In medieval India, Siddhartha is a young Buddhist monk studying in one of the most renowned and ancient universities of the world – Nalanda. He is catapulted to the brink of history by the University senior teachers. They command him to aid the royal investigation of a suspicious death on campus. Mahipala, the king of Magadha, believes the death is actually a murder. Mahipala’s royal Officer in charge of the investigation is none other than siddhartha’s brother Aditya Raj. The brothers are forced into an uneasy alliance. Between them are played off the unforetold forces that wiped off Nalanda from the historical map of India. As the fate of Nalanda is sealed, strange deaths occur in quick succession. Plagued by misery and doubt, Siddhartha unwittingly stumbles upon a secret. It makes him question his faith, his rationality and, finally, his own existence. In the end, Nalanda is razed to the ground. This is fact. However, the narrative is a climactic context of many other elements of alternative history and speculative spirituality. It’s a shocking Disclosure of esoteric practices, involving the divine feminine, never divulged to the masses for reasons unknown. Venturing into historically virgin territory and, in many ways, picking up from where Dan Brown left, Nalanda exposes a reality that is devastating, mind-altering and yet, somehow, liberating.
The author is glad to present to the readers, the book titled “Fuzzy Decision Making Tools to Sieve out the Poor in Nalanda District, Bihar”. The book is all about ‘how to identify and how to aggregate the poor’ in any given socio-economic context or condition, using the concept of Fuzzy Logic and Fuzzy Sets. This book will serve research students in applied mathematics and it will also be helpful to those who are involved in making socio-economic decision to distribute the resources available at their disposal. Why and How this book came into Being Decision making over the issue of ‘how to measure poverty’ has always been the subject of contentious debate for an economist, for a government, for a statistician, for a mathematician, or for any socio-economic plan. Several Decision Methods have been adopted to decide who would be considered poor or who would not. For examples: (i) Absolute and Relative Poverty Line Method, (ii) Uni- dimension poverty Method (iii) Income-Expenditure Method (iv) Head Count Ratio (HCR), (v) Income Gap Ratio (IGR) (vi) Poverty Gap Ratio (PGR), (vii) Advance Measure Method: – Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Measure, Sen – Shorrocks – Thon measure (SST), and Sen Index (viii) Multi-dimensional Poverty Approach :- (i) Counting Multi-dimensional Poverty (ii) Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) , and (iii) Capability Approach. These above mentioned methods were used at the global level. Identification of poor and non-poor in India is done based on Uni-dimensional model that is to say Income-consumption and expenditure model using following experts committee reports: (i) Dandekar and Rath (ii) Y.K. Alagh (iii) Lakdawala (iii) Suresh Tendulkar Committee (iv) C. Rangarajan Committee:- Modified Mixed Reference Period (MMRP), Poverty Line Basket (PLB), and Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011: BPL Identification in 2015. Nevertheless, every state in India is free to set its own standard of method to scale out the poor. The state of Bihar adopted the method of A Score Based Ranking Methodology to identify the poor. In Mathematical Modelling context all the above mentioned methods of making decisions fall under Crisp Decision Approach based on Aristotelian logic and Crisp Sets. In response to this method of decision making approach, fuzzy decision making approach was suggested as a better alternative to the process of poverty measurement method. Andrea Cerioli and Sergio Zani were the first one to apply fuzzy logic to poverty assessment in the year 1990. Later, Chiappero Martinetti and Qizilbash added the intrinsic vagueness of being poor by using so – called membership function for the identification of the poor. As the research continued further some more methods were addressed such as Totally Fuzzy (TF), Totally Fuzzy and Relative (TFR), Integrated Fuzzy Approach (Multidimensional and Longitudinal) to apply to identify and aggregate the poor. Key Concepts and Techniques This book further develops and introduces a new approach suggesting Multi-Criteria Fuzzy Decision-making Tools and Fuzzy Set Theory to capture the extent of poverty of households accommodating both the quantitative and qualitative factors such as Roti (Food), Kapda (Clothing), Makaan (Housing), Kaam (Job), and Samman (Social Status) and their fourteen respective sub-criteria. The fuzzification process is carried out by using Pentagonal Fuzzy Numbers (PFNs) and by introducing Stratified Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (SFAHP). Fuzzy poverty categorization is carried out by introducing Fuzzy Sieve Technique (FST). The judgment and scaling of the criteria and sub-criteria are done by adopting participative decision making method (interview method based on questionnaires). Stratified Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (SFAHP) categorizes the group of the poor into five subgroups such as (i) very poor, (ii) almost very poor (iii) poor, (iv) rather poor and (v) non-poor. Our fuzzy tools and methods are applied to the case study in Nalanda District, Bihar, India. The book also highlights the comparative studies between three models such as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Stratified Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (SFAHP). The final results justify that Stratified Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (SFAHP) gives better results in identifying the Poverty Status. Special Features Computer Algorithmic approach via MATLAB: (Programme for 5 X 5 Matrix) is given to calculate the fuzzy centre value by using Matlab m-file which will minimize the time in carrying out the fuzzification and normalization process to measure poverty status. At the end the author shall ever be grateful to the inquisitive researchers and socio-economic planners for their valuable suggestions for further improvement of this book. DR. RAJ KUMAR St. Xavier’s College of Management and Technology, Patna Digha Ashiyan Road -11. Affliated to AKU, Patna, Bihar, India
The book runs on three themes: the fall of Nalanda monastery, Yetis and the ongoing loss of nature. There are wizards, witches and yaksha (nature spirits). The author has used folklore to bind his story around the fall of Nalanda monastery. Humans have left nature in agony and deep suffering. Yetis will save the world with their magical powers. It is a story of a man who turns himself into a yeti to save nature from its doom. The book depicts how human ignorance engulfed one of the greatest places of learning and the same ignorance is engulfing our planet. Human ignorance is the worst enemy mankind has ever produced. The story illustrates the clash of nature and man. Bidyasagar, the protagonist, could understand the secret tongue of animals. He could hear the conversations among the creatures of jungle. There is a great influence of Siddhartha on Bidyasagar. He becomes an Ayurveda master and a poet who treats Bakhtiyar Khilji of his severe illness. This becomes the cause of envy and reason behind the burning of Nalanda monastery. This is the way the world would burn, due to sheer ignorance.
B.Ed. is considered to be one of the best courses in India for teaching purposes and the Nalanda Open University situated in the state of Bihar known for its excellent quality of education for this course. One needs to clear Common Entrance Test in order to get admissions in B.Ed. Courses. The present study guide named “Nalanda Open University Bihar B.Ed. Common Entrance Test 2020” is designed to provide entire syllabus based on the latest exam pattern. Current Affairs are mentioned right in the beginning of this book to enrich the general awareness of the students. The complete syllabus is divided into chapters under various key sections in this book including General English Comprehension, Hindi Bhasha, Logical and Analytical Reasoning, General Knowledge, Teaching and Learning Environment in Schools in simple language for quick and easy understanding of the concepts of the various topics. This book also consists of Previous Years’ Solved Papers 2019 & 2018and 3 Practice Sets for self-evaluation. Facilitating chapterwise notes on each topic of the syllabus with more than 3000 MCQs for Practice, it is a complete study resource for this upcoming B.Ed. Entrance exam. TABLE OF CONTENT Current Affairs Solved Papers 2019, Solved Papers 2018, General English Comprehension, Hindi Bhasha, Logical and Analytical Reasoning, General Knowledge, Teaching and Learning Environment in Schools, 3 Practice Sets.
Discover the rich history of the renowned ancient University of Nalanda with this comprehensive study. Sankalia provides an in-depth examination of the university's origins, growth, and eventual decline, as well as its lasting impact on Indian education and culture. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Contributed articles presented at the Seminar and Exhibition, Nalanda: Interface of Buddhism and Environment held on Nov. 25th, 2003 at Royal Banquet Hall, Thimphu.
