Ranjit Singh

Compact multiwire proportional counters for the detection of fission fragments

Two large area multistep position sensitive (two dimensional) multiwire proportional counters have been developed for experiments involving study of fission dynamics using general purpose scattering chamber facility at IUAC. Both detectors have an active area of 20x10 cm(2) and provide position signals in horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) planes, timing signal for time of flight measurements and energy signal giving the differential energy loss in the active volume. The design features are optimized for the detection of low energy heavy ions at very low gas pressures. Special care was taken in setting up the readout electronics, constant fraction discriminators for position signals in particular, to get optimum position and timing resolutions along with high count rate handling capability of low energy heavy ions. A custom made charge sensitive preamplifier, having lower gain and shorter decay time, has been developed for extracting the differential energy loss signal. The position and time resolutions of the detectors were determined to be 1.1 mm full width at half maximum (FWHM) and 1.7 ns FWHM, respectively. The detector could handle heavy ion count rates exceeding 20 kHz without any breakdown. Time of flight signal in combination with differential energy loss signal gives a clean separation of fission fragments from projectile and target like particles. The timing and position signals of the detectors are used for fission coincidence measurements and subsequent extraction of their mass, angular, and total kinetic energy distributions. This article describes systematic study of these fission counters in terms of efficiency, time resolution, count rate handling capability, position resolution, and the readout electronics. The detector has been operated with both five electrode geometry and four electrode geometry, and a comparison has been made in their performances.

Impact of Financial Awareness on Financial Inclusion of Members of Self Help Groups: A Study in Tripura

The banking sector saw major reforms as a step towards financial inclusion with the nationalization of banks to increase the outreach of state controlled formal financial system among the people particularly the rural and low income people. Inspite of expansion of bank branches a significant number of rural population still remains outside the formal banking system. Self help group bank linkage program started as a pilot project by NABARD in 1992 is another attempt to provide access to low cost financial services to the members of the self help groups. Considering awareness of financial product as a significant factor for taking financial decision leading to use of financial services, this paper explores the relationship between financial awareness and its impact on financial inclusion. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire from 384 members belonging from 78 self help groups registered in the state of Tripura under the flagship program run by National Rural Livelihood Mission. The paper is divided into three parts; in the first part it deals with the identification of level of financial inclusion and the second part identifies the level of financial awareness. The third part explains the impact of financial awareness on the level of financial inclusion. The study reveals that financial awareness is an significant factor affecting financial inclusion of the sample members. The self help group members having high level of financial awareness are more financially included in the formal banking system with the high use of variuos banking and financial products that are available at their disposal. The study also emphasis on conducting of financial literacy camps to enhance the decision making ability of the members giving them oppurtunity to use formal financial services and reduce their dependence on informal source.