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3558 items in total found

Journal Articles | 2018

Reforming agricultural markets in India: A tale of two model Acts

Sukhpal Singh

Economic & Political Weekly

The union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare had prescribed a model Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act in 2003. The state-level adoption of the act has been tardy and varied in terms of both the magnitude and content of agricultural market reforms. Yet, the ministry under the current central government has come up with another model act, the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017, supposedly an improvement over the 2003 act. Among other things, the provision that has grabbed much attention is the removal of contract farming from the APMC domain to a separate model act of Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation). Analysing these draft acts, the paper finds that both the model acts suffer from serious conceptual lacunae that have implications for their application and governance, and, consequently, for inclusive and sustainable agricultural development.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker proximity measure for solving bilevel optimization problems

Ankur Sarin, Tharo Soun, and Kalyanmoy Deb

Swarm and Evolutionary Computation

A common technique to solve bilevel optimization problems is by reducing the problem to a single level and then solving it as a standard optimization problem. A number of single level reduction formulations exist, but one of the most common ways is to replace the lower level optimization problem with its Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. Such a reduction strategy has been widely used in the classical optimization as well as the evolutionary computation literature. However, KKT conditions contain a set of non-linear equality constraints that are often found hard to satisfy. In this paper, we discuss a single level reduction of a bilevel problem using recently proposed relaxed KKT conditions. The conditions are relaxed; therefore, approximate, but the error in terms of distance from the true lower level KKT point is bounded. There is a proximity measure associated to the new KKT conditions, which gives an idea of the KKT error and distance from the optimum. We utilize this reduction method within an evolutionary algorithm to solve bilevel optimization problems. The proposed algorithm is compared against a number of recently proposed approaches. The idea is found to lead to significant computational savings, especially, in the lower level function evaluations. The idea is promising and might be useful for further developments on bilevel optimization both in the domain of classical as well as evolutionary optimization research.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Robot-storage zone assignment strategies in mobile fulfillment systems

Debjit Roy, Shobhit Nigam, Rene de Koster, I.J.B.F. Adan, and J.A.C. Resing

Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review

The robotic mobile fulfillment system (MFS) is widely used for automating storage pick and pack activities in e-commerce distribution centers. In this system, the items are stored on movable storage shelves, also known as inventory pods, and brought to the order pick stations by robotic drive units. We develop stylized performance evaluation models to analyze both order picking and replenishment processes in a mobile fulfillment system storage zone, based on multi-class closed queueing network models. To analyze robot assignment strategies for multiple storage zones, we develop a two-stage stochastic model. For a single storage zone, we compare dedicated and pooled robot systems for pod retrieval and replenishment. For multiple storage zones, we also analyze the effect of assigning robots to least congested zones on system throughput in comparison to random zone assignment. The models are validated using detailed simulations. For single zones, the expected throughput time for order picking reduces to one-third of its initial value by using pooled robots instead of dedicated robots; however, the expected replenishment time estimate increases up to three times. For multiple zones, we find that robots that are assigned to storage zones with dedicated and shortest queues provide a greater throughput than robots assigned at random to the zones.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Convex preference cone-based approach for many objective optimization problems

Ankur Sarin, Pekka Malo, and Markku Kallio

Computers and operations Research

Many objective optimization problems have turned out to be a considerable challenge for evolutionary algorithms due to the difficulty of finding and visualizing high-dimensional Pareto frontiers. Fortunately, however, the task can be simplified whenever an interaction with a human decision maker is possible. Instead of finding the entire Pareto frontier, the evolutionary search can be guided to the parts of the space that are most relevant for the decision maker. In this paper, we propose an interactive method for solving many objective optimization problems. Drawing on the recent developments in multiple criteria decision making, we introduce an effective strategy for leveraging polyhedral preference cones within an evolutionary algorithm. The approach is mathematically motivated and is applicable to situations, where the user’s preferences can be assumed to follow an unknown quasi-concave and increasing utility function. In addition to considering the preference cones as a tool for eliminating non-preferred solution candidates, we also present how the the cones can be leveraged in approximating the directions of steepest ascent to guide the subsequent search done by the evolutionary algorithm through a proposed merit function. To evaluate the performance of the algorithm, we consider well known test problems as well as a practical facility location problem.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Implementing the Right to Education: Creation of "knowdents"

Ankur Sarin and Ashish Ranjan

NORRAG Special Issue, January

Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, 2009 (RTE Act), the Indian State accepted an obligation to make schooling accessible and compulsory for children between the ages of 6-14 years. In a rather controversial provision (Section 12(1)(c)), the act also mandated that unaided private schools admit at least 25 per cent of their children at the entry level from sections of society deemed to be economically weak and disadvantaged, at no cost to the students. In turn, the State promised to reimburse schools an amount equal to either the per child expense incurred by the government or the school fee, whichever is lower. The reimbursement rule implied a financial burden (in terms of lost revenues) for schools whose per child expenditure exceeded what the government claimed to spend in its schools, but more significantly, threatened the underlying logic of private enterprise, to select ‘customers’ based not only on the customer’s ability to pay but also of the school’s choice (Sarin & Gupta, 2013). Contested in the country’s highest court, the mandate was deemed to be constitutional and aligned with the obligations that the private providers had accepted when they were allowed to set up their schools.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Implementation of Section 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education Act

Ankur Sarin, Ambrish Dongre, Praveen Khanghta, Nishank Varshney, Akriti Gaur, and Ajey Sengai

Economic and political Weekly

Section 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education Act mandates non-minority private unaided schools to keep aside at least 25% of their entry-level seats for children belonging to disadvantaged sections to create a more integrated and inclusive schooling system. But its implementation experience has been far from satisfactory. More than half of the states and union territories have not implemented this provision (as of March 2016). Further, experiences of the states that implement this provision display considerable gaps. The Implementation of Section 12(1)(c) has also faced a plethora of litigations. The issues are discussed in-depth and recommendations for improving implementation have been provided.

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Journal Articles | 2018

How can Indian power plants cost-effectively meet the new sulfur emission standards? Policy evaluation using marginal abatement cost-curves

Anish Sugathan, Ritesh Bhangale, Vishal Kansal, and Unmil Hulke

Energy Policy

The first-ever SO2 emission concentration standards for Indian coal-power plants were notified on December 7, 2015. In light of the new stringent standards, this paper conducts a techno-economic policy evaluation of SO2 abatement options by building a system-wide marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) for India. An abatement cost model is developed, to estimate retrofit costs for three end-of-process (EOP) SO2 abatement technologies. A system-wide SO2 MACC is derived based on cost optimal allocation of EOP abatement technology to each boiler. Compliance with the new stricter emission standards is evaluated at 75% pollution reduction (≈ 4600 kt-SO2 reductions per year). Compliance with the new standard corresponds to a marginal abatement cost of INR 23,500 per ton of SO2 (≈USD 368.50 per ton of SO2) and total system-wide abatement cost of INR 75 billion (≈USD 1.2 billion) per year. Reduction in pollution is estimated to save 46,000 lives per year at the cost of about INR 1.63 million per life per year. Sensitivity analysis of the MAC curve shows that plant capacity utilization has the most significant impact on total lifetime compliance costs followed by equipment fixed cost, sorbent cost, and water cost in that order.

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Journal Articles | 2018

The effect of relationship and transactional characteristics on customer retention in emerging online markets

Anand K.Jaiswal, Rakesh Niraj, Chang Hee Park, and Manoj K.Agarwal

Journal of Business Research

Trust is important for maintaining customer relationships in online retailing, as customers have only a virtual connection with sellers. This is especially true in online markets of emerging economies, given their lack of trust-enhancing infrastructure and well-functioning regulatory institutions. We investigate the effect of trust and a set of other relationship and transactional characteristics—mode of customer acquisition, length of relationship, service communication, product return activity, and type of products purchased—on retention in the context of emerging online markets. We obtain data from an online retailer in India that include both survey and transaction information. Using a latent attrition model, we find that trust positively affects customer retention behavior. We also find that relationship length, service communication, product return experience, and the type of products purchased affect retention. Furthermore, we conduct split-sample analysis and suggest some managerial actions on spending efforts to enhance retention.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Managing children's internet advertising experiences: Parental preferences for regulation

Akshaya Vijayalakshmi Meng‐Hsien (Jenny) Lin and Russell N. Laczniak

Journal of Consumer Affairs

Recent research suggests that children are spending a significant amount of time on the Internet which increases their exposure to subtle, engaging, and interactive ads. As a result, policy makers have developed regulations intended to empower parents to manage their children's exposure to Internet advertising. However, prior research has not examined parental perceptions of these regulations. This article aims to identify (1) parents' regulatory preferences regarding children's exposure to Internet advertising and (2) whether (and how) parents' locus of control (LOC) drives their regulation preferences. Findings reveal that internal-LOC parents prefer parental responsibility while external-LOC parents prefer government regulations, parental responsibility, and involvement of independent organizations and firms. External-LOC parents' preference is mediated by their concerns about Internet advertising and their tendency to have faith in regulation. Policy makers can use the findings to develop guidelines that better assist parents in influencing their children's Internet use.

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Journal Articles | 2018

Theoretical comparisons of estimators of finite population proportion under simple random sampling. Stastistics and Applications

Sumanta Adhya, and Tathagata Banerjee

Statistics and Applications

We consider the classical survey problem of estimation of finite population proportions based on a polychotomous response variable when data on an auxiliary variable is known for all units in the finite population. Under simple random sampling different model and design-based estimators are compared theoretically and it is shown that model-based estimator performs more efficiently under mild conditions.

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