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As there is a strong inducement to develop new colored inorganic materials to substitute the current industrial pigments that are based on toxic metals hazardous to health and the environment, the purpose of this paper is to invent environmentally benign rare earth-based colorants as viable alternatives to the traditional toxic pigment formulations. Herein, the authors developed a series of rare earth pigments having the general formula Ca0.1 Ln0.9 PO4 ( Ln = Y , Pr , mixed rare earth oxides, RE and Di). After studying all the optical properties, the authors have gone for some coloring application in plastic like PMMA.

The designed pigments were synthesized by traditional solid-state method. Stoichiometric amounts of each reagent were mixed in an agate mortar and the mixtures were calcined at optimized temperature 1000 °C for 4 h in electric furnace followed by auto–cooling. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction diffraction, UV–vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), particle size distribution, color coordinates determination, acid/alkali test, thermo gravimetric (TG) analysis and CIE–1976 L*a*b* color scales. Among the various lanthanide ions and calcium ion as dopant, the pigment composition shows various hues ranges from green to yellow. The designed pigments consist of non–toxic elements and were further found to possess high thermal and chemical stability. The pigments were also found to be appropriate candidates for the coloration of polymer substrates like PMMA.

The present investigations establish that various color hues can be achieved by the incorporation of suitable chromophore metal ions like calcium in various rare earth host lattice by tuning of the band gaps. The coloring mechanism is based on the strong absorption of the pigments in the blue and red regions due to electronic transitions of the micro states of rare earth ion. The pigment composition shows various hues ranges from green to yellow. The coloring mechanism is based on the tuning of band gap by the dopant like calcium in various rare earth host lattice. In addition, this pigment was chemically and thermally stable. Finally, it has applied in plastics like PMMA.

Mechanism of the color appearance using band calculations and on possible applications of rare earth phosphate powders as pigments in plastics and paints have not been explored much. However, the properties of the Ca-doped rare earth phosphate implies that this material has a potential to be applied as a satisfactory pigment for coating or coloring except for glaze, which may cause a side reaction at high temperatures, especially taking into consideration the economics and ecologies. The possibility of Ca2+ incorporation in CePO4 with monazite structure-type has been established.

The designed pigments consist of non-toxic elements and were further found to possess high thermal and chemical stability. The pigments were also found to be appropriate candidates for the coloration of polymer substrates. Thus, the present environmental friendly pigment powders may find potential alternative to the classical toxic inorganic pigments for various applications.

There is a strong incentive to design new colorants based on inorganic materials to substitute for industrial pigments that are based on heavy elements hazardous to health and the environment. However, several industrial yellow pigments such as cadmium yellow (CdS), chrome yellow (PbCrO4) and nickel titanium yellow (TiO2-NiO-Sb2O3) contain the harmful elements (e.g. Cd, Pb, Cr and Sb) for the human body as well as the environment. The designed pigments consist of non-toxic elements and were further found to possess high thermal and chemical stability. The pigments were also found to be appropriate candidates for the coloration of polymer substrates. Thus, the present environmental friendly pigment powders may find potential alternative to the classical toxic inorganic pigments for various applications.

There is a strong incentive to design new colorants based on inorganic materials to substitute for industrial pigments that are based on heavy elements hazardous to health and the environment. However, several industrial yellow pigments such as cadmium yellow (CdS), chrome yellow (PbCrO4) and nickel titanium yellow (TiO2-NiO-Sb2O3) contain the harmful elements (e.g. Cd, Pb, Cr and Sb) for the human body as well as the environment. So, the authors have developed new class of inorganic pigments that are both non-toxic and environmentally unimpeachable, while preserving or even exceeding the optical, thermal and chemical characteristics of the existing commercial pigments. The developed colorants find practical applications in polymer matrix like PMMA.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key reasons of lack of promotion of Buddhist tourist sites in India and compare the awareness of foreign and Indian tourists towards India as a destination for Buddhist sites vis‐à‐vis other countries such as Japan, Thailand and China.

The paper uses an exploratory research design. Data were collected using structured questionnaires administered to Indian and foreign tourists, interviews of officials in the tourism department and through internet sources.

Findings show a low level of awareness among both Indian and foreign tourists about India as a destination for Buddhist sites as compared to countries such as Japan, Thailand and China. Further, the findings to show a low level of engagement in promoting India as a destination for Buddhist tourism on part of tourist officials.

The paper develops insights into better promotion of Buddhist tourist sites in India.

The paper serves as a stepping stone towards future research on overlooked religious sites and their promotion.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content growth of institutional repositories (IR) in South India and analyse the type-wise growth of items available in these IRs and also discuss the traits and trends exposed by them.

With the help of Registry of Open Access Repositories and Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR), 39 repositories were located in south India. From these, Personal websites, the IRs that are currently not working and the repositories used for journal archiving were excluded. A total of 22 operational IRs at 21 institutions were identified for the study. Within a 15 month period, the data were collected from the 22 IRs twice for monitoring content growth.

The content of nearly all IRs have grown over the 15 month period, and the overall content growth rate was 7.82 per cent. Journal articles were the important content type of IRs, while thesis and conference papers were the next common. Moreover, item monographs exhibited the highest growth rate. Other categories, conference proceedings, and conference papers also exhibited a high growth rate. The present study revealed that Indian repositories were actively engaged in data curation activities, depositing a wide variety of items in their respective IRs. Overall, South Indian repositories exhibited a slow growth rate and tended to become inactive. Most South Indian Universities had not constituted the IRs, which led to the dominance of English language material in these IRs.

The study was conducted only in South Indian IRs.

This is the first study in India, attempting to determine the type-wise growth of items in IRs.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the corporate and non-corporate leadership practices in India, the effect of culture on such practices and how these drive management philosophies.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with CEOs from India. A key finding was that Indian leadership shares some aspects of global leadership traits, but factors such as culture and religion are significant influences on their leadership style and philosophy.

The findings are helpful to both practitioners and policy makers seeking to understand the leadership style of Indian CEOs.

Many qualities of a good leader, as defined by Indian CEOs were derived from the Hindu mythology (Bhagvad Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana and the four Vedas).

Caste is the basic structural feature of Hindu society; all social scientists are agreed on this. Since Hinduism is generally recognised to be as much a social system as a religion, its social framework embodying caste rituals has governed the lives of the majority of Indians for hundreds of years. Having deep roots in tradition and enjoying sanction in all religious literature belonging to the pre‐British era, caste has been the dominant principle of social organisation since ancient times. In fact, barring the recent past, Hinduism has always been identified in the minds of most Indians with caste observances. Writes R.C. Zaehner: “…until a century or so ago the acceptance of the caste system was considered by the orthodox to be the sole effective criterion of whether one was or was not a Hindu. In matters of belief it mattered not at all whether one believed in one god or many, or not at all, nor did it much matter on how one interpreted ‘liberation’ or whether one rejected it outright so long as one fulfilled the duties prescribed for one's caste.”