RESEARCH
Research is a vital component of the teaching profession, especially in higher education. Inherent instinct to resolve, explore and communicate the findings in an unbiased way is required in the field of research. Most of her research has been on macroeconomic issues in the last decade, and a few are based on the primary data source. In the future, she would like to collaborate with researchers from allied streams and accomplish the goal of good quality transdisciplinary research.
Projects
Description
Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy (STRIDE) adds new disciplines for research support with a thrust on research capacity building, trans-disciplinary research-facilitating India’s developing economy. The specific focus of the Scheme is to support high-impact research in thrust areas of humanities and human sciences, including arts, Indian languages, culture, and knowledge systems, through networking of experts from institutions and organizations across India.
The main objective of the scheme is to develop a research culture and interest among young faculty, scholars, and students to pursue careers and undertake high-quality research in trans-disciplinary areas that augment and expand their research capacity. This scheme is meant for the development of researchers and teams via training through competitive selection, to design research, follow research ethics, write research grant proposals, effectively execute the research, publish and patent research findings.
The Research Capacity Building Program at the School of Economics, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, has induced around 100 participants, distributed among three batches. The participants are divided into various transdisciplinary groups. Partnering with various national and international experts and agencies, the below-mentioned hands-on training and workshops have imparted significant skills to all the participants during the project tenure. Namely:
1. Research Methodology Workshop
2. Six Sigma Training
3. Theatrical Methods in Research
4. Software Training on
i. R Programming
ii. STATA
iii. Nvivo
5. Academic Writing Workshop
6. Meta-Analysis
7. Systematic Literature Review
The researchers have learned the research methodology for primary database research in detail. After the course on research methodology, and with the constant inputs from all the experts through recurring sessions, all participants are conducting short-term transdisciplinary projects based on research gaps identified from time to time either by the researchers themselves or put through our collaborators and collaborating agencies.
Outcomes
The research projects undertaken by the participants are being evaluated, edited, and gradually refined to derive valuable conclusions which will be enriched with the unique inputs given by the experts. The results of these research will transcend beyond the boundaries of conventional, discipline-specific research and will have a practical application to solve the problem. All such results and discussions will be compiled and published as a book and will be submitted to the government, agencies, policymakers, and other stakeholders.
Description
The study attempts to assess the prospects of the sustainable, eco-friendly mode of urban public transport, i.e., Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), which has become the most important means of public transportation, especially in two-tier cities of India. Sustainable development in this area requires systems that will have a long-term impact on reducing congestion, faster and safe modes of commuting, and have to be eco-friendly at the same time. In this context, the study suits to be very important to evaluate the potential of BRTS Indore.
The study reflects a shift to BRT, an impending need for sustainable development of II-tier cities like Indore. It presents the demand analysis of commuters of BRTS and travel patterns in the city. Hence, this study addresses the assessment of the BRTS at the micro-level in terms of demand analysis of commuters in Indore city. The study sketches the socio-economic characteristics of sample commuters and also discusses issues related to sustainability, accessibility, and travel behavior of the urban commuters in Indore city.
Outcomes
This project, through its survey, has mapped certain key factors and their contribution towards commuter satisfaction with this service. The result that the level of commuter satisfaction with the Quality of Service offered on the BRTS is remarkably high is an encouraging finding of this project. The demography and socio-economic status of respondents in large numbers suggest that Atal Indore City Transport Service Limited has personally succeeded in delivering a top-class public transport system to a section of society that should be a prime target market of any public transport system.
We have also found that the satisfied commuters have shifted to BRTS, leaving their private motorized vehicles at home. In this context, we can conclude that Indore BRTS as a system is capable of affecting a shift from privately owned vehicles to public transport as desired under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
The extent of the shift towards BRTS from private vehicles as a percent of aggregate road users was beyond this project’s scope as the study was restricted to commuters already using the system. Such a study would involve a wider sample covering a large section of the population. It can be concluded that the finding of this study make up a strong case for expanding the system and taking it to the city as a whole instead of just one article route being serviced at present.
The major challenge before the BRT system is to shift the users of private motorized transport to BRTS. This requires the creation of infrastructure and a lot of social/mass counseling and administrative mentoring. The population’s need for public transport as an easier mode of travel, faster than private motorized transport, which is safe and economical, needs a lot of effort to sustain the quality of services. The administration needs to stand up to pressure groups and sundry interests felted against better future prospects of public transport like BRTS in the interest of the city’s masses.
Description
School of Economics (SOE) in 2008 took the initiative and launched an awareness program to improve “Awareness about commodity future trade with special reference to Agri commodities.” The program was generously supported by Forward Market Commission(FMC) and FMC chairman Mr. B.C. Khatua personally addressed the first workshop organized under the program at Indore in Feb.2008. Since then, three such awareness programs have been organized, and the team has had a chance to interact personally with more than six hundred stakeholders as a part of these programs.
The program targeted participants in the local commodity economy and invited participation from students, research scholars, and academicians interested in the subject. The objective was to include all stakeholders (Present & Future) and smoothen the linkage between the local commodity economy and global developments. This was important as the majority of the trade and business of this region is linked with the commodity economy in some form or the other.
Accordingly, the objectives of the program were articulated as:
(i) Improving understanding of the subject of commodity derivatives in Agri commodities and discussing its benefits.
(ii) To discuss the challenges of being an emerging market.
Outcomes
In conclusion, the team SOE would like to state that the agro futures derivative trading system has the potential to deliver the benefits of a globalizing India to its hinterlands if implemented in the right earnest. In short, it can contribute significantly to bridging the rural-urban and town-metro divide. This requires incorporating a setup that will bring participants from all extremes together and foster a synergistic approach. People who participate in the system to protect their business interests alone (a euphemism that has been propagated as stakeholders by some writers) cannot be trusted to take the system forward.
1. The concept of separating traders and ownership/control of exchanges should be aggressively enforced. Traders should be engaged with a view of participative management but should not be able to influence exchange operations in any way.
2. Finances of exchange cannot be surrendered to traders who use the platform. It is important to delink exchange revenue and traded volume in this context. An independent methodology to ensure the financial strength of the exchange needs to be developed.
3. The settlement of open positions should be made fair and transparent while maintaining the secrecy of the trader’s identity throughout the process.
4. The regulators should look at strengthening the regulation of the exchange to make it more transparent and informative to all stakeholders regularly
The authors can suggest a more active inclusion of informed but neutral participants in the operation of exchanges. These people could be drawn from administrators, economists, academicians, researchers, and public representatives with an understanding of the local Agri economy, etc. The thrust should be on making the exchange operation completely independent of members’ trading rights while making the system more inclusive through participation by different segments of the Agri economy. Addressing the apprehensions of the local population and co-opting them in the development process is the best choice for the Indian Agri commodity derivative market system in its journey ahead.