The Pune Slum Census: creating a socio-economic and spatial information base on a GIS for integrated and inclusive city development

Urban planning systems rarely include the poor. Cities are growing and so is the urban population. Pune is a large city in Western Maharashtra. According to the National Census, 2001, the population of the Pune urban agglomeration is 3.5 million and it is (in some estimates) to reach nearly 6 million by 2021.¹ Out of this, the city of Pune has a 2.5 million people living in it. Forty percent and above of the population live in slums. One of the biggest shortfalls of Pune's urban planning is that it still fails to include the poor in mainstream policies. The reason is that the poor are hardly known about, in fact, even government authorities are unaware about how many poor people there are in Pune. This attitude, and the fact that Shelter Associates (SA) work is closely connected with the poor regarding basic services and housing, started the development of a slum database by SA. Finally, the Pune Municipal Corporation asked us to make a complete census of the slum dwellers in the year 2000. That gave rise to a detailed survey of Pune's slum dwellers, to become, amongst other things, the first ever spatial and socio-economic census processed and analysed on a geographical information system (GIS). The Pune Slum Census has built upon this experience and expanded the communities’ information base, and has created a methodology which the city can use to work on detailed urban planning using a GIS and with the slum database as the base. This article focuses on the Pune Slum Census in progress.     

Rethinking non-traditional resistance at work: The case of the Indian Diaspora in Mauritius

Resistance at work can take many forms and be theorised in multiple ways. In this paper, I use postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha's concepts of mimicry, ambivalence and hybridity to explore non-traditional forms of resistance among Indo-Mauritians working in the hotel industry. I employ a two-stage qualitative research approach by conducting focus groups in eight hotels in Mauritius followed by focused ethnography with 20 Indo-Mauritians. The findings reveal that the Indian diasporic community is actively engaging with its past (India) through the materiality of its home, its sacred space and its use of Bhojpuri to communicate. By unfolding and maintaining its difference, it is constantly demarcating its personal space from that of the Other. As this behaviour extends to the workplace, salient forms of non-traditional resistance surface in rural regions.     

On irreducible no-hole <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis>(2, 1)-coloring of subdivision of graphs

An L(2, 1)-coloring (or labeling) of a graph G is a mapping \(f:V(G) \rightarrow \mathbb {Z}^{+}\bigcup \{0\}\) such that \(|f(u)-f(v)|\ge 2\) for all edges uv of G, and \(|f(u)-f(v)|\ge 1\) if u and v are at distance two in G. The span of an L(2, 1)-coloring f, denoted by span f, is the largest integer assigned by f to some vertex of the graph. The span of a graph G, denoted by \(\lambda (G)\), is min {span \(f: f\text {is an }L(2,1)\text {-coloring of } G\}\). If f is an L(2, 1)-coloring of a graph G with span k then an integer l is a hole in f, if \(l\in (0,k)\) and there is no vertex v in G such that \(f(v)=l\). A no-hole coloring is defined to be an L(2, 1)-coloring with span k which uses all the colors from \(\{0,1,\ldots ,k\}\), for some integer k not necessarily the span of the graph. An L(2, 1)-coloring is said to be irreducible if colors of no vertices in the graph can be decreased and yield another L(2, 1)-coloring of the same graph. An irreducible no-hole coloring of a graph G, also called inh-coloring of G, is an L(2, 1)-coloring of G which is both irreducible and no-hole. The lower inh-span or simply inh-span of a graph G, denoted by \(\lambda _{inh}(G)\), is defined as \(\lambda _{inh}(G)=\min ~\{\)span f : f is an inh-coloring of G}. Given a graph G and a function h from E(G) to \(\mathbb {N}\), the h-subdivision of G, denoted by \(G_{(h)}\), is the graph obtained from G by replacing each edge uv in G with a path of length h(uv). In this paper we show that \(G_{(h)}\) is inh-colorable for \(h(e)\ge 2\), \(e\in E(G)\), except the case \(\Delta =3\) and \(h(e)=2\) for at least one edge but not for all. Moreover we find the exact value of \(\lambda _{inh}(G_{(h)})\) in several cases and give upper bounds of the same in the remaining.     

Older and Wiser: How CEOs’ Time Perspective Influences Long‐Term Investments in Environmentally Responsible Technologies

Most theories of corporate governance argue that chief executive officers (CEOs) take less risk as they near the end of their career, and therefore are less likely to make major investments. This prediction is based on decisions related to firm‐specific benefits; however, it may not be generalizable to decisions that involve broad societal goals. In terms of societal investments, CEOs with a longer time perspective may be more likely, rather than less likely, to invest. In this paper, we argue that a CEO's future time perspective is fostered by shorter career horizons, longer tenures, higher organizational ownership and less short‐term compensation. We test these hypotheses on 150 observations from the US investor‐owned electric power generation sector over a three‐year unbalanced sample (64.3% of the population). We applied random‐effects generalized least squares (GLS) estimations to test our hypotheses, and found support for three out of four hypothesized relationships.     

Deciding on ISO 14001: Economics, Institutions, and Context

ISO 14001 is an international standard for environmental management systems that was introduced in September 1996. It has gained wide recognition among businesses, much like its sister standard on quality management systems, ISO 9000. As a result, managers in almost every organization will evaluate whether the organization should become ISO 14001 certified. However, most analyses of ISO 14001 that are intended to guide managers in their evaluation have focused on the merits of ISO 14001, such as improved competitiveness, management control, and regulatory compliance. Very few articles provide a balanced picture of the costs and benefits of ISO 14001—including the conditions under which adoption will be most effective. This article redresses this gap by providing an analysis of not only why firms may choose to certify based on economic and institutional considerations, but also, when certification might be appropriate based on the firm’s context.In 1998, the Jutras division of Meridian Magnesium Inc., which manufactures magnesium automotive parts, reported that it saved almost $2 million soon after its $45,000 investment on an ISO 14001 certified environmental management system (EMS).¹ The company reduced its use of electricity, natural gas, and lubricants, while producing less solid waste and contaminated water. These were not just one-time savings; they were expected to continue into perpetuity. Not all their ISO 14001 projects were winners, however. Jutras implemented ten projects for their EMS in the first year with an initial goal of saving over $460,000 in costs. Four of the projects did not result in any savings and one had disappointing but positive results. The remaining projects, however, provided larger than expected returns. The cost savings increased the competitiveness of a firm that prides itself on being the low cost leader in an increasingly competitive automotive parts industry. The benefits to the environment were a bonus. And there was yet another bonus from ISO 14001 that had not been anticipated: the preference for ISO certified suppliers by its key customers, Ford and General Motors, and the social legitimacy earned from stakeholders pressuring for greener business practices. The company now posts its ISO 14001 certification on its web site as one of its main achievements.Although this type of vignette presents ISO 14001 in a positive light, not all firms have embraced the standard with enthusiasm. While over 22,000 facilities in 98 countries were ISO 14001 certified by December 31, 2000, many firms had decided to delay certification or reject it altogether.² The significant financial rewards realized by the Jutras Division of Meridian Magnesium have not been perceived by many of its peers, even though most analyses of ISO 14001 attempt to convince the reader that such a system is of significant strategic importance and a panacea of opportunity. Writers typically tout the potential for lower costs, increased competitiveness, market share growth, higher profits, and regulatory compliance, such as those experienced by Meridian Magnesium.³The costs of ISO 14001, however, are not trivial. Managers need to undertake a careful analysis of the relevance of ISO 14001 to their firm before they decide to jump on the ISO 14001 bandwagon. While managers can estimate the direct costs of certification with the help of good internal cost accounting, evaluating the intangible costs and benefits and the indirect impacts on the firm’s performance is more difficult. In this article, we provide background perspectives and evaluation criteria for those aspects of ISO 14001 certification, looking specifically at the marginal benefit of ISO 14001 certification over an in-house EMS. This article, then, identifies why firms may certify and in which contexts, based on economic and institutional considerations. Armed with relevant decision-making criteria, we present managers with an analytical tool to assist them in determining if ISO 14001 is appropriate for their firm.The insights provided here build on three studies:

1.

an investigation of the motivations of environmental responsiveness by interviewing members of 53 firms in the UK and Japan;⁴

2.

an investigation of the factors that influence the adoption of ISO 14001 based on a statistical analysis of 46 matched pairs of certified and non-certified firms and interviews with members of six firms in the US;⁵ and

3.

an investigation of the contexts that explain adoption based on interviews with 16 pulp and paper companies in Canada.⁶

Details of these studies are provided in text boxes later in this paper. While these studies form the foundation of this paper, many of the anecdotes provided here are based on published sources because the interviewees were promised complete confidentiality.     

Socio-demographic Correlates of Subjective Well-being in Urban India

This study aimed to explore subjective well-being (SWB) in an urban Indian sample. Adults (n = 1099) belonging to two wards in the city of Bangalore in South India, responded to a study-specific questionnaire. This paper is based on data generated as part of an ongoing larger study looking at correlates of SWB. Almost equal number of men and women responded to the study and their age ranged from 20 to 81 years (mean age 37 years). Majority of them were married, Hindus, from middle socio-economic status, had studied above pre-university level and more than half were earning. The mean scores on positive affect (40.9), negative affect (27.6) and life satisfaction (24) suggested above average levels of SWB. Higher age, being married, having higher education, higher income and working in a full time job seemed to improve life satisfaction and decrease negative affect. Religion was also significantly associated with negative affect. Step-wise regression analysis suggested that only education and income were important predictors of positive affect, while negative affect was better predicted by age, income, work status and religion. Life satisfaction was predicted by income, age and education. The important correlates of SWB for men and women were somewhat different. Overall, sociodemographic variables have minimal effect on SWB in urban India and research needs to explore other predictors of SWB.