IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

The increasing demand for food and clean energy, such as biofuel calls for a sustainable food-energy nexus in the agriculture sector. Mixed cropping pattern of food and biofuel crops is a viable strategy to meet the escalating demands of the biofuel production at the cost of food production. The implementation of the proposed solutions of simulation–optimization frameworks, at larger spatial scales, is a challenging task. One of the commonly adopted approaches is to implement the solution initially in critical zones that are sensitive to the land management practices and are critical for achieving the objectives. Despite the different techniques to identify the critical zones, this study proposes a new approach to identify the critical zones within a watershed, where the land use changes are essential to improve the social and physical environment while meeting the concurring demands for food and biofuel production. A decision support system (DSS), utilizing the concept of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is developed to choose the number of optimal solutions from the Pareto-optimal Front to reduce the uncertainty involved in solution adaption by the decision-maker and identification of the critical zone. The results from the study indicate how solution strategies can influence the objective of optimal balance between crop demand and nutrient minimization using different cases. The proposed land use using the developed framework reduced the Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorous loads by 29% and 38%, respectively from the watershed by converting about 44% of the baseline land use to different cropping patterns with the restriction on minimal food grain and biomass production. The outcome of the framework indicates that the adaptation of more robust objective function for spatial optimization through the developed DSS can reduce the nutrient load in the downstream water. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature.

Department Of Civil Engineering

Department of Aerospace Engineering

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment

A decision support system for the identification of critical zones in a watershed to implement land management practices

India and China have entered a new low in their bilateral relations. Having fought a war in 1962, it took over three decades for both countries to achieve normalcy at the borders, aided by a series of border management agreements and protocols to maintain tranquility along the border areas. However, the June 2020 Galwan clashes have changed that permanently. This paper argues that the current escalation of border clashes is both a symptom and consequence of the breakdown of the bilateral border management framework which has been dented since the 2017 Doklam standoff between both countries. Delving into diplomatic history relating to Doklam and Galwan, the findings point to the need to correct the epistemic criteria used to reproduce claims of an unambiguous boundary between India and China by both countries, in order to ensure abatement of similar outcomes. © 2020 The Royal Society for Asian Affairs.

Asian Affairs

THE CORROSIVE COMPROMISE OF THE SINO-INDIAN BORDER MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK: FROM DOKLAM TO GALWAN

This study assesses the effect of lockdown, due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, on the concentration of different air pollutants and overall air quality of a less industrialized region (Kerala) of India. We analysed data from four ambient air quality stations over three years (January to May, 2018–2020) with pairwise comparisons, trend analysis, etc. Results indicated unprecedented reduction in the concentration of the air pollutants: nitrogen dioxide, NO2 (-48 %), oxides of nitrogen, NOx (-53 % to -90 %), carbon monoxide, CO (-24 % to -67 %) and the particulate matter (-24 % to -47 % for particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 μm, PM2.5; -17 % to -20 % for particulate matter with a diameter of less than 10 μm, PM10), as well as the reduction of the National Air Quality Index (NAQI). These reductions indicate an overall improvement of the ambient air quality due to restrictions on transportation, construction, and the industrial sectors during lockdown, even in an area considered less industrial. Despite the general decreasing trend of the concentration of various air pollutants from January to May, suggesting seasonal influences, the trend was intensified in the year 2020 due to the added effect of the lockdown measures. Comparison of the results with those from larger and more industrialized cities suggests that the effects of lockdown are more variable, and focused on the levels of gaseous pollutants. Findings from this study demonstrate the far-reaching effects and implications of the COVID-19 lockdown on ambient air quality, even on less industrialized and less urbanized regions. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

World University root node

Anthropocene

Ambient air quality of a less industrialized region of India (Kerala) during the COVID-19 lockdown

This paper revisits the intersection of the 19th and 20th century to bring into focus hitherto unused archival and diplomatic correspondence from the attempts to define and delimit a boundary between India and China. The theoretical point of departure for the paper is to discern how perception (knowledge, beliefs, and norms) relating to the boundary evolved over time to alter the meaning and construction of the material reality i.e. the boundary itself. In doing so it establishes how what each country deems today, as its 'traditional customary boundary' was not an unambiguous fixed one, but was mutable across different time periods. The political importance of the selection of these boundary lines did not lie in their being 'true', or in the claim being 'real' but in their being shared by a process of political selection, and then being reified in the respective countries. © The Royal Asiatic Society 2017.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

India–China Border Dispute: Boundary-Making and Shaping of Material Realities from the Mid-Nineteenth to Mid-Twentieth Century

This study situates Sino-Indian economic interaction under the interdependence framework. By mapping conflict behavior in this dyad against the trends in the economic interdependence, we find a discernible shift away from escalation (high-level conflict) towards bargaining (diplomatic contestation). This paper argues that interdependence has only recently emerged in the India-China dyad and that lingering strategic distrust, national security consideration, and protectionist tendency have prevented the deepening of economic interdependence. The findings challenge the direction of interdependence in this dyad normally gleaned from nominal trade data. This paper also highlights key issue-areas that inhibit strategic coupling in the bilateral economic interaction. © 2015, Copyright 2015 Taylor and Francis Group LLC.

Economic and Political Studies

Assessing Sino-Indian Economic Relations in an Interdependence Framework: 1992-2008

This paper aggregates the state of India-China economic relations with a specific focus on trade at the borders. It explicates the potential for economic activity at the border regions to generate self-sustaining and/or externally linked local development for both countries. By an examination of the existing trade and investment policies and practices, it shows how geographical contiguity is yet to be transformed into opportunity along the India-China border, a practice consistent both with the history of these regions as well as with the blueprints being drawn up for the future of these regions. Informed by the Liberal school of IR theory, the paper studies border trade through the paradigmatic optic of being an important, yet underutilized, avenue of dyadic interaction, and makes a case for upgrading the status of border trade in the overall schema of bilateral trade relations between India and China. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Journal of Contemporary China

India–China Trade at the Borders: challenges and opportunities

Writings on India–China relations in recent years are increasingly seen to beimputing Machiavellian realism to the political and, increasingly, economic sphere of interaction. The purpose of this article is to provide an alternate paradig-matic optic to view India–China relations. The article introduces the idea of the needfor generating ‘social capital’ at the dyadic level, and the need to re-imagine the neol-ogism of Chindia. It identifies new and existing sources of ‘trust’ and ‘trustworthiness’that need to be fully explored through this paradigmatic optic in order to widen theexisting radius of formal institutional relationship.

Strategic Analysis

‘Social Capital’ and its Significance in Reimagining Chindia

This paper discusses the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China. It examines its contents, tradeexpectations, and problem areas. Since "cooperative behavior" (as demonstrated in the signing and implementation of the ECFA) does not have the functional equivalence of "trust" in cross-Strait ties, the paper identifies some of the pathways that apost-ECFA ecosystem could provide for Taiwan in the coming years, and the risks they present. © Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan (ROC).

Issues and Studies

Post-ECFA outlook for the relationship across the Taiwan strait

The threat posed by infectious diseases has been increasingly framed as a security issue. The UN Security Council's Resolution 1308, which designated HIV/AIDS as a threat to international security, evidenced the securitization process. Using securitization theory as a theoretical tool, this article explores the securitization of infectious diseases in the World Health Organization (WHO). While WHO has tended to securitize infectious diseases since 2000, it has encountered a dilemma in the process because of the inherent asymmetry of interest between developed and developing countries. The act of securitization in WHO currently remains mostly a rhetorical device, since WHO's norms emblematic of securitization have not been backed by operational measures for verification or enforcement due to these asymmetric interests. © Copyright 2011, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Biosecurity and Bioterrorism

Infectious diseases and securitization: WHO's dilemma

In recent weeks, there has been increased speculation of a possible military stand-off in the Taiwan Straits regarding the proposed referendum on the island over Taiwan's membership to the United Nations (UN) as Taiwan and not Republic of China. There have been heightened cross-strait military tensions according to Chinese, Taiwanese and Western sources, both unofficial and official. However, despite these developments, some argue that, although the use of force against Taiwan cannot be ignored, the increase integration of both economies and into the globalized world economy reduces the possibility of an armed conflict. A case in point is the fact that China is Taiwan's largest trade partner and top export destination today. On the other hand, Chinese exports to Taiwan as a percentage of Chinese total exports have increased only modestly. Over the past decade, China has shown restraint in allowing economic relations to remain unscathed even as the political and military threats are revived occasionally.

Fulltext

China Report

The 2008 Referendum: A Test for Cross–Strait Economic Interdependence

Field effect transistor (FET) test devices were fabricated on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films grown by capacitively coupled r.f. glow discharge of silane. From the FET characteristics, the flat-band voltages were estimated as a function of the a-Si:H film thickness. A systematic decrease in the flat-band voltage with thickness was observed both in the dark as well as under illumination. The density of states around the midgap NF was also estimated following the theory put forward by Harm et al. A reduction in NF with film thickness was observed both in dark and illuminated conditions. The results have been explained on the basis of the better homogeneity of thicker films leading to a reduction in defect states and a shift in the Fermi level towards the conduction band. © 1991.