Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my advisor Dr. Kishore Kothapalli for introducing me to research and believing that I could do good research. I also appreciate his patience for bearing me through all the missed meetings and untimely reports. I would also like to thank all the faculty that I worked with and many students including my class-mates, seniors and juniors from whom I have learnt immensely. I would specially like to thank my friends Ankur Handa, Sandeep Saini, Sandeep Kumar, Gaura