Sompal Singh: Revamping Planning Commission of India: A Critical Review.
The general perception that planning was adopted by India after attaining independence is not correct. There had been an animated debate on the idea during 1930s pioneered by India's eminent political leaders and economists like Dadabhai Nauroji, Mahadev Govind Ranade and Prof. R.C. Dutt. The Indian National Congress adopted resolution in this regard at its Karachi session in 1931. It found formal expression in the Presidential address by the revolutionary leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the Haripura session of All India Congress Committee (AICC) in 1938. Following it up, he set up Planning Committee of the Indian National Congress under the chairmanship of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. In 1944, the Government of India established a separate Department of Planning and Development.
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Omvir Singh, Amrita: Groundwater Variability in Haryana: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis.
Groundwater resources play a major role in ensuring food and livelihood security across the world, especially in countries that depend on agriculture. The state of Haryana in India has witnessed tremendous increase in agricultural production since the spread of Green Revolution and increased use of water resources. The increased demand of water for irrigation has resulted in intensive exploitation of groundwater resources in the state. Therefore, groundwater table in the state has reached at a critical level of depth. The average annual decline in groundwater table depth was observed to be above 56.3 cm. The average depth of groundwater table in the state has increased from 12.5 m to 17.2 m during 2004-13. Further, the area under critical depth of groundwater table (more than 10 m) has increased from 52 per cent in 2004 to 62 per cent in 2013. Depletion of groundwater resources at such an alarming rate will threaten the long term sustainability of tube-well irrigated agriculture in Haryana. In this study, therefore, an attempt has been made to assess the spatial and temporal groundwater table variability in Haryana during recent times (2004-2013) to highlight the overexploitation of groundwater resources.
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Bhawna Bali: Residential Neighbourhood Characteristics in the Civil Area of Jalandhar Cantonment.
Residential space is the most discernible aspect of a city's morphology, which reflects social, cultural and historical lineage of the city, and changing norms of construction designs. The civil or bazaar area established by British in cantonment towns of India represents a unique planned residential-cum-commercial urban development within administratively controlled environment. With the Civil Area of Jalandhar Cantonment as a case study, this work examines the characteristics of residential areas through three attributes, viz. size of residential plots, intensity of residential buildings and annual rental value of residential buildings. Based on mohalla level analysis of data drawn from unpublished ownership and revenue records as well as field survey, this study reveals congruence between physical and socio-economic attributes in shaping the residential types. The residential neighbourhoods in the Civil Area of Jalandhar Cantonment show differentiation along socio-economic contours, with their spatial distribution characterised by low class residential mohallas in central locations and high class residential areas on the periphery.
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Abha Lakshmi Singh, Shanawaz Ahmad Baba: Srinagar City: Housing Deprivation.
Although the living conditions have improved everywhere, yet a large number of people in the urban areas have remained deprived of shelter and basic amenities and facilities for them. Keeping this aspect in mind an attempt has been made in this study, to measure housing deprivation in Srinagar city on the basis of identified indicators so that future plans could be made to improve their condition. The study is based on primary sources of data collected from 1,500 households of Srinagar city belonging to different income groups during 2012-13. The findings show that the most deprived households were of low and lower-middle income, while less deprived were from the upper-middle income households. The most deprived has acute housing, water and sanitation problems which require immediate attention by the local municipal authorities to improve the quality of life of the urban deprived lots.
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Narinder Kumar, Subhash C Sharma: Population Geography: A Bibliometric Analysis.
Research journals play a significant role in teaching and research in higher education. These also promote scholarship that perceives multidimensional problems of the mankind in totality and present them with sagacity, truth and vision. The journals also lend a new perspective and dimensions, to illuminate hitherto unexplored areas of a subject and make it a profound research study. Moreover, journals provide a forum for the interdisciplinary study of contemporary issues which encourage closer interaction between various branches of knowledge. The present paper is an attempt to understand the publication patterns of a journal. The study presents the Bibliometric analysis of research papers published in the 'Population Geography' during 20 years period (1994-2013). There were a total of 132 research papers published during this period. Based on published research papers, present study examines the period-wise distribution, authorship pattern, thematic distribution, length of the articles, regional distribution of authors, institutional affiliation of the authors, references, citations, and use of maps and graphs as cartographic tools.
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Anuradha Sharma, Tajinder Kour: Work Participation and Empowerment of Women: A Case Study of Jammu District.
About half of the world's population, known as better half are women. But better halves are great sufferer in men-dominated society. Throughout history, society has assigned the role of breadwinner to man and expected him to provide for himself and for his family. Employment is crucial to reduction and removal of poverty. Over the past two decades, there has been a relative increase in the economic participation of women in India. The present research aims to assess work participation and empowerment of women in Jammu District of Jammu and Kashmir State. The study is based on both primary and secondary sources of data. From the study it has been observed that women work participation rate in Jammu district is only 12.72 per cent, thereby indicating a cause of concern.
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H. S. Mangat, Lakhvir Singh Gill: Haryana: Levels of Road Transportation.
Road transportation is a catalytic infrastructure that not only activates but also facilitates other infrastructural facilities. This study therefore, is focused on road transportation facility of the state of Haryana. The study is based on data collected from different secondary sources. The study concludes that during the last decade of 2001-2011, total surfaced roads in India increased from 137.50 km per lakh of population to 167.03 km recording a growth rate of 21.5 per cent, while Haryana witnessed -2.3 per cent decline in this category of roads during the period, as metalled roads in Haryana declined from 108.6 km per lakh population in 2001 to 106.1 km in 2011. Similarly, Haryana with 2.1 per cent population of the country accounts for 1.08 per cent length of different highways and 1.65 per cent of total surfaced highways in India. Besides, Haryana has 3.8 per cent of total vehicles in the country against its share of 2.1 per cent of population. Similarly, Haryana has 161 registered motor vehicles per kilometre of surfaced metalled road length against the national average of 70 motor vehicles. Thus, the state has 2.3 times more pressure of motor vehicles on its roads than the national average. As a result 13 persons die and 27 get injured in accidents every day on its roads suggesting a serious concern for the road transport planners.
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Map Series-VIII: R.C. Chandna: Punjab-Haryana Region: Growth of Population: 2001-11.
It may be interesting to analyze population growth rate and spatial pattern of population growth of Punjab and Haryana region, the most important food basket of the country. During 2001-11 the region recorded a growth rate of 16.60 per cent in its population which was marginally lower than the national average of 17.64 per cent (Table 1). It implies a relatively low rate of natural increase in the study region. While the country displayed a natural rate of increase of 15.2 per cent during 2001-11, Punjab had only 9.9 per cent and the corresponding figure for Haryana sub-region, however, still continued to be 16.00 per cent.
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Doctoral Abstract: Shamshad: Houseless Population in Kanpur City: A Socio-Economic and Structural Analysis.
By going through the Kaleidoscope of human history, it may be very easily traced out that the man has faced the problem of shelter since his advent on the Earth. At present, with the emergence of many cities in the world as major regional or global commercial centres, shrinking man-land ratio caused by exponential population growth, unplanned urbanisation, lopsided developmental policies of the government, and, the widening gap between the haves and have not's have made the problem of houselessness very grim, especially, in the large and metropolitan cities of the developing countries. This problem is being aggravated, day by day, with the new arrival of rural poor who come in the cities in search of jobs to earn the means for their livelihood.
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Doctoral Abstract: Sitender: Groundwater Assessment and Identification of Recharge Sites in Southern Haryana.
In the absence of any perennial river and lesser availability of water in canals, groundwater has acquired a very significant position in terms of water supply in most parts of the world. The prevailing arid and semi-arid climatic conditions have further increased the dependence of people on groundwater to meet their water requirements. The resultant uncontrolled mining of this priceless resource has resulted the lowering of groundwater table. Therefore, the management of this priceless resource on sustainable basis is the need of the hour. Southern part of Haryana is in a disadvantageous position with regard to groundwater availability and groundwater table is declining at an alarming rate.
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Book Review: K. Surjit Singh: Geography Development Public Policy.
The book edited by Dr. Surya Kant and Dr. Nina Singh is a compilation of select essays of Dr. Gopal Krishan, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, Panjab University, Chandigarh. The editors have put their arduous efforts first in selecting the best and then grouping into different streams of knowledge such as Geography, Development and Public Policy. A study of the book containing multidimensional research studies of Dr. Gopal Krishan reveals the infinite scope of Geography that attempts to study the Earth and its inhabitants in their fullest multi-dimensional relationship.
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