Coffee is a major commodity of export in developing countries. In India, it generates significant revenues besides providing employment to many. This book critically looks into various aspects of the coffee production and marketing industry and its potential for promoting sustainable development, poverty alleviation and providing decent work.The small-holder dominated coffee sector is under unprecedented crisis attributed to a host of factors like declining productivity, incidences...

Defect-Induced Magnetism in Oxide Semiconductors provides an overview of the latest advances in defect engineering to create new magnetic materials and enable new technological applications. First, the book introduces the mechanisms, behavior, and theory of magnetism in oxide semiconductors and reviews the methods of inducing magnetism in these materials. Then, strategies such as pulsed laser deposition and RF sputtering to grow oxide nanostructured materials with induced magnetism are dis...

This book provides an overview of the applications of ion beam techniques in oxide materials. Oxide materials exhibit defect-induced physical properties relevant to applications in sensing, optoelectronics and spintronics. Defects in these oxide materials also lead to magnetism in non-magnetic materials or to a change of magnetic ordering in magnetic materials. Thus, an understanding of defects is of immense importance. To date, ion beam tools are considered the most effective techniques f...

This volume examines the transitions in Indian agriculture since the 1980s, and emphasizes upon the role of neoliberal policies and their impact. The essays presented here deal with a range of pertinent and contemporary issues, including global food security, livelihoods of agricultural labourers, and public and private investment. These weave together glimpses of the impasse faced by petty commodity producers (marginal and small farmers) and their subsequent economic distress and social e...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted in India with the multiple objectives of providing employment in a rights-based framework, addressing rural poverty, checking migration, and building rural infrastructure. As such, every year around 15–20 per cent of households in India overall and 30 per cent in rural India receive some form of employment share under the MGNREGA programme.This volume looks at various aspect of the scheme, its linkage ...

This book discusses the important issue of the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of agricultural residue burning, common in agricultural practices in many parts of the world. In particular, it focuses on the pollution caused by rice residue burning using primary survey data from Punjab, India. It discusses emerging solutions to agricultural waste burning that are cost-effective in terms of both money and time. The burning of agricultural residue causes severe pollution in land, water...

Nanomaterials via Single-Source Precursors: Synthesis, Processing and Applications presents recent results and overviews of synthesis, processing, characterization and applications of advanced materials for energy, electronics, biomedicine, sensors and aerospace. A variety of processing methods (vapor, liquid and solid-state) are covered, along with materials, including metals, oxides, semiconductor, sulfides, selenides, nitrides, and carbon-based materials. Production of quantum dots, nan...

This book follows the 2002 edition of Catalysis by Ceria and Related Materials, which was the first book entirely devoted to ceria and its catalytic properties. In the ten years since the first edition a massive amount of work has been carried out in the field, and ceria has gained a prominent position in catalysis as one of the most valuable material for several applications. This second edition covers fundamental and applied aspects of the latest advances in ceria-based materials with a ...

Second volume of a 40-volume series on nanoscience and nanotechnology, edited by the renowned scientist Challa S.S.R. Kumar. This handbook gives a comprehensive overview about UV-visible and photoluminescence spectroscopy for the characterization of nanomaterials. Modern applications and state-of-the-art techniques are covered and make this volume essential reading for research scientists in academia and industry in the related fields.

Characterization of Nanomaterials: Advances and Key Technologies discusses the latest advancements in the synthesis of various types of nanomaterials. The book's main objective is to provide a comprehensive review regarding the latest advances in synthesis protocols that includes up-to-date data records on the synthesis of all kinds of inorganic nanostructures using various physical and chemical methods. The synthesis of all important nanomaterials, such as carbon nanostructures, Core-shel...

Rare-Earth-Activated Phosphors: Chemistry and Applications outlines important fundamentals and properties and explores successful application that address key problems across the sciences. Sections introduce phosphors and luminescence, explore their properties, characteristics, synthesis and degradation and highlight key applications across telecommunications, lighting, electroluminescent devices, (bio-)analytical sensors, bio-imaging set-ups, drug delivery and sustainable energy devices. ...

Metal Oxide Defects: Fundamentals, Design, Development and Applications provides a broad perspective on the development of advanced experimental techniques to study defects and their chemical activity and catalytic reactivity in various metal oxides. This book highlights advances in characterization and analytical techniques to achieve better understanding of a wide range of defects, most importantly, state-of-the-art methodologies for controlling defects. The book provides readers with pa...