Description:Alternative sexuality comprised of all those people who falls under the categories of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transsexuals. This paper basically talks about how in many Hindi films, characters with alternative sexuality have been represented in a negative way. Mainstream Hindi cinema which is the most widely distributed cinema in the country has traditionally adopted an attitude of denial or mockery towards alternative sexuality. Representations of gays, lesbians and transsexuals have veered between the comic and the criminal. It can also be pointed out that there has been criminalization of sexual minorities in movies like Mahesh Bhatt??s ??Sadak?? and the overtly sensitive ??Tamanna??.Along with this, there are many examples of such movies where these people have been portrayed as deviant, victim or criminal which reflects the mentality of the society which is still in a deep-seated denial that there may be multiple forms of sexuality in a society. This study attempts to answer the question whether in majority of the Hindi movies, the characters of ??Alternative sexualities?? have been represented positively or negatively. While finding out the answer for this question, views and opinions of today??s youth from the age 18-30 is taken into account. The methodology that the researcher followed was based both on secondary and primary data. The researcher tried to collect data and information from various reliable sources like journals,websites,articles,movies etc.Along with this, the researcher also conducted a questionnaire kind of survey on a sample of cinema lovers on the age group 18 -30 years to find out their views regarding the representation of alternative sexualities in the Mainstream Hindi cinema. [show more]

Description:Folklore is an art form, which consists of stories, songs, spells, proverbs, legends, belief, and other principles in a tradition of a culture, subculture, etc. The term "folk" can refer to any group of people whatsoever who share at least one common factor. In Manipuri tradition, the elders or grandparents to their grandchildren near a place called ??Phunga which means a ??fireplace in the vicinity of kitchen narrate folktale orally. It is a place where members of the family dines together and shares the stories of daily life. Hence, the name ??Phunga wari which means ??fireplace tale is also known as ??folktale in Manipuri culture. Manipur has a rich tradition of folktales since its inception. Keibu Keioiba is one of the most widespread folktales in Manipur. It is translated in many ways such as tiger head, half beast half human and a man tiger. It is represented in different ways: written (books), oral (oral transmission) and visual media (animation movie). The study aims to analyse the folktale Keibu Keioiba from oral tradition; books and animated movie to study the characteristics changes in the transition of medium. [show more]

Description:Divorce is the termination of marriage to a legally wedded marriage between a man and a woman. Divorce is fast becoming a common factor among young couples these days. Even though divorce is a way out for the struggling marriage, it is traumatic for most of the individuals who separate from their partners. This study is to capture the experience that every spouse goes through during and after divorce. The first two chapters explain divorce from the previous study undertaken to put into a perspective about the study on divorce. And the subsequent studies on coping and the consequences of coping by the divorcees. This study aims to focus on how they manage to cope and face their marital breakdown. Thereafter how they pick their lives and proceed with their new life after separation. The divorce experience of 12 males and females were recorded and explored through thematic analysis. The findings have indicated that the experience of divorce is traumatic and painful. It takes time for them to get over that bitter experience of divorce. The study highlights various coping strategies enabling the divorced to adapt to life after separation. Keywords: Emotional conflicts, Coping and consequences of coping [show more]

Description:The paper deals with the television commercial of Incredible India. It studies whether these advertisements can be used to generate goodwill for the country. Incredible India advertisements are a rare combination of extraordinary words, music and visual. It is an initiative by the Government of India to promote tourism. They are small snippets capturing India at its best. The advertisement frequency is low. But if strategically used can prove beneficial in creating benevolence towards the country. The paper throws light on the negative treatment given to news by todays broadcast media. It analyzes whether the effect of it can be countered by the portrayal of beautiful India in the ??Incredible India advertisements. It studies if the result of viewing this advertisement can lead to overlooking of the flaws of our country. It specially tries to look into the effect that it might have on the youth. The methodology used for this study is experiment based. The researcher initially showed the respondents five television commercials and then followed it by distributing questionnaires which would help learn the consequences of viewing the advertisement. The limitation of the paper was the lack of journals, articles or related materials on the concerned topic. Nevertheless, considering all materials that were present, the research gave a holistic prospective to the advertising campaigns and its effect on the youth. [show more]

Description:The dissertation aims to find whether the features of sports celebrity endorsements such as- credibility, ensured attention, high degree of recall of the product or service, psychographic connect, associative benefit, motivate a fan specifically, in this case, in their purchase decisions. It is an attempt to understand whether fan clubs, fans and fan cultures are unreceptive to the propagation of celebrity endorsements of products and services through conventional and unconventional advertising. The research aims to identify whether fandom of any kind influences their buying decisions. The theory employed in this research is the Two Step Flow theory of communication, wherein sports stars act as opinion leaders in advertising influence.The research is an attempt to understand if the growing sports celebrity brand endorsements actually have an effect on the buyer to the extent of buying decisions. By the end of the research conducted with the help of questionnaires that were administered to the target audience, the researcher aims to arrive at the conclusion, whether sports fandom indeed affects consumer buying patterns. [show more]

Description:Advertising is a pervasive influence on children. Young people watch more than 40, 000 advertisements per year. Advertisements are basically to sell a product. Advertisements are everywhere, televisions, internet, newspapers and magazines etc??This study is about the impact of few selected advertisements on children. The target age groups are from 3 to 17 which would be divided into three groups. Five ages per group. Group 1: age 3 to 7, Group 2: age 8 to 12 and Group 3: age 13 to 17. Each of these age groups are affected in different ways. Some are effected mentally, and some physically. But these effects would not take effect immediately; it would take effect as the child grows. This is because no matter how the advertisements are made, most of the children never understand the effects on the advertisements and since they like the creativity in the advertisements they actually consume the product. No matter what the product is, let it be from a chocolate to an electronic product like an Air Conditioner. It is said that children from the ages of 3 to 7 are found to be more interested in toys and 8 to 12 are interested in food that no matter how the food is and how it tastes they would force their parents to buy them the product. And the children in the ages between 13 to 17 prefer shopping for themselves, this could be because they start to have a mindset that they have become ??teenagers??, they prefer buying clothes, cosmetics, electronic gadgets (mobile phones, iPods, and watches). [show more]

Description:Adolescents are the future of the country. It is this period that they face several problems as it is a stage of exposure and experimentation. They get exposed to several practices like consumption of alcohol, Drugs, Tobacco and unsafe Sexual practice. These behaviours are often triggered by faulty parenting and bad peer influence. Hence this study is an attempt to know the proneness among adolescents to follow such health risk behaviours and how these behaviours are influenced by parent and peers. The study reveals that about 59% of the adolescents are into one or multiple health risk behaviours and it is parental monitoring and peer modelling which are significantly associated with the overall health risk behaviour.(p value <0.05). When it comes to specific health risk behaviour, we can see a significant association between peer modelling and health risk behaviour. Peer modelling is an influence proved to be there on all the health risk behaviours namely consumption of tobacco, alcohol, drugs and practice of unsafe sex. However it is evident from the study that it is boys who are significantly higher in number than girls with regard to the practice of health risk behaviours. Key Words: Adolescents, Health Risk Behaviour, Parental Influence, Peer Influence [show more]

Description:Globalization has resulted in expansion of Indian companies across the world. There arouse a need for a common set of accounting standard for harmonization of financial statements. The six Indian companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange has converged to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from the financial year 2007-2008. The consolidated financial statements are prepared under both Indian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (IGAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Therefore, this study focused on measurement of profitability under IFRS and IGAAP for the six companies which have adopted IFRS voluntarily. There are differences in treatment of items under IGAAP and IFRS like revenue recognition, foreign currency transactions and translations, fixed asset valuation, depreciation and impairment losses, etc. The analysis showed that there is gradual increase in profitability ratios under IFRS and there may be increase observed in future. Since, this study analyses results on six Indian listed companies until financial year 2011-2012. The reasons for the differences in profitability ratios are also discussed. There are many Indian companies which have not converged into IFRS. Therefore, the challenges faced by Indian companies and measures taken by ICAI to adopt IFRS are also studied from auditors. This showed that the companies are facing difficulty to converge into IFRS due to mainly fair value accounting, new method of presentation, tax liability and transparency in disclosure of items. The companies have to incur cost for valuation of fixed assets because an auditor is not an expert in valuation. This study concludes stating that there is need for sufficient training for the management and all users of financial information, which may gear up the companies to adopt IFRS in near future. Keywords: Harmonization, IGAAP, IFRS, fair value accounting [show more]

Description: The Indian Retail Industry is growing at a fast pace. This growth to a large extent is driven by the organised retail market, with more and larger retail organisations investing heavily in increasing their store networks and improving in-store offerings. Apparel, accessories and related merchandise form a considerable chunk of the organised retail space and is in the ambit of a handful of established players vying to capture & increase larger portions of the available market using new strategies. Increased customer satisfaction and service is one of the means through which they will be able to fulfill their goals. The use and implementation of Customer Relation Management tools like Loyalty Programs is one of the ways in which they can achieve customer satisfaction. According to Sharp and Sharp (1997) loyalty programs are structured marketing efforts, which reward and encourage the loyal behaviour of their members. Capizzi et al (2004) defined it as the business process of identifying, maintaining and increasing the yield from best customers through interactive,value-added relationships.Loyalty programs are thereby are a rhetoric of relationship marketing in gaining customer loyalty.(Minami & Dawson ,2008) . Loyalty programs, however serve dual purposes of the organisation ?? acquisition of customer spending related information and ensuring that they patronise their store. According to Peters (1988) the costs of retaining customers are about 80 percent lower than acquiring new customers. This explains why there is a high degree of proliferation of retailer loyalty programs. Loyalty Programs today have become an inseparable part of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy of todays retailers. It is vital to gauge how successful these programs are as CRM tools. This study is concerned with how customers perceive such programs and how receptive they are towards these programs. The sample size consisted of 168 usable samples of member customers of loyalty programs of four competing departmental stores who were members of the stores. The study was confined to the city of Bangalore. Convenience sampling was used for the purpose of data collection. Data was collected through questionnaires and was subjected to descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. The reliability of the perceptual scale was found to be 0.766. The major findings of the research are: ? Lifestyle is the most frequented store and Shoppers Stop has the most attractive loyalty program. ? Customers have more important reasons for preference of a store than holding membership to the stores loyalty program ? Customers perceive that a loyalty program membership makes them enjoy monetary benefits. Offers and discounts followed by redeemable points are the most popular form of monetary benefits. ? Customers seek ??real and value creating benefits from loyalty programs ? There is a significant relationship between customer perception of loyalty program benefits and purchase behaviour. ? There is a significant relationship between customer perception of loyalty program benefits and store attractiveness and loyalty. The study will help retail organisations understand their customers better and help them in designing and implementing more satisfying, value creating and differentiated programs as a CRM tool to retain customers and build loyalty. [show more]

Description:Having awareness and knowledge on the basis of population is imperative and a crucial step in effective planning programme, implementing and delivering services for all areas. The attempt with this research is to shed more light on the conditions that these ethnic groups live in. Negligence and backwardness of the study population are stretched to the extent that even literatures are scarce. The aim of the present study is describe the living conditions of Zeme, Liangmai, and Rongmei of Zeliangrong tribe residing in Tamenglong District in relation to socio economic dimension with an objective to document the demography, objective and subjective living conditions to find association with the living condition in relation to Sub-Tribes. A total of 132 sample households were participated. Descriptive research design is adopted and purposive sampling was selected. Results confirmed that Road and transportation, Health care and Sanitation facilities, Quality education, Supply of electricity and water, Income and Recreation facilities are found to be an utmost necessary intervention among this community. Even a simple analysis of the tribal people and the district clearly shows that they are in great need of attention. It is found that even within same ethnic community, there is a variance in the needs of the people which is reflected in the living condition. Geographical location itself offered a major contributor variable to accessibility. It depicted the lopsided paradigm of development. In a nation which is built on the ideals of the democracy, leaving behind any tribe or community or people is unacceptable in more ways than one. It is only logical to suggest that who brings development should also make development accessible to the people the development is intended for. Accessibility is not a magic wand that could instantly make the problems disappear into thin air. Accessibility to quality services could only make development meaning and would serve its purpose. A decent standard of living adequate nutrition, healthcare, quality education, work and protection are not just developmental goals, they are also human rights. Human rights are essential for full human development (UNDP, Human Development Report, 2000). The present study is an appeal for an action on behalf of this community who has contributed in small or big way for the development of our country to obtain their rightful share of human rights. Key Words: Living Conditions, Tribal, Zeliangrong Tribe [show more]

Description:Over the years X-ray fluorescence studies have gained much importance due to the increasing applications in various fields. Today X-ray spectroscopy contributes significantly to the increasing knowledge in different scientific disciplines such as atomic, nuclear and radiation physics, solid-state and semiconductor research, space research, medicine and biomedical research, forensic science, metallurgy, geophysical research and source exploration, industry, archaeology, art, environment analysis and protection, and so on for elemental analysis. X-rays are generated in a wide variety of ways: Proton induced, ion induced, photon induced and X-ray emission following radioactive decay. There are two types of decay processes that result in K shell X-ray emission; electron capture (EC) process and internal conversion (IC) of gamma transitions. It has been reported that the values of K shell X-ray intensity ratios following electron capture (EC) decay are different from the theoretical values as well as those obtained via photon induced excitations. Eventhough several researchers have made attempts to study the K shell intensity ratios by photon excitation methods employing reflection geometries, there are very few reports on the measurements of K shell X-ray intensity ratios of elements following decay processes. In the present investigation, we have determined the K shell X-ray intensity ratios and total vacancy transfer probabilities of iron, silver and tellurium via electron capture decay of Co57, Cd109 and I125 employing 2??-geometrical configuration method. The obtained results are discussed in the light of the effects of electron capture decay on X-ray emission probabilities comparing with theoretical, semi-empirical and experimental results. This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the subject and ends with specifying the relevance of the present investigation. Chapter 2 deals with the theoretical details followed by the literature review and statement of the problem. In the following chapter, we give a brief description on the experimental procedure and data analysis methods. Chapter 4 includes the results and discussions. In the concluding chapter, a summary of the present investigation and the scope for future work are clearly stated. [show more]

Description:The retail industry in India has often been hailed as one of the sunrise sectors in the economy.The Indian government is mulling about allowing FDI in multi- brand retailing. While some people welcome this move, others oppose it. The study tries to identify the opinion of retailers towards this move. The study examines the issues related to various aspects of FDI including, product related, place related, process related, promotion related, people related, price related issues, physical evidence and environmental related issues. Survey research method was followed in this study. Questionnaire was used for collecting primary data. Secondary data is collected from selective sources of data like journals, websites, text books, company brochures, magazines and newspapers. The convenience sampling technique was used. A sample of 200 retailers was selected from the Bangalore city. The statistical techniques which are used in the study include descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages, reliability test, chi- square test, one- way ANOVA, two- way ANOVA and Correlation. The following were the hypotheses in the study: H1 ?? Agreement on FDI in retail is dependent on the duration of business among the retailers H2 ?? Agreement on FDI in retail is dependent on the level of investment among the retailers H3 ?? There is statistically significant difference on perception on agreement of FDI in retail by various levels of agreed and non- agreed retailers H4 ?? There is statistically significant difference on perception on agreement of FDI in retail by various levels of investments of business among retailers H5 ?? There is statistically significant influence on perception on agreement of FDI in retail based on both agreed level and level of investments H6 ?? There is statistically significant relations among the perceived factors of agreement on FDI in retail among retailers. The major findings of the study was that there is a mixed reaction among the retailerstowards allowing FDI in multi- brand retail, a majority of them seems to directly or indirectly prefer the entry of foreign players. However the respondents prefer a calibrated and cautious approach towards the introduction of FDI thereby safeguarding the interests of small retailers. If FDI is allowed in retail, there could be a multi ?? sector growth. India Inc. can expect a path of growth to achieve its target of 9 per cent GDP growth rate. The new firms that enter the market will get new technology and can acquire competitiveness. . It is estimated that FDI in multi- brand retail will create nearly 10 million job opportunities in the next three to four years. This will help in reducing the countrys unemployment to a large extent. The creation of more jobs will enhance the standard of living of farmers as they would get better returns on their yields by selling directly to the retailers rather than selling it in the intermediaries. FDI will also help in bringing food inflation under control. Key Words: Multi- brand Retailing, FDI, Organized Retailing, Unorganized Retailing [show more]

Description:This study examines the consumers attitude and purchasing behavior of green product of Indian consumers. To meet this objective, a structured questionnaire has been used to collect the data samples of 300 respondents. The survey results obtained from Bangalore City provide reasonable support for the validity of the proposed model. The collected data has been filtered and found 261 valid data to carry out the data analysis to find the result and conclusion of this research study. The result of this study, consumers who have positive attitude about the environment are giving more importance to buy eco-friendly product (Green Product) and it is clearly observed that there is a positive relationship between the consumers environmental attitude and purchasing behavior of the green product. This study also outlines the green product categories and examines which category is more preference by the consumers with regards to their gender, age, occupation and income. The green product categories are Grocery Items, Health and Beauty, Apparel, Produce, Cleaning and Households, Pet Products, Meat/Fish and Poultry, Paper Products and Electronics and Appliances. Despite the age, gender, occupation and income differences, it is found that majority of the consumer preference to buy Electronics and Appliances and Health and Beauty products out of those green product categories. Even though they also buy other category of the green product but the counts are minimal as compare to Electronics and Appliances and Health and Beauty Products. Furthermore, this study also discusses the different factors that impact on buying decision taken by the consumers. This study specifically studied with three main factors that influence the purchasing decision of the consumer regarding the eco- friendly product. These are constant factor such as Price and Quality; Brand and Environmental Factors. [show more]

Description:Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is still at a very infancy stage of growth as a therapy mode in India. People are slowly getting to know of this and its positive effects for different populations like special kids, people in their old age, and terminally ill patients amongst the many others. Hence the choice to experience this is now gradually increasing in cities that provide AAT. In this present study the aim was to assess the effectiveness of AAT among children with autism. Specifically the focus was to see if AAT does affect the dimensions of communication, social and motor skills in children with autism. To do the same, a case study method was employed in order to derive an in-depth knowledge of the changes and improvements in the child. A multiple technique of data collection was employed wherein data was obtained via semi-structured interviews, observation and medical reports. The data obtained were transcribed and coded and put through a case analysis. The results obtained state that there have been improvements in the dimension of communication and social skills in the autistic children who were a part of this study. Motor skills however have not been significantly enhanced in almost all of them or rather the changes have not been very substantial. In view of the people providing information, the positive shift in these areas could be attributed to AAT but not solely as there could be other therapies and techniques that could have played a role in it. Key Words: Animal Assisted Therapy, Autism, Communication Skills, Social Skills, Motor Skills. [show more]

Description:Religious mythology has perpetuated a certain idea of feminity and what ??constitutes a woman; it ascribes a particular role to the female. Religious treatises with time are normalized. This makes it extremely difficult to challenge gender stereotypes. Our religious beliefs and the stories and representations associated with them, become an important part of the ??self. In most texts, a womans identity is constructed in terms of what the man is not. She is given the role of the companion; her ??self is realized in the service of a man. They are never accorded individuality. Sita is the ideal example of this kind of gendered role-affixing. She exists within the patriarchal structures of the nation, religion and family without ever existing as Sita. Indian mythological texts have often been criticized for their misogynistic content. Both the Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata have sequences which can be interpreted as simultaneously contemporary and regressive. For example Draupadis swayamvar is conducted to find her a desirable husband. However, she is being offered as a prize to the best archer. The visual mediums of films and television borrow heavily from religious mythology. When this happens, pre existing notions about gender are perpetuated in a popular and palatable format. Popular representations have given us the contours of what constitutes a mother, daughter and wife. This dissertation will analyze Valmikis Ramayana, Ved Vyasas Mahabharata, Ramanand Sagars Ramayana, B.R. Chopras Mahabharata, Prakash Jhas Rajneeti and Nina Paleys Sita Sings the Blues and study representation of women in each of them. Sometimes adaptations transgress or reinterpret the original text. However, do these retellings question a polarized, gender based social order and the role of women in it. The dissertation is a descriptive study and will employ the methodology of qualitative content analysis and text analysis to study how these themes are appropriated and the ramifications that these manifestations have on existing ideas of ??feminine. [show more]

Description:The concept of corporate governance is gaining momentum because of changing business environment and various other factors as well as. The EEC, GATT and WTO regulations have also contributed to raise the awareness and are compelling us to think in terms of adhering to the good governance practices. In recent years, value-added relationship between management and stakeholders is considered a requirement for corporate success. The performance measures of corporations have been transformed and value-based financial performance measures like Economic value added (EVA), Market value added (MVA) has been developed.Empirical studies in corporate governance focus on the link between corporate governance and firms performance. There are limited number of studies using performance measures such as EVA and MVA, etc. hence the current study is based on relationship between corporate governance and value based financial performance measures like EVA and MVA, the study focuses on Information technology sector in India. Independent Variables included in the study were CEO Duality, Size of the Board, Management Equity Ownership, Foreign Ownership, Number of Board Meetings, Leverage ratio andSize of the firm. LLC t-test and the IPS w-test were conducted to check the stationarity of series and results are analyzed by multiple panel regression models. Results indicate that EVA, MVA has significant relationship with Corporate Governance variables. SOTB has significant negative relationship with MVA, CEO Duality has positive relationship with the Market value added (MVA) of the firms, the study further indicates there is a significant relationship between Size of the firm and EVA and as the Firm size increases EVA is also increased for the firms. However foreign ownership is found to increase the performance in terms of MVA. Manager ownership is not found to be an important variable in increasing corporate performance with the context of value based management. The study concluded that corporate governance has significance influence on the financial performance of the Information technology firms in India. Keywords: Corporate Governance, EVA, MVA, Correlation, Panel Unit Root. [show more]

Description:The effects resulting from the substitution of the classical Fourier law by the non-classical Maxwell-Cattaneo law in Rayleigh-B??nard-Marangoni convection in a rotating Newtonian fluid are studied using the Galerkin technique. The effects of one linear and five nonlinear basic temperature gradients are studied on the onset of convection. In the case of Rayleigh ?? B??nard convection, the eigenvalue is obtained for free-free, rigid-free and rigid-rigid velocity boundary combinations with isothermal and adiabatic boundaries. In the case of Marangoni and Rayleigh-B??nard-Marangoni convection the eigenvalues are obtained for an upper free / adiabatic and a lower rigid / isothermal boundaries. A linear stability analysis is performed. The influence of various parameters on the onset of convection has been analyzed. The classical approach predicts an infinite speed for the propagation of heat. The present non-classical theory involves a wave type heat transport (SECOND SOUND) and does not suffer from the physically unacceptable drawback of infinite heat propagation speed. It is found that the results are noteworthy at short times and the critical eigenvalues are less than the classical ones. [show more]