Editorial

Background: There is plenty of water available in hills, the main problem of the locality is the drinking water. These water resources are not exploited for drinking and irrigation purposes. Also, certain health problems are associated with people living in hills that are because of the presence of excess of heavy metals and other impurities. Aims and Objectives: The present study was conducted to analyze the various parameters of ground water in uttarakhand, India and to check its fitness for drinking. It will also clarify the health hazards imposed on the population of this state. Design & Setting: The present study was conducted in five regions of Uttarakhand, India (Haridwar, Vikasnagar, Mussoorie, Dehradun & Dakpathar) during 2006-2007. Ten samples of ground water were collected from each of the five regions during the pre-monsoon (Jan-Feb 2007) and post-monsoon (Sept-Oct 2006) seasons. Materials & Method: The pH was estimated by pH meter and the alkalinity was determined by titration methods. The total suspended solid was calculated by the following formula: Total suspended solid (mg) / ltr = (A-B) x 1000 / sample vol. In litres. Where, A= weight of filter + dried residue, B=weight of filter paper. Total hardness was calculated by adding calcium and magnesium hardness derived by EDTA titration method. The chloride was estimated by silver nitrate titration method and sulphates were estimated by titration method. The different heavy metals (Mn, Al, Ba, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe and Pb) were determined in the ground water samples by ICP mass spectroscopy. Results: The concentrations of heavy metals, pH, alkalinity, sulphate, chloride, TDS & Total Hardness (TH) were compared with the standards set by BIS for Drinking water (IS 10500:1991). The results show that water quality of all the five regions studied showed no remarkable variation from the BIS recommended value of pH (6.5-8.5). The alkalinity was above the BIS desirable level of 200mg/l in all the samples, but was less than the maximum permissible limit. The Drinking water of all the regions contains higher amounts of TDS than the desirable limits. The maximum TDS was detected in Haridwar (682.5 mg/L) and dehradun (610 mg/L) state. The ground water of mussoorie region shows total hardness to be above the BIS desirable level of 300mg/l. The chloride content was above the BIS desirable level of 250mg/l in dehradun only. The sulphate content was highest in haridwar (197.5mg/l) and dehradun (170mg/l) but it was below the desirable limit of 200mg/l. The cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), and lead (Pb) content of all the five regions of Uttarakhand showed higher the BIS permissible limits of 0.01, 0.05 and 0.05 mg/l respectively. The content of manganese (Mn), barium (Ba), Copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe) are within the permissible limit of BIS standards for drinking water.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted maternal health and health care services. Studies have argued that disruptions in public health result in damage leading to implications for vulnerable populations. Besides that, during the lockdown period, maternal health services dropped down at a significant rate leading to maternal mortality and morbidity in Uttarakhand. Government restricted the movement of the population by halting non-essential services, reducing public transport, and barriers to health care access. The hospital beds were overburdened with infected patients. There were differences observed in the maternal health care provided to the patients in the rural areas in comparison to urban counterparts. The digitalization era made it possible for the urban masses to avail of online consultation, whereas in the rural areas, the condition worsened due to a lack of technology, access, and connectivity. The print Media reflected maternal health issues due to restrictions in movement in different regions in Uttarakhand, namely, Haldwani, Berinag, Bajpur, Kashipur, and Sitarganj. The local communities had to face the challenges and bear loss due to preventable maternal deaths. This paper is an attempt to analyze the maternal health cases presented in local newspapers during the pandemic. The qualitative case studies from the local newspapers, Amar Ujala & The Hindustan, circulated in the regions of Uttarakhand, are mentioned in the study. The arguments in the study are presented based on content analysis from the period March 2020-April 2021.

Samples of Basmati rice grain, soil and water were collected, from IPM and non-IPM field trials conducted at four regions of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in India, for pesticide residue analysis. Out of 45 soil samples collected, only four non-IPM samples indicated the presence of chlorpyrifos and endosulfan in the range of ND (<0.001) to 0.05 mg/kg. Carbendazim used at two locations of Dehradun and Kaithal was found below detectable limit (<0.05 mg/kg) in both IPM and non-IPM trials. Out of total 22 samples of water analyzed, chlorpyriphos was detected in samples from Kaithal and Pant Nagar in the range 0.003-0.006 μL/L, alpha -endosulfan isomer was detected in the range 0.005-0.03 μL/L and the beta-isomer in the range 0.005-0.02 μL/L in sample from Pant Nagar and Kaithal. The residues in all the grain sample of paddy were below detectable limit (<0.001-0.05 mg/kg). The insecticides applied in IPM as well as non-IPM trials were found to be below maximum residue level (MRL).

Good Faith and Contract Interpretation: A Law and Economics Perspective

The idea of sustainable development has been prominently in discussions lately. The developed nations have observed high economic growth in the twentieth century and now the onus has been shifted to the developing nations, majorly the BRIC countries, to provide the large, ever-increasing population a decent level of living. The unscrupulous usage of natural resources earlier by developed nations and now by the developing nations has led to problematic social and ecological changes. This paper tries to explore the pressure of economic growth and the consequences at village level. The study, exploratory in nature, is based on the experiences of a small village (Ramgarh) in the hills of Uttarakhand in India. The area was famous for the orchards, prominently apple, but over the years has seen unprecedented construction of cottages: mostly owned by rich people from outside. It is worth mentioning, that these areas have limited employment opportunities and had high dependence on the local agricultural/horticultural production as source of income. The uncertainties of income have forced large-scale migration to other parts of the country. Consequently, the socio-cultural fabric is also getting fractured. The study is important because it is a situation faced by most of the sections of the society in the rural hinterland of the country. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n11p64

The Contributions of Soil Organic Carbon, Total Nitrogen and C/N Ratio in Some of the Soils of Tarai Region of Uttarakhand in India

A landslip is derived from nature and sometimes caused by human activities that endanger humanity and habitation. This work focuses on landslide behaviour for sustainable landslide mitigation and susceptibility analysis. The current research aims to evaluate three state-of-the-art machine learning techniques including, Random Forest (RF), Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN), and Bayesian Network (BN), to predict the landslide susceptibility for the Uttarakashi district, Uttarakhand (India). For this purpose, a total of 554 landslide locations and eleven influencing factors were integrated to construct a landslide susceptibility map. The landslide inventory data were separated into training and testing sets. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) with other statistical metrics, including sensitivity, specificity, precision, recall, and accuracy, was applied to compare the performance of machine learning techniques. The results indicated that the area under the curve (AUC) value for the RF model (AUC=0.89) is high. Furthermore, our findings showed that the RF model performs the best among all the other models with the highest training and testing accuracy, 96% and 86%, respectively. The final landslide susceptibility map is grouped into three classes, i.e. Low, Moderate, and High. The study outcome would provide support to disaster management officials in effective decision-making to prioritise necessary actions.

Background: Callicarpa macrophylla (Varbenaceae) is a medicinal shrub and is traditionally used in India, China, and South Asia. Methods: The plant material was collected from lower Himalayan region of Uttarakhand in India. The essential oils from three different aerial parts were analyzed by GC-MS. Antioxidant activity, phenolic assay, and various pharmacological activities were determined by using existing methods which are generally practiced widely. Results: Over 51, 53, and 40 compounds were identified in C. macrophylla leaves essential oil (CMLEO), C. macrophylla pre mature seeds and fruits essential oil (CMEO-I) and C.macrophylla mature seeds and fruits essential oil (CMEO-II), respectively. These oils differ in relative contents of major compounds viz; β-selinene (37.51% in CMLEO, 44.66% in CMEO-I and 57.01% in CMEO-II), phyllocladene (9.76% in CMLEO, 5.80% in CMEO-I and 12.38% in CMEO-II), caryophelline oxide (7.34% in CMLEO, 8.74% in CMEO-I and 5.0% in CMEO-II), 9E-epi-caryophelline (6.23% in CMLEO, 1.27% in CMEO-I and 3.43% in CMEO-II), longipinocarvone (4.96% in CMLEO, 1.17% in CMEO-I and 2.0% in CMEO-II), and 1,8-cineole (2.23% in CMLEO, 3.10% in CMEO-I and 1.62% in CMEO-II). The oils exhibited good in vitro antioxidant activity. The maximum activity was found in CMEO-II with IC50 values 7.37 ± 0.11, 11.49 ± 0.87, 14.59 ± 0.18, 15.66 ± 0.03, and 17.49 ± 0.13 µL/mL. The essential oils showed qualitative and quantitative diversity in the makeup of essential oils constituents. The oils were found to exhibit anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antipyretic activity on swiss albino mice compared to the standard drugs, viz; ibuprofen, paracetamol and indomethacin. Conclusion: It is inferred from the study that the plant parts can be used scientifically in traditional systems as folk herbal medicine. Furthermore, we have generated a database for future reference and judicious exploitation of these oils from their natural setting.

Background:Vitiligo is a common, acquired, pigmentary disorder characterized by loss of melanocytes resulting in white spots. This disease carries a lot of social stigma in India.Objective:To study the clinico-epidemiological profile of vitiligo patients in Kumaun region of Uttarakhand state in India.Materials and Methods:The clinical presentation of vitiligo was examined and analyzed in 762 vitiligo patients attending the Dermatology outdoor of Government Medical College, Haldwani, which is a referral centre for Kumaun region of Uttarakhand state in India.Results:Male and female patients were found to be affected almost equally. It was observed that onset of vitiligo was most common in 0-10 years age group, as evidenced by 336 cases out of 762 cases. Acrofacial type of vitiligo (339 cases out of 762) was most commonly observed, followed by vitiligo vulgaris, focal, segmental, mucosal, mixed, and universal vitiligo. The most common site of onset was the lower limbs followed by head and neck, upper limbs, trunk, genitalia, and mucasae. Leucotrichia was observed in 33.5%, Koebner's phenomenon in 26.3%, and a positive family history in 19% of the vitiligo patients. The other common conditions associated were thyroid disorders (8.9%), diabetes (5.3%), and atopic dermatitis (4.9%).Conclusion:The study indicates that acrofacial vitiligo is the most common clinical type observed in Kumaun region of Uttarakhand in India. Onset of vitiligo is most common in first decade of life.

Forecasting the heavy rainfall during Himalayan flooding—June 2013

This chapter surveys key factors that constrain and enable the development of good faith obligations in employment law—ideologies of legal systems, legal techniques of implementation, functional equivalents to good faith obligations, and legal structures pre-empting the application of good faith norms—illustrating how and why employment good faith obligations are closely shaped by the contours of national political economies and legal landscapes. The chapter next lays out a basic framework for further theorization of the role and purposes of good faith obligations in employment law, briefly outlining three strands of scholarship: discerning customs of good faith and their implications; theorizing roles of public law norms; and theorizing implications of contract law’s purposes. The chapter concludes with potential implications for the basic character of employment contracts and observations on the breadth and depth of unexplored questions that remain.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at auditor obligations to their clients and potentially to third parties such as investors, with a focus on the quality of financial disclosure in an evolving legal framework. Design/methodology/approach – The article outlines and compares established and emerging trends relative to information disclosure and contractual performance in parallel contexts where information asymmetry exists. In particular, this article considers the disclosure regime that has evolved in the insurance industry to address the substantial imbalance in the level of knowledge possessed by the insured in comparison to the prospective insurer. Abductive reasoning is used to identify causal constructs that explain the data pattern from which the theorised potential for judicial revision of the interpretation of “true and fair” in line with “good faith” in legal regulation is derived. Findings – The authors conclude that there is little doubt that a duty of good faith in relation to auditor-company contractual dealings and potentially a broader good faith duty to third parties such as investors in companies may be on the horizon. Originality/value – In the context of stated objectives by organisations such as the International Federation of Accountants to reconcile ethical and technical skills in the wake of the global financial crisis, there is an increased need to rebuild public and investor confidence in the underpinning integrity of financial reporting. This paper offers a perspective on one way to achieve this by recognising the similarities in the information asymmetry relationships in the insurance industry and how the notion of “good faith” in that relationship could be useful in the audit situation.

The objective of this research is to analyse the legal protection of holders of land rights in development. The research employs a normative legal research method, utilising data sourced from literature studies, including laws and regulations on mining, as well as literature, such as books related to the subject matter. First, it is the duty of the State to protect holders of land rights certificates due to the aforementioned individuals' good faith and the state's decision to issue certificates as proof of land titles. Such certificates should not be canceled by the state without compensation. In light of this, it is essential to have valid, correct, and appropriate rules of state administrative law and their effective implementation to guarantee the legal protection of holders of land rights certificates. Second, in instances where land is required for the implementation of public development, the acquisition process must be conducted expeditiously and in a transparent manner, while maintaining due consideration for the protection of legitimate rights to land. The legal basis for land acquisition for the implementation of development in the public interest as stipulated by Presidential Decree No. 55 of 1993 is no longer deemed appropriate in the current legal landscape. The issuance of Presidential Regulation No. 36 of 2005, which has been amended by Presidential Regulation No. 65 of 2006, is founded on several legal instruments. This research leads to the conclusion that the government's objective is to provide a form of protection and guarantee of legal certainty over land ownership for individuals. This is achieved through the registration of land rights as outlined in Article 19, Paragraph 1 of Law Number 5 of 1960 concerning Basic Agrarian Regulations. The form of legal protection for people's rights to land in development is to provide legal protection for holders of land rights to their land

Ethiopia, a founding member of many of the international and regional organizations today and the second most populous country in the UN list of least–developed countries (LDCs), is currently in the early stages of negotiating its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This article asks the basic questions of why Ethiopia uncharacteristically stayed out of such an important multilateral endeavour for so long and why it wants to join now, and what the potential implications of the decision to join the system will be for the legal, institutional and economic policy landscape of the country both during the accession process as well as after achieving membership. The Ethiopian Government argues that WTO accession would help facilitate economic growth, attract foreign investment, secure predictable and transparent market access, and allow it to have a say on the direction of globalization. While many of these are in line with the conventional explanations about the benefi ts of WTO accession, this article argues that the balance of rights and obligations contained in the WTO legal framework and its enforcement mechanism mean that Ethiopia’s ability to make use of the system to realize these ambitions is, at best, limited. However, the article concludes with a positive note that, if the accession process is handled carefully and final membership obligations carried out in good faith, WTO accession is likely to contribute to those goals indirectly through, interalia, the review and reform of national laws and policies, the establishment of objective, impartial and effective administrative procedures and implementing institutions, and its potential overall contribution to the establishment of a system of rule of law, administrative transparency and accountability in the country.

In Indonesia, the law of land plays a major role in shaping the legal landscape. Land is a primary source of livelihood and sustenance for individuals and communities, making it a fundamental human need. The belief in the immense value and usefulness of land for human life is deeply ingrained, leading to the inseparable connection between land and humans. Philosophy of law provides the perspective that justice is realized through law. Humans live, grow, and conduct their activities on land, which serves as a social symbol within society. Ownership of land signifies honor, pride, and personal success. Therefore, land ownership becomes a source of life, a symbol of identity, the right to honor and dignity for its holders. This necessitates the regulation of land registration as an implementation of ownership rights over land. Due to the economic value of land, land ownership rights can be traded or transferred through grants, sales, inheritance, and other means. Land ownership is the most privileged right compared to other land rights. The transfer of land rights contained and regulated in the Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA) protects the true right holders, meaning individuals who acquire a right in good faith from someone presumed to be the rightful owner. This principle is used to provide evidentiary weight to maps and public registers as stipulated in the UUPA. In this article, we will analyze land ownership rights under the UUPA.