South Asian Journal of Socio-political Studies

VOL.XIX NO.2 January - June 2019

Reinventing Culture and Tradition in the Face of Oppression: The Case of Indentured Girmitiyas

Dr. Pavitranand Ramhota, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Diaspora and Transnational communities, Rabindranath Tagore Institute, Mauritius The indentured labourers that migrated and settled down in Mauritius carried with them memories of their homeland. These memories became the strength that allowed them to survive in adverse conditions of bonded labour and life in a foreign land. The socio-cultural complex of their life worlds that reproduced these memories through social habits, tradition, food, music allowed them the flexibility to reinvent new ways of coping. This paper will examine how cultural practices such as ‘Geet Gawai’, culinary practices, religion, customs and language enabled the indentured to keep alive their cultural and racial roots of Indian origin. For instance Geet Gawai has recently been declared as intangible cultural heritage by the UNESCO. Immigrants from the now erstwhile United Provinces and North India, carried with them the cultural heritage of their ‘life worlds’ through Bhojpuri and Awadhi. The dance forms, songs, clothing speak volumes of the ways of the various communities of this geographical region and has become the memory bank for these immigrants. What is interesting is that the identity, sociabilites and culture are part and parcel of Geet Gawai which has now become an integral part of the Mauritian culture.

Political Challenges for India in the Indian Ocean Region: The Need for Confidence Building Measures

Aswani R.S., Assistant Professor, Department of Public Policy, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, Uttarakhand Security is a complex phenomenon that has to be ensured by all actors of international politics and cannot be dealt with in national boundaries. The scale and range of challenges in 21st century makes it even harder for interested parties to ensure stability in their neighborhood. Thus, peace and security becomes a shared responsibility of all participating nations and to ensure those in the Indian Ocean region, the littoral nations need to assess the situation in general and the expansion of China in particular as that alone can ensure enhanced cooperation between nations in the region. The main objective of the paper is to identify the major political threats and challenges for India in the Indian Ocean Region and deals with the need for a clear strategy that has to be envisaged by the littoral nations to bring perpetual peace and stability in IOR.

Remembering Professor T.K. Ravindran: Historian Extraordinaire

Dr. Suresh Jnaneswaran, Formerly Director, School of Social Sciences & Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kerala T K Ravindran extensively dwelt on ‘Caste Determinism in Indian History’ in the M L Gupta Endowment Lecture delivered at the South Indian History Congress in Chennai on 24 January 1999. In the analysis he examines a host of socio-cultural and religious themes and the core aspect of caste determinism in it. He also examines the history written by E M S Namboodiripad and other Marxist scholars. Ravindran was not idealizing caste nor advocating its continuance but highlighting it’s all pervading existence through millennia with undisputed command over all fields of human activity. While reorganizing the genius of Marx and his philosophy, Ravindran had struck a note of refrain in its total application to Indian conditions. Marx had himself underscored the role of Caste in the economic and political ruination of India. Ravindran was profoundly aware of the origins, maturity and disintegration of ideas and theories that determined the formation of societies and their public sphere. His historiographical perceptions were unambiguously demonstrated in his work on Nehru’s Idea of History. Like K M Panikkar, Ravindran also felt that Indian History was not being written from the point of view of India but from the point of view of Delhi and its changing rulers. Ravindran in sarcasm termed it the ‘supercilious perception’ of the Delhi Agrahara. The polemical mind never hesitated to take on the best of historians, stridently putting across viewpoints as was witnessed during the debate on Indian Feudalism.

Capability Approach in Public Policy: A Theoretical Appraisal

Subhasmita Khuntia, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Political Science, Dhenkanal Autonomous College, Dhenkanal, Odisha and Dr. Ravuru Narasaiah, Dept. of Politics & International Studies, Pondicherry University, Puducherry The capability approach with its focus upon individual freedom and choices has come to grab the attention of policymakers in the arena of policy making and policy evaluation. The present study investigates the discourse on the capability approach that endorses its ascendency over the standard approaches to wellbeing. In the paper, the researcher has made a critical analysis of the standard approaches to wellbeing and observed that these approaches certainly lack the concern towards human freedom and choice which renders towards their inadequacy in the assessment of wellbeing. The paper unveils the essence of the capability approach in public policy making and argues that there is a strong case for taking the approach into considerations in the judgement of human wellbeing. Finally, the paper concludes that the capability approach, though stands in variance with these approaches, actually reinforces them and creates necessary conditions for significant policy implications.

Democracy: Changing Nature and Dimensions

Dr. G. Palanithurai, Formerly Professor, Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Department of Political Science and Development Administration, Gandhigram Rural Institute - Deemed University, Gandhigram Democracy is a much debated subject but most misunderstood in the modern context as it defies definition. It is a complex and difficult subject to explain as its meaning is evolved over a period of time. It is an interesting subject to be understood by everyone as a citizen living in a democratic country as democracy is a way of life and fastly expanding. Democracy, as an institution of governance and a set of behavioural traits on the part of the citizens, has been in practice more than 80% of the countries in the world at present. Democratization of societies is one of the remarkable achievements of the present century. Never humanity expected such a kind of transformation of the societies towards democracy. It is on the increase continuously. But at the same time qualitatively democracy has been on the decline. It is interesting to note that for millions it is an excitement as they are coming into democratic regimes in the recent decades. But yet another millions it is a worrisome event as quality of democracy has started declining. Wherever democracy was established and reformed through a process of continuous struggle have now started declining. Since at present, there is no alternative to the present form of representative democracy, steps are on to reform it to deliver the expected results. Many of the countries which had been in democratic practice for centuries together started facing deep crisis and declining in quality. The countries which have adopted the democratic practice in the recent years started building institutions, procedures and practices of democratic values in their day today contact.

Armed Conflict in Chattisgarh: An Unprecedented Humanitarian Crisis

Saji Mathew, Research Fellow, School of Law, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi The terms of the word ‘war and armed conflict’ are often used interchangeably. It is important to note how IHL ‘distinguishes the traditional idea of ‘war’ from the more recent concept of ‘armed conflict’. With the adoption of the four Geneva Conventions1, the word ‘war’ was replaced by the term ‘armed conflict’. The rationale for this deliberate substitution was to widen the humanitarian protection to situations other than those strictly defined, in a legal sense, as ‘war’. This substitution makes it much more difficult for a State to deny the applicability of International Humanitarian Law to any hostile act it might commit by claiming that it did not amount to an act of war but was only, say an act of self-defence or a police action. The term ‘armed conflict’ covers the use of armed force in any dispute between two states or between the armed forces of a state and an armed group or between armed groups within a state; and that makes implicit the applicability of IHL in all those circumstances, even if one of the parties to such a conflict were to claim that it was not “at war”2.

Praxis of Social Accountability for Good Governance in India

Bibhuti Bhusan Nayak, ICSSR Doctoral Fellow of P.G Department of Public Administration, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha and Dr. Padmalaya Mahapatra, Associate Professor and Head in the P.G Department of Public Administration, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Issues of governance and accountability have emerged as vital issues in the present era in developing countries. An emergent need exists for identifying and promoting approaches towards building social accountability that rely on civic engagement. This paper analyses differential social accountability concepts, tools and mechanisms as applied in different contexts. The authors want to focus on the practices of social accountability initiatives across South and Southeast Asia which have much greater element of community participation and involvement in comparison to other parts of the globe. This paper highlights social accountability as a means to achieve good governance and increased public participation for improved public service delivery in India. The paper concludes with the observation about the accountability failures in India and analyzes ways to enhance social accountability in various programmes being implemented by the Government of India.

Delivering Justice at the Grassroots: The Case of Gram Nyayalayas in India

Dr. M.R. Biju, Dean, School of Social Sciences and Head, Dept.of Public Administration and Policy Studies, Central University of Kerala, Kasargod. and M.R.B. Anantha Padmanabha, Deputy Editor, South Asian Journal of Socio-Political Studies The preamble of the Gram Nyayalaya Act envisages access to justice to the citizens at their doorsteps with the assurance that opportunities for securing justice are not devised to any citizen by season of any disability whatsoever. Hence, the success of these institutions should not only be measured by the number of courts in the whole nation but in terms of the extent and depth of reaching out to deprived sections and its role in the overall reduction in the number of pending cases. Over 72 years after independence, the search for acceptable and accessible legal institution for those living in rural India is still a far away dream. However, whatever things which are available at our hands should be used and utilized with a new professional legal touch, which may give a new light to the Indian Judicial System in the days to come.

A Critical Study of Making Academic Qualification Essential in Haryana Panchayati Raj Institutions

Professor Dr. Ravindra Sharma, Formerly Professor and Head, Department of Public Administration, University of Rajasthan All the democratic institutions function in close collaboration and cooperation of peoples representatives and the civil service. It is a common practice to recruit people with some academic qualification in the civil service. For the smooth functioning of the democratic institutions peoples representatives should also have some education. In theory it is admitted that the peoples representatives frame policies and the civil service is responsible for its efficient execution. If the peoples representatives are illiterate they will have to totally depend on the civil service. In such situation they will be reduced to puppet in the hands of bureaucracy.1 Therefore, it is considered appropriate that the representatives of people should be quite intelligent at the same time they should have some education. In Haryana the State Government made academic qualification essential for PRI representatives in 2015 first with the help of an Ordinance and by the Act lateron. This paper discusses the issue of introducing academic qualification for PRIs in Haryana. The paper is based on primary and secondary data. It focuses on the various events relating to it, the provisions of the amendment, the role of court and its decision, comparison of the academic qualifications of the PRI representatives elected in 2010 and 2016 in Haryana, its socio-eco-psycho-politico effect and the use of fake documents to contest the elections in Haryana.

Attainment of Sustainable Development Goals with Information and Communications Technology

Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Mahajan, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh and Dr. Anupama Puri Mahajan, Freelance Writer and Researcher, based at Shimla, Himachal Pradesh This article aims at explaining the potential advantage of Information Technology and Communications (ICTs) that is ‘The Future We Want’, while illustrating the point that the future can be achieved only if the world works towards the fulfillment of needs of the developing and developed countries. United Nations, in 2015, came out with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as binding to all the member countries. The important question arises how SDGs can be achieved by 2030 as per the deadline set by the United Nations. Hence, in this article an attempt has been made to understand the role of ICTs in achieving the SDGs, apart from different agencies, involved in making this to happen.

Climate Change and India’s Preparedness in Agriculture

Raj Kishor Pradhan, Senior Statistical Officer, NSSO, FOD, Sambalpur India is the second populous country in the world. It is aspire to be the developed country in near future .But it is facing huge challenge in term of climate change. Irregular monsoon, depleting Glaciers in Himalaya, rising temperature are the some sign of climate change. Due to climate change agricultural production has been declining. It has also adverse impact on animal husbandry. So it has affected the livelihood of millions of people. The world’s governments have agreed on an ambitious agenda to transform our world by 2030, adopting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to ensure no one is left behind, and everyone benefits from development efforts. Agenda 2030 is unprecedented in scope and significance. There is a significant departure from the previous framework to now include a “harmonising” of three elements: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. But the fault line, as ever in global conferences, is the inappropriate balance between environment and development. But how far we prepared to face the adverse effect of climate change on Indian agriculture. The aim of the paper is to analyses the adverse effect of climate change on Indian agriculture and preparedness of the country as a whole.

Women in Indian Agriculture: Emerging Trends

Professor D. Pulla Rao, Head, Dept. of Economics, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, A. P. Agriculture is still a major activity in our country percentage of female population, as a whole, is directly or indirectly, involved in farming as cultivators or labour Majority of women in villages participate in agriculture as agricultural labour. Women’s participation as cultivators is minimal. In India, nearly 70 per cent of the male and 87 per cent of the female workers are dependent upon agriculture, livestock, forestry etc. for their livelihood. Women are engaged in a number of farm operations along with men. Activities such as application of manure, land preparation, seed grading, sowing, dabbling, planting, irrigation, fertilizers application, plant protection, harvesting, threshing, shelling, hulling, winnowing, cleaning and storing grain, feeding cattle, looking after mulch animal, poultry and kitchen gardening are the main occupations of farm women. A large number of women who depend mainly on this economic activity in rural India live below the subsistence level. The female agricultural labour is very high despite facing difficulties in the field of the existing socio – economic framework of Indian society. Casual nature of employment, absence of opportunities to improve the skills, segregation of work, ignorance and less vocal nature of the workers, unemployment, lack of other revenues, commercialization and mechanization of agriculture, sexual exploitation and some of the problems that have oppressed the female agricultural labour in the country. In general, in seventy years of independence, constitutional safeguards and various developmental programmes adopted by government have not altered the basic life conditions of agricultural labour in general and female labour in particular. It also highlights the level of exploitation that is being carried out on the oppressed in general and women belonging to lower class in particular. The problems of some agricultural labour expose the various dimensions of their everyday life. The present study deals with the various bureaucratic organizations engaged in the implementation of welfare programmes to improve the lot of the rural poor-women.

Paradox of Caste Discrimination and Exclusion of the SCs in Kerala: An Inter-Zone and Intra-Community Analysis

Dr. D. Rajasenan, Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP), Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi, Kerala, India, Aparna. S, Research Fellow, Department of Applied Economics, CUSAT and Dr. Rajeev. B, Assistant Professor, CSSEIP, CUSAT Though, Kerala is considered to be a progressive state, the ills of caste system is also paradoxically progressive. After 71 years of independence of the country the fate of the Scheduled Castes has not changed much or the strategy of inclusion of the excluded still remains a mystery in spite of the plethora of development schemes and programmes aiming to uplift the socially and economically handicapped sections or to move freely in a dynamic and progressive Kerala society. Exclusion or discrimination per se is multidimensional in characteristics, a simple exclusion, say for example the caste-based exclusion works in myriad forms as in cultural, political, economic, education, employment and civil. Exclusion can also happen naturally or forcefully and both have different impacts in society. The study uses 500 samples collected using stratified proportionate random sample method giving due consideration for including different SC sub-communities. The article very well portrays the exclusion and deprivation faced by the SCs. The SCs often face discrimination and exclusion based on caste and their social life in terms of interaction with other community members is minimal. The exclusion dynamics of the SC explanation shows that all the sub-communities of the SCs face exclusion in all the levels. The model-based evaluation of the development schemes shows that 60 to 82 percent of the SC communities still face exclusion and are out of the ambit of development process in the state.

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act: Issues and Court Rulings

Urvashi Pareek, Research Scholar, Department of Public Policy, Law and Governance, Central University of Rajasthan and Dr. Nagendra Ambedkar Sole, Professor, Department of Public Policy, Law and Governance and Dean, School of Social Sciences, Central University of Rajasthan The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been discriminated in India since time immemorial. This paper deals with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in a way to illustrate the journey of Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes Act since its inception. In this paper, an attempt has been made to discuss the various issues with regard to implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. This paper has been divided into two sections. The first section deals with basic introduction, the data indicating rise in atrocities on the Dalits and then, heading towards a genealogy of the act including the recent Supreme Court’s verdict of 20 March 2018. The second section deals with role of the reaction of different groups to the Supreme Court’s judgment and the role of state with respect to the Act. The second section is followed by a conclusion with suggestions and reformative measures. Despite the need for providing more preventive measures to control the atrocities on Dalits, the fact remains that existing Acts are being questioned and challenged. In the same way, the SC/ST (PoA) Act had recently been a matter of debate which led to massive national protest and violent agitation by the supporters and the opponents of the Act, after the Supreme Court’s March, 2018 ruling. The Supreme Court had directed the police to verify all facts about the case before registering it under the Act in order to ensure that justice is done to both, the aggrieved and the accused.

SC Women Enterprises in Kerala: A Study on its Marketing Methods

Swapna Aji, Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, S.N.College, Chempazhanthi, Currently Full time Research Scholar in Commerce, under FDP of UGC at Government College for Women, Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram. An attempt is made in this paper to enquire into the methods and measures followed by the scheduled caste women enterprises in Kerala for the marketing their products and services. This is against the backdrop that the main bane confronted by small and medium enterprises in the State is found to the problems in respect of marketing the products both in local external markets. Marketing strategies differ with respect to rural areas and urban areas and from business to business. There are caste differences in the sphere of marketing opportunities and also with respect to various avenues that linked entrepreneurship with marketing. Development of scheduled caste women owned enterprises through strategic interventions in various realm of marketing helps in accelerating entrepreneurship among scheduled caste women. The scheduled caste women owned industries in the State were identified for the present study and classified based on the nature of business into nine categories fort analysis and interpretation of the data. The data required for the research paper was collected from both primary sources and secondary sources.

A Study on Media Student’s Perception towards Trustworthiness of Various Media Tools

Bhavna Pathak, Asst. Professor Mass Communication Department, Shri Vaishnav Vidhyapeeth Vishwavidyalay, Indore, M.P. Media has become omnipresent and omnipotent in 21st century with advent of new media based on internet which is highly interactive and expeditious. Our dependency on media system is increasing day by day as it plays multiple roles in our life i.e. informer, educator, entertainer, motivator, persuader etc. As media became integral part of our daily life it is important to know how responsible our media are. Aim of this study is to find out media student’s perception towards trustworthiness of various media tools. Data has been obtained through close ended questionnaire from students of Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication, Bhopal. 100 students of various courses had been selected randomly for this study. Result of this research study reveals that people are shifting towards digital media from traditional media as majority of respondents (37%) preferred social media for seeking out any kind of information. They spent more time on social networking sites as compare to other medium. Though social media is more popular among youngsters but when it comes to trustworthiness of media content social media is considered most unreliable tool to believe in. Majority of respondents (57%) found newspaper content most trustworthy among various media tools. Though trustworthiness of print media is high but most of the respondents lost trust in news media in recent years and found media biased. Majority of respondents believe that media became sensational.

The Significance and Importance of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge

DDr. Valerie Dkhar, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry For centuries, indigenous people have lived in harmony with their environment and have managed to gather vital knowledge and develop practices on survival, on the workings of the ecosystem and the ecological processes that takes place which have proved to be pivotal for their continued existence. “Indigenous knowledge” is perhaps an area which is gathering a lot of attention since the international community have realized its importance and relevance in defining the success rates of plans and policies executed. This paper looks at Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK), it’s significance and importance, not only to the indigenous people in particular but to the world in general, it’s contribution to providing solutions for environmental problems and the maintenance of equilibrium in the ecosystem which is critical for sustainability.

Interlinked Agricultural Credit Market and Its Impact on Agrarian Community: A case study of West Bengal

Sanchita Bhattacharya, Deputy Director, National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development Interlinked market is a striking feature of agrarian economies which describes multiplex relationships between the same economic agents. Interlinked transactions mean an unwritten contract involving an exchange of current for future claims and thereby an element of credit. The recent literature shows that interlinkage appears because of asymmetry of information, uncertainty, absent market and transaction costs. The research article attempts to analyze the linkage between credit and product market and with other input markets- both for the developed as well as underdeveloped regions of West Bengal. The hypothesis framed to study the objective of the article is that transactions in dual or multiple markets involving credit, input and product markets exist not only in the underdeveloped agrarian region but also in the developed agrarian regions where production is carried on under technologically advanced conditions. Five villages of developed region and five more from the underdeveloped region have been selected as the sample villages. A sample of 400 households, 200 each from the developed and underdeveloped region, has been selected for the study. The major findings of the article is that in both the blocks, farmers have entered into tied credit transactions with traders, landlords cum moneylenders and aratdars, the incidence of interlinked transactions being higher in underdeveloped block. Poor farmers’ dependence on input traders in the interlinked credit market is the highest in both the regions. In majority of the cases, tying of credit is made with product and future labour services. A comparison is also being made between the nominal rate of interest and effective rate of interest in the developed and underdeveloped blocks to know the extent of undervaluation of collaterals and the hidden costs of borrowing. The difference between nominal rate and effective rate of interest is much high in the Baruipur region showing undervaluation of collateral to a great extent in the underdeveloped region. An attempt has also been made to identify the factors affecting interest rate in the interlinked credit market. The article suggests that formal financial institutions can come forward to lend against the produce stored by the farmers to prevent distress sale by farmers. The network of Input Supply Centres and regulated markets may be extended to ease supply of inputs, marketing of agricultural output and improve the bargaining power of small and marginal farmers. Credit policies should be based on the credit needs of poor farming community to reduce the dependence of farming community on interlinked market and on informal finance.

A Perceptual Study on Job Satisfaction Among the Employees in MNCs

Dr. Mousumi Sengupta, Professor – HRM and OB, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysuru and Dr. Nilanjan Sengupta, Professor – HRM and OB, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysuru The present study considered the concept of job satisfaction as ‘the perception of employees about their experience at the workplace’ and aimed to investigate certain issues which might be responsible for such perception. Nine issues have been chosen for investigation: Job significance, Job expectations, Career advancement opportunity, Feedback and dialogue with boss, Working relationship with co-workers, Autonomy, Reward and recognition, Ethos and values of the company, and, Internal communication system. Data was collected by administering a questionnaire, using a 5 point Likert scale among 185 employees, working in the MNCs in Bangalore, Karnataka. Based on the workplace experience, the respondents were required to assign the importance level, for each issue/variable, in the context of their own job satisfaction. Four variables, such as, ‘career advancement opportunities’; ‘feedback and dialogue with boss’; ‘ethos and values of the organization’; and, ‘internal communications system’ had significant predictive value for perceived job satisfaction. Respondents working in different departments, perceived differently the importance of ‘internal communication system’. Respondents, with different length of service, differed significantly in perceiving the importance levels of issues, such as, “feedback and dialogue with the boss’; “ethos and values of the organization’; and, ‘internal communication system’. Respondents, working in different hierarchical levels, perceived differently the importance level of the issues, such as, “feedback and dialogue with the boss’; “ethos and values of the organization’; and, ‘internal communication system’. Male and female respondents had different perception about the importance level of the “Internal communication system”, in the context of job satisfaction.

Trading of Derivative in Stock Market: A Predictive Approach towards Effective Decision Making

Abhishek Kumar, Birla Institute of Technology - Mesra and Dr. Supriyo Roy, Associate Professor, Birla Institute of Technology-Mesra Predicting daily behavior of stock market is a real challenge for any investors and corporate stockholders; helped out decision making in investment by taking into account market risks and fluctuations. Trading of derivative in stock market, every day we try to forecast / predict the tomorrow’s price. Here, an attempt has been made to predict next day stock price on the basis of previous day stock prices. Although, most of the cases, predictability will not be ‘accurate’; sometime it is most cost effective, but considering the complexity of the nature of behavior in this field, in some case it becomes ‘very significant’. Here, an attempt has been made to develop a method of trading in stocks and corresponding derivatives by using statistical concepts in multiple regression analysis. To show the efficacy of relationship by using multiple regressions, we make an ‘error analyses’. Result show the ‘error is nearly same as the change per day’….. analysis in error does not reveal anything significant. To show the efficacy of using multiple regression over other methods, we perform other statistical observations which increase the reliability of the method. Values of coefficients appearing in regression give an idea on ‘how and when this method can be used for trading’. If coefficients of regression acquire large value of magnitude, prediction becomes more accurate. Practical application during a particular time span shows that for some stocks this condition is satisfied, while for some others it is not satisfied….shows both type of contradictory results. Accordingly, we use this method to trading for some selected stocks only. Results show that, if basic criteria are fulfilled for any stock, huge profit can be generated by this method of trading. Our proposed method is validated by taking different stocks by incorporating three leading Indian companies and two indices; namely NIFTY and NASDAQ Composite. Results also indicate that the ‘outcome of prediction’ is not zero; there is a significant amount of scope exists for some selected stocks and indices in the market.

Stress among Employees working in Insurance Companies with Special Reference to Kanyakumari District

R. Sreedevi, Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Holy Cross College (Autonomous) Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu and Dr. K.P. Sivakumar, Assistant Librarian, Noorul Islam University, Kumaracoil, Kanyakumari district, Tamilnadu Banking, Finance and insurance are the major service sectors playing vital in economics development of the country. Insurance is the main financial sector in India is growing in a drastic speed with the banking and mutual fund sectors. On the other side the competition prevailing among the insurance companies expects more the commitment and more performance from their employees. As the management expects high level of performance from their employees, the employees are pressured with tuff targets. This ‘target’ turns as stress to employees themselves. This study concentrates on factors causing stress to the insurance employees with respect to their profile. It also aims in providing solution for the stress and to improve the performance of the employees.

Agro-Food Processing and Value Addition-The Pathway to Inclusive Growth

Dr. S. Sreeja Mole, Post Doctoral Fellow, School of IR & Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala The food processing industry is a strategic industry and has an irrevocable place in the whole edifice of the economic structure of a country .It is made up of primary secondary and tertiary food processors. It is a strategic industry and has an irrevocable place in the whole edifice of the economic structure of a country. Large scale commercial food processing originated in Western Europe and in the USA.In India the first cannery was the Bengal Preserving Company started in Muzarpur in the first year of 20th century by A.B Sircar. Dried andpreservedvegetables,Mangopulp,pulses,groundnuts,guargum,jaggery and confectionary, coca products, cereal preparations, alcoholic beverages etc……….. constitute the major items of processed food export.Agro food processing adds value, enhances shelf life of the perishable agro food products, encourages crop diversification and ensures remunerative market price of the agricultural produce by making it more marketable. It provides an excellent nexus in promoting integrated development of agriculture and industry and in transforming a stagnant rural economy in to a dynamic industrialised economy. It is estimated that this sector, due to its linkage effects, has the largest employment generating potential per unit of investment. Agro-food processing coupled with profitable marketing has the potential of solving the basic problems of agricultural surplus, unnecessary and unwanted wastage, rural-urban disparity in the field of development, disguised unemployment and poverty in the rural areas by ensuring better remunerative prices to the small and marginal farmers, that is these units have to perform multi-dimensional roles that are highly correlated with the concerns, dimensions and components of Inclusive Growth.

Performance of Mediclaim Policies of Selected Insurance Companies

Dr. Anthony Rodrigues, Director, Research Centre, Department Of Commerce (Goa University), Fr. Agnel College of Arts & Commerce, Pilar-Goa Even if you go for your regular routine health checkups, you have to spend a great deal of money. If you are suffering from any major disease, then all your savings and income is spent on the treatment. Health insurance policy provides some great features and advantages for the health care treatment of the policy holder.This study will highlight the benefits of health insurance. study the kinds of health insurance, study the performance of different health insurance companies , examine public awareness about health insurance, To know the demand for health insurance. The present study It will provide knowledge of the concept of health insurance. It will provide knowledge of policies provided by the companies in Goa. It will provide knowledge of which companies provide the best product. It will help in learning the difference between Life Insurance company and general Insurance companies providing health insurance companies. It will help the reader to know about health insurance Unlike the other Insurance policies, Health Insurance offers a benefit of cashless treatment and reimbursement of the medical expense. Health insurance by the medium of PolicyX then the company will represent you in front of the insurance company and you will get proper assistance and guidance at the time of claim reimbursement. In the expense reimbursement, cost of various hospital facilities that are included in the list is reimbursed like, bed charges, medicines, tests fees, consultation fees, surgery fees and etc., as per the policy

Modern Trends in Philosophy of Science

Professor G. Sudhakaran, Former Professor of Physics, S.N College, Kollam