L’utilisation des énergies renouvelables en Inde est en train de modifier (ou de maintenir) le modèle de croissance et de développement inégal qui la caractérise comme « économie émergente ». Nous mettons l’accent sur deux processus contrastés que connait l’Anantapuramu, un district rural marqué par des indices de pauvreté et de vulnérabilité climatique élevés. D’un côté, le développement de méga-infrastructures d’énergie éolienne déclenche une transformation régionale en faveur de « l’industrialisation verte ». De l’autre, la résistance du Collectif Timbaktu, une (...) organisation de base qui travaille à la régénération des terres communales « improductives », promeut la gestion collective des ressources et renforce les relations de coopération au sein des communautés locales. Cette perspective contrastée permet de mettre à jour les différentes façons de comprendre la durabilité et ses implications politiques dans les dynamiques écologiques, sociales et spatiales des territoires concrets. (shrink)

To what extent does the black hole information paradox lead to violations of quantum mechanics? I explain how black hole complementarity provides a framework to articulate how quantum characterizations of black holes can remain consistent despite the information paradox. I point out that there are two ways to cash out the notion of consistency in play here: an operational notion and a descriptive notion. These two ways of thinking about consistency lead to (at least) two principles of black hole complementarity: (...) an operational principle and a descriptive principle. Our background philosophy of science regarding realism/instrumentalism might initially lead us to prefer one principle over the other. However, the recent physics literature, which applies tools from quantum information theory and quantum computational complexity theory to various thought experiments involving quantum systems in or around black holes, implies that the operational principle is successful where the descriptive principle is not. This then lets us see that for operationalists the black hole information paradox might no longer be pressing. (shrink)

The year 2018 is the 150 anniversary of the Tata group. This article is an attempt to examine the role of spiritual family values in shaping Tata as a sustainable business. Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the founder of Tata, was a trained Parsi priest, who was greatly influenced by Humata or good thoughts, Hukhta or good words, and Hvarshta or good deeds toward others. Since its founding in 1868, the Tata leadership legacy has persistently followed those watchwords of the Zoroastrian faith. (...) The extant workplace spirituality literature posits that the role of spiritual and religious values is vital for organizations and individuals to prosper. Employing historical data and biographical method, we trace the history of Tata to examine the causal mechanism between spirituality and sustainable business, under the influence of stakeholder concept, sustainability and family values-based leadership. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (shrink)

Structural realism is the view that scientific theories give us knowledge only of the structure of the unobservable world. The view faces an influential objection that was first posed by Max Newman: if our knowledge of the unobservable world were strictly limited to its structure, our knowledge turns out to be trivial, for it amounts to nothing more than knowledge of the cardinality of the world. In this paper, I shall propose a response to Newman’s objection. It shall be argued (...) that in having epistemic access to the intrinsic nature of our conscious experiences—knowledge that structural realists allow for—we have knowledge of what it is to exist as concrete phenomena. With the plausible assumption that the relations of the unobservable world are also similarly concrete, one can address Newman’s objection. I shall further contrast this response to other similar responses that have been proposed, and also address the objection that this response is not available to structural realists. (shrink)

The Indian mediascape has dramatically changed in the past 15 years. Gradual privatization and deregulation have resulted in increased entertainment-driven rather than public-service oriented news. This article explores the ethical issues Indian journalists face in such a globalized media environment. Our research was based on interactive workshops we conducted in various Indian cities. Findings from these workshops reveal that although journalists encounter serious ethical issues, media ethics is not a topic being widely discussed in Indian newsrooms and TV stations. Marketing (...) pressures, the tabloidization of news, and management and economic pressures are affecting journalism ethics and issues such as accountability, independence, and conflict of interests. A lack of professional training, especially ethics training, is affecting journalists' understanding of concepts such as privacy and accuracy. (shrink)

We define a new type of “shatter function” for set systems that satisfies a Sauer–Shelah type dichotomy, but whose polynomial-growth case is governed by Shelah’s two-rank instead of VC dimension. We identify the least exponent bounding the rate of growth of the shatter function, the quantity analogous to VC density, with Shelah’s $\omega $ -rank.

With 500+ papers and 20+ books spanning many scientific disciplines, Mark Burgin has left an indelible mark and legacy for future explorers of human thought and information technology professionals. In this paper, I discuss his contribution to the evolution of machine intelligence using his general theory of information (GTI) based on my discussions with him and various papers I co-authored during the past eight years. His construction of a new class of digital automata to overcome the barrier posed by the (...) Church–Turing Thesis, and his contribution to super-symbolic computing with knowledge structures, cognizing oracles, and structural machines are leading to practical applications changing the future landscape of information systems. GTI provides a model for the operational knowledge of biological systems to build, operate, and manage life processes using 30+ trillion cells capable of replication and metabolism. The schema and associated operations derived from GTI are also used to model a digital genome specifying the operational knowledge of algorithms executing the software life processes with specific purposes using replication and metabolism. The result is a digital software system with a super-symbolic computing structure exhibiting autopoietic and cognitive behaviors that biological systems also exhibit. We discuss here one of these applications. (shrink)

In 1952, Alan Turing published his last work on the concept of embryonic morphogenesis, propounding a computational framework for pattern formation within the developing embryo. This concept of morphogenesis and the concept of embryo pattern formation based on chemical diffusion patterns were corroborated with the discovery of the Homeobox or Hox genes. In the following decades, Hox gene research has expanded and is now shown to underlie the variety of morphological novelties that we experience in nature, the patterning of structural (...) aspects of different organs including the brain and also mutant animals that may in the future give rise to novel speciation. Turing had the foresight and vision and with his work created the field of computational biology and mathematical modeling in biological systems. In this paper, we will discuss the concept of Hox genes, their role in patterning the embryo, how it relates to Turing’s concept of morphogenesis and what further insights they may provide. (shrink)

Selected articles on religion in India, Vedic literature, and Indic philosophy.

Covers Indian philosophy and Aesthetics along with Western philosophy.

A. P. Rao is considered to be one of India's leading, modern philosophers. In this compelling new monograph, he discusses the unique philosophical energies and synergies between Russell and Wittgenstein's seminal works and re-interprets the logical-positivist thrust of language and mathematical philosophy in this century and into the next.

Ethics training—an important means to foster ethical decision-making in organisations—is carried out formally as well as informally. There are mixed findings as regards the effectiveness of formal versus informal ethics training. This study is one of its first kinds in which we have investigated the effectiveness of ethics training as it is carried out in the Indian IT sector. We have collected the views of Indian IT industry professionals concerning ethics training, and employed positivist and interpretive research. We first have (...) argued that the importance of the perception towards ethics has bearings not only on the individual ideologies but also on the organisational ethical values. In doing so, first we have conceptualised a theoretical framework: Perception of Ethics Training in Employees and Organisations. Second, we have studied the correlations between various components of this model. Third, we, under the rubric of PETINEO, examined the effectiveness of ethics training programmes for the Indian IT companies. Fourth, we have elaborated upon the results of our study. Our results suggest that the combination of both formal and informal means to undertake ethics training has superior impact on ethical decision-making in the Indian IT industry as compared to the use of any one of them in isolation. (shrink)

Now, we can draw a conclusion on the matter of the necessity of angādhikāra in Pā $$ \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{n}$$ ini's grammar. We have seen that angādhikāra constitutes a very important section of the grammar where the relation of the suffixes and their bases is crucial. We also have observed that the concept of anga cannot be separated from Pā $$ \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{n}$$ ini's system due to its being a part of many sūtras as well as many paribhā $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{s}$$ ās. We have also (...) seen that at least three exclusive prayojanas exist for the justification of angādhikāra. Another justification can be given in the form of preventing the double samprasāra $$ \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{n}$$ a in forms like vavraś which we discussed while determining the limit of angādhikāra. We saw that three important paribhā $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{s}$$ ās, which are accepted by Patañjali, depend on angādhikāra. Finally we saw that an alternative suggested by Patañjali for angādhikāra is in no way better, but actually defective.Kātyāyana's use of angādhikāra in other sections to counter some objections has been shown too. Patañjali's apparent rejection of angādhikāra on the basis of Kātyāyana's vārtika on ‘angasya’ (6-4-1) is not supported by his own treatment of the subject in other places. So, we conclude that Patañjali did not really intend to refute the angādhikāra and the view which appears in his commentary on 6-4-1 should not be taken as his siddhānta on this matter. Tasmād angādhikāra iti bhagavato gūdho 'bhisandhir iti bhāvah. Naitāni ity ādi grantha $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{h}$$ ekadeśyuktir iti tātparyam. Nāgeśa, ‘Uddyota’, MB, Vol. 5, p. 273.Thus the necessity of angādhikāra in Pā $$ \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{n}$$ ini's A $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{s}$$ $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{t}$$ ādhyāyī is established. (shrink)

Rwanda is recovering from the trauma of the 1994 war and genocide but continues to have a weak corporate and industrial infrastructure. Against this background, the present study was undertaken with the aim of tracing to what extent Rwandan enterprises are geared for the fulfillment of social responsibility within a strained socioeconomic milieu. The objectives of the study are to review the concept of corporate governance and its relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR), to describe the current state of corporate (...) governance in Rwanda, to establish the relationship between corporate governance and CSR and standard ethical practice, and to suggest solutions for problems encountered in the system. (shrink)

On the Dvaita philosophy of Madhva, 13th century Hindu philosopher.

Chiefly a survey of the concepts of some modern English ethical theorists.

Designing Indicators for a Plural Legal World engages with the role of quantification in law, and its impact on law and development and judicial reform. It seeks to examine how different institutions shape and influence the making and use of legal indicators globally. This book sheds light on the limitations of existing quantification tools, which measure rule of law due to their lack of engagement with contexts and countries in the Global South. It offers an alternative framework for measurement, which (...) moves away from an institutional look at rule of law, to a bottom up, user centered approach that places importance on the lives that people lead, and the challenges that they face. In doing so, it offers a way of thinking about access to justice in terms of human capabilities. (shrink)

This essay probes the aniconic and iconic elements that pervade Indian visual culture and, more specifically, the aniconic impulse that has structured, for nearly two millennia, the cultivated indifference of Indian, especially Sanskrit, reflective traditions toward the plastic arts. Over the last hundred years, inquiries have concentrated largely on the historical and formal aspects of Indian temples, idols, and images. These attempts, however, are based entirely on the conceptual-theoretical frameworks of the Western tradition. By drawing on Sanskrit reflective traditions, I (...) analyze the relations between symbol, icon, desire, and the body, in order to show the epistemic contrasts between the European and the Indian reflective traditions and their implications for differential modes of being. (shrink)

On the school of Madhva, 13th century Hindu dualistic philosopher.