This study examines the varied impacts of agricultural policies on farmers’ livelihoods across Indian states, categorized by income levels. Using data from the NSSO 77th Round Survey, Agricultural Census 2020-21, and state agricultural reports, the research employs a comprehensive analytical framework to assess policy effectiveness. The findings highlight significant interstate disparities in agricultural performance and policy implementation. High-income states (Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat) benefit from strong infrastructure and effective policy utilization (95%), leading to higher economic outcomes (mean annual farm income: (...) 365,000). Middle-income states (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu) show moderate performance (247,000) through crop diversification and allied activities, whereas low-income states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand) face persistent structural barriers and limited policy reach (68% utilization), resulting in lower incomes (128,000).A quantitative analysis of five key agricultural policies—PM-KISAN, e-NAM, PMFBY, Soil Health Card Scheme, and PMKSY—demonstrates their differential effects on economic stability (45% increase in income stability, 28% reduction in indebtedness), social well-being (52% rise in educational expenditure, 75% growth in health insurance coverage), and environmental sustainability (38% adoption of water conservation practices, 62% increase in organic farming). This study contributes to the discourse on agricultural policy by identifying implementation gaps and proposing region-specific strategies to address structural inefficiencies, optimize resource allocation, and promote sustainable agricultural development tailored to the socioeconomic conditions of different state categories. (shrink)

Background Structured training in research integrity, research ethics and responsible conduct of research is one strategy to reduce research misconduct and strengthen reliability of and trust in scientific evidence. However, how researchers develop their sense of integrity is not fully understood. We examined the factors and circumstances that shape researchers’ understanding of research integrity. Methods This study draws insights from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 33 researchers in the life sciences and medicine, representing three seniority levels across five research universities in (...) Switzerland. Results The results of this study indicate that early education, moral values inculcated by the family and participation in team sports were the earliest influences on notions of honesty, integrity and fairness among researchers. Researchers’ personality traits, including degree of ambition and internal moral compass, were perceived as critical in determining the importance they attributed to conducting research with high ethical standards. Positive and negative experiences in early research life also had a significant impact on their views regarding research integrity. Two thirds of the study participants had not received any formal training in research integrity. Their awareness of training opportunities at their institutions was also limited. Conclusion Age-appropriate development of honesty and integrity starts as early as primary education. Research integrity training should be offered from the bachelors level and continue throughout the entire professional life of researchers. Although these courses may not imbue researchers with integrity itself, they are essential to improving the research culture, reinforcing integrity norms, and discouraging researchers who lack personal integrity from engaging in research misconduct. (shrink)

Rapid and equitable sharing of de-identified, participant-level clinical-epidemiological (clin-epi) data, human biological samples, and human genetic data is crucial for an effective response to acute febrile illnesses (AFIs), particularly during epidemics. Despite increasing calls to share participant-level data and samples as part of the public health response to epidemics, several barriers continue to hinder this process. This study aimed to identify the key benefits, motivators and barriers influencing data and sample sharing among AFI cohort research teams, examining differences between epidemic (...) and non-epidemic settings and exploring variations in perceptions across different research roles within cohort teams. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of researchers managing AFI cohorts. Participants were recruited via cohort principal investigators (PIs) identified through global AFI research consortia and cohort lists. The survey assessed best and worst sharing experiences, perceived motivators and benefits of sharing, and barriers to sharing participant-level clin-epi data, human biological samples, and human genetic data. Best and worst sharing experiences were classified and assessed using the political, ethical, administrative, regulatory, and legal (PEARL) framework. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the importance of different categories of barriers between epidemic and non-epidemic settings. Analyses were also stratified by participant role (PIs vs non-PIs) to explore differences in perceptions of motivators, benefits, and barriers. We received 78 responses from research teams representing 62 AFI cohorts across 23 countries. Most respondents were cohort PIs, over 45, and advanced in their careers. Most cohorts were based in South America or Central America, focused on multiple pathogens, and collected and shared multiple data types and samples. Respondents most commonly cited international scientific collaborations as the best experience and lack of benefit sharing with them as data and sample providers as the worst experience related to data and sample sharing. Important motivators and benefits included increased opportunities for collaboration, authorship, and funding, as well as enhanced insights and reduced duplication of research efforts. Regulatory and technical barriers were identified as very important in both epidemic and non-epidemic settings. Technical barriers were consistently important for both data and samples regardless of the epidemic context. Only regulatory barriers to sharing human biological samples were found to be of significantly higher importance in epidemic vs non-epidemic settings (p < 0.05). Differences emerged between PIs and non-PIs in perceived motivators, benefits; PIs more frequently highlighted authorship opportunities and funding-related collaborations as key motivators and benefits of sharing. Economic and motivational barriers to sharing were perceived to be more important by PIs than non-PIs. Addressing regulatory and technical barriers, particularly during epidemics, is critical for improving data and sample sharing among AFI researchers. Explicitly incorporating motivators and benefits valued by cohort researchers, including opportunities for collaboration, authorship, and funding, into data-sharing practices, alongside targeted strategies addressing differences between PIs and non-PIs, could foster more equitable and effective data and sample sharing practices. (shrink)

Traditional, positivist assessment approaches generally fail to capture the nuances of learners’ clinical competence in medical programmes. This has led to the implementation of an alternate assessment approach known as ‘programmatic assessment’, which embraces subjectivity of human judgement in holistic decision making in clinical settings. Faculty and staff have found the introduction of programmatic assessment to be challenging because it is a major, complex change to the traditional way of carrying out assessment. Extending our previous work, where we used critical (...) realism to explore students’ experiences of programmatic assessment, we here unpack the underlying conditions and mechanisms triggered by programmatic assessment’s implementation. We applied Bhaskar’s concept of ontological stratification, retroduction and Archer’s theoretical accounts of morphogenesis/stasis to theorize the interplay between the socio-cultural entities that constrain and enable desired changes in assessment practices, and those that condition students and staff to accept or reject the new ‘non-traditional’ assessment processes. (shrink)

Laudan identifies two fundamental puzzles concerning science, revealing its Janus-faced nature: the puzzle of agreement and the puzzle of disagreement. For him, existing accounts of scientific change fail to resolve both puzzles. He particularly challenges Kuhn’s account in order to advance his reticulated model of scientific rationality. In this regard, this paper pursues two related aims: First, it argues that Laudan’s model falls short in adequately accounting for both dimensions of science as he himself defines them, and generates new problems (...) absent in Kuhn. Second, it establishes overlooked continuities between the earlier and later Kuhn, arguing that Laudan’s critique applies only to these two stages and not to a transitional phase. In this transitional phase, Kuhnian values uniquely address both of Laudan’s puzzles by integrating both shared values and subjective considerations. Thus, I argue that only Kuhn’s Janus-faced conception of values truly explains the dual character of science. (shrink)

In The Living Gita, Prabhupada Priya Devi Dasi presents the timeless teachings of the Bhagavad Gita through clear explanations, relatable reflections and modern-day examples drawn from lived experience. Preserving the authenticity of all 700 original verses, this book speaks directly to contemporary readers navigating confusion, attachment, difficult choices and emotional conflict.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the attitudes and reactions of researchers towards an authorship claim made by a researcher in a position of authority who has not made any scientific contribution to a manuscript or helped to write it. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with 33 researchers at three seniority levels working in biomedicine and the life sciences in Switzerland. This manuscript focuses on the analysis of participants’ responses when presented with a vignette describing an (...) authorship assignment dilemma within a research group. The analysis indicates that researchers use a variety of explanations and arguments to justify inclusion of what guidelines would describe as honorary or guest authorship. Fuzzy parameters such as “substantial contribution” lead to varied interpretation and consequently convenient application of authorship guidelines in practice. Factors such as the culture of the research group, the values and practice shaped by the research leaders, the hierarchy and relative positions of power within research institutions, and the importance given to publications as the currency for academic success and growth tend to have a strong influence on authorship practice. Unjustified authorship assignment practices can be reduced to some extent by creating empowering research cultures where each researcher irrespective of his/her career stage feels empowered to confidently raise concerns without fearing adverse impact on their professional lives. However, individual researchers and research institutions currently have limited influence on established methods for evaluating academic success, which is primarily based on the number of high impact publications. (shrink)

Nanotechnology, which involves manipulation of matter on a ‘nano’ scale, is considered to be a key enabling technology. Medical applications of nanotechnology are expected to significantly improve disease diagnostic and therapeutic modalities and subsequently reduce health care costs. However, there is no consensus on the definition of nanotechnology or nanomedicine, and this stems from the underlying debate on defining ‘nano’. This paper aims to present the diversity in the definition of nanomedicine and its impact on the translation of basic science (...) research in nanotechnology into clinical applications. We present the insights obtained from exploratory qualitative interviews with 46 stakeholders involved in translational nanomedicine from Europe and North America. The definition of nanomedicine has implications for many aspects of translational research including: fund allocation, patents, drug regulatory review processes and approvals, ethical review processes, clinical trials and public acceptance. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the field and common interest in developing effective clinical applications, it is important to have honest and transparent communication about nanomedicine, its benefits and potential harm. A clear and consistent definition of nanomedicine would significantly facilitate trust among various stakeholders including the general public while minimizing the risk of miscommunication and undue fear of nanotechnology and nanomedicine. (shrink)

The Ebola epidemic in Western Africa has highlighted issues related to weak health systems, the politics of drug and vaccine development and the need for transparent and ethical criteria for use of scarce local and global resources during public health emergency. In this paper we explore two key themes. First, we argue that independent of any use of experimental drugs or vaccine interventions, simultaneous implementation of proven public health principles, community engagement and culturally sensitive communication are critical as these measures (...) represent the most cost-effective and fair utilization of available resources. Second, we attempt to clarify the ethical issues related to use of scarce experimental drugs or vaccines and explore in detail the most critical ethical question related to Ebola drug or vaccine distribution in the current outbreak: who among those infected or at risk should be prioritized to receive any new experimental drugs or vaccines? We conclude that healthcare workers should be prioritised for these experimental interventions, for a variety of reasons. (shrink)

Queer, post-colonial and Black feminist scholars and activists have long cautioned against the dangerous exclusions and complicities entailed in even the best-intentioned efforts to counter sexual violence. The rhetoric of protecting women from sexual violence is frequently and effectively invoked in order to rehabilitate old colonial projects and justify new ones that persecute sexual dissidents, police gender, sexual and caste transgressions and re-inscribe neoliberal and neo-conservative rationalities across the globe. This article argues that many of the exclusionary, violent and coercive (...) consequences of efforts to protect women from sexual violence are rooted in mischaracterisations or mis-descriptions of the subject of sexual violence, and enabled by particular (mis)orientations towards this subject. Specifically, I suggest that the imagination and representation of the subject of sexual violence is subtended by a politically dangerous and conceptually untenable victim/agent binary. Mediated by rationalities of caste, race, class and religion, women are imagined either as vulnerable victims in need of protection, or as capable (even culpable) agents, but never simultaneously both. The failure to reconcile victimhood and agency within discourses of sexual violence is precisely the condition of possibility for a range of violent, exclusionary and regulatory outcomes. This article tracks the effects of the victim/agent binary in dominant responses to sexual violence, before assembling the foundations from which to rethink victimhood and agency away from their binary orthodoxy, drawing centrally on the radical subjectivity of pain. (shrink)

Most businesses in India undergo disproportionate development as their focus is on making more and more profit. They seem to have no concern for the environment, the welfare of their employees or the unethical practices they follow. This has resulted in problems such as an increase in business rivalry, a widening employer–employee gap, a disconnect with environmental concerns as well as a general disinterest in the well-being of the world. The need of the hour therefore is to weave value-based business (...) models for India based on its rich philosophical thought, deep culture and evolved knowledge systems. This paper proposes to meet this need by initiating value-based consultancy based on ancient Indian philosophical thought. It proposes that it should be done with a focus on the human values approach as reflected in the theory of Purusarthas, different dimensions of Yoga and Vedanta philosophy to improve businesses and business practices from a holistic perspective. This philosophical intervention will certainly help businesses to develop more clarity about unethical practices and the ways to control them. (shrink)

Fair trade is a new form of commercial partnership whereby actors in the North engage with actors in the South on a number of conditions, including setting a minimum price, a development bonus, and so on. But above all, fair trade organizations in the South are implementing mechanisms that more or less facilitate the empowerment of their members. This article analyzes the empowerment effects of two fair trade organizations in South India. It shows that while positive effects can be seen, (...) the prevailing social norms in India are extremely influential for women at the moment, so that women are putting all their hopes on their daughters through their education. (shrink)

A thought-provoking meditation on food, family, identity, immigration, and, most of all, hospitality--at the table and beyond--that's part food memoir, part appeal for more authentic decency in our daily worlds, and in the world at large.

A thought-provoking meditation on food, family, identity, immigration, and, most of all, hospitality--at the table and beyond--that's part food memoir, part appeal for more authentic decency in our daily worlds, and in the world at large.

The book motivates you never to give up. Though life may break you and shatter you to pieces, you always have the option to turn it around. The courage, the strength which you get by facing the challenges thrown by life at you makes you stronger and makes you “Unbreakable”. Your self-confidence, strength and extra-ordinary determination have the power to change your life. This book provides you powerful insights on how to handle difficulties in life and face life head-on. You (...) can take the help of the divine and become the best version of yourself. It is a book of powerful breakthroughs and life's learning which can be implemented directly in your personal and professional life when you just want to give up on yourself when things get tough. This book lets you know that you are tougher than your problems and no matter how many times life knocks you down you have the power to rise and shine brightly like the sun and show the world who you are. (shrink)

In 2006, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) published its ‘Ethical guidelines for Biomedical Research on human participants’. The intention was to translate international ethical standards into locally and culturally appropriate norms and values to help biomedical researchers in India to conduct ethical research and thereby safeguard the interest of human subjects. Unfortunately, it is apparent that the guideline is not fit for purpose. In addition to problems with the structure and clarity of the guidelines, there are several serious (...) omissions and contradictions in the recommendations. In this paper, we take a close look at the two key chapters and highlight some of the striking flaws in this important document. We conclude that ethics committees and national authorities should not lose sight of international ethical standards while incorporating local reality and cultural and social values, as focusing too much on the local context could compromise the safety of human subjects in biomedical research, particularly in India. (shrink)

Transcription is a fundamental cellular process and the first step in gene regulation. Although RNA polymerase (RNAP) is highly processive, in growing cells the progression of transcription can be hindered by obstacles on the DNA template, such as damaged DNA. The authors recent findings highlight a trade‐off between transcription fidelity and DNA break repair. While a lot of work has focused on the interaction between transcription and nucleotide excision repair, less is known about how transcription influences the repair of DNA (...) breaks. The authors suggest that when the cell experiences stress from DNA breaks, the control of RNAP processivity affects the balance between preserving transcription integrity and DNA repair. Here, how the conflict between transcription and DNA double‐strand break (DSB) repair threatens the integrity of both RNA and DNA are discussed. In reviewing this field, the authors speculate on cellular paradigms where this equilibrium is well sustained, and instances where the maintenance of transcription fidelity is favored over genome stability. (shrink)

The subject of this essay is NBIC convergence (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science convergence). NBIC convergence is a recurring trope that is dominated by the paradigm of integration of the sciences. It is largely influenced by the considerations of social and economic impact, and it assumes positivism in the name of technological progress. The culture of NBIC convergence, including NBIC discourses, is ensconced on the borders between modernity/ postmodernity, ambition/restraint, unity/fragmentation, and rational intellect/creativity. Both the rhetoric of ambition (...) and visionary development, and its responding calls for some level of restraint and caution, make contrasting assumptions that, however unintentionally, further polarize the debate concerning NBIC technologies. Those engaged in producing the culture, including scientists, engineers, and ethicists of convergence, consider the ramifications of these technologies for subjectivity and identity in ways that do not fully account for the diversity of human experience, or the ambiguity of human nature. NBIC convergence, such as artificial intelligence, is a “projection of the normative self, unaware of its own specificity;” in other words, that converging technologies offer negligible insight into human corporeality or experience and, in their theoretical frameworks, are hardly conscious of the necessity of effectively mobilizing the diversity within society and of social existence in bringing about nanotechnology’s “maximum benefit to humanity,” and are part and parcel of creating a “nanoself,” bereft of uniqueness. (shrink)

As the climate crisis intensifies, ecological degradation is rendering large areas of the planet increasingly uninhabitable. This slow-onset emergency is producing widespread displacement – millions forced from their homes by rising seas, extreme weather, and environmental collapse. Yet those displaced often remain excluded from formal legal protections, and the countries most responsible for climate change are frequently the least willing to accept them. This paper argues that existing legal definitions – such as ‘refugee’ or ‘migrant’ – fail to capture the (...) structural violence and involuntary nature of climate displacement, allowing states to avoid responsibility under the veneer of legal neutrality. In response, the paper proposes a justice-based framework for ecological displacement, grounded in both immediate humanitarian need and long-term historical culpability. It critiques dominant adaptation and resilience narratives for masking inequality, and instead calls for enforceable protections, equitable migration pathways, and binding commitments from the Global North. Drawing from philosophical, legal, and environmental justice traditions, it reframes climate displacement not as a technical challenge, but as a moral and political crisis requiring structural transformation. (shrink)

In recent years, a dramatic increase in the study of infrastructure has occurred in the social sciences and humanities, following upon foundational work in the physical sciences, architecture, planning, information science, and engineering. This article, authored by a multidisciplinary group of scholars, probes the generative potential of infrastructure at this historical juncture. Accounting for the conceptual and material capacities of infrastructure, the article argues for the importance of paradox in understanding infrastructure. Thematically the article is organized around three key points (...) that speak to the study of infrastructure: ruin, retrofit, and risk. The first paradox of infrastructure, ruin, suggests that even as infrastructure is generative, it degenerates. A second paradox is found in retrofit, an apparent ontological oxymoron that attempts to bridge temporality from the present to the future and yet ultimately reveals that infrastructural solidity, in material and symbolic terms, is more apparent than actual. Finally, a third paradox of infrastructure, risk, demonstrates that while a key purpose of infrastructure is to mitigate risk, it also involves new risks as it comes to fruition. The article concludes with a series of suggestions and provocations to view the study of infrastructure in more contingent and paradoxical forms. (shrink)

Works in science and technology studies have repeatedly pointed to the importance of the visual in scientific practice. STS has also explicated how embodied practice generates scientific knowledge. I aim to supplement this literature by pointing out how sound and hearing are integral aspects of experimentation. Sound helps define how and when lab work is done, and in what kinds of spaces. It structures experimental experience. It affords interactions between researchers and instruments that are richer than could be obtained with (...) vision alone. And it is a site for tacit knowledge, providing a resource for the replication of results, and the transmission of knowledge, and the construction of social boundaries within instrumental communities. (shrink)

This paper follows the history of an object. The purpose of doing so is to come to terms with a distinctive kind of research object – which we are calling a ‘test object’ – as well as to chronicle a significant line of research and technology development associated with the broader nanoscience/nanotechnology movement. A test object is one of a family of epistemic things that makes up the material culture of laboratory science. Depending upon the case, it can have variable (...) shadings of practical, mathematical and epistemic significance. Clear cases of test objects have highly regular and reproducible visible properties that can be used for testing instruments and training novices. The test object featured in this paper is the silicon 7×7, a particular surface configuration of silicon atoms. Research on this object over a period of several decades has been closely bound up with the development of novel instruments for visualizing atomic structures. Despite having little direct commercial value, the Si 7×7 also has been a focal object for the formation of a research community bridging industry and academia. It exhibits a complex structure that became a sustained focus of observation and modelling. Our study follows shifts in the epistemic status of the Si 7×7, and uses it to re-examine familiar conceptions of representation and observation in the history, philosophy and social study of science. (shrink)

This volume takes a novel approach to strategy in the corporate sector: how can understanding the ephemeral seasons of the business life cycle help leaders manage their companies? Businesses all naturally go through cycles of birth, growth, and decay, and here Theodore Modis helps decode the rhythms of these changes for his readers. By pinpointing what season a company is in, strategists can make educated decisions about how to compete in the marketplace, how to direct their advertising efforts, and how (...) to counterattack. This powerful guide lays out rules for how companies can grow swiftly but painlessly, and it deserves a place on any business consultant’s desk. (shrink)

Death is the inevitable fate of every single person on earth. How do we accept the inevitability of our own death? How do we live our lives with meaning? Will money lead us to happiness? Satish Modi examines these questions and more in a moving, powerful, thought-provoking work based on his own reflections as well as the experiences of people from all walks of life. The result is a fascinating book that teaches us that whoever we are and whatever (...) our aspirations in this life, it is important for each and every one of us to accept our own passing. In doing so, we free ourselves to live as fully as possible, guided by the principles of goodness, love, and compassion. (shrink)

Work on Vedanta philosophy with Āmoda autocommentary by Acyutaśarmā Moḍaka, active 1813-1825.

Using an evidence-based model developed by Egbert and colleagues, editors Joy Egbert and Priya Panday-Shukla provide a comprehensive overview of task engagement for teachers and researchers. Research has positioned task engagement as central to student learning, and Egbert Panday-Shukla now collate this research into a resource teachers can utilize.The chapters address how task engagement theory, evidence, and instruction can be applied to increase learner achievement. The editors and contributors draw from backgrounds across STEAM education and other disciplines to present (...) task engagement and connect its importance to the success of today's students. Chapters include background information, resources, exercises, and ideas for teachers and researchers to extend the research behind individual elements of the task engagement model into practice. Each chapter focuses on one component of the model, and includes guiding questions and key points, a "how-to" section, and recommended tasks for K-12 classroom use. Though ideal for teacher education research scholars, students, and faculty, this book is useful for instructors at all levels interested in integrating task engagement principles into their practice. (shrink)

This introductory essay frames our special issue by discussing how attention to the history of research integrity and fraud can stimulate new historical and methodological insights of broader import to historians of science.

The primary challenge facing most of the South Africa’s State-Owned Companies (SOCs) is the implementation of an ineffective nomination process used to appoint directors, which often results in the appointment of incompetent executives and boards of directors. As a result, this chapter provides an effective process that can be used by SOCs when appointing directors. This research paper aims to identify an effective nomination process for non-executive directors overseeing SOCs. This study conducted a systematic literature review as well as a (...) two-round Delphi process where experts provided their input on the most effective nomination process for non-executive directors serving on SOCs. The research study has identified the most effective nomination process that can be used when appointing non-executive directors in SOC. The research study’s findings suggest an effective nomination process that SOCs can use to select non-executive directors for SOCs. This study contributes to the scant research on corporate governance in SOC, especially on research focusing on the nomination process of non-executive directors, as the majority of research has been concentrated on listed companies. (shrink)