Indian Conditions Research Articles

The State-of-the-Art Estimation of Groundwater Recharge and Water Balance with a Special Emphasis on India: A Critical Review

Groundwater recharge estimation is essential for sustainable water management and water supply schemes. In this paper, we review groundwater recharge estimation techniques and identify the appropriate methods by considering India’s hydrological and climatic conditions. Significant components of recharge, factors affecting groundwater recharge, aquifer systems of India, and historical groundwater recharge estimation practices are reviewed. Currently used recharge estimation methods are assessed based on case studies. The most popular estimation methods are studied and compared based on their application in various regions. It is observed that the accuracy of the recharge estimates is largely influenced by false assumptions, the possibility of erroneous measurements, a potential lack of reliable data, and a variety of problems associated with parameter estimation. The suitability of different methods for a region is found to depend on time and space considerations, the objective of the study, hydrogeological condition, and availability of data. In Indian conditions, it is suggested to use water table fluctuation and water balance methods for the recharge estimation, provided that accurate water level measurements are assured.

From Heaven Lake: A Thematic Analysis

Culture is a running blood in the artery of a man or a country from which it makes all round progress. Nourished through culture, a citizen of a nation leaves a special identity before society and the other nations. Thus culture becomes synonym of a person, a society and a nation. If we neglect our culture, we cannot make all round progress because culture is a watchman a defender and a guard of our characters, morality and nationality. On the other side it describes the traditions of the past in the references of the present and the other it gives natural and calm acceptance to the new changes of society. It does not accept the negative aspects. Travel and culture are related to each other. Through travel one can get more particular view to a complete knowledge, which one had seen, better than any other information. If we are travelling through an area, we can survey and observe it in a better way. One comes very close to the people. So, ‘Travel’ is one best source of knowing culture. ‘’ Indica’’, written by a foreign traveller, Magsthenese, is the best source book on Indian culture and political system. Many foreign writers came in India and described Indian culture, society, economic pattern and condition and political system in their books. Among these writers are Huein-Tsang, Fi-hein, It-sing and Albaruni. Books written by these writers are best source of Indian culture.

Studying the effect of morphotype and harvest season on yield and quality of Indian genotypes of Centella asiatica: A potential medicinal herb cum underutilized green leafy vegetable

Centella asiatica (L.) Urban commonly known as Gotukola is an important medicinal herb cum nutrient rich green leafy vegetable. The present investigation was undertaken at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru to evaluate thirteen accessions of Centella asiatica collected from different agroclimatic zones of India viz., Northern, North eastern and Southern India for studying the effect of morphotype and harvest season on biomass yield and secondary metabolite content. The study was conducted for two consecutive years (2019 and 2020) for two seasons (March and July). Observations for mature leaf size (4 and 8 month after planting) in the studied genotypes depicted the presence of small leaved (1–20 cm2) and broad-leaved accessions (>20 cm2) which differed significantly with respect to fresh biomass yield and secondary metabolite content. Accessions, IIHR-CA-17 and IIHR-CA-18 recorded highest mean fresh biomass yield of 13.95 t and 13.11 t ha−1year−1 and were on par with each other. Both these accessions can be recommended for the leafy vegetable type, whereas accessions, IIHR-CA-13 and IIHR-CA-23 recorded the highest mean total triterpenoid content of 5.07% and 5.03% during 2019 and 6.88% and 6.69% during 2020, respectively showing their promising potential as medicinal types. Pearson's correlation studies showed that the leaf size and asiaticoside content is significantly negatively correlated inferring that the small leaved accessions reported higher secondary metabolite content as compared to the broad-leaved accessions. The study also showed that coinciding harvest with the summer season (March) under Bengaluru conditions (temperature and relative humidity ranges from 33 to 35 °C and 35–38%, respectively) recorded higher biomass yield and high retention of bioactive content. Thus, the study concluded that under Indian conditions, the selection of small leaved genotypes and harvesting during summer months will be beneficial for the farmers as well as herbal industries for obtaining higher yield.

Soil temperature and horticultural traits as influenced by mulching materials and orchard floor management practices in ber (Zizypus mauritiana Lamk.)


 Different type of mulches viz. paddy straw mulch (PSM), black polythene mulch (BPM), and white polythene mulch (WPM) were spreaded under the canopies of Indian ber (Zizypus mauritiana Lamk.) trees in second fortnight of October. The treatments of inter-cultivation (IC) and chemical weed management (CWM), and control trees were also kept for comparative analysis. The daily soil temperature recorded at 0900, 1200, 1400 and 1700 hours from October to April months during 2018-19 and 2019-20 revealed significant variations under different treatments. The respective soil temperature variation during 1st and 2nd year was minimum (9.2 and 9.9 oC) under PSM as compared to 16.5 oC in control plots throughout the investigation period. The soil temperature under PSM was higher during extreme winters whereas, it was comparatively lower during pre and post-winter season as compared to other treatments.The variations in intra-day average soil temperature during the months of October-November and again in March-April was higher than in December-February; the period of extreme winters. Significant reduction in physiological fruit drop was recorded under all the treatments with minimum fruit drop under PSM followed by BPM, while it was maximum in control trees. Likewise, fruit weight and fruit yield was also recorded highest under PSM followed by BPM treatments. The microbes in the rhizopshere of mulched trees with PSM followed by BPM exhibited highest and sustained activity from from Otober to April month under North-West Indian conditions.

Selection of a green renewable energy source in India with the help of MEREC integrated PIV MCDM tool

Selecting the best renewable energy (RE) sources are often considered as a critical task in the field of decision-making. Renewable energy depends on certain conflicting factors that might divert the proper selection of the best one. Hence, Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) would be the appropriate choice to treat this kind of confusing situations. In this article, a real-time decision-making problem is considered regarding the proper selection of a RE power plant in India. The main objective is to propose the suitable RE power plant that should be established in India based on six most important factors with the help of integrated MEREC-PIV MCDM tool. Here, five alternatives RE sources are considered and the best one is chosen based on the suitability of the Indian climatic conditions with the help of PIV, and MEREC is utilized to determine the objective weights of the six criterions. The final results show that, hydroelectric power plant would be the appropriate choice, whereas, biomass energy is the worst among the five alternatives. A ranking order of the alternatives is also proposed showing from highest to lowest rating. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to validate the outcome results and ranking.

Driving Safety through ADAS: An Indian Perspective

Analysis of the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey, conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), shows that driver error is a factor in 94% of crashes. Although it is important to remember multiple factors contribute to all crashes, the largest portion of driver error issues involve the driver failing to recognize hazards, including distraction. Around 3,700 people die in traffic every day around the world, and 100,000 are injured. The automotive industry is striving to make driving safer. ADAS in India is comparatively in a nascent stage. However, it is gradually gaining pace. The government's upcoming safety regulations and consumer awareness will give further impetus to this movement. So, Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) is equipping cars and drivers with advance information and technology to make them become aware of the environment and handle potential situations in better way semi-autonomously. High-quality training and test data is essential in the development and validation of ADAS systems which lay the foundation for autonomous driving technology. In addition to this, ADAS systems need to be very safe and robust, with the ability to perform in a variety of driving scenarios, and be very secure, being immune from any external cyber-attacks. In order to make ADAS systems safer, the AV will be required to drive more than a billion miles on real roads, taking tens and sometimes hundreds of years to drive those miles, considering even the most aggressive testing assumptions. Every small update to the AV will require another billion miles of testing to be approved for real world use. Moreover, the more advanced the technology becomes, the more miles will need to de driven. Real word testing plays a very crucial role in ADAS and AV development and testing. Nevertheless, relying only on real world testing will significantly slow down the development and testing of such technologies. This is where simulation comes into play. With the primary objective of road safety improvement, ADAS functionalities will definitely play a big role for automotive industry. In order to tackle Indian specific road infrastructure conditions, and thus improving the safety, a complete tool-chain for developing, deploying and validating ADAS functionalities need to be developed. The presented work shares insights of each and every aspect of this tool-chain with experimental results and real world correlations.

Brown and Yellow Rust of Wheat in India –Significance of Climate on It’s Races and Resistance

Wheat is one of the most important staple food crops having global economic significance. Grown globally around 215 million hectares area with production of more than 600 million tons. Wheat is constrained in its production due to several biotic factors, among them yellow rust of wheat, Puccinia striiformis Westend. f.sp. tritici Eriks and Henn. (Pst) and brown rust of wheat, Puccinia recondita f.sp. tritici (Eriks. and E. Henn.) D.M. Henderson (Ptr) continues to be a serious threat and dominant factor limiting its yield potential globally. The estimated yield losses range from 10-70%, while in a severe epidemic the grain damage can be as great as 100%. Pathogens are considered to be favoured by the cooler areas but current races are more adaptable to high temperatures causing significant yield reduction in wheat. In India, prevalent pathotypes for yellow rust include 46S119, 110S119, and 238S119. Yr5, Yr10, Yr15, YrSp, and YrSk genes are resistant to Pst pathotypes in Indian conditions, while in the case of leaf rust of wheat, prevalent pathotypes are 77-5, 77-9, and 104-2. Lr9, Lr19, Lr24, Lr25, Lr29, Lr32, Lr39, Lr45, and Lr47 are the genes having resistance to Ptr pathotypes in Indian conditions. This publication provides a comprehensive overview of the stripe and leaf rusts of wheat in India and their virulent races, types of host resistance and provides a tool for effective management of wheat rust disease.

Potential impact of future climate change on maize (Zea mays L.) under rainfed condition in central India

A simulation experiment was carried out using Agriculture Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model to assess the impact of climate change (change in temperature and rainfall patterns) on productivity of maize in the state Madhya Pradesh. Thirty districts with 74 soil profiles from Madhya Pradesh state were considered for the study. However, we are presenting the average results over districts and soil profiles. A well-parameterised and validated APSIM model was used to simulate the effects of temperature and rainfall on maize grain and biomass yield. Increase in temperature having negative effects on both grain and biomass yield of maize. While increasing the temperature from base to 5 °C, the grain and biomass yield of maize decreased by 40% and 28%, respectively. Further, increasing the temperature by 1 °C could reduce the grain and biomass yield by 10% and 8 %, respectively. A small increase in maize yield was observed by 10% decrease of rainfall from the base. While rainfall increase by 10% or more and decrease by >20% would results in lower maize yield and biomass. The decrease in maize yield due to increase in temperature could be attributed to decrease in duration of the crop. One-degree increase in temperature may decrease the duration of crop by 4.3 days. This study also revealed that agronomic management practices such as delaying of sowing dates could reduce the impact of climate change on crop yield to a considerable extent. By adopting the sowing date between 7th and 14th July, it may be possible to reduce the impact of temperature change on maize grain and biomass yield in central Indian condition.

Estimation of Temporal R-factor Based on Monthly Precipitation Data

This study assesses temporal variation in rainfall erosivity of Gurushikhar, Rajasthan, (India) on a monthly precipitation basis in the form of the USLE/RUSLE R-factor. The objective of the paper is to theoretically calculate rainfall erosivity when the unavailability of high temporal resolution pluviographic rainfall data such as Indian condition. In the study, the rainfall erosivity has been calculated using the Modified Fourier Index. The results show that the annual rainfall erosivity factor (R) value highest in the year 2017 and lowest in 1974. Conferring to an examination through NASA, earth’s global superficial temperatures in 2017 ranked as second warmest since 1880. Therefore, the rainfall amount was more in 2017 compared to past years, and also rainfall erosivity value suddenly increased in 2017, achieved the highest value. They concluded that the heavy precipitation events in the year are lead to an increase in rainfall erosivity value and risk of soil erosion.

Assessment of climate change impact on different pigeonpea maturity groups in north Indian condition


 The CROPGRO-pigeonpea model embedded in DSSAT v4.7.5 was used to assess the impact of climate change on phenology and grain yield of reference genotype of different pigeonpea maturity groups. The impact of climate change delayed reproductive stages (anthesis, maturity) and decreased grain yield of reference genotype of different pigeonpea maturity groups were evident in all scenarios. Short duration genotypes (MN5, ICPL88039, Prabhat, UPAS120) showed progressively higher decrease in yield as compared to medium (Maruti, Asha, ICP7035) and long (Bahar, MAL13) duration genotypes with each successive increase in scenatio from RCP2.6 to RCP8.5 and projected year from 2010 to 2095. Anthesis was delayed 9 days in MN5 to 20 days in Bahar and maturity delayed 15 days in MN5 to 24 days in Bahar with RCP 8.5 in year 2095 in comparison to RCP2.6 in years 2010, whereas, grain yield was decreased 14% in Bahar to 66% in MN5 among genotypes of different maturity groups.

Crop-weather based relation and severity prediction of aerial blight incited by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn in soybean


 Crop-weather based relation and other aspects of aerial blight incited by Rhizoctoniasolani Kuhn were investigated on two mega varieties (JS 335 and JS 97-52, now susceptible) under central Indian conditions during 2017, 2018 and 2019. It was found that aerial severity and sclerotial formation on affected leaves were varied significantly in all three season, and progress of disease was rapid between 63–84 days old crop {full pod (R4) to maturity initiation (R7) stage}.Increasing crop age was also significantly positively correlated with increasing severity (0.732*) and sclerotial formation (0.981**). Mean relative humidity and maximum temperature of current as well as previous week were found to be positively and negatively correlated with increasing severity of aerial blight, respectively. A regression based model with three explanatory variables (Mean RH, Rainfall and Minimum temperature) of current week was found to be most significant in prediction of disease severity (R2=0.946) of aerial blight. Whereas previous week weather variables i.e. rainy days and rainfall were also accounted 71.7 per cent variability (R2 = 0.717) in disease severity. Overall, weekly average maximum temp (27 to 30o C) and mean RH (80 to 90 per cent) in current week coupled with more rainfall and rainy days in previous week were found to be most conducive field condition for rapid progress of aerial blight disease in soybean.

Effect of different seat angles on human subject while travelling by bus on Indian road conditions

Passenger seats are the most commonly used seats in the buses to provide comfort to the passengers during traveling from one place to another. During traveling by the road, the human body is subjected to vibrations that can be generated from so many sources such as wheel unbalances, road profiles, transmission, and auxiliary systems, aerodynamic loads and engines, etc. The generated vibrations are further transmitted to humans through the seat base and floor of the bus and cause discomfort. In this work, a FEM study was performed to investigate the effect of different seat backrest angles on the human subject during traveling on the passenger seats in the bus on Indian road conditions. A 3D CAD model of the human subject developed for the current study and also passenger seat with headrest has been modeled using reverse engineering with cushion material as synthetic rubber foam for seat pan and backrest. The current simulation study concludes that the minimum effect of transmissibility has been observed at 21° seat backrest angle.

Opacifiers on color stability of maxillofacial silicone under aging and Indian weathering conditions: An in vitro study

Statement of problemResistance to long-term color change is a desirable property for facial prosthetic elastomers. Evidence for the color stability of maxillofacial silicones under aging and hot and humid Indian weathering conditions is lacking. PurposeThe purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effect of adding opacifiers on the color stability of maxillofacial silicone under human aging and Indian weather conditions. Material and methodsA total of 93 specimen disks were obtained from the A-2186, platinum-based, room-temperature vulcanized, maxillofacial silicone elastomer by using a Ø30×6-mm stainless-steel die. The specimens were divided into 3 main groups (n=30), C (control), T (titanium dioxide), and B (barium sulfate), and 1 additional specimen (n=1) from each group was stored in a closed box and further subgrouped as outdoor weathering (COut, TOut, BOut), acidic perspiration (CAcid, TAcid, BAcid), sebum (CSebum, TSebum, BSebum) (n=10), and visual comparison (CVis, TVis, BVis) (n=1). Baseline L∗, a∗, b∗ values were recorded by using a spectrophotometer and visual perception. The specimens were subjected to human and extraoral aging conditions, and the values were recorded again after 6 months. Data were analyzed statistically by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc analysis with the Tukey post hoc test. ResultsIn group C, the mean color change for COut was 3.69 ±0.49; CAcid, 3.58 ±0.68; and CSebum, 7.53 ±0.22 (P<.001). In group T, the mean color change for TOut was 2.60 ±0.24; TAcid, 2.35 ±0.13; and TSebum, 4.91 ±0.44 (P<.001). In group B, BOut was 1.59 ±0.28, BAcid was 1.46 ±0.28, and BSebum was 4.03 ±0.71 (P<.001). The specimens containing barium sulfate showed the maximum color stability. The least color stability was observed in all specimens exposed to sebum solution and was significantly different (P<.001) from the outdoor weather and acidic perspiration specimens. Visually perceivable color changes were observed in specimens exposed to the sebum solution. ConclusionsThe addition of titanium dioxide and barium sulfate as opacifiers resulted in clinically acceptable color change when exposed to outdoor weathering and acidic perspiration but not in sebum solution.

Increased Predictive Accuracy of Multi-Environment Genomic Prediction Model for Yield and Related Traits in Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Genomic selection (GS) has the potential to improve the selection gain for complex traits in crop breeding programs from resource-poor countries. The GS model performance in multi-environment (ME) trials was assessed for 141 advanced breeding lines under four field environments via cross-predictions. We compared prediction accuracy (PA) of two GS models with or without accounting for the environmental variation on four quantitative traits of significant importance, i.e., grain yield (GRYLD), thousand-grain weight, days to heading, and days to maturity, under North and Central Indian conditions. For each trait, we generated PA using the following two different ME cross-validation (CV) schemes representing actual breeding scenarios: (1) predicting untested lines in tested environments through the ME model (ME_CV1) and (2) predicting tested lines in untested environments through the ME model (ME_CV2). The ME predictions were compared with the baseline single-environment (SE) GS model (SE_CV1) representing a breeding scenario, where relationships and interactions are not leveraged across environments. Our results suggested that the ME models provide a clear advantage over SE models in terms of robust trait predictions. Both ME models provided 2–3 times higher prediction accuracies for all four traits across the four tested environments, highlighting the importance of accounting environmental variance in GS models. While the improvement in PA from SE to ME models was significant, the CV1 and CV2 schemes did not show any clear differences within ME, indicating the ME model was able to predict the untested environments and lines equally well. Overall, our results provide an important insight into the impact of environmental variation on GS in smaller breeding programs where these programs can potentially increase the rate of genetic gain by leveraging the ME wheat breeding trials.

A review of effectiveness of speed reducing devices with focus on developing countries

The heterogeneous traffic conditions in India is making things more complicated in urban areas. Traffic accidents in India are increasing at an alarming rate due to the rapid growth of motor vehicles in the past few years. The number of accidents drop only at sites where speed restriction techniques are implemented for different vehicle categories, especially at locations like approaches to level crossings, negotiation points at sharp curves, approaches towards intersections, accident prone locations, residential streets, streets closures at schools and hospitals etc. In developing countries like India, speed humps and speed bumps are primarily used as speed reducing devices both in urban and rural areas, which is not the case in developed countries where speed bumps are used only on private grounds and speed humps are mainly used on residential roads in urban areas. The effectiveness of speed reducing devices are reviewed in this study to elaborate best practices and recognise gaps in research to set up few scopes for future research in this area. The literature review revealed that most of the speed humps in developing countries have faulty geometrical dimensions when compared to codal provisions leading to problems among road users. Though traditionally speed humps are known to reduce speed and increase safety, they too have disadvantages like, increase in travel time, increase in vehicle operating cost, decrease in capacity of roads and undesirable experience to drivers and passengers. Rumble strips on safety on rural roads on either side of a pedestrian crosswalks is an option to be further explored. Finally, in view of the Indian road conditions, it is observed that Indian guidelines concerning design of speed humps IRC 99-2018 are not compatible with best practice. Therefore, there is an imperial need to frame new guidelines for different type of roads.

Effect of temperature variations on phenology and horticultural traits of guava under North-west Indian conditions

Effect of temperature variations on phenology and horticultural traits of guava under North-west Indian conditions

Techno-Economic Feasibility of the Longwall Top Coal Caving Method Based on the FTCD Index: A Parametric Case Study in India

An extraction method for deep-seated thick seam deposits by underground mining with high resource recovery has remained a great challenge for Indian mining engineers, whereas the longwall top coal caving (LTCC) method has evolved as an effective method for various geo mining conditions in China and other counties. The percentage of top coal recovery (TCR) plays a predominant role in determining the feasibility of LTCC, which relies on the First Top Coal Caving Distance (FTCD). In this paper, the critical geotechnical parameters are identified, numerically simulated, and statistically analyzed, and the FTCD for Indian geo-mining conditions is developed and validated. A financial assessment is conducted, considering 70% top coal recovery at 85% performance level, cost of production escalated by 20% and fall in coal grade by two grades. The internal rate of return (IRR) for LTCC is 30.24% as per the sensitivity analysis where it is only 18% in single pass longwall method. This study contributes to evaluating both the technical and economic feasibility of introducing LTCC in Indian geo-mining conditions.

Influence of Family Background on Learning Outcome of Agricultural Undergraduates in Indian Conditions

Family as an entity teaches many concepts like social, economic, technical, moral concepts to the children for a better living. Thus the contribution of a family in an educational environment is undeniable. Thus this paper attempts to cull out various aspects of family background that influence the learning situation of the agricultural undergraduate students in the Indian conditions. Agricultural College and Research Institute, Coimbatore of TNAU were taken as the study center. B. Sc. (Agriculture) degree program was purposefully selected. 114 students studying final year were considered for the study by employing saturated sampling technique. Majority of the respondents’ families were found to be economically sound with stable occupation under any one sector. Being hostellers, the parents did not have adequate scope to engage in educational activities and interact with the institution. But they always find ways to back the students in all possible ways in other means.

Constraints and Way Forward for Boosting Income from Dairy Farming in India: A Review

For a sustainable livelihood model of farming under Indian conditions, dairying becomes an inevitable part along with crop production. Dairy farming has been a continuous source of income to the farmers which help them in their socioeconomic development. Increased quantity and quality of milk always fetches good returns to the farmers. Hence, it becomes the priority of almost all the farmers to extract more and more milk from the animals which may sometimes pushes them into faulty husbandry practices which ultimately lead to loss of income and loss of health of animals. Nonetheless, dairy production in India has boosted many folds as shown by increased livestock population and production scenario in the country. However, under Indian conditions, for enhancing the income from dairy farming certain constraints have to be layout and correspondingly firm solutions have to be made. Constraints such as poor availability of high producing Germplasm, rapidly decreasing availability of feed and fodder resources, poor husbandry practices, reproductive and other health problems among several other problems hinder the income obtained from dairy farming to the farmers. In addition to the much needed solutions of such constraints, there needs for the reforming government policies for overall development of dairying in India. This article discusses on such probable constraints and their solutions in concise yet informative way so that wholesome development of income through dairy industry may be achieved.

Morphological characterization and epidemiological studies of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo) powdery mildew

Samples of powdery mildew of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) collected from Solan, Shimla, Hamirpur and Kinnaur districts of Himachal Pradesh during 2017-18 revealed the presence of anamorphs, whereas the cool and dry temperate region of district Kinnaur showed the occurrence of both teleomorphic and anamorphic stages of powdery mildew on summer squash. Present studies constitute the first report of cleistothecial occurrence on summer squash under Indian conditions. Based on anamorphic characters like ellipsoidal conidia, presence of fibrosin bodies and germinating conidia produced both simple and forked germ tubes without appressorium and teleomorphic characters like cleistothecia with myceloid appendages, single ascus with eight ascospores the associated pathogen was identified as Sphaerotheca fuliginea (Schlecht.) Pollaci. Maximum conidial germination was observed at 25° temperature and 100% relative humidity. The development of powdery mildew disease was significantly favored at moderate temperature coupled with high relative humidity and cumulative rainfall.