Kashmir Journal of Social Sciences

Dean School of Social Sciences

University of Kashmir

ISSN: 0975-6220

Rural development in the Indian Himalayan region (IHR) has always been a challenge due to inherent constraints of inhospitable terrain, remoteness, fragility of ecosystem, and economic poverty of people thereby adding complexity in making policies and strategies for development planning. This paper presents a synthesis of 46 major Central Sector Schemes/ Programmes of Govt. of India pertaining to livelihood and rural development, environmental protection and farmers’ welfare those are implemented in the 12 IHR States through various Departments / Agencies. The State Governments also have over three dozen schemes/ programmes and projects for various sectors of rural development and farmers’ welfare encompassing even the recent sectors such as climate change, disaster management, organic farming, biodiversity conservation, solar and bio-energy, protected cultivation, etc. with special emphasis on women participation, weaker sections and BPL families. However, there is still a need to value women's role in policy making processes enabling convergence of Central and State Govt. schemes in development. Also, the potential of S&T needs to be optimally utilized to overcome the development constraints along with understanding the operational, political and bureaucratic infrastructure and provisioning of appropriate institutional and delivery mechanisms to enhance rural income. To address economic poverty of people of the Himalaya, appropriate policies need to be brought out to restore balance between economic interest and ecological imperatives and realize the goal of sustainable development in the ecologically fragile IHR.

This research paper gives a detailed analysis of the genesis and evolution of reservation policies in India, tracing its origin from the British Raj era to current times. It analyses the constitutional provisions and amendments that laid the foundation for reservations for Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Classes in education, employment, and political representation. This paper comprehensively analyses the role of various commissions and committees appointed to advice on reservation policies and the evolving criteria for identifying backwardness. With a specially focussing on the evolution of reservation policies of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, it discusses the constitutional provisions, subsequent orders, and the efforts of the state government through the Reservation Act of 2004 and Reservation Rules of 2005 to provide legal backing for affirmative action measures. The paper also highlights the commissions and committees appointed in Jammu and Kashmir to examine reservation policies, evaluating the challenges in devising objective frameworks for identifying beneficiaries while balancing social justice and administrative efficiency.

This study explores how the INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) MANAK Scheme encourages creativity and scientific curiosity among Jammu and Kashmiri school-children. Through an assessment of student engagement, innovations, and achievements at the district, state, and national levels, this report evaluates the scheme's impact by emphasizing important initiatives and their socioeconomic effects. The study, which focuses on 2021–2022, emphasizes how the program supports scientific temper and meets societal requirements while highlighting how it aligns with the New Education Policy 2020.

This article examines the factors driving the adoption of Open Access (OA) scholarly communication and the persistent challenges that hinder its universal adoption. Using a narrative review methodology, relevant academic literature was retrieved from databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus, and analyzed to explore the evolution of diverse OA publishing models, and role of institutional policies, technological advancements, and researchers’ motivations in promoting OA adoption. Based on the review, three key themes and eleven sub-themes were identified. Findings reveal that OA scholarly communication democratizes access to knowledge by enhancing research visibility and fostering collaboration. However, significant challenges persist, such as the financial burden of Article Processing Charges, the proliferation of predatory journals, and resistance from stakeholder’s dependent on subscription revenues. The review also highlights policy-level interventions, including Plan S and transformative agreements, as effective in addressing some barriers. The article concludes that while OA has immense potential to transform scholarly communication, achieving its full benefits requires overcoming financial, quality, and policy standardization challenges to ensure equitable global access to knowledge.

“Our premise to knowledge is when it is freely open to use and judge by others, in return it cumulates, improves and helps refining the ideas”. The human beings are perhaps at the highest pedestal of universe only because of their immense intellectual potential and high cognitive powers which give them an edge over other creatures in nature. The best of their abilitiesis to transfer systematically their ideas into next generation through research, innovation, scientific experimentation and observation, however the free flow of communication faces some barriers which hinder the effective use of the information being produced in the society. The most significant being the financial barriers in the form of subscription models of scholarly journals and periodicals which makes it difficult to transfer the requisite information. One of the well-crafted out framework emerged in the form of free access to scholarly content, known as open access(OA) which can be possible only by an effective policy at the national level followed by an operative mechanism of funding agencies in the country. India with its huge prospects in the field invests a lot of resources in generating newer research, but at the same time, spends hugely again to get access of the same content produced by its own resources. The median pathway may be the viable option in the form of open access platforms that can make it happen to freely pass-on the useful scholarly information to researchers and scientists for furthering the growth and innovation in the country. The present short study will give an insight about the scenario of open access in the country and the policies of some of well-developed nations regarding open access and will suggest the role of government and the funding agencies in this direction to adopt a standard model of publishing the scholarly content through open access routes and platforms.

This article delves into the phenomenon of predatory publishing that exploits the open-access model wherein authors pay fees for publication. These predatory journals pretend to be legitimate academic publications, but they deceive authors by claiming to have proper publishing practices while actually lacking rigorous peer review and transparency. The lack of an author's ability to assess illegitimate journals or ignorance about predatory publishing practices results in a researcher sending their manuscript to such journals. Resources like Cabell's Blacklist, Think.Check.Submit., DOAJ, COPE, etc., empower researchers to distinguish reputable journals. These tools offer checklists, ethical guidelines, and metrics, helping authors make informed decisions and safeguard their work from predatory practices. This article provides authors with valuable insights into the prevalence of predatory journals, which poses a serious concern for the academic community.

This article delves into the phenomenon of predatory publishing that exploits the open-access model wherein authors pay fees for publication. These predatory journals pretend to be legitimate academic publications, but they deceive authors by claiming to have proper publishing practices while actually lacking rigorous peer review and transparency. The lack of an author's ability to assess illegitimate journals or ignorance about predatory publishing practices results in a researcher sending their manuscript to such journals. Resources like Cabell's Blacklist, Think.Check.Submit., DOAJ, COPE, etc., empower researchers to distinguish reputable journals. These tools offer checklists, ethical guidelines, and metrics, helping authors make informed decisions and safeguard their work from predatory practices. This article provides authors with valuable insights into the prevalence of predatory journals, which poses a serious concern for the academic community.

Election Manifesto is generally considered as a published declaration which exhibits the intentions of the political parties to meet the aspirations and expectations of the voters. Our paper engages with manifestos as a populist tool in the broader canvas of electoral campaigning. Campaigns emphasise on image building, creating narratives and persuading the citizens to introduce discourses around “the elite” and “the people”. In the recent decade, one such discourse is being created around women. As women voters have become a critical demographic, political parties have increasingly centered them in their manifestos through symbolic representation and image-building of the "Nari”. This paper critically assesses women’s representation both “inside” and “outside” manifestos, moving beyond superficial narrative constructions to evaluate substantive policy inclusion. Through a detailed content analysis of the manifestos of three political parties, the study identifies areas where women’s issues are addressed and highlights significant gaps where women still remain marginalized.