Small States in International Politics: A Case Study of Foreign Policy of Sri Lanka

Title: Small States in International Politics: A Case Study of Foreign Policy of Sri Lanka

Author: Sivananda Patnaik
ISBN: 978-93-82395-79-9
Publisher: Ruby Press & Co.
First Edition: 2015
Language: English 
Binding: Hard Cover 

About the Book:

The Anglo-American tradition, which has dominated the discipline of International Relations Studies until recently, had an explicit discriminatory bias in favour of the analysis of the foreign policies of powerful and dominant states of the international system. This scholarly orientation has resulted in a substantial corpus of theoretical knowledge on various aspects of the foreign policies of dominant states. However, in the case of small states such orientation has been considerably weak or inadequate. With the dominant tradition having consciously neglected the study of the foreign policies of small states, there is a significant lack of theoretical literature on the foreign policies of these states. It can hardly be overemphasized that the absence of a scholarly perspective on the foreign policies of small states in the discipline has led to an inadequate and distorted understanding of international politics in general.

About the Author:
Mr. Sivananda Patnaik has done his M.Phil from JNU and Ph.D. from MS University Baroda. He has been teaching International Relations at MSU for almost 20 years.

Mass Media In Conflict Zones

Title: Mass Media In Conflict Zones Author: Ksh. Chitrabhanu Devi, Md. Raheijuddin Sheikh ISBN 978-93-82395-52-2 Binding: Hard Cover Language: English First Edition: 2015

About the Book:

Conflict is defined as a disagreement through which the parties involved perceived a threat to their needs, interest or concerns. It is also pursuit of incompatible goals which can intensify struggle between opposing forces, especially in the absence of collaborative problem-solving mechanism. In conflict situations, resources are mobilized to force the other party to change their behavior according to one’s own wishes. Mismanaged conflict turns into violence causing mass destruction. Conflict is the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. Conflict is a concept which explains many aspects of the social life such as social disagreement, conflicts of interests, and fights between individuals, groups or organizations. In political terms, “conflict” can refer to wars, revolutions or other struggles, which may involve the use of force as in the term armed conflict. Without proper social arrangement or resolution, conflicts in social settings can result in stress or tensions among stakeholders. When an interpersonal conflict does occur, its effect is often broader than two individuals involved, and can affect many associate individuals and relationships, in more or less adverse and sometimes even way.

High Voltage Distribution System

Title: High Voltage Distribution System
Authors: Surbhi Jain , A K Tiwari
ISBN: 978-93-82395-98-0
Language: English
First Edition: June, 2015
Binding: Hard Cover

Human Resource Management (HRM) in Service Sector

Title: Human Resource Management (HRM) in Service Sector

Author: Dr. Abhijaat Sahu, Dr. A K Tiwari

ISBN: 978-93-82395-95-9

Language: English

First Edition: June, 2015

Binding: Hard Cover

Immediate Challenges in the Hill Areas of Manipur: Education, Economy, Social, and Political Realities

Title: Immediate Challenges in the Hill Areas of Manipur: Education, Economy, Social, and Political Realities
Editor: Dr Ng. Ngalengnam
ISBN: 978-93-82395-99-7
Language: English
First Edition: June, 2015
Binding: Hard Cover

About the Book:
The main objectives of this book “Immediate Challenges in the Hill Areas of Manipur: Education, Economy, Social, and Political realities are to find out what actually are the current problems in the hills Areas of Manipur and its possible ways to the solution. Finding out the topic, we considered these perspectives to be the most burning issues of the tribal societies of Manipur today. In fact, India is a democratic country, having all ideal objectives of liberty, freedom, secularism and equality of all. It is the largest democracy in the world. Manipur is one of its parts and it is visualized as a cooperative common wealth. As per 2011 census, the population of Manipur is 27, 21,756, out of which 10, 96, 532 is the population of the Hills. The Hills are inhabited by more than 35 officially recognised tribes. Though small the land, the problems being faced by its inhabitants on various issues are incomparable with the problems being faced by the people of other parts of the country. According to a report of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), out of the 650 plus districts in the country, almost 250 districts are terror prone due to social, economic and education inequalities. The hill districts in Manipur are not exception to it. 

About the Editor:

Dr. Ng. Ngalengnam, a Tangkul Naga tribe from Tongou, Ukhrul District Manipur is teaching as Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Regional Campus Manipur. He completed his Doctoral Degree (Ph.D.) in 2006, from Manipur University. He started his teaching career as a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Pettigrew College, Ukhrul, Government of Manipur. Later in the year 2009, he joined in Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Regional Campus Manipur.

Microfinance and Self Help Groups: A Non Financial Perspective

Title: Microfinance and Self Help Groups: A Non Financial Perspective
Author: Pandya Viral
ISBN: 978-93-82395-91-1
Language: English
Category: Management
First Edition: January, 2015
Binding: Hard Cover

About the Book:

Globally, poverty eradication has always been a priority in the agendas of the policy makers and development specialists. ‘Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger’ is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals set by United Nations. A large number of government and non-governmental organizations and international funding agencies have started many flagship programs to eradicate poverty using various strategies and instruments. Microfinance is one of the mechanisms by which the opportunity is provided to poor people who have been deprived from formal banking and have potential to uplift their vulnerable life. The mechanism gives poor people a boost to have own small scale economic activity that will help them to break the vicious circle of poverty.

Today, microfinance has been accepted as one of the very effective tools for poverty eradication. The tool works with different mechanisms in various countries depending on related socio economic parameters.  In India, among various models of credit delivery, Self Help Group is the most widely used mechanism. Majority of government, non-government agencies and banks have adopted the SHG model for their microfinance program. However, it is important to note that providing assistance in terms of credit to poor through accepted mechanism will not merely bring success. The core of microfinance is not to earn profit but to eradicate poverty. Hence, primarily it becomes very essential to ensure that the main objective of poverty alleviation has been attained and at the same time the system remains sustainable enough as an ongoing process instead of one time success and then perish.  To evaluate the impact of microfinance, various assessment tools have been developed. Similarly different methodologies have been adopted to measure the financial viability of delivery mechanisms including Self Help Group. However, it is observed that majority of analysis regarding sustainability of SHGs have been focusing upon only financial parameters of the mechanism. Very little focus has been given to equally important parameter that is non financial aspects. No doubt, financial viability is crucial for the success of microfinance delivery model but at the same time, non financial aspects, like organizational dynamics, especially - structure, framework and group attributes play very crucial role in sustainability of SHGs.

As the study of microfinance from various dimensions is still emerging and it has been observed that there is limited research carried out to understand non financial aspects responsible for sustainable development of SHGs in India. Therefore, the chief objective behind the study was to understand and analyze parameters responsible for sustainable development of SHGs.

The study has focused on two important factors: increasing importance of microfinance in today’s developmental agenda in government efforts and the dearth of literature of non financial sustainable aspects of SHGs in India. In the present study SHGs have been selected from various NGOs and government flagship programs as representative sample from all the ten talukas of Ahmedabad district. Primary data have been collected with the help of structured questionnaire by using non-probability sampling method. Total 316 respondents have been selected on the basis of judgmental sampling. The data has been duly compiled and analyzed with the help of descriptive and inferential statistics, independent sample t test and factor analysis.

The results of the analysis indicate that overall, the SHGs promoted by NGOs and government programs are relatively sustainable. However incorporation of some important aspects like cultivating & promoting habit of income generating activities and emphasis on systematic marketing activities in support will help the sector to generate the desirable benefits.

Training Acceptability & Effectiveness of Employees

Title: Training Acceptability & Effectiveness of Employees
Author: A K Tiwari, Neha Kandhari 
ISBN: 978-93-82395-92-8
Language: English
Category: Management
First Edition: January, 2015
Binding: Hard Cover