CONTENTS: Preface v SECTION - I Water Resources Development and Management 1. Drinking Water Problem in Rural Areas of Gujarat 1 Deepti Mishra, Mohd. Akram Khan, Manish Mudgal, Prabha Padmakaran, Sapana Guru, Savita Dhakad and B. Chakradhar 2. Low Cost Technology to Drain Excess Water in Vertisols 8 K. V. Ramana Rao, Ravi Kishore and Ramadhar Singh 3. Wasteland Inventory and Watershed Area Management Using Remote 16 Sensing and GIS in a Hard Rock Terrain S.N. Mohapatra, Devidayal Sinha and Padmini Pani 4. Assessment of Groundwater Pollution Using Integrated Studies in Industrial Hard Rock Terrain-A Case Study 22 Paras R. Pujari, C. Padmakar, B.A. Prakash, M.J. Nandan, J.P. Shukla, V. V.S. Gurunatha Rao and P.S. Kelkar 5. SWAT-A Decision Support System for Sustainable Watershed Management: A Case Study in Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh in Central India 28 Raghuvanshi Ram, J.P. Shukla, E. Peters, C. Padmakar and R.N. Yadava SECTION - II Low Cost Building Materials and Instant Houses 6. Low Cost Building Materials 36 D.V. Gosavi 7. An Approach for Seismic Resistant Construction of Low Cost Housing in India 41 Amar Sharma and V.K. Shivhare 8. Low Cost Building Materials from Waste Gypsum 48 Mridul Garg, Neeraj Jain and A.K. Minocha 9. Construction on Weaker Soils 55 Kamal Singh, Siddarth Rokade and H.L. Tiwari 10. Improving Durability of Concrete through the Use of Blast Furnace Slag 62 D.K. Jain, J. Prasad and A.K. Ahuja SECTION -III Health and Sanitation 11. Ameliorating Rural Health Using Smokeless Chulha 77 Apoorva Dhupkar 12. Carbon Monoxide Emission and Its Health Impacts 83 Sudhir Nigam, Kamal Singh and Rashmi Nigam SECTION - IV Food Processing and Storage Systems 13. Solar Drying and Mechanical Size Reduction of Raw Mango Slices: A Suitable Enterprise for Amchur 92 Sunita Singh, P.L. Singh, Rashmi Kumari and Ramesh Daundkar 15. Appropriate Technology for Rural Development : NRDC Experience 109 N. K. Bhandari and Kuldeep Singh SEGTION - V Natural Fibers and Geotextile Applications 16. New Dimensions of Pineapple Leaf Fibre-An Agrowaste for Textile Applications 115 S.K. Dey, D. Nag and P.K. Das . 17. Geosynthetics and its Functions 128 S. Rokade, H.L. Tiwari and K. Singh 18. NIRJAFT's Technologies for Rural Development 136 Sanjoy Debnath, A.N. Roy, G. Basu andS.N. Chattopadhyay SECTION - VI Agricultural Machineries and Implements 19. Potential of Commercialization of Women Friendly Improved Farm Tools and Equipments 143 S.P. Singh and Nidhi Agarwal 20. Improving Wear Performance of Steels Commonly Used in the Agricultural Sector 153 Rupa Dasgupta, A.K. Jha and O.P. Modi 21. Techno-Economic Evaluation of a Silk Cocoon Dryer 161 Panna Lal Singh 22. High Rate Composting of Institutional Organic Wastes 169 Ajay S. Kalamdhad, Yatish K. Singh, Muntjeer All, Meena Khwairakpam and A. A. Kazmi 24. Use of Geographic Information System, Remote Sensing and Global Positioning System in the Application of Precise Fertilizer to Maintain Soil Productivity of the Farmers Fields 183 K.N. Singh, Abhishek Rathore, A.K. Tripathi, A. Subba Rao, Salmon Khan and Bharat Singh 25. Sisal-Glass Hybrid Fiber Composites : DMA Study 196 Navin Chand, S.A.R. Hashmi, Ajay Naik, Ruchi Joshi, Janu Sharma and Prabhat Sharma SECTION - VI I Non-Conventional Energy 26. Solar Air Heaters as Renewable Source of Energy for Drying 202 R.K. Goyal 27. First Principles Design of a Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) Biomass Gasifier 210 B. Buragohain, P. Mahanta and V.S. Moholkar 28. Hydro Power Energy-An Overview224 H.L Tiwari, S. Rokade, K. Singh, V. Prasadand V.K. Gahlot SECTION - VIII Other Rural Technologies 29. Upgradation of Unevenness Indicator: A Low Cost Device for Measuring of Roughness of Rural Roads 233 S.D. Sharma 30. CIAE Technologies for Rural Development and Entrepreneurship 243 Dushyant Singh, Avinash Chandra Saxena and H.S. Biswas 31. The Role of Networking in Implementing Technologies in the Rural Sector 254 Rupa Dasgupta, Swati Lahiri, A.K. Jha andM. V.R.L. Murthy SECTION - IX Medicinal and Aromatic Plants 32. Ethno Medicinal, Mythological and Socio-Economical Aspects of Bamboo in Hoshangabad District, Madhya Pradesh 261 AnilKumar, Vikas Shende, N.K. Choubey, J.P. Shukla andP.K. Verma Author Index 269