Constructing the Nation’s Enemy: Hindutva,popular culture and the Muslim ‘other’ in Bollywood cinema

This paper aims to investigate how in contemporary India the process of ‘othering’ of the Muslim minority has been the product of politically motivated and manipulated majoritarian cultural assertiveness, reflected in the Hindu right’s clamour to underline the significance of drawing the geographic and cultural boundaries of what its ideologues call the Hindu nation. Situating cinema as a crucial distribution source of popular culture, the paper contends that Bollywood cinema has exhibited an overt bias towards producing films that capitulate to this radical nationalist discourse professed by the Hindutva ideologues. Making a discourse analysis of selected films produced by Bollywood since the 1990s, the premise of this contention is interrogated by examining how Hindi cinema’s portrayal of the image of Muslims has been carried out in a pejorative manner which stems from the strong grounding of its stories in a Hindu majoritarian setting. The paper concludes by arguing that, with such a penchant, Bollywood cinema has actively engaged in the politics of nationalism engendered by the right-wing neo-fundamentalist Hindutva movement.     

China's reform,internal trade and marketing

Abstract

This article analyses Macau's casinos as an example for accumulation by dispossession, in which they serve to transfer wealth from Mainland China to Macau and the casinos' foreign investors. They also represent a model for economic development and this model has migrated to Singapore, where it also operates as a form of accumulation by dispossession. By requiring citizens to pay an entrance fee, Singapore's casinos explicitly appropriate other people's money. The efficacy for the use of casinos as economic development is interrogated here because Macau's casino experience has emerged as a model for economic development in Asia beyond simply Singapore.     

Film Reviews

Relying on experimental methodology, we find that positive and negative reports of specific aspects of the economy influence the audience's assessments of political responsibility for the state of the economy. In addition, whether the president actively attempts to take credit (in the case of positive economic news) or attempts to avoid blame (in the case of negative economic news) also influences assessments. Finally, we find that effects are largely dependent on individual levels of partisanship.     

Identification of Tool Marks of a Sickle on a Telephone Cable

Linkage of a cutting tool (a sickle) with a telephone cable of 100 pairs of copper wires is reported in a case of theft of a telephone cable. Telephone cables contain numerous insulated copper wires of small diameter inside an outer covering and are stolen for the relatively precious copper. The cutting pattern of the cable can only point to the type of the tool but because of the large number of copper wires, it is practically difficult to make a definite linkage with the tool used to cut the cable by comparing the tool marks. The present work reports the successful attempt of the authors in establishing a definite linkage of a stolen telephone cable with a sickle recovered from the suspects. Spot microchemical test was performed for detection of copper on the blade of the sickle, and then tool mark comparison was performed to link the tool marks on the metal strip inside the outer covering of the cable to the blade of the sickle.     

Farm to Non-Farm Employment Linkages and Pattern： An Analysis of Village Level Survey in Bangladesh

The widening of rural-urban continuum has accelerated the transformation of Bangladesh agriculture from subsistence toward commercialization. This has accompanied significant employment linkages and patterns in farm and non-farm sector. Modern rice production contributed to employment generation through backward and forward linkages. The field study of three villages measures farm to non-farm employment linkages for two major rice crops. The estimated backward, forward, and total linkages were 0.18, 0.43, and 0.61 for Boro rice and 0.14, 0.39, and 0.53 for Aman rice. For two crops as a whole, farm to non-farm total employment linkage coefficient was 0.58, which meant that total 100 man days of farm employment per hectare in farm production activities generated 58 man days of non-farm employment in various support services, processing, and marketing activities. Employment pattern in different months was more flexible for the farm workers than for non-farm workers. The availability of farm employment in a month varied from five to 25 days for farm workers, and from 22 to 27 days for non-farm workers. The findings imply that more investrnent in rice-based production system significantly increases non-farm employment opportunities. From national policy perspective, more research and development efforts should go into accelerating potential rural growth and non-farm sector development.     

Assessing the (eco)macroeconomic performance index of India: A data envelopment analysis approach

The prime objective of this article is to construct a robust macroeconomic performance (MEP) index of the Indian economy using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. Seven major macro indicators, namely, economic growth, employment rate, terms of trade, inflation rate, fiscal deficit, pollution, and climate change are used to compute MEP and Eco‐MEP indices of the Indian economy from 1980–1981 to 2018–2019. Overall, both the MEP and Eco‐MEP index scores have quite similar best performing years worst performing years, and have also captured the major events that affected adversely the Indian economy during the past decades. The trend in the overall performance of the Indian economy was better in the 1980s and the 1990s but has deteriorated since 2000. The autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approaches to cointegration methods are used to test the robustness/utility of these indices. The estimated results show that MEP and Eco‐MEP have a positive impact on private investment, foreign investment inflows, foreign direct investment, and a negative effect on the current account deficit. Hence, the suggested composite MEP index is stable, robust and truly captures the economic performance of India. The constructed MEP composite index may be used by foreign investors, rating agencies, private investors, and policymakers for their planning and decision‐making processes.     

Estimation of the age of an individual based on times of eruption of permanent teeth

This is a community based study of the times of eruption of permanent teeth to establish the age of an individual. The study is based on dental examination of 1008 subjects in the age group 5-14 years, residing in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. The median age of eruption was computed based on the concept of "Ex" which is defined as the age at which a specified percentage of individuals show eruption of a given permanent tooth. The median age "E50" was computed by transformation of percentages to probits and plotting a graph between age and probits. E50 was computed graphically corresponding to a probits value of 5.0 or 50%. A mathematical regression equation [Kusri's] was computed for each graph. The age of an individual can be computed based on the E50 value of the permanent tooth which erupted last. The probability of the given individual being above or below the assessed age can be estimated by referring to graph and probit transformation table.     

Assessing the Impact of Leather Industries on Groundwater Quality of Vellore District in South India Using a Geochemical Mixing Model

Abstract

Deterioration of groundwater quality is one of the most critical issues in twenty-first century. The direct relations of water with all the living beings make it an extremely important commodity. Sources of pollution may be of natural or anthropogenic origin. Nowadays anthropogenic sources of pollution are much more than natural sources. India has 1083 tanneries, in which 577 are in Tamil Nadu which accounts for 44% of the total production of India. Vellore district has an indispensable place in the list. Over the 30–40?years groundwater around tanneries has become seriously polluted.     

Variation in the perception of desired qualities of police officers among trainees and senior police officers. Insights into the process and efficacy of police training

Police training is the process of imparting knowledge, skills, and values to police personnel. The study analyses a survey data on the perception of trainees and senior experienced officers regarding desired professional qualities in police officers. There is a high degree of congruence, in the assessment of values which are important for police, among the two groups. There are also differences among the two groups regarding the evaluation of the importance of interpersonal skills and human qualities. The study attempts to explain the similarities and the differences in perception by examining the conservative and innovative nature of police training, and the role of experience in developing an appreciation of human qualities. The study underlines the importance of police training as a mechanism to maintain the stability of operations in the organisation and its pivotal role in bringing about change in the police.     

香港大律师公会主席林孟达致辞

今天各级司法人员，两大法律专业的成员，跟法律界在本地和海外的各方好友，在此齐首共聚一堂，我们正好趁着这个特别的场合，思考过去一年发生的事情和前瞻来年法律界、司法界将面对的挑战。去年，公会执行委员会比往常繁忙。公会就政府关於填补立法会因议员辞职的出缺安排的建议，五次发出声明，也对政府的谘询文件，提交了陈述书回应。