Groundwater Economics and Policy in South Asia is a reference guide focusing on groundwater management and groundwater economics in South Asia. The author compares the regional variations across South Asia and the public policies that shaped the groundwater sector and presents the most up-to-date information on groundwater management using practical case-studies and empirical data. With the inclusion of strong methodological solutions for sustainable groundwater management, scholars in the fields of geohydrology, agricultural sciences, water resource economics, and professionals in water science and policy will get access to the latest policies and methods used in groundwater research in South Asia.

Water Productivity and Food Security: Global Trends and Regional Patterns, Volume Three reviews the need for water productivity improvements in agriculture, addressing three distinct questions pertaining to agricultural water productivity improvement in developing countries, including what are the regions where water is a limiting factor for raising agricultural outputs and water productivity improvements, what are the technological measures in irrigation that can raise agricultural water productivity and result in water saving at various scales, and what opportunities exist in the developing economies of South Asia and Africa for raising water productivity and improving water economy at basin scale. This book provides a framework to characterize river basins based on water availability, water supplies, water uses and water demands to ascertain the need and measures available for improving crop water productivity that would be effective at various scales, i.e., plant-level, plot-level, irrigation system level and basin level. This is an essential reference for anyone interested in water management and agriculture.

From Catchment Management to Managing River Basins: Science, Technology Choices, Institutions and Policy synthesizes key scientific facts crucial for catchment assessment, planning and river basin water accounting. The book presents extensive reviews of international literature on catchment hydrology, forest hydrology and other hydrological processes, such as groundwater-surface water interactions. It discusses not only the science of catchment assessment and planning, but also the catchment planning process. It documents several of the positive international experiences with integrated catchment management and integrated basin management, distilling key learnings. Case studies from India and other parts of South Asia are also included, along with new pilot studies. Finally, the book discusses the theoretical and operational aspects of integrated catchment management and integrated water management in river basins using international best practices and case studies.

Data has cemented itself as a building block of daily life. However, surrounding oneself with great quantities of information heightens risks to one's personal privacy. Additionally, the presence of massive amounts of information prompts researchers into how best to handle and disseminate it. Research is necessary to understand how to cope with the current technological requirements. Large-Scale Data Streaming, Processing, and Blockchain Security is a collection of innovative research that explores the latest methodologies, modeling, and simulations for coping with the generation and management of large-scale data in both scientific and individual applications. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics including security models, internet of things, and collaborative filtering, this book is ideally designed for entrepreneurs, security analysts, IT consultants, security professionals, programmers, computer technicians, data scientists, technology developers, engineers, researchers, academicians, and students.

Water Policy Science and Politics: An Indian Perspective presents the importance of politics and science working together in policymaking in the water sector. Many countries around the developed and developing world, including India, are experiencing major water scarcity problems that will undoubtedly increase with the impacts of climate change. This book discusses specific topics in India's water, agriculture and energy sectors, focusing on scientific aspects, academic and political discourse, and policy issues. The author presents cases from the interrelated sectors of water resources, supplies, sanitation, and energy and climate, including controversial topics that illustrate how science and politics can work together.

This book takes stock of micro irrigation systems (MIS), the technological intervention in India's agricultural and water management sectors, over the past couple of decades. Based on empirical research from the major agriculturally dynamic states, viz., Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the book provides a nuanced understanding and objective assessment of the implementation and adoption of MIS across these states. It addresses several of the questions related to adoption and impacts of MIS in India. On the adoption side, the key question that the book addresses is which segment of the farming community adopts MIS across states? The impacts analysed include those on physical, agronomic and economic aspects. At the macro level, the question being asked is about the future potential of MIS in terms of saving water from agriculture and making more water available for environment. The book also addresses the question of the positive/negative externalities and real social benefits and costs from the use of MIS, a major justification for heavy capital subsidies for its purchase by farmers. It also brings out certain critical concerns pertaining to MIS adoption, which need to be addressed through more empirical research based on longitudinal panel/ cross sectional data. The book would be of great use to researchers (agricultural water management, irrigation economics), students of water resource engineering, irrigation engineering and water resources management, as well as to policy makers and agricultural water management experts - national and international.

This book is a carefully developed integration of mathematical models that relate Six Sigma and reliability measures for the first time. Several case studies are used throughout the book to illustrate the application of the models discussed. The strength of Six Sigma is the way in which it structures the problem and the solution methodology to solve the problem. This is probably the only concept to attract the attention of almost all companies across the world irrespective of their business mission.

Reliability, Maintainability, and Supportability play a crucial role in achieving a competitive product. While manufacturing costs are important for the success of a product, they are not the sole domains in realizing its competitive edge. Improved manufacturing and operating quality and performance coupled with reduced acquisition cost and in-service cost of ownership are important in achieving business success. It is the early phase of design which offers the greatest opportunity to address these requirements, and thus create life cycle effectiveness. The main objective of Reliability, Maintenance and Logistic Support - A Life Cycle Approach is to provide an integrated approach to reliability, maintainability, maintenance and logistic support analysis. We not only look at the ways we can improve the design process to ensure the product offers value for money, but we also consider how the owners can get the most from these products once they have entered service. The approach provides a meaningful way of integrating reliability, maintenance and supportability to enhance the product performance and sales opportunities. Hence, the book covers the following objectives: (1) Introduce the concepts of reliability, maintainability and supportability and their role in the system life cycle and effectiveness. (2) Introduce the basic probability and statistical techniques that are essential for modelling reliability, maintainability and supportability problems. (3) Introduce reliability measures: how to predict them; how to determine from in-service real-world data; how to use them. (4) Analysis of advanced models in Reliability. (5) Discuss basic and advanced concepts in both maintainability and maintenance including preventive, corrective and condition based maintenance. (6) Discuss maintenance management and optimization concepts, such as reliability-centered maintenance and age-related maintenance. (7) Provide basic concepts in supportability and Integrated logistic support. (8) Discuss techniques for design for reliability, maintainability and supportability. (9) Analysis of simple and advanced models in spares forecasting and optimization. (10) Discuss data analysis, data management and data mining techniques.

This book highlights the multi-pronged strategy for achieving sustainable rural domestic water supply in India. It deepens the understanding of groundwater (predominant source of water supply) behaviour in response to natural processes in different geological settings, analyses the factors influencing the performance of water supply schemes; identifies the conditions under which groundwater-based drinking water sources become sustainable, suggests measures for improving the sustainability of drinking water wells in hard rock regions (covering 2/3rd of India's geographical area), presents a decision-making framework for planning rural water supply schemes in the country for ensuring long-term sustainability, and suggests physical strategies and policy measures for achieving them. The analyses for development and validation of various models that explain groundwater system behaviour and performance of rural water supply schemes are undertaken for different geological settings in Maharashtra, as the state represents a microcosm of the various hydrological, topographical, and geohydrological conditions encountered in the country. The final analysis for proposing nation-wide strategies considers the various hydrological, geological, geohydrological, and topographical and climatic settings and groundwater contamination and pollution in the country.

This edited volume covers all aspects of microbes in consortia; their roles in the ecological balance of soil by mineralize soil nutrients, plant growth promotion, protecting plants from disease by acting as biocontrol agents etc. Step-by-step descriptions are provided to the development and designing strategies of microbial consortia of rhizobacteria, phytohormone producing with biocontrol; ACC-deaminase producing with siderophore producing; vice-versa, and many combinations of multifaceted bacteria. The development of microbial consortia into successful bioinoculant and biofertilizers is also included in various chapters. In addition, molecular mechanisms to study the synergistic behaviors of rhizobacteria, accompanied by numerous helpful schematic drawings. Using phylogeny to justify the molecular similarity among two different bacteria identifies the possibility of microbial synergism, fruitful to development of microbial consortium and establish them in the rhizosphere with consorted mechanisms. In addition, clear drawings are included in support of understanding the natural phenomenon of synergism in below-ground ecosystem. Essential information is provided on ecological management by consorted mechanisms of rhizobacteria that directly affect ‘agriculture sustainability’ and an individual chapter is devoted to the understanding of future research, and addressing bottlenecks and successful steps.  This book assists the academicians, researchers and NGOs in negotiating the steep learning curve involved in gaining the skills needed to perform design and development of microbial consortiums, preparation of PGPR-based fertilizers, which offers significant advantages in terms of pertaining novel knowledge on the groundbreaking research, still ongoing. 

The Agri-Food industry currently faces a range of challenges, from food safety and security, demand, and supply gaps to the maintenance of product quality and issues in product traceability. Smart digital technologies have opened a complete paradigm shift, providing solutions to these challenges, and helping move towards safe, resilient, responsive, and eventually profit-driven supply chains. The use of these digital technologies by Agri-Food supply chains can bring significant changes in food supply chain management by reducing food wastage, real-time product monitoring, and reducing scalability issues. Agri-Food 4.0: Innovations, Challenges and Strategies addresses new research on digital technologies in the industry, including smart packaging, smart warehousing, effective inventory control, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and other Industry 4.0 concepts. Agri-Food 4.0 explores the challenges and complexities in implementing such technologies, helping policymakers in the agri-food sector with impact assessment and digital transformation towards creating a sustainable industry.

This book provides an up-to-date review of fasciolosis, a disease caused by Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica, including its biology, transmission, epidemiology, host distribution, economic impact, and novel approaches for its diagnosis, treatment and prevention. It first offers a brief overview of the history of the disease, the genetic diversity of the parasite and its distribution, and the ecology of the vector snail, which belongs to the Lymnaeidae/Planorbidae family. It also examines the current strategies and novel approaches for controlling the parasite, diagnosing infections and vaccine development. Importantly, it highlights issues relating to the control of fasciolosis, including drug resistance, lack of effective diagnostics, and the parasite's long-term survival strategies based on regulation and modulation of the host immune system. Lastly, it discusses the novel control snail vectors using bait formulations, and synergetic and phototherapy treatment with chlorophyllin, which does not kill the vector.

The Ramsar Convention was established in 1971 to ensure the conservation and wise use of wetlands across the world. India joined the Convention in 1982, however, in the past 50 years despite Ramsar’s incredible achievements, the threat to wetlands across the globe, including India, has not diminished. This book studies the governance of multiuse wetlands in India. The volume provides an exhaustive analysis of rural, peri-urban and urban human-made wetlands to establish the relevance of institutional design and the effective role of authority in governing multiuse wetland ecosystem services. The author argues that the most challenging task in governing wetlands is to frame institutional choices that users and non-users comprehend, and agree to pursue under alternative property rights regimes. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the book provides a broader look into the causes and consequences of wetland ecosystem degradation and offers insights into improved sustainable management systems for different types of multiuse wetlands. It will be indispensable for students and researchers of environmental studies, sustainable development, biodiversity, conservation, agricultural, natural, and environmental resource economics.

This book caters to the need of researchers working in the ever-evolving field of agricultural biotechnology. It discusses and provides in-depth information about latest advancements happening in this field. The book discusses evolution of plant tissue culture techniques, development of doubled haploids technology, role of recombinant-DNA technology in crop improvement. It also provides an insight into the global status of genetically modified crops, use of RNAi technology and mi-RNAs in plant improvement. Chapters are also dedicated for different branches of 'omics' science including genomics, bioinformatics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics along with the use of molecular markers in tagging and mapping of various genes/QTLs of agronomic importance. This book also covers the role of enzymes and microbes in agriculture in productivity enhancement. It is of interest to teachers, researchers of biotechnology and agriculture scientists. Also the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and postgraduate students of biotechnology, agriculture, horticulture, forestry, ecology, soil science, and environmental sciences. National and international biotechnologists and agricultural scientists will also find this to be a useful read.

Rural Water Systems for Multiple Uses and Livelihood Security covers the technological, institutional, and policy choices for building rural water supply systems that are sustainable from physical, economic, and ecological points-of-view in developing countries. While there is abundant theoretical discourse on designing village water supply schemes as multiple use systems, there is too little understanding of the type of water needs in rural households, how they vary across socio-economic and climatic settings, the extent to which these needs are met by the existing single use water supply schemes, and what mechanisms exist to take care of unmet demands. The case studies presented in the book from different agro ecological regions quantify these benefits under different agro ecological settings, also examining the economic and environmental trade-offs in maximizing benefits. This book demonstrates how various physical and socio-economic processes alter the hydrology of tanks in rural settings, thereby affecting their performance, also including quantitative criteria that can be used to select tanks suitable for rehabilitation.

A new era of complexity science is emerging, in which nature- and bio-inspired principles are being applied to provide solutions. At the same time, the complexity of systems is increasing due to such models like the Internet of Things (IoT) and fog computing. Will complexity science, applying the principles of nature, be able to tackle the challenges posed by highly complex networked systems? Bio-Inspired Optimization in Fog and Edge Computing: Principles, Algorithms, and Systems is an attempt to answer this question. It presents innovative, bio-inspired solutions for fog and edge computing and highlights the role of machine learning and informatics. Nature- or biological-inspired techniques are successful tools to understand and analyze a collective behavior. As this book demonstrates, algorithms, and mechanisms of self-organization of complex natural systems have been used to solve optimization problems, particularly in complex systems that are adaptive, ever-evolving, and distributed in nature. The chapters look at ways of enhancingto enhance the performance of fog networks in real-world applications using nature-based optimization techniques. They discuss challenges and provide solutions to the concerns of security, privacy, and power consumption in cloud data center nodes and fog computing networks. The book also examines how: The existing fog and edge architecture is used to provide solutions to future challenges. A geographical information system (GIS) can be used with fog computing to help users in an urban region access prime healthcare. An optimization framework helps in cloud resource management. Fog computing can improve the quality, quantity, long-term viability, and cost-effectiveness in agricultural production. Virtualization can support fog computing, increase resources to be allocated, and be applied to different network layers. The combination of fog computing and IoT or cloud computing can help healthcare workers predict and analyze diseases in patients.

Unique selling point: Combines theory with practice and applications for advanced intelligent healthcare informatics Core audience: Researchers and academics in healthcare informatics and machine learning Place in the market: Reference work

This reference text discusses processing, structure, and properties of metal matrix composites, polymer matrix composites, and ceramic matrix composites for applications in high end engineering equipment, biomedical and nano-biotechnology areas. The text begins by discussing fundamentals, classification, designing and fabrication of composite materials, followed by ultrasonic vibration assisted machining of advanced materials, fabrication of transparent advanced composites, fabrication of composites via microwave sintering, and hybrid machining of metal-matrix composites. It covers important topics including fabrication of shape-memory polymers, additive manufacturing for the fabrication of composites, 3D printing processes for biomedical applications, and ultrasonic vibration assisted machining of advanced materials. The text will be useful for undergraduate, graduate students, and academic researchers in areas including materials science, mechanical engineering, manufacturing science, aerospace engineering, electronics and communication engineering The book- Covers processing, structure, and properties of metal matrix composites, polymer matrix composites, and ceramic matrix composites. Discusses nano materials and their potential applications in the area of biomedical and nano-biotechnology. Provides modern processing techniques to synthesize advance materials. Explores applicability of the materials using mechanical, chemical, thermal and electrical tests. Discussing advanced materials, their manufacturing techniques and applications in diverse areas including automotive, aerospace engineering, biomedical, this text will be useful for undergraduate, graduate students, and academic researchers in areas including materials science, mechanical engineering, manufacturing science, aerospace engineering, electronics and communication engineering. It will further discuss electro discharge machining of steels using chromium alloy-based electrodes, and advanced machining techniques for hard materials.

Includes studies, observations, analysis, and conclusions of Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy Proves that principles of homeopathy are scientifically baseless and homeopathic drugs have no therapeutic effect Provides a platform for creative and rational thinking Promotes evidence-based medicine

Includes studies, observations, analysis, and conclusions of Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy Proves that principles of homeopathy are scientifically baseless and homeopathic drugs have no therapeutic effect Provides a platform for creative and rational thinking Promotes evidence-based medicine

The COVID-19 and the onslaught of Climate Change have exposed the fragility of our lives and ecosystem. Natural disasters like asteroid impact, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, floods, cyclones, etc., and pandemics like plagues, smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, etc., have been man's nemesis from the beginning of time. This list of public risks has now expanded to include pollutions, industrial disasters, and very many new, confusing and emerging technologies.How have governments handled these public risks? How have they convinced people to take precautions under such emergencies? What measures does one take for managing them, and for the rescue, relief, and rehabilitation of the masses? And most importantly, how does one prepare the masses to face the risks without panicking? It is argued that sermons, dictates, and discourses may not work in democratic societies. Rather, one needs a new breed of risk communicators who can enter into a dialogue with the people to prepare them for these challenges and to welcome truly beneficial new technologies.The book takes a panoramic view of the issue of risks and illustrates the challenges and opportunities of the Art and Science of Managing Public Risks. It celebrates the indomitable spirit of man, who has leveraged science to predict - where possible, and provide solutions for managing these risks.

Presents reasons for the supply chain disruption from various perspective and includes case studies along with an historical perspective for guidance Explores how the supply chain will take shape post COVID-19 Discusses likely future scenarios of new and emerging supply chains Describes various MCDM tools used to make complex decisions by companies to stay ahead Offers domain experts' opinions and views to help in formulating real-time strategies

1. Gives an in-depth account of the extraordinary optical property at the nanoscale and its use in sensing. 2. Useful for academia, researchers and engineers working in water treatment and purification. 3. Provides sensing application of thematic nanomaterials like quantum dots and core-shell.

Biological materials and their applications have drawn increasing attention among scientists. Cellulose is an abundant, renewable, biodegradable, economical, thermally stable, and light material, and it has found application in pharmaceuticals, coatings, food, textiles, laminates, sensors, actuators, flexible electronics, and flexible displays. Its nano form has extraordinary surface properties, such as higher surface area than cellulose; hence, nanocellulose can be used as a substitute for cellulose. Among many other sustainable, functional nanomaterials, nanocellulose is attracting growing interest in environmental remediation technologies because of its many unique properties and functionalities. Nanocellulose and Its Composites for Water Treatment Applications supplies insight into the application of nanocellulose and its nanocomposites for water purification and remediation. It covers different classes of nanocellulose-cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), microfibrillated cellulose (MFC), hairy cellulose nanocrystalloid (HCNC), and bacterial nanocellulose (BNC)-for their competency with other renewable and carbonaceous materials such as pectin, alginate, and CNTs. Future perspectives of nanocellulose and nanocomposites gleaned from different biodegradable origins are also discussed. This book delves into an updated description of the basic principles and developments in synthesis, characterization methods, properties (chemical, thermal, optical, structural, surface, and mechanical structure), property relationships, crystallization behavior, and degradability of biodegradable nanocomposites. The book also supplies vivid information about various cellulose nanomaterials and their applications in absorbing organic and inorganic toxins, membrane filtration of bacteria, viruses, and ionic impurities, photocatalytic dye removal, and sensing of water toxins. Features Details the synthesis and characterization methods of nanocellulose Illustrates the applications of nanocellulose and its nanocomposites Shows in-depth accounts of the various types of properties of nanocellulose and its composites Features emerging trends in the use of nanocellulose as adsorbents, sensors, membranes, and photocatalysis materials This book will be useful for academics, researchers, and engineers working in water treatment and purification.