In the overall scheme of disease prevention, oral health is often overlooked. Oral health plays an important role in an individual's overall health. More than 90 percent of all systemic diseases have oral manifestations. Many diseases can be diagnosed in their early stages through an oral examination. Oral diseases and conditions may have a significant impact on general health; some poor general health conditions also may affect oral health status. The oral cavity is a portal of entry as well as the site of disease for microbial infections that affect general health status. Oral diseases affecting children include dental caries, early childhood caries (baby bottle tooth decay), periodontal diseases, other soft tissue diseases, congenital malformations and oral and facial injuries incurred through sports activities and child abuse. Although these may not be life threatening, yet they cause lot of morbidity, psychological stress and their treatment is expensive. Most oral diseases and injuries can be prevented by the proper and timely use of scientifically based and widely accepted preventive and educational regimens and interventions. Overall, dental and oral health care in India is not in optimal condition. There is, therefore, an urgent need to prevent the rising dental diseases in India.

No abstract

Agribusiness incubators (ABI) catalyze entrepreneurship development by facilitating technology and institutionalized services. The study addresses the performance analysis of enterprises promoted through coconut sector ABIs working in Kerala. Primary and secondary data collected from 30 randomly selected ABI graduated entrepreneurs in business were used to characterize the enterprises. The results indicated that 56 per cent of enterprises joined ABIs at the nascent stage and were able to receive government funding under different subsidy schemes. Majority of enterprises (72%) shared features of micro-enterprises in terms of the number of persons employed (01-10) and annual turnover less than ` 25 lakh. Most of the micro-enterprises (66%) functioned as sole proprietary firms, whereas small enterprises were registered as limited company/partnership firms (20%). Virgin coconut oil (VCO) was the major product in 40 per cent of enterprises followed by coconut chips (20%), coconut chocolates (10%), desiccated coconut (07), neera and tender coconut water-based drinks (07%). Performances of two purposively selected enterprises producing VCO and coconut chips were undertaken using break-even analysis. Production and sales of both VCO and coconut chips were more than the calculated BEP values of 1000 litres and 500 kg respectively. This indicated that both enterprises operated at profitable levels. The findings suggest that the entrepreneurs who completed the business incubation program had greater success in their business irrespective of the business size. This can be attributed to their greater access to technologies and entrepreneurship development programmes under the ABI.

Women entrepreneurs have significant impact on the economic development in global aswell as national context. Capacitating women with entrepreneurial qualities have remainedkey to social transformation especially in developing countries. The paper presents theresults of a study conducted in Kerala during 2020-21 to analyse the determinants ofwomen’s entrepreneurial performance related to agricultural enterprises. Seventy womenentrepreneurs involved in agricultural ventures randomly selected from the 14 districts ofKerala formed the study sample. Analysis of data collected based on a pretested structuredinterview schedule indicated mushroom and value addition enterprises as the most successfulenterprises among women. It was estimated that these enterprises took three and six monthsrespectively and production levels of 1872 kg and 1462 kg each in the order to reach break-even points. Mass media contact and stage of enterprise were the factors which weredelineated as the factors that contributed significantly to the period taken to achieve thebreak-even point by the women led enterprises.

No abstract