Browsing by Author "Rakesh Raman"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Agony and angst on the streets: Women fruit and vegetable vendors in northern india
(Springer, 2012) Rakesh Raman
The increasing casualisation of work, squeezing of employment opportunities in the organised sector and government’s gradual withdrawal from its participatory and regulatory role during the neo-liberal era have exacerbated the sense of relative deprivation among the people and forced women to look for an easy refuge in informal sector employment such as street vending. Women vendors, most of whom come from the socially backward and economically deprived sections of society are trapped in a situation characterised by illiteracy, a low resource base, lack of opportunities for growth, and exploitation. They are forced to work for 12-14 hours a day for earning meagre amounts which are not even sufficient to make both ends meet, let alone ensure proper upbringing of their children and provide a decent life for them. The largely unorganised women vendors are totally unprotected. They face all kinds of exploitation from all possible agencies, including harassment and beatings; their belongings are snatched, and they are often dislocated and forced to face uncertainty of business without any social security/support. This paper points out that for a nation wherein inclusiveness is the avowed objective of official policy, it is crucial to understand and address the difficult situations and various problems faced by these women vendors. © 2017, Springer India. All rights reserved.
Anti-androgenic and anti-proliferative properties of methanolic leaf extract of Allamanda cathartica Linn. in adult mouse testis: Evidences from in vivo and in silico studies
(Elsevier Ltd, 2025) Rakesh Raman; Rimple Kaur; Swanand Kulkarni; Deepanshu Joshi; Jyoti Parkash; Suresh Thareja; Debarshi Sarkar; Shio Kumar Singh
Dysregulation in androgen production causes a variety of clinical disorders like male pattern baldness, hirsutism, acne vulgaris, benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostate cancer and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Although the common synthetic drugs used to treat these diseases have many side effects, there is growing demand for alternative and herbal therapies. Allamanda cathartica Linn. (family, Apocynaceae) is traditionally used to treat variety of diseases because of its hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antitumor and antimicrobial properties. However, the effects of Allamanda leaves on testosterone production still remain elusive. The present study aims to elucidate the effect and possible mode(s) of action of the methanolic leaf extract of A. cathartica (MLEAC) on androgen biosynthesis and germ cell proliferation in adult mouse testis. Adult male C57BL/6J mice were orally administered MLEAC (150 and 300 mg/kg body weight/day) or distilled water (controls) for 42 days. MLEAC treatment caused non-uniform degenerative changes in the histoarchitecture of testis. The treatment also had negative impact on serum testosterone level with downregulation of the expressions of major steroidogenic proteins (StAR, CYP11A1, 3β-and 17β-HSD3). Flow cytometry and immunohistochemical analyses showed impaired gem cell proliferation in MLEAC-treated mice testes. The GC-MS method identified 20 phytocompounds in MLEAC. The in silico study further revealed that GC-MS-derived phytochemicals have the potential to bind with major steroidogenic proteins in testis. MLEAC treatment thus causes suppression of germ cell proliferation via downregulation of testosterone production. Keeping in view the traditional use of Allamanda, the present findings may prove helpful in the search of a plant-based anti-androgenic compound. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd
Institutional Autonomy in Central Universities: A Case Study of Banaras Hindu University
(Springer Science+Business Media, 2025) Rakesh Raman
Striking an Augean balance between regulation of complex matrix of higher educational institutions and compulsion to grant autonomy to them to make choices and steer themselves has been an extremely difficult decision for the government. The procedural and substantive autonomy of institutions have varied depending on their type- centrally funded or state financed and the state/ buffer bodies created to regulate them. The internal autonomy within institutions granted to the affiliated institutions and faculty also vary significantly across institutions and within the same institution. These have changed with change of guards. The central universities and centrally funded institutions, compared to the state institutions, enjoy more freedom in administrative and academic matters and leeway in financial domain. There is however noticeable variations across central universities themselves. These variations and how they have shaped up the growth and evolution of these institutions are issues of interest that have been critically explored in the write up. The chapter taking Banaras Hindu University as case study examines institutional autonomy enjoyed by central universities at three levels-government to university, university to affiliated institutions and within university to faculties, departments and other bodies. Based on a research study conducted by Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (NIEPA) that investigated top officials of the university (Vice Chancellor, Registrar etc.), deans and heads of departments, members of faculty and students from chosen faculties and departments it attempts to capture the extent and the way autonomy flows in at different layers in the university and how the same affects the performance of the functionaries. The chapter concludes that despite rules and provisions laid down in the acts and statutes, the much talked about ‘shared governance model’ has not worked, while in administrative and financial matters the system continues to be bureaucratic with little autonomy to the functionaries, in academic matter it is at the most ‘hierarchical collegial’ i.e. dominated by senior faculty. It calls for a serious revamp in the way discretionary power is used by those at the helm to infringe autonomy of others down the ladder. © 2025 NIEPA.
Regional disparities in healthcare services in Uttar Pradesh, India: a principal component analysis
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022) Reena Kumari; Rakesh Raman
This study investigates disparities in healthcare services in the districts of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous and one of the poorest states of India in the health sector. To measure the disparities in healthcare services, a composite index has been computed using Principal Component Analysis in three domains namely, health availability, health amenities and health affordability and 12 representative indicators. On the basis of the results, districts have been clubbed into five categories, such as high, high-medium, medium, medium–low and low according to their composite scores. The study also uses k-means cluster analysis to find out the set of districts which are similar within the group, but they are different between the groups. Key results indicate that the districts of the western region are more developed in comparison to the districts of the eastern region in terms of three indices such as availability, amenities, affordability of healthcare services and overall composite health index. Also, k-means cluster analysis shows that there are many districts which are identical in many respects; however, they are located in different regions of the state. This study may be helpful to understand the poor availability and affordability of healthcare services in the districts of Uttar Pradesh, which should be improved to meet the objectives of the basic-needs approach and the millennium development goals. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
Regional disparities in social, environmental, and economic indicators among the Indian States
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2023) Reena Kumari; Rakesh Raman; Ramesh Kumar Patel
There is a plethora of evidence examining state-wise disparities in India and across nations, using different indicators and dimensions. However, insufficient efforts have been made to address the level of development and disparities in socioeconomic and environmental aspects, which refers to the basic amenities needed for the development of an individual's living conditions in any society or nation. To do so, using the UNDP method to standardize the data, inter-state disparities in terms of social, environmental, and economic aspects, which comprise a broader aspect of human well-being, including access to education, health care, clean water and sanitation, energy use, environment, and standard of living has been studied. Subsequently, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensions and assign weights to the component domains of four indices: social, environmental, economic, and composite development index (CDI) with 15 indicators. Furthermore, fractile classification was used to categorize the phases of development of the different states into four categories: high, high-middle, middle-low, and low. The social, environmental, economic, and CDI were used to map the spatial pattern of disparities in the context of society, environment, and economy using ArcGIS for the 29 states of India. The findings show that, in India, different states have the widest discrepancies among the four indices. According to the results, the states of central and eastern India are underdeveloped, which corresponds to a wide variance in the overall position. Kerala, Mizoram, Goa, Sikkim, and Delhi performed under the top five categories in the CDI. Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom five performers in CDI, accounting for 32.53% of the area and housing 39.96% of the total population who suffer greatly from poor access to social, environmental, and economic resources. These findings imply that in order to improve socioeconomic conditions and foster long-term growth in underdeveloped states, authorities should concentrate on ensuring that current policies are adequately implemented. This study is crucial because it is challenging to develop evidence-based policies without identifying regional heterogeneity. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.