School of Liberal Arts (SoLA)

&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

The concept of ‘identity’ often becomes convoluted within the tradition of bhakti (devotion of god). This article engages in a comparative study of two of Lord Krishna’s devotees, each from a different gender group, in order to determine if gender divisions remain constant or change with the emerging emotions of bhakti. The article claims that the works of the early bhakti poets evince several instances of queer identity that history and modern Indian homophobia seek to erase. To understand such complexities, the article uses the queer theory, whose main project is to explore the contested categorisation of gender and sexuality. According to the queer theory, identities are not fixed, categorised or labelled, but composed instead of a variety of constituents which often cannot be characterised systematically. The objective of the article is to reveal both Mirabai and Surdas as sexual subjects who are culturally dependent and historically specific. © 2018, © 2018 SAGE Publications.

Indian Journal of Gender Studies

The Transgendered Devotee: Ambiguity of Gender in Devotional Poetry

Studies on small and medium enterprises or SMEs in India are scarce. What little is known shows that there is a need to know more about this sector, specially on their performance on responsible business practices. This paper reports the findings on the environmental awareness and practices of some Indian SMEs, from a study conducted by the present authors on 200 SMEs, in the manufacturing and service sectors, in the two Indian states ofWest Bengal and Odisha. The study results show that environmentally responsible practices and the related concept ofsocial responsibility of business are yet to take root at the Indian SME level. Some of the major findings reported are the lack of knowledge and interest about environmentally responsible business practices among the SME owner–managers, the perceived disconnect between environmental practices and socially responsible business practices, the total absence of reporting practices in the sector and the disinterest in the 14001 certification. The study also mentions the perceived barriers and constraints reported by the SME owner– managers in the path of greater engagement with the environment. On the whole, the study concludes that there is an urgent need for sensitization, training and mentoring the Indian SME owner–managers in order to develop their capabilities for improved environmentally responsible business practices.

World University root node

Asian Journal of Business Ethics

Responsible business practices and some Indian SMEs

Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy

Swami Vivekananda on Women, Empowerment and Spiritual Equality

Economic and Political Weekly

Social and systemic determinants of utilisation of public healthcare services in Uttar Pradesh

Community Health Workers (CHWs), specially Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) play a significant role in improving healthcare services in developing countries like India. Although ASHAs are key-actors influencing rural health care, they are inefficiently trained. This leads to suboptimal knowledge and skill sets, hence poor information delivery among community members. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of Pragati, a mobile-based Head Mounted Display (HMD) enabled Virtual Reality (VR) interface for training ASHAs. A user study conducted among 19 users revealed significant learnability and self-efficacy post-Pragati usage. Further, we conducted a between-group study among 57 CHWs to assess effects of 3 platforms (i) Pragati, (ii) mobile phone-based traditional videos and (iii) mobile phone-based 360-degree video on measures of learnability, self-efficacy, engagement, and presence. The results showed no impact of the platform for learnability and self-efficacy, whereas a significant increase in engagement and presence was observed for Pragati. © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.

ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Pragati: Design and evaluation of a mobile phone-based head mounted virtual reality interface to train community health workers in rural India

A novel polarization diverse substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)-based leaky-wave antenna (LWA) is proposed for larger radiation coverage by frequency beam scanning in X-band. For feeding purpose, the SIW-based power divider, the directional coupler, and the 180° power splitter are used in the design. For radiation, +45°/-45° tilted slots are etched on top and bottom faces of the structure such that the radiated quad beam scans all the four quadrants. By varying the means of excitation at two input ports, multiple polarization states are realized. The antenna shows ±45° dual polarization (+45° and -45° are co-existing), horizontal and vertical polarization, and two types of circular dual-polarization (left handed and right handed simultaneously). The proposed antenna is capable of scanning in each of the four quadrants simultaneously with the scanning range of 62° having the maximum gain of 12.6 dBi and an improved cross-polarization level better than -20 dB. The quad beam covers overall scanning range of 248° with different polarization states. The S-parameters, radiation patterns, gain, and axial ratio are calculated and demonstrated. The proposed LWA shows desirable advantages, such as simultaneous four-quadrant frequency beam scanning having polarization diversity capabilities, which leads to a flexible design for practical utilization. © 1963-2012 IEEE.

Department of Electrical Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

SIW-Based quad-beam leaky-wave antenna with polarization diversity for four-quadrant scanning applications

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intergenerational occupational mobility for young women (vis-à-vis their mothers) in India and six of its states from its diverse geographic regions which contribute 39 percent of the Indian population. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses transition/mobility matrices and multiple mobility measures for examination of intergenerational occupational mobility among young females in India by using the data from the “India Youth Survey: Situation and Needs” from the year 2006 to 2007. Findings: The study finds that intergenerational occupational mobility among the young women in India is about 71 percent, but surprisingly it is predominantly downwards. The urban areas have higher occupational mobility than the rural areas. However, upward intergenerational occupational mobility is lower among the young SC/ST women compared to the young women belonging to the “Others” caste category. Moreover, upward mobility in the economically and demographically poorer states is much lower than that of other states. Originality/value: The present study is the only study which examines how women perform vis-à-vis their mothers in terms of occupational attainment in the Indian context. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.

International Journal of Social Economics

Examination of intergenerational occupational mobility among Indian women

How similar to or different from each other do metropolitan Miami's Latin@s currently view themselves as they interact in a distinctive Hispanic-dominant space? To investigate this question, Latin@ college students from seven ethnicities/nationalities prominent in the region were interviewed and asked to identify both what they viewed as commonalities shared by all Latin@s in the area as well as what differentiates them. Through content analysis the authors find complete overlap in the top three themes interviewees reported for both similarities and distinctions (language, culture, and food). However, a closer, qualitative analysis of what respondents actually say explains this apparent conundrum. When discussing food, for instance, respondents cited commonalities in terms of ingredients but explained that groups prepare them differently. The authors utilize various demographic, theoretical and analytical approaches to explain the results, concluding that there are simultaneously forces binding and separating the region's Latin@s. © 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature.

Latino Studies

Expressing similarities and differences: Latin@ voices from metropolitan Miami

This paper seeks to argue that advances in the study of freewill and responsibility are directly relevant to jurisprudence. Following Daniel Dennett attempts to discredit the existence of freewill with the help of experiments can be checked by arguing that freedom should be understood as something that has evolved over time rather than being a pre-existent feature of our species. The major function served by freedom is to ensure responsibility for actions. This understanding of freedom as something that evolved to enhance responsibility suggests that freedom can be developed further. This can be understood as enhancing the ability to follow social norms by overcoming factors that limit responsibility. Jurisprudence has to take into account the ability to follow norms as a variable, even within the category of adults, and treat violations accordingly. Further, efforts to enhance the capacity to be free from habitual reactions need to be made part of education, and the state has to focus on this aspect without which the task of ensuring adherence to law of citizens will remain incomplete. © 2018 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Balkan Journal of Philosophy

Freedom, responsibility, and jurisprudence

An indigenous crop, cannabis and its parts have traditionally been used in some regions of the Indian Himalayas for food, clothing, and enjoyment in the form of a socially consumed intoxicant. Cannabis has become engendered in social transformations and has been historically subsumed within the socio-cultural life of the region, where it has been a "humble" object (Miller 2009) of great utility, but hardly influential. However, in the last couple of decades, cannabis has been important in transforming the local economy, challenging the socio-cultural order, and influencing individual life trajectories in parts of the Indian Himalayas. This paper illustrates how cannabis becomes a "transgressive" object, one that is possessed of a force that shapes human life (for better and worse), and challenges and transforms social institutions and practices in the region. The sociocultural, historical, and material aspects of cannabis play significant roles in such a transformation. While illustrating how the history of colonization and global circulation of cannabis is inscribed with contradictory meanings, the paper suggests that much (although not all) of cannabis's present power in the Indian Himalayas can be attributed to historical and present interpretations in the global West. The paper examines the engagement between local community and cannabis, and explores how this engagement ushers in social change in the Indian Himalayas. © 2018 Society of Ethnobiology. All rights reserved.