The COVID-19 pandemic has led to disruptions in essential health services globally. We surveyed Indian paediatric providers on their perceptions of the impact of the pandemic on routine vaccination. Among 424 (survey 1) and 141 (survey 2) respondents representing 26 of 36 Indian states and union territories, complete suspension of vaccination services was reported by 33.4% and 7.8%, respectively. In April–June 2020, 83.1% perceived that vaccination services dropped by half, followed by 32.6% in September 2020, indicating slow resumption of services. Concerns that vaccine coverage gaps can lead to mortality were expressed by 76.6%. Concerted multipronged efforts are needed to sustain gains in vaccination coverage.
The last one to two decades have seen several countries stipulating a mandatory requirement of 5-10% blending of biofuels with petrol and diesel. The mandatory blending has triggered a rapid growth in the biofuel sector. Several governments have put in place biofuel policies that have a bearing right from the production of biofuels crops at the farm to their conversion into transport-grade biofuels to be utilised for blending purpose. This paper highlights the salient features of India's biofuel policy and discusses how it influences the economic viability of ethanol production and its commercialisation in the country. The Government of India provides a wide range of policy incentives to promote biofuels as an alternative energy source. The policy challenges affecting biofuel development are discussed under the framework adapted from the Global Subsidies Initiative of Steenblik (2007) showing the existing policies and distortions along the biofuel supply chain to promote alternate feedstocks. For long-term sustainability of ethanol production for blending mandates, this paper explores the options to augment bioethanol production using alternative feedstocks like sweet sorghum that is grown in the drylands and policy support required for its promotion, which will benefit all the stakeholders of the bioethanol supply chain in the long run.
An experiment was conducted to study the effect of varied plant densities and different placement of emitters on yield, post harvest and quality parameters in banana cv. Grand Naine. The experiment was laid out in factorial RCBD design with three varied plant densities S1 (1.5 x 1.5 m), S2 (1.8 x 1.8 m) and S3 (2 x 2 m) and four different placement of emitters E1 (placement of emitters at plain), E2 (placement of emitters at 40 cm), E3 (placement of emitters at 50 cm) and E4 (placement of emitters at 60 cm) with three replications. The results of the experiment clearly indicated that the highest yield (79.37, 86.48 tons/ha) was registered in treatment (S1, E2 respectively) and the lowest yield (51.35, 54.33 tons/ha) was observed in treatment (S3, E1 respectively) in plant crop. Postharvest parameters like pulp weight (82.15 g, 104.53 g), pulp to peel ratio (1.83, 2.50) and shelf life (8.19, 8.52 days) was registered highest and peel weight was found lowest (46.00 g, 42.04 g) in treatment (S3, E2 respectively) in plant crop. The highest quality parameters viz., total sugar (19.56, 19.54 %), reducing sugar (16.96, 16.59 %), non reducing sugar (2.70, 2.75 %) and total soluble solid (23.11, 23.37 0 Brix) was recorded highest in treatment (S3, E2 respectively) in plant crop. The similar trend of post harvest and quality parameters was found in ratoon crop also. However the lowest postharvest and quality parameter was observed in treatment (S1, E1) in plant and ratoon crop respectively.
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