[1] Earthquakes in the Koyna-Warna region of peninsular India are considered to be reservoir triggered. However, analyses of the available earthquake data indicate that the sustained high seismicity in this region may be influenced also by the geometry of the fault zones and their interactions through stress transfer. These distinct fault zones, inferred from the earthquake distribution and their focal mechanisms, are favourably oriented to each other in such a way that earthquake occurrences in one of the fault zones increase static stress on the other, facilitating frequent and continuing occurrence of earthquakes in the region. Here we show that though the effect of reservoir operations do promote slip on these faults, stress triggering appears to be an important cause for continuing high seismicity as it brings some of the stabilized faults closer to failure in the manner consistent with the inferred sense of motion.

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Stress inversion of focal mechanism data in the Burmese arc region indicates distinct stress fields above and below 90 km along the subducted Indian lithospheric slab. In the upper part, the σ1 and σ3 axes trend NNE and ESE respectively, in conjunction with the ambient stress field of the Indian plate. However, in the lower part of the slab there is no preferred orientation of the σ1 or σ2 axes, but a very well defined σ3 axis is observed, that trends steeply in the down‐dip direction. It is inferred that while the upper part is governed by the NNE oriented horizontal plate tectonic forces, the lower part is governed entirely by tensile forces due to gravitational loading on the subducted slab. A model of attempted slab detachment at the base of the lithospheric contact zone is suggested, which is supported by results of high‐resolution seismic tomographic studies in this region.

Bruchids are most pernicious pest of stored grain pulses, especially in the tropical and subtropical areas. They penetrate into the fully grown matured pods, grains in fields and also during post-harvest storage. Among bruchids, Callosobruchus maculatus is the prominent pest having ubiquitous distribution. Chemical/synthetic insecticides provides adequate control against the C. maculatus on the pulses. However, the use of synthetic insecticides induces adverse health outcomes in agricultural workers and many causes various diseases such as cancers, genomic damage, oxidative stress, neurological disorders and respiratory, metabolic and thyroid effects. Therefore, alternative effective, safe and sustainable pest control, integration of different compatible methods should be taken into considerations. One of the possible managements might be use of traditional as well modern pest management practices. Traditional techniques include sealed containers, inert materials, harvesting time, alternate host, intercropping, storing un-threshed pulses, cleanliness, vegetable oil etc. Modern techniques such as temperature, freezing and heating, radiation treatments, resistance varieties, natural control, botanical extracts, chemical and microbial, transgenic approach, cold plasma treatments etc. thus integrated pest management might be alternative approach to combat the effect of pest. Therefore, present review aims to considers various measures for the handling of bruchids with special reference to Callosobruchus maculatus and integrated molecular inventions to decrease bruchids populations and enhance pulse productivity in pulses.

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In this work an attempt was made for the preparation and evaluation of controlled release chitosan microspheres using anti-diabetes drug Metformin hydrochloride. The microspheres were prepared by Ionotropic gelation method using chitosan as polymer and Sodium Tripolyphosphate (TPP) as crosslinking agent. The compatibility of drug and polymer is analyzed by using FTIR and DSC method. There was no interaction detected by FTIR and DSC study. Further the prepared microspheres were evaluated for particle size, drug entrapment efficiency, surface morphology, drug content, drug loading and in vitro drug release. Amongst all the formulation batch 7 shows the best release when compared to other batch. SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) revealed that microspheres were spherical and porous. Finally it was concluded that Metformin hydrochloride loaded chitosan – TPP microspheres have been found suitable for controlled release formulation due to its bioavailability and biodegradability and thus lead to improved patient compliance. Keywords: Microspheres, Metformin hydrochloride, Ionotropic gelation method, chitosan.