• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.9
• /
• pp.5077-5083
• /
• 2013

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women globally and represents the second leading cause of cancer death among women (after lung cancer). India is going through epidemiologic transition. It is reported that the incidence of breast cancer is rising rapidly as a result of changes in reproductive risk factors, dietary habits and increasing life expectancy, acting in concert with genetic factors. Materials and Methods: In order to understand the existing epidemiological correlates of breast cancer in South India, a systematic review of evidence available on epidemiologic correlates of breast cancer addressing incidence, prevalence, and associated factors like age, reproductive factors, cultural and religious factors was performed with specific focus on screening procedures in southern India. Results: An increase in breast cancer incidence due to various modifiable risk factors was noted, especially in women over 40 years of age, with late stage of presentation, lack of awareness about screening, costs, fear and stigma associated with the disease serving as major barriers for early presentation. Conclusions: Educational strategies should be aimed at modifying the life style, early planning of pregnancy, promoting breast feeding and physical activity. It is very important to obtain reliable data for planning policies, decision-making and setting up the priorities.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.62-74
• /
• 2017

This study examined the mechanical engineering research output from India, Japan, and South Korea on different parameters including growth, collaboration indices, and activity index. The purpose of the study is to understand the overall development of mechanical engineering through analytical approaches applied on the scholarly outcome of the countries considered for the study. The study focuses on analysing the articles published by India, Japan, and South Korea, and is restricted to articles indexed in the Science Citation Index - Web of Science for the period 2000 to 2014. The ratios of number of paper to citations for India, Japan, and Korea are 20,836: 1,97,679; 24,494: 2,04,393; and 30,578: 2,66,902 respectively for the period 2000-2014. The findings show that there is a decline in Japanese publications in mechanical engineering, whereas other two countries have recorded an increasing trend. While India has tripled its publications in a span of 15 years, South Korea, on the other hand, has doubled its publications in the same span of time. There has been an increasing trend towards collaboration in almost all fields of science and technology. However, the extent of collaboration and their rate of growth varied for one subject to another, one branch to another branch of the same subject, and from one country to another country. The present study analyses the growth of research publications of the mechanical engineering domain including authorship distribution, collaboration indices, prominent journals, and activity index.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.67-94
• /
• 2022

The paper aims to present a comparative analysis of scholarly research output in the fields of Library and Information Science (LIS) in India and South Korea. The Web of Science database was used to retrieve the bibliographic data of the Indian and South Korean LIS published documents during 2001-2020 and the indicators were included in the analysis: research productivity, publication-quality, most prolific authors, institutions and journals, "Annual Growth Rate (AGR)", "Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)", "Relative Growth Rate (RGR)", and "Doubling Time (DT)". All types of documents such as articles, conference papers, book reviews, corrections, editorial materials, so on were included in the study. MS Excel, VOS viewer, and bibliometrix (R-tool) software were used for tabulation and mapping. The results show that South Korea placed the top in the overall output of LIS research publications during the last two decades. The Indian LIS research output, Annual Growth Rate (AGR), and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) were good compared to South Korean LIS publications. In addition, the South Korean LIS researchers' output has increased rapidly in terms of publications, citations, average citations. Gangan Prathap (India), Seyoung Lee, and Heejin Lee (SK) are the most prolific authors; Indian Institute Technology, Delhi and Yonsei University, Seoul are the most prolific institutions; and the Scientometrics journal was the most preferred journal by the Indian and South Korean LIS researchers during the study period. The results of this study are useful to administrators, policymakers, and academics. In addition, the scope of this study might include looking at research published by LIS scholars in India and South Korea, as well as examining all types of academic publications.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.11 no.7
• /
• pp.5-13
• /
• 2013

Purpose - The study explores social well-being of the community of five selected countries of the South Asia: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. The study compares effectiveness of macroeconomic policies across the countries through interactive effects of the macroeconomic policy variables with the regional dummy variables. Research design, data, and methodology - Using the data set for the period of 1990-2008, this study employs panel data models, quantile regression methods, and the fixed effects method, which the constant is treated as group or country-specific. The model can also be known as the least-squares dummy variables estimator. Results - The results reveal significant chances of improvement in the well-being of the people while living in India and Pakistan as compared to the other countries of the region where India relatively stands with better chances of providing opportunities to improve the well-being of the people. Conclusions - This study recommends an increasing allocation of budget on education and health in order to enhance social well-being in the South Asian region. Inflation is the main cause of deteriorating well-being of the South Asian community by escalating the cost of living. Comprehensive study is recommended by employing the micro data models in the region.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.11
• /
• pp.6965-6969
• /
• 2013

Background: Tobacco consumption has been identified as the single biggest cause of inequality in morbidity and mortality. Understanding pattern of socioeconomic equalities in tobacco consumption in India will help in designing targeted public health control measures. Materials and Methods: Nationally representative data from the India Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) conducted in 2009-2010 was analyzed. The survey provided information on 69,030 respondents aged 15 years and above. Data were analyzed according to regions for estimating prevalence of current tobacco consumption (both smoking and smokeless) across wealth quintiles. Multiple logistic regression analysis predicted the impact of socioeconomic determinants on both forms of current tobacco consumption adjusting for other socio-demographic variables. Results: Trends of smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption across wealth quintiles were significant in different regions of India. Higher prevalence of smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption was observed in the medium wealth quintiles. Risk of tobacco consumption among the poorest compared to the richest quintile was 1.6 times higher for smoking and 3.1 times higher for smokeless forms. Declining odds ratios of both forms of tobacco consumption with rising education were visible across regions. Poverty was a strong predictor in north and south Indian region for smoking and in all regions for smokeless tobacco use. Conclusions: Poverty and poor education are strong risk factors for both forms of tobacco consumption in India. Public health policies, therefore, need to be targeted towards the poor and uneducated.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.13
• /
• pp.5579-5582
• /
• 2015

Background: Sale of single cigarettes is an important factor for early experimentation, initiation and persistence of tobacco use and a vital factor in the smoking epidemic in India as it is globally. Single cigarettes also promote the sale of illicit cigarettes and neutralises the effect of pack warnings and effective taxation, making tobacco more accessible and affordable to minors. This is the first study to our knowledge which estimates the size of the single stick market in India. Materials and Methods: In February 2014, a 10 jurisdiction survey was conducted across India to estimate the sale of cigarettes in packs and sticks, by brands and price over a full business day. Results: We estimate that nearly 75% of all cigarettes are sold as single sticks annually, which translates to nearly half a billion US dollars or 30 percent of the India's excise revenues from all cigarettes. This is the price which the consumers pay but is not captured through tax and therefore pervades into an informal economy. Conclusions: Tracking the retail price of single cigarettes is an efficient way to determine the willingness to pay by cigarette smokers and is a possible method to determine the tax rates in the absence of any other rationale.

• English & American cultural studies
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.287-309
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this paper is to critique British imperialism in Bapsi Sidhwa's Cracking India (1991) by analyzing the partition of India from the perspective of nation, religion, and women. Dubbed "Punjabi-Parsi-Indian-Pakistani," Sidhwa is in a position where she can view the partition from an objective and neutralized stance. Rather than focusing on the lives of nationally well-known political figures such as Gandhi, Nehru, or Jinnah, Sidhwa delves deep into the miserable lives of the lower classes before and after the partition. First, I analyze the process of the partition, as it is performed through the manipulation of British imperialism. By adopting the viewpoint of an 8-year-old Lenny, who is the daughter of a Parsi family, Sidhwa is able to critique both British imperialism as well as the male-dominated Indian society where the treatment of women is unthinkably harsh. Second, I focus on the tragedy of the confrontation of three religions, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh. Religious people fight each other while they were forced to move from South to North or from North to South. I argue that the religious conflicts have much to do with political issues. Third, I want to argue that women are the major victims of the partition. Ayah, Hamida, and Papoo are victims of male-dominated India during the partition. They symbolize the feminized India, which is exploited and victimized by British Imperialism. Even though Ayah is shattered by Ice-candy-man while working as a prostitute and dancer, she decides to return to her home in India, which shows her challenge against male-dominated India as well as against British colonialism. In conclusion, Sidhwa tries to heal the suffering of the Indian women who fell victim to male-dominated Indian society by criticizing the problems of British imperialism. In addition, by dealing with the lives of silenced people, Sidhwa asks readers not to forget the historical tragedy and not to repeat the tragedy again.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.2611-2617
• /
• 2016

Background: Medication errors are common but most often preventable events in any health care setup. Studies on medication errors involving chemotherapeutic drugs are limited. Objective: We studied three aspects of medication errors - prescription, transcription and administration errors in 500 cancer patients who received ambulatory cancer chemotherapy at a resource limited setting government hospital attached cancer centre in South India. The frequency of medication errors, their types and the possible reasons for their occurrence were analysed. Design and Methods: Cross-sectional study using direct observation and chart review in anmbulatory day care unit of a Regional Cancer Centre in South India. Prescription charts of 500 patients during a three month time period were studied and errors analysed. Transcription errors were estimated from the nurses records for these 500 patients who were prescribed anticancer medications or premedication to be administered in the day care centre, direct observations were made during drug administration and administration errors analysed. Medical oncologists prescribing anticancer medications and nurses administering medications also participated. Results: A total of 500 patient observations were made and 41.6% medication errors were detected. Among the total observed errors, 114 (54.8%) were prescription errors, 51(24.5%) were transcribing errors and 43 (20.7%) were administration errors. The majority of the prescription errors were due to missing information (45.5%) and administration errors were mainly due to errors in drug reconstitution (55.8%). There were no life threatening events during the observation period since most of the errors were either intercepted before reaching the patient or were trivial. Conclusions: A high rate of potentially harmful medication errors were intercepted at the ambulatory day care unit of our regional cancer centre. Suggestions have been made to reduce errors in the future by adoption of computerised prescriptions and periodic sensitisation of the responsible health personnel.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.25-69
• /
• 2019

India has occupied the most important position of sea trade in the entire South Asian region since the beginning of maritime trade. The extensive maritime trade network between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations as early as the $3^{rd}$ millennium BCE is testimony to the long maritime trade history of India. The Harappans constructed many seaports including the first high-tide dockyard in the world for berthing and servicing ships at the port town of Lothal, Gujarat. From the dawn of the historical epoch, the maritime trade network of India expanded extensively. The long 5422.6 kms coastline of the Indian mainland (excluding the coastlines of the Andaman and Nicobar islands and the Lakshwadweep Islands) is well known for its several seaports manly located at river mouths or outlets to the sea. The main objective of this paper is to discuss in detail all the major ancient seaports on the eastern coast of India and their maritime trade activities. The narrative of these ports is based on archaeological explorations and excavations, foreigners' accounts, Indian literary sources, inscriptions, archival materials, and the field study and personal observation of the author.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.91-110
• /
• 2020

This paper traces the trajectory of a variety of complicated economic and political developments between China and India - the world's most ancient civilizations connected by rich history. These recent developments, which are heavily acrimonious and include military clashes involving loss of lives, have greatly damaged bilateral relations. The paper examines the reasons behind the bilateral relations dipping to new lows. Aside from specific bilateral disputes like outstanding border problems, China-India relations have been affected by global and regional developments. The paper identifies rising tensions between the U.S. and China, the evolution of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the growth of the Indo-Pacific construct, as the reasons that have expanded distance and mistrust between the two countries. Both China and India are now part of country coalitions aiming to marginalize each other's strategic influences. The paper argues that such efforts by them are going to impact countries in their neighbourhood - such as in Central Asia - by forcing them to make complex choices in the areas of trade engagement and technological development.