Bakul Rao

• Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

The recycling of end-of-life vessels is a complex activity that generates an enormous amount of hazardous waste, including asbestos-containing materials (ACM). Efforts by the Government of India to comply with national and international regulations and improved standard operating procedures are expected to lower the exposure risk of the workforce t...

Government of India has provided Indian Public Health Standards to improve rural health care services and health status, but still rural laboratory is a cause of concern. This study is performed to understand the laboratory facility-level gaps that need to be addressed to improve the public primary health centers (PHCs) present in rural areas. The...

Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme is an initiative by the Government of India, used to assess the current status of soil health which in turn is used to recommend judicious use of chemical fertilizers with a combination of bio-fertilizers and organic manure. A study was undertaken in Palaskhel village in Sangli District, Maharashtra, to understand the...

Background In resource-constrained settings, primary health centers (PHCs) are critical for universal health coverage. Laboratory service is one of its important components. While PHC and its performance are focused, its laboratory service has been neglected in developing countries like India. Aim To determine the role of different level of PHC la...

Copious literature pertaining to the environmental impacts of sewerage systems across the globe exist but a comprehensive cost analysis is lacking in Indian context. The present study aims at determining the life-cycle cost (LCC) of various primary unit components and their relative contribution to the collection phase of conventional Indian sewer...

Background In developing countries such as India, inadequate importance and consideration given to assessment of health care facilities negatively affects progress towards achieving health targets. India has focused on developing Primary Health Centres (PHCs) for rural basic laboratory and curative services. The local decision-makers do not have an...

1. Carrying out life-cycle cost analysis (LCC) for the collection phase Begusarai Sewerage Project 2. Inventory preparation for units within system boundaries 3. Sensitivity Analysis to determine the effects of various parameters on LCC 4. Exploring possibilities of improvements in the collection phase

Land, the nonrenewable resource, is used as a commodity to cater the food, shelter, and other infrastructural demands of urbanization. The severe implications of unmonitored conversions of agricultural lands to non-agricultural activities are seen in peri-urban areas. A local food network has been widely discussed globally, but Indian regional plan...

This paper proposes a total phenolic acid estimation technique for samples with unknown phenolic acid composition and preliminary sample screening in resource-constrained settings. Phenolic acids constitute one of the important secondary metabolites for industry and researchers, but appropriate technique for its estimation by rural entrepreneurs is...

Considerable number of Indian and international studies has focused on the environmental implications of sewage treatment plants. However, not many studies have taken up a comprehensive assessment of the collection phase of the Indian sewage systems. The aim of the present study is to carry out an integrated life-cycle assessment for the collection...

Roads and transportation is one of the most neglected sectors of planning in rural areas. It is a vital connection between villages and other growth hubs for economic purposes. Apart from livelihoods and trade, it directly influences health, education and overall well-being of people. The network of roads in rural areas is typically characterized b...

Healthy lives and well being for all is one of the goals in Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG) that is strongly dependent on a nation's healthcare system. In any modern healthcare system, laboratory diagnostics play a crucial role for effective system's functioning as it helps in evidence based decision-making but the focus on laboratory diag...

The Sustainable development goals 2030 has focused on human health and is dependent on a nation's healthcare system. Medical diagnostic laboratory services (MDLS) plays an important role in the modern healthcare system as it significantly helps in evidence-based decision-making. The MDLS suffers from many issues identified both globally as well as...

Herbal industry is one of the globally and nationally growing industries, but this industry has not been explored adequately in the research domain. This has raised certain problems in the industry effective functioning. This study is focussed on understanding this industry Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats (SWOT). The interactions with e...

The study proposes financial plans incorporated with National Mission on Medicinal Plants (NMMP) Scheme for small-scale herbal industries. The study identifies the role of various parameters like raw material source, processing type and entrepreneur type that can affect the feasibility of the financial plan both for the economically weaker sections...

The nine weeks field stay in a village as a part of TD 609 coursework gives us a wholesome experience of village life which is quintessential to understand the fact that India lives in its villages. Experience is the best teacher and hence the field stay experience is crucial especially for those who have not been exposed to this before. Further it...

Drugs play an important role in improving health of the population. Medicinal plants help in addressing the health issues of a large section of the population - especially the low and middle-income people. However, there are some concerns about the supply, efficacy and safety in using them. This study reviews India's major initiative toward medicin...

An environmental life cycle assessment of 1 km stretch of road in Palghar district, Maharashtra has been carried out. Life Cycle Inventories of bitumen, bitumen emulsion, soil and aggregates have been built for India. Using primary and secondary data from Project Implementation Unit, PMGSY, Thane district, Maharashtra, fuel consumption and emission...

Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) has become an issue of increasing importance around the world with far reaching implications. In India, one of the major reasons for failure in MSWM is identified as lack of financial, infrastructural and manpower resources in Local Self Government Bodies (LSGBs). This results in attempts for adhoc solutions...

Unlimited resource allocation for all types of medical research is not feasible for any nation, funding agency and researcher (decision maker). This study focuses on devel-oping decision making tool/template using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for decision maker for arriving at focused area of research. Gene therapy based lung cancer treatment i...

Context: Diagnostic services have a very important role to play in medical decision-making, which have an impact on the nation’s health status. The understanding of Indian diagnostic services provisioning has certain literature gaps. Aims: This study focused on understanding the functioning of provision of diagnostic services by Indian diagnostic l...

Bricks are one of the major materials used for the construction of buildings. With the booming infrastructure in India; 140 billion bricks were produced in 2001and 250 billion bricks in 2012. The production of bricks is estimated to be growing at a rate of 4% per year. India is the second largest producer of fired clay bricks with more than hundred...

The need for reliable and renewable energy sources is increasing day by day and with it is the revived interest in the biogas technology, especially when addressing rural cooking and lighting energy needs. MNRE, which is the nodal agency for all biogas programmes, has been promoting around 15 biogas models. However, there is no documentation availa...

With an objective of providing all-weather connectivity to all habitations to nearest market centres, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was started by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India in 2000. However, due to the comparison of scales with a highway, there is a neglect of environmental, social and economic impacts ca...

Primary data was collected on the municipal solid waste management practices of the Shahapur Gram Panchayat, an urbanizing census town close to Mumbai, Maharashtra. Quantification and physical characterization of the MSWM was conducted. Using detailed semi-structured interviews with the Gram Panchayat and sanitation workers, a socio-economic discus...

Government have been focusing on medicinal plants processing through National Mission on Medicinal Plants (NMMP), which opens the livelihood opportunity for rural entrepreneurs but there is lack of rurally adaptable extraction processes for processing of medicinal plants. This study tries to develop one such extraction process for phenolic acid ext...

Demand for medicinal plants and their exploitation around the world has prompted international agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and national health departments like AYUSH to focus on their sustainable utilization. However, lack of any decision-making methodology makes it difficult for the rural entrepreneur to setup a business. Thi...

It is hypothesised that the experimental sorption coefficient normalised to the organic carbon fraction of sediment (K(oc)exp) for non-ionic, hydrophobic, organic pollutant depends upon the molecular properties as well as background ionic strength of the aquatic system. The utility of this concept has been demonstrated by incorporating ionic streng...

This study addresses the issues related to decontamination of marine beach sand accidentally contaminated by petroleum products. Sorption and desorption of BTEX (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) onto the sand from Uran Beach, located near the city of Mumbai, India, were studied, and isotherms were determined using the bottle point...