF technique of plasma polymerisation is an excellent tool to induce conjugation and this modifies the electrical properties too. Both oxidative and reductive doping can be employed to modify the electrical properties of the polymer thin films for various applications. This is where organic thin films based on polymers scored over inorganic thin films, where in large area devices can be fabricated with organic semiconductors which is difficult to achieve by inorganic materials. For such applications, a variety of polymers have been synthesized such as polyaniline, polythiophene, polypyrrole etc. There are newer polymers added to this family every now and then. There are many virgin areas where plasma polymers are yet to make a foray namely low-k dielectrics or as potential nonlinear optical materials such as optical limiters. There are also many materials which are not been prepared by the method of plasma polymerisation. Some of the materials which are not been dealt with are phenyl hydrazine and tea tree oil. The advantage of employing organic extracts like tea tree oil monomers as precursors for making plasma polymers is that there can be value addition to the already existing uses and possibility exists in converting them to electronic grade materials, especially semiconductors and optically active materials for photonic applications. One of the major motivations of this study is to synthesize plasma polymer thin films based on aniline, phenyl hydrazine, pyrrole, tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil by employing both rf and ac plasma polymerisation techniques. This will be carried out with the objective of growing thin films on various substrates such as glass, quartz and indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass. There are various properties namely structural, electrical, dielectric permittivity, nonlinear optical properties which are to be evaluated to establish the relationship with the structure and the other properties. Special emphasis will be laid in evaluating the optical parameters like refractive index (n), extinction coefficient (k), the real and imaginary components of dielectric constant and the optical transition energies of the polymer thin films from the spectroscopic ellipsometric studies. Apart from evaluating these physical constants, it is also possible to predict whether a material exhibit nonlinear optical properties by ellipsometric investigations. So further studies using open aperture z-scan technique in order to evaluate the nonlinear optical properties of a few selected samples which are potential nonlinear optical materials is another objective of the present study. It will be another endeavour to offer an appropriate explanation for the nonlinear optical properties displayed by these films. Doping of plasma polymers is found to modify both the electrical conductivity and optical properties. Iodine is found to modify the properties of the polymer thin films. However insitu iodine doping is tricky and the film often looses its stability because of the escape of iodine. An appropriate insitu technique of doping will be developed to dope iodine in to the plasma polymerized thin films. Doping of polymer thin films with iodine results in improved and modified optical and electrical properties. However it requires tools like FTIR and UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy to elucidate the structural and optical modifications imparted to the polymer films. This will be attempted here to establish the role of iodine in the modification of the properties exhibited by the films

Studies on lemongrass oil

The thesis deals with the different properties and characteristics of oil of lemon grass.. The oil of lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus) is one of the most important essential oils. It will continue to be one of the "big ten" of our essential oils1. Lemongrass oil is obtained from certain species of grasses of the genus cymbopogon. The genus consists of about 80 species, 10 to 12 of which are known to occur in India. Lemongrass is a stoloniferous plant. The plant grows wild in many tropical andsemitropical parts of Asia, Africa and in parts of Central America and South America. For the extraction of the oil however only cultivated lemongrass is employed. The trade distinguishes two Principal types of lemongrass oil, viz. the East Indian Oil and West Indian Oil. There was much confusion, years ago, about the taxonomy of the plants which yield theEast Indian and West Indian types of lemongrass oil, however Stapf2 ended the long controversy of identifying the plant yielding the East Indian type oil as Cymbopogon flexuosus (D.C.) Stapf and the plant yielding the West Indian type oil as Cymbopogon citrates (D.C.) stapf. The 2 plants have_been named variously also Andropogon nardus var. Flexuosus Hack or A. citratus D.C. respectively