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3899 items in total found

Working Papers | 1976

Self Medication Practices: An Exploratory Study

Sen Gupta Subroto

The objectives of this study were to identify the diseases which are commonly self-treated, people's sources of information about drugs, the differential credibility attributed to these information sources the degree of perceived risk in self-medication and pre dispositional differences among people in the adoption of various risk reduction methods. Ninety adults from three separate localities of Ahmedabad were interviewed with the help of a structured interview schedule. In addition, 13 general medical practitioners in Bombay were interviewed for assessing their reactions to self-medication in the context of usage of over-the-counter drugs. The results showed that headache is self-treated by almost all. However, some diseases fall in the "gray" area wherein about half the people treat themselves and the other half consult the doctor. With respect to source credibility, elders in the family rank next to the doctor who commands the highest credibility. Regarding purchases of OTC drugs, risk reduction is achieved primarily by buying the medicine that was recommended earlier by the doctor and/or satisfaction derived from previous usage. It was also found that those who express a lot of concern over health and minor ailments adopt a variety of risk reduction methods and are considerably responsive to advertisements. Greater awareness of brands also appears to have a direct relationship with the frequency of purchase of drugs. Implications of findings for possible marketing action have been discussed.

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Working Papers | 1976

A Geometric Programming Approach to Solve Van Der Warden Conjecture on Doubly Stochastic Matrices

Raghavacahari M

Let Dn be the set of all doubly stochastic square matrices of order n i.e. the set of all n x n matrices with non-negative entries with row and column sums equal to unity. The permanent of an n x n matrix A = (aij) is defined where sn is the symmetric group of order n. van der Waerdon conjectured that P(A) > n !/nn for all ^EDn with equality occurring if and only if A = Jn, where Jn is the matrix all of whose entries are equal to 1/n. The validity of this conjecture has been shown for a few values of n and for general n under certain assumptions. In this paper the problem of finding the minimum of the permanent of a doubly stochastic matrix has been formulated as a reversed geometric program with a single constraint and an equivalent dual formulation is given. A related problem of reversed homogeneous posynomial programming problem is also studied.

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Working Papers | 1976

A Consumer View of Cooperative Outlets A Report of Small-Scale Studies in Bombay and Ahmedabad

Sen Gupta Subroto

This report is based on two small scale studies to obtain consumer images and perceptions about cooperative outlets. One study focused on consumer views about a locality cooperative store and the other on a cooperative department store. The study has shown that "non-adulteration" is the strongest image dimension of the cooperative outlets. On the other hand, the consumers do not give the same high rating to cooperatives in regard to "charging lower prices". Similarly, another weak area in the image of cooperatives is in respect of efficiency of service and courtesy of salesmen. The study also shows different ways in which consumers perceive a locality cooperative store and a large department store like Apna Bazar. It also indicates the types of purchases made at these two types of outlets.

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Working Papers | 1976

Indian Markets and Marketing: The Emerging Perspective

Dholakia Nikhilesh

Indian Markets have witnessed substantial changes in the post-independence period. Using macro-data this paper tries to outline the major changes in consumer and industrial goods markets. The marketing system has been responding to, as well as responsible for, many of these changes. The emerging pattern of marketing in India is discussed.

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Working Papers | 1976

Support Systems for Enterpreneurs

Moulik T K

To accelerate the growth of entrepreneurship, it is absolutely necessary to develop various support systems at least at the initial stages of growth. This paper examines the various kinds of need-based support system for development of small scale industries through self employment oriented entrepreneurship development programmes. The need-based support system as discussed in the paper is a process which starts right from the selection of entrepreneurs, setting up of the industry and bringing it up to the production stage to the point of breakeven. The suggested support system is classified into four sequential stages: Selection and Training, Pre-investment stage, Operational stage and Post-investment stage. The paper then examines the existing structure of the support system and suggests the need based support system in order to strengthen the supporting mechanism by filling up the gaps. The special emphasis was given in the process of strengthening the support systems in the selection and training requirements for the entrepreneurship in backward areas and also the kind of marketing support system needed. In other words, the whole support system as postulated in the paper, is a developmental role rather than merely a financial role, which will necessitate an integrated role behavior of all the institutions and organizations in the support system.

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Working Papers | 1976

Load Factor Measurement for Road Transport Corporations

Patel Nitin R

In order to plan its time-tables, a road transport corporation needs to have reliable information on the lead-factors on various bus-trips that are currently operated. Existing information does not permit determination of load-factors on segments of trips, but provide only over-all trip-wise load-factors. Such load-factors need to distinguish between local and through traffic. The conceptual separation of these types of traffic is discussed. An approach to estimating segment load-factors is described which includes development of results for simultaneous confidence intervals for the estimates.

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Working Papers | 1976

Sources of Growth in Indian Iron & Steel Industry

Dholakia Bakul H

The present study makes an attempt to assess, in quantitative terms, the contributions made by various factors to the observed rate of growth of Indian iron & steel industry during the post-war period. The analysis is conducted within the broad framework provided by the well-known neo-classical model. The analysis is based on the time series data covering the period 1946-70, obtained from the annual reports of GMI and ASI. The main conclusions of the study are that the growth of Indian iron & steel industry during the post-war period has been due largely to the growth of factor inputs; and the behavior of the residual factors does not seem to have played any positive role in bringing about the acceleration in the growth of iron & steel industry observed during the sixties. The major policy implication of these findings is that more attention needs to be paid to the research and development programmes specifically designed to improve the technological base of the Indian iron & steel industry and promote the growth of total factor productivity in the industry during the years to come.

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Working Papers | 1976

Measurement of Capital Input and Estimation of Time Series Production in Indian Manufacturing

Dholakia Bakul H

This study makes an attempt to examine the impact of errors in the specification and measurement of capital input on the estimates of time series production functions in Indian manufacturing. For this purpose, it examines the main alternative measures of capital input generally used in the production function exercises and also derives the corresponding set of alternative estimates of the widely used Cobb-Douglas production function for the Indian iron & steel industry, on the basis of time series data for the period 1946-1966, essentially in the form of an illustrative exercise. The major conclusions of the study are that the estimates of time series production functions for Indian manufacturing are highly sensitive to the measurement of capital input; and the elimination of preliminary errors in the measurement of capital input alters significantly the basic structure of the estimated production function and, hence, the estimates of the relative contributions made by various factors to the growth of output in Indian manufacturing.

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Working Papers | 1976

Export Performance of Indian Industries in Terms of Net Foreign Exchange Earnings and Implications for Export Policy

Wadhva Charan D

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the export policy and performance of Indian export industries in terms of the criterion of net foreign exchange earnings and to analyze its implications for the formulation of a long-term export strategy for the country. The paper presents the results of an exercise for determining the estimated net foreign exchange earnings of Indian industries during the years 1973-74 and 1978-79. The basis of this exercise has been the 66 sector input-output table used by the Planning Commission in its 'Technical Note on Approach to the Fifth Five Year Plan of India'. On the basis of the computation of net foreign exchange earnings of 66 industries for the year 1973-74, it is shown that some of the export policies in terms of granting export incentives may not be rational if the criterion of net foreign exchange earnings was to be used for evaluating these policies. Similar computations for the year 1978-79 indicate the directions for re-orienting export incentive policies in the future using the criterion stated above. The paper explains the methodology for the computations presented and also states some of the limitations of this analysis for drawing policy conclusions.

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Working Papers | 1976

Marketing of Debentures and Shares

Gupta G S

The paper develops a methodology for decision making with respect to selling of debentures and shares (both ordinary and preference). The model is first developed in terms of a hypothetical numerical example and then the same is presented in terms of a mathematical model. The models so developed can be used to compute the price of indifference between selling and not selling for the investors in debentures and shares.

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