Aspects of Inclusion and Peoples’ Empowerment Related to National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, launched in the year 2006, is dubbed as one of the major flagship strategies of the Government of India, in coherence with the objective of removing poverty and unemployment. While scope of employment in rural asset creation protects environment, the earning opportunities address the issue of financial and social inclusion. Principal Component Analysis has been applied to calculate Financial, Social, Environmental, and finally Overall Inclusion Index as well as Empowerment Index. The results reveal significant association between Overall Inclusion and Empowerment index. Using multiple regression, Overall Inclusion is explained by certain significant variables.     

Women's Job Participation in and Efficiency of NREGA Program—Case Study of a Poor District in India

NREGA program in India offers a lucrative opportunity for the rural women to participate in job market, earn income, and have control over life events. However women's decision for participation as well as share in NREGA jobs are influenced by various socio-economic factors like education, caste, religion, alternative income, health-related achievements, and fund availability. Variation in some of these variables is often beyond their control. In this context logit regression and DEA efficiency analysis is done to analyses the issue of women's participation and share of employment days in the context a poor region in India.     

Optimization of DNA extraction from low-yield and degraded samples using the BioRobot EZ1 and BioRobot M48

Robotic extraction of DNA from dilutions of blood and semen using either the BioRobots EZ1 or BioRobots M48 consistently produced lower recoveries than standard organic extractions of the same samples. In an effort to increase the efficiency of robotically extracted DNA, glycogen and carrier RNA were added following cell lysis. The addition of glycogen, postlysis, resulted in no improvement in DNA recovery with the BioRobot EZ1. However, when carrier RNA was added to the cell lysate of limited and degraded samples extracted on the EZ1 or the M48, DNA recoveries dramatically increased four- to 20-fold. DNA yields obtained by robotic extraction in the presence of carrier RNA were as high, or higher, as those obtained by organic extraction lacking carrier RNA, while experiments that utilized carrier RNA in both types of extractions showed increased sensitivity for both methods. Furthermore, carrier RNA substantially increased the recovery of fragmented DNA with the EZ1.     

More Inequality,More Killings: The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal

The hypothesis of inequality as the source of violent conflict is investigated empirically in the context of killings by Nepalese Maoists in their People's War against their government during 1996–2003. The dependent variable is the total number of people killed during that period by Maoist rebels in each of 3,857 villages. Inequality is measured by the Gini, the Esteban‐Ray polarization index, and four other between‐groups indexes. Using models with district fixed effects, and instrumenting for endogeneity of the inequality measures, we find strong evidence that greater inequality escalated killings by Maoists. Poverty did not necessarily increase violence. Education moderated the effect of inequality on killing, while predominance of farmers and of Nepali speakers exacerbated it. We find evidence that more killings occurred in populous villages, lending support to the idea that violence was directed at expanding the Maoist franchise by demonstrating that opposition to the monarchy and elites in power was possible to achieve.