Author(s):

Suvangi Rath, RK Mishra, AK Mishra and KK Sarangi

Abstract: Entropy is understood to mean to consider all the processes that give rise to a change are absolutely irreversible, as evident in natural processes, such as the growing of a plant, as well as technical processes, such as the burning of fossil fuels in combustion engines. The concept of entropy was coined in thermodynamics-the science of energy, its origins dates back to the 19^thcentury when scientists like Sadi Carnot, Rudolph Clausius and Lord Kelvin wanted to understand and enhance the efficiency at which steam engines performed useful mechanical work. But the original notion of entropy has been also applied to different contexts outside thermodynamics. It is relevant in Ecological Economics in a number of ways and on various levels of abstraction. As all processes of change are at bottom, energy processes and transformation of material, the entropy is applied to all of them and it creates a unifying perspective on ecology, environment and economy. On more applied levels, it provides an efficient tool for quantitative analysis of energetic and material transformations. In analyzing the economy-entropy interactions like resource extraction, energy use, waste generation as well as production, the concept of entropy is quite useful. India is the second largest populated country in the world after China and the Indian population too has been tremendously increasing after the 1950’s. India’s poverty rate, illiteracy, rapid decline in mortality rates, high fertility rate and immigration from other foreign nations are some of the main reasons attributed to this rapid growth of its population. Edelstein-Keshet (2009) has discussed about mathematical models like logistic model, Lotka-Volterra model for describing the dynamics of interaction among population in the same environment. Wang (1990) has proposed a logistic model for a single population and Wake, Watt (1996)have analyzed the noise fluctuation in carrying capacity of the population. Zhen <em>et al</em>. (2006)have proposed an improved population model in which the growth rate was taken to be based on power law exponent. Regional sustainability was extensively studied by Ding (2008)and Geng (2011)which emphasised the importance of sustainable growth particularly in agriculture. Yu (2005)has dealt with a time series model to determine the recurrent relationship in rice production and Vinodini <em>et al</em>. (2014)have developed a grey model for prediction of rice productivity and consumption in India. The present study focuses on the data for Indian population and rice production for a wide range of years from 1951 to 2013 to study the Shannon’s Entropy in the Indian context.

Pages: 226-229  |  1236 Views  291 Downloads

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