Search results

This paper attempts to analyze how in India the Identity politics of the right-wing dominant group decide the directions of nation building and attempts to construct a supra monolithic Brahmanical culture which is posing a threat to the very spirit of pluralism, democracy guaranteed by the Indian constitution. And also, how identity politics is attempting to design nation building process based on a new principle which is divisive and negates the other. Against this background, this paper analyses how identity construction, identity politics, and nation building take the center stage in Indian politics. It also highlights the salient features of right-wing identity politics and their relevance in nation-building. The article claims that the collective consciousness required for nation-building does not have to be based on a single identity. As a result, ethnic cleansing will result from identities developed out of deep hatred for 'the other' and identities that seek exclusion. Instead, a non-aggressive and inclusive nation-building process based on the common identities of the Indian Subcontinent is recommended.

In this research paper, we have developed a new cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning System using the Linked Servers technology. Our focus is on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), seeking for ways of assisting them enjoy the huge benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning and the internet cloud. Our ERP system can integrate key business processes into a single software solution, and enables seamless flow of information from heterogeneous data sources across all functional areas of the organization and beyond. The new system was developed using the prototyping methodology, considered as best suited for a project of this kind due its advantage of active user involvement throughout the development process. Using the questionnaire as our major data gathering instrument, user requirements were gathered from selected SMEs across the south-east geopolitical region of Nigeria to aid our design. A thorough Requirement Analysis was carried out to ensure proper design of the prototype system, and, using the system development life cycle approach, we carried out design of the architectural frameworks for the cloud based ERP system, to illustrate basic layout of application deployment and the synchronization mechanism for data exchange between vendor servers and the central server. Result obtained from our study shows that the new ERP software solution provides improved operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. We recommend the creating of enabling environment by appropriate government authorities, and a systematic implementation of the findings of this research paper by corporate business owners. Keywords: Internet-cloud, ERP, Vendor servers, SMEs, Data integration.

In the year 1960 alone, a total of 17 African countries gained flag independence, followed in quick succession by many others in the following years, invariably validating the euphoria that the 1960s was the decade of independence for Africa.With a plethora of former colonial possessions of European countries gaining independence, there was palpable anxiety,if not outright expectation, that the new African nation-states would explode, combust and convulse violently in an orgyof inter-state bloodbath on a continental scale. It was apparent that the territorial states that colonial adventure had created and bequeathed to Africans were anything but durable,1 and the boundaries that separated or 'sliced' (apologies to Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka) them into new nation-states were not only artificial and arbitrary but had scant regard for ethnographic realities on the ground, often splitting or sundering the same peoples between several territorial states and corralling diverse and hitherto un-integrated ethnic nations into the same compact. Hence what Professor Anthony Asiwaju has famously referred to as 'partitioned Africans.'

The inherently interdisciplinary and comparative nature of studies of borders of modern states, which are offshoots of the Westphalian system, has led to their broad categorization into 'traditional' and 'modern' border studies. Raimondo Strassoldo, a leading scholar and pioneer of border studies in Europe, would appear to have appropriately captured this distinction when he described the latter vis-a-vis the former in terms of 'a new emphasis on the socio-economic aspects; focused on the integrative rather than conflictual processes; and on problems of border people instead of the nation-states; ... instigated by local authorities and European organisations rather than national governments... [and] more than the traditional ones ... policy-oriented'...

On the basis of themes in current debates on rural development in Latin America, this paper develops an analytical framework for examining rural livelihoods in terms of their sustainability and their implication for rural poverty. Particular attention is paid to the importance of social capital as an asset through which people are able to widen their access to resources and other actors. (DSE/DÜI)