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The era of digital capitalism poses conundrums for communication for development and social change scholarship and practice. On one hand, mainstream social media platforms are an increasingly ubiquitous element of the everyday media practices of growing portions of the global population. On the other, the profit-driven architectures can make these hostile spaces for progressive social change dialogues. While a burgeoning literature exists on the uses of social media as part of hashtag-activism and social movements, much less critical consideration has been given to NGOs' and civil society organizations' uses of capitalist-driven social media platforms in their development and social change efforts, and the challenges and compromises they navigate in this, consciously or not. This paper argues that meaningful uses of social media platforms for social change requires cultivating a hacker mindset in order to find tactics to subvert, resist, and appropriate platform logics, combined with an ecological sensibility to understanding media and communication. This paper analyzes how metaphors, specifically of a recipe, can offer a productive, praxis-oriented framework for fostering these sensibilities. The paper draws on insights from workshops with IT for Change, a civil society organization in India, which is both a leader in critiquing the political and economic power of Big Tech especially in the Global South, and beginning to use Instagram for its work on adolescent empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper examines the transnational and translocal experiences of the Rohingya in India, a stateless, refugee community forcibly displaced from Myanmar, onward migrants from Bangladesh, who currently occupy a legally precarious space in India. Drawing on approximately 90 interviews conducted with refugees, community leaders and NGOs across three Indian cities, along with informal group discussions and field notes, this paper makes two arguments that shed light on the complex, multi‐factorial ways in which networks are rebuilt in displacement as well as the emerging characteristics of Rohingya onward migration in Asia. First, that early generations of Rohingya in India leveraged translocal network building spaces and encounters to rebuild their networks with others in the community and create translocal networks of care and support with local civil society actors, cementing the notion of a ‘Rohingya refugee community’ in India. Second, that the gradual internationalisation of the Rohingya crisis as well as the transnationalisation of the Rohingya diaspora in the last decade through multiple waves of displacement, onward migration and resettlement schemes has prompted a shift towards multi‐sited transnationalism, particularly reflected in the emergence of multi‐sited transnational families, digital transnational spaces among younger refugees and extended diasporic networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid the rapid advancement of digital technology in India, there is a growing concern regarding data protection and digital privacy. The recent DPDP Act 2023 also reflects the significant emphasis on a robust privacy practice. This paper examines the effectiveness of consent, a crucial principle and a subject of many debates in data privacy regimes. Despite being a cornerstone of privacy regimes globally, the consent-based approach has significant limitations. For instance, its binary character allows for a yes or no response and its inability to guarantee data subjects to make an informed choice. The study is set against the prominent data breaches and the Indian Government’s effort to strengthen data protection measures. The study also examines the theoretical and legal aspects of consent by analysing the fundamental ideas that form the basis of the DPDP Act, 2023, protecting the consent framework. It questions whether the current form of the Act aligns with the landmark Privacy Judgement. It concludes by exploring alternative and more adaptable mechanisms for implementing informational privacy that might effectively address the specific issues in the Indian context while taking inspiration from other jurisdictions like the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-demand work applications (ODWAs), a type of digital platforms (DPs), are technology-enabled intermediaries for gig workers. In this paper, we study these platforms and their impact on women belonging to the low socio-economic section in a developing economy. These women act as primary unpaid workers while being expected to make an economic contribution. Hence, they suffer from time scarcity where they need to find mechanisms to generate economic success from the limited time they have, in a largely informal economy. We employed the theoretical lens of affordances to delineate the affordances that are provided by the various features of ODWAs and their impact on life satisfaction of women. We conducted a mixed method study using interviews of 20 female gig workers, supplemented by a survey of 927 workers on one of the largest ODWAs in India. Our analysis points to the sense of identity and individuality that these platforms provide as well as lowering the market boundaries for greater inclusion. Our research is significant from both, the information systems and inclusion research perspectives, as it contributes to the theoretical understanding of the impact of DPs on breaking societal structures and providing avenues to marginalised sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented growth of 'Artificial Intelligence' (hereinafter referred to as AI) has brought immense benefits but at the same time has posed complex challenges that has impacted users' lives, including privacy and data security, particularly, children who are vulnerable to these problems. This paper examines privacy of children in the era of AI and the legal framework's adequacy in protecting children's privacy, focusing on India, the world's most populous nation in 2024,1 with over 833.7 million² internet users, accounting for more than half of its population. With the advent of AI, unprecedented accumulation, processing, and analysis of massive datasets has become possible by algorithms applying predictive analytics on discrete datasets. Nevertheless, AI's pattern recognition ability has blurred privacy boundaries which has enabled it to feed on sensitive information such as that concerning health, emotions, interests, and behaviours. Due to innate curiosity and digital immersion, children are more susceptible to privacy violations in this 'AI-driven' digital era. Since children possess a limited understanding of privacy risks, they are more likely to share information online. Consequently, there is an urgent need to address the issue concerning the increased digital footprint of children and the associated conflict between the 'age of consent' and the 'age of contractual capacity' for the purpose of fixing the 'digital age' of the child. Such a requirement can be potentially addressed through legislative intervention by enacting a comprehensive piece of legislation to regulate the ubiquitous collection of data. Facial recognition, predictive analytics, autonomous systems, and other AI applications, could be the reason for the apprehensions that systemic discrimination could occur and governance is also at stake that points out the need for transparency and accountability. While AI brings with itself exponential growth, there is also a need to underscore the importance of protecting children's right to privacy, given their vulnerability. A comprehensive legislative framework, responsible corporate policies, and increased awareness can help strike a balance, allowing children to harness AI's benefits while safeguarding their fundamental rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TikTok, one of the most downloaded apps in the world, has been banned in India since June 2020, following military clashes on the India-China border. This article focuses on government narratives of the TikTok ban in the Indian media and situates the issue within the broader geopolitical framework of deteriorating Sino-Indian relations and attempts for digital sovereignty. At a time of strong nationalist discourses dominating the political and social communication in India, it is perhaps unsurprising that the narratives have been seen outside India as protectionism. However, this paper argues that the digital sovereignty in the Indian context is not exclusionary but aims to create a robust digital infrastructure that is critical for economic development and self-reliance. Highlighting the lessons from India, this paper concludes the following: (i) digital sovereignty is a form of discourse which does not imply any specific policy, (ii) digital sovereignty relates to user control over their data, however, the role and limits of the State is not clearly defined and (iii) digital platforms are highly vulnerable to changing geopolitics in which their existence is not determined by user-platform interactions but by international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the closure of educational institutions and forced students to complete nearly two years of schooling online, impacting their physical and emotional development tremendously. This exploratory study investigates the wide-ranging impact of online education on Indian students during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses the challenges exacerbated by disparities in access to digital devices and reliable internet service. The paper also focuses on the physical and mental health issues that arose in student cohorts as a result of the abrupt shift to online learning, and investigates the relationship between students' socioeconomic status and the nature and frequency of health issues experienced by them. Methods: A total of 832 respondents completed a 40-item survey that was administered online and through interviews. The paper analysed the impact of access to digital resources and teachers' training in information and communication technology on the perception of the quality of education provided by the institutions. We further analysed the impact of the adoption of online educational platforms on students' mental and physical health. Results: The study found a positive relationship between the number of hours spent online, and the physical and mental health issues experienced by students. Participants reported an overall higher perception of stress and anxiety, loss of concentration, and dissatisfaction with the quality of education. Our data suggest that COVID-19 has exacerbated the digital divide. Discussion: Urgent investments are needed to provide universal access to reliable internet services, and to develop a pedagogy that supports an agile and adaptable educational system, capable of providing effective learning and evaluation, while supporting students' physical and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization has brought a revolutionary change in every walk of human life, giving the average person many digital options for payment and settlement. Information communication technology enabled the transformation of our banking system from paper to virtual mode, facilitating speedy and secure fund transfers. Post-demonetization (8 November 2016), the cashless economy got a boost, and about 98% of transactions have become cashless. A cashless policy empowers industries, leading to an increase in employment opportunities and reducing cash-oriented fraud. The Reserve Bank of India- Digital Payments Index was recorded at 349.30 as of March 2022 against 304.06 for September 2021, indicating significant growth, rapid adoption and deepening of digital payment across the nation. During the financial year 2021–22, digital transactions surged to 7195 crores, with the value increasing to Rs 17.44 billion. There is a strong need to make policies for protection against cyberattacks, encourage digital literacy, and ensure adequate rural penetration of internet connectivity and banking infrastructure, with awareness among rural masses to strengthen organized indigenous markets. This article provides an insight into the cashless economy and the impact of digital innovation on India’s financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public sphere has moved online, and with it, several versions of "protests" and "movements" too. We are living through a moment in history where the "due process" of law and justice may or may not follow the public demonstration of either injustice or democratic dissent. A "public" protestation in such a situation has very often meant "on social media", giving even more credence to the idea that a successful protest is often one that "trends". This paper will address some of these issues in the context of India, where the spread of internet and social media in the past several years has been as quick as it has been widespread. Using two examples – that of the Indian #MeToo movement and the Anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh – this paper attempts to trace the complexities of online movements in India that have grown online and spread offline. The many inequalities of access, class, caste, language, and internet literacy that exist in India provide a background for these movements and the idea of seeking justice. The complexity of opaque algorithms that curate social media feeds makes the endeavour of seeking for and finding various forms of justice or solidarity – especially through the internet – even more complicated. The two movements – one that was born online and the other that was entirely offline; both operationalised the internet and particularly social media in ways that gave them more visibility and popularity. Both movements were led by women, but one was mostly a movement of elites, while the other was led by those usually considered outside the mainstream. Using insights from Science Technology and Society (STS), this research effort hopes that reading these two cases together will be able to reveal some of the intricacies of the tricky nature of online justice seeking and the complex Indian digital space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, India has led the drive for financial inclusion of poor rural women to facilitate attainment of development objectives like poverty alleviation and women's empowerment. More recently, it has promoted digital financial inclusion to further its fight against poverty and gender inequality and support the attainment of UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this paper we take stock of how India's digital financial revolution has affected financial transactions and services with a focus on gender inclusivity for the attainment of the SDGs. We propose a framework to understand the gender inclusivity of digital financial inclusion initiatives that connects the macro developments in the sector with the micro-level experiences of improving women's access and use of these services. We draw on India's nationwide developments and present a case study of an initiative that specifically promotes gender inclusive finance. Our findings suggest that India has made great advances in promoting digital financial inclusion but at the same time, the country has struggled to achieve gender parity even within specific finance-focused programmes designed to improve gender inclusivity. We reflect on policy implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of school counsellors has become complex with the increasing technological advances and adolescents' dependency on them. There is a surprising lack of study in the Indian context, aimed at school counsellor's challenges in dealing with adolescents' digital use. This paper provides better understanding of the challenges of school counsellors involving adolescents' digital use in Indian schools. Three significant themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) negative aspects of digital use among Indian adolescents, (b) the need to effectively teach how to navigate the digital world and (c) the challenge of integrating technology with traditional counselling approaches to educate adolescents about their digital use. Furthermore, this paper presents implications for school counselling practice and research within Indian context. Practitioner points: School counsellors address challenging situations involving adolescents' use of digital media.School counsellors play a crucial role in teaching and modelling how to navigate the digital world.Little research has been conducted in the Indian context; hence this study is a good step forward to understand and acknowledge the challenges of school counsellors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergent technology has been increasingly incorporated with the tourism industry. In the digital world, social media plays an important role in identifying the most visited tourist places. More than 80% of people commonly used the social media platform called 'Twitter'. By using tweet reviews, tourists around the world know about the feelings, suggestions and opinions of most visited tourist places in the selected region. This paper recommends an approach for the development of trip planning in South India based on tourist's preferences. For the research, we use Twitter Application Programming Interface to collect information about the most visited tourist places in South India by using tweets reviews and store it as South India Tourism Tweet reviews database. This paper mainly focuses on analyzing Twitter reviews, which are very helpful to locate the most visited tourist place. In the tweets where reviews are mostly unstructured and heterogeneous, which are then classified into positive tweets, negative tweets and neutral tweets by using the preprocessing technique and machine learning algorithm called support vector machine. Performance measures are calculated by using the classification results. Finally, the results are plotted by using the classification results and performance measures as a wordcloud. This can be very useful for tourists to select the most visited tourist locations. The proposed system can satisfy individual tourist needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purchasing and selling goods and services, as well as sending money or data, over an electronic network--most commonly the Internet--is known as e-commerce or electronic commerce (EC). The digital revolution has opened access to a wide range of items at low prices, and India has played an important role in this change. The E-Commerce market in India has been steadily growing in recent years. The Indian e-commerce business has experienced a growth unlike any other, thanks to rising digital literacy and mobile usage across the country. Electronic commerce has altered the structure and climate of business around the world. E-commerce is gaining traction as a viable alternative to traditional commerce due to its flexibility and benefits for companies and customers. The world's online population is a potential market for an E-commerce merchant. It establishes a virtual market environment that is devoid of geographical boundaries. The expansion of e-commerce has impacted businesses by providing a virtual area for selling things online and creating new revenue avenues. It has also resulted in the establishment of many job opportunities and simplified the lives of modern customers. This paper deals with the legal framework for E-commerce and various legal issues. Even after being governed by multiple existing laws and regulations, they need to be revised to deal with issues related to the growing e-commerce use in India. In 2000, the Indian government passed the Information and Technology Act, recognizing digital records, digital signatures, and other electronic transactions as lawful. This paper outlines the rules governing E-commerce in India, the shortcomings of current laws, and some recommendations for the need for a new law regulating the E-commerce industries and their transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Following a crucial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the coronavirus has affected every academic institution, particularly libraries and information centres. To address this unprecedented scenario, libraries' staff has decided to provide their services via digital access while staying close to the users. To predict users' intention to use digital libraries after COVID-19, the authors combined the technology acceptance model (TAM), the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and perceived risk. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected via a paper-based questionnaire using a convenient sampling method which was distributed at two major libraries; Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University and Dr Zakir Husain Library, Jamia Millia Islamia in India. Findings: Empirical findings suggested that all the proposed hypotheses were supported, and the integrated model had strong explanation power as the proposed model explained a 74.5% variance in users' intention to use digital libraries after COVID-19. Research limitations/implications: This study offers substantial information to librarians, digital libraries, universities, institutes and other stakeholders and sheds light on the potential for a developing nation to transition to an economy with a strong digital infrastructure. The scope of the study is constrained to the users in India only, hence, leading to the possibility that it may be challenging to generalize the findings. Originality/value: According to the best of the authors' knowledge, it is one of the few studies to predict users' intentions for using digital libraries after COVID-19 by applying the integrated model of TPB and TAM in an emerging economy. It helped understand the users' attitudes towards using the digital services and resources available at the respective libraries. It also contributed considerably to the argument that users have grown accustomed to harnessing digital libraries during the post-COVID-19 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the effects of biometric and digital technologies on social protection for the poor in India? Drawing on ethnographic research from rural Tamil Nadu, this paper presents evidence of how new technologies are experienced by beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System (PDS), and analyses the impacts of technology innovations on transparency, exclusion and mediation. The authors focus on the implementation of 'smartcards,' new digitised and Aadhaar-enabled ration cards, introduced in ration shops across Tamil Nadu in 2017. They first document how digitised smartcards and mobile text messages transform transparency for beneficiaries by introducing new opacities and information gaps. They then demonstrate how a lack of transparency (re)produces forms of exclusion that remain a challenge under the automated PDS. Finally, the paper highlights how novel forms of kin and non-kin mediation play a mitigating role in accessing PDS, and constitute a vital part of the infrastructure underpinning social welfare delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines how open data can be used to generate meaningful insights into the cultural, historical, and geographical features of India and can be the best tool for digital humanities researchers, allowing them to access large datasets about the country's diverse landscape and interpret the data in meaningful and creative ways. An attempt is made to explore the potential of open data in digital humanities projects and discuss the need to create a comprehensive digital humanities platform that caters to the needs of different stakeholders as well as the advantages and challenges of open data and government initiatives in digital humanities. Additionally, the implications of open data and government initiatives in terms of improving access to digital humanities resources, increasing collaboration, and enhancing the quality of digital humanities projects and their contribution to creating a vibrant digital humanities community in India. The paper concludes that open data can be a powerful tool for digital humanities researchers in India, allowing them to access large datasets about the country's diverse landscape and to interpret the data in meaningful and creative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital humanities is a result of the convergence of digital technology with social sciences and humanities. It is one of the key research areas around the world by the library and information science profession, and in cognate areas such as art and archeology. Focus groups, digital humanities centres are created for intensive researches which are located mainly in libraries as their core programmes. The library techniques and methods such as knowledge organisation, knowledge management, search and retrieval design, education, and emerging areas such as metadata, semantic mapping, ontology, thesaurus construction, digital curation, discovery services, find application in digital humanities. A new area of study, historical informatics complements the digital humanities. India has vast potential application of digital humanities with its diverse culture, customs and languages and so on. India is reckoned as one of the advanced countries in the IT sector, hence recognising the socio-cultural legacy and diverse historical background, it is viewed that digital humanities has many opportunities and applications for LIS professionals in India to contribute substantially. This paper brings together the concepts, tools, and applications of digital humanities and proposes a course of study in LIS curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries play a crucial and multi-faceted role in the implementation of the New Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 in higher education in India. They function as hubs of knowledge and are instrumental in supporting the educational goals outlined in the NEP. This article examines the intricate and significant part that libraries play in the effective execution of the NEP, specifically within the context of NEP 2020. It discusses how libraries can promote access to diverse knowledge resources, encourage research, and foster critical thinking skills among students. By utilizing the potential of libraries as centers of learning, higher education institutions can establish a more inclusive and just learning environment according to the NEP's vision. The primary focus of this study is to comprehensively elaborate on the multi-faceted involvement of libraries, including the active promotion of digital literacy, cultivation of research efforts and innovative initiatives, and facilitation of an all-encompassing and impartial approach to acquiring information for all segments of society. The article notes that libraries can contribute to the promotion of digital literacy, which is a critical aspect of the NEP. As the use of digital technologies in education increases, libraries play a vital role in providing access to a wide range of digital resources, such as ebooks, online databases, and various digital learning materials. They can provide instructional guidance and assistance to both students and faculty members on the effective use of digital tools and platforms, leading to a significant improvement in their digital literacy skills. Libraries also offer access to a vast array of scholarly resources, including academic journals, research papers, and books. This accessibility empowers students and faculty members to engage in significant research endeavors. They also provide guidance and direction for conducting literature reviews, accessing relevant research databases, and keeping up with the latest developments in various disciplines. Therefore, libraries serve as collaborative spaces for interdisciplinary research and innovation, facilitating knowledge sharing and networking among students and faculty members, which is essential for NEP 2020. This research emphasizes the expected academic roles of libraries in enhancing all educational programs and proposes specific strategies to improve their functions. Previous literature is combined with qualitative research data from semi-structured interviews with 125 faculties, including Professors, Associate Professors, and working librarians from four universities associated with higher education institutions. Questionnaires and interview tools were used to explore the relevant data collection instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluency Assessment and Benchmarking for Literacy in Education (FABLe) is the first mobile application being developed for the assessment of foundational literacy skills in India. FABLe passages are currently available in English for Grades 2, 3 and 4, with plans to expand to other Indian languages. FABLe is designed to administer curriculum-based measures for reading (R-CBMs) that have been validated in the Indian context. This paper describes the preliminary benchmarking procedures being undertaken for the Indian student population and how FABLe screens for students at-risk for reading difficulties. Student performance data based on initial FABLe results are compared with international benchmarks and teacher perception data. Overall, FABLe scores are lower than international benchmarks. FABLe was able to accurately identify students needing additional support, with the majority of students identified at-risk falling below the 19th percentile in FABLe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The recent COVID-19 pandemic like situation has killed a large numbers of people and caused havoc across the world. With the aim of providing the COVID-19 related updated information about facilities, availability, utilization of COVID-19 related resources like vaccines, hospitals, beds, oxygen to the people and preventing its surge, many websites were developed for health guidance to the general masses. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to investigate the accessibility and usability of websites providing COVID-19 information in India. METHODS: This study evaluates the 38 websites providing COVID-19 information in India using automated tools. RESULTS: It was found that digital healthcare information is far from accessibility conformance and none of the websites conformed to web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 completely. The website adhered to understandability with average errors of 2.8 while less compliant to perceivability with average errors of 30.5. It was also found that most of the websites were mobile friendly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and statement of the problem: As the majority of the population in India is still using conventional banking services, it is imperative to assess the determinants of digital banking adoption. This paper analyses the factors affecting the adoption of digital banking services in India using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Research methodology and data: This study is based on the World Bank’s Global Findex Survey 2017 data, covering 3000 respondents from India. The chi-square test, Spearman rank correlation, and multiple hierarchal regression model have been used to analyse the data and test the research hypotheses. The association between demographic characteristics and the adoption of digital banking has been analysed using the chi-square test. Further, Spearman rank correlation has been used to assess the direction of the relationship between the adoption of digital banking services and both the components of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Finally, multiple hierarchal regression has been used to estimate perceived usefulness and ease in using digital banking services. Research findings: The penetration of internet and mobile has induced the adoption of digital banking systems in India. Still, only 35 percent respondents have reported usage of digital banking services in the country. The analysis shows a significant association between demographic characteristics and adoption of digital baking services. Further, the correlation analysis indicates a positive and significant relationship between the adoption of digital banking services and components of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Perceived usefulness and perceived ease in using banking services show a positive and significant impact on the adoption of digital banking services, with controlling effect of demographic characteristics of the respondents. Policy implications: Recently, the government has provided a new direction to the banking sector to establish Digital Banking Units (DBUs) for delivering holistic digital solutions to its customers. As India is rapidly and aggressively moving towards the digitization of banking services, this study provides timely feedback based on the perception of the adult population for effective targeting and positioning of digital banking efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading stories to children when they are young is the most effective way to keep them creatively engaged. Children in multilingual countries require free access to story repositories for leisure reading. In India, a country with hundreds of mother tongues, books are largely published in English and Hindi, owing to market economics. Various studies have shown that learning and reading become more important in one's mother tongue, and that when a child reads in two or more languages during early years, gains a deeper understanding of language and its effective use. In this paper, the researchers have tried to discover; to what extent Storyweaver (SW) helps fill the gap between different types of reading requirements and availability of resources in their native language? This paper explores the possibilities for more visibility for educators, parents, authors, publishers, illustrators and translators to showcase their capabilities across the global platform especially in under resourced areas. The paper will also explore if the educators can customize the resources of SW according to their individual requirements. This paper will try to determine whether SW can serve different leveled readers with appropriate resources. This paper will also explore the usage and popularity of this digital repository in context to literacy promotion and act as a savior for vanishing regional languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies in the manufacturing sector, providing a framework tailored for adoption in India, a rapidly advancing digital economy. The current literature does not go into detail on industry 4.0 technology in the context of agile manufacturing. Addressing this critical gap in the literature, we identify 15 criteria across six categories, leveraging the entropy method to compute their weights. We prioritize Industry 4.0 technologies in the context of agile manufacturing using a comprehensive analysis that employs the TOPSIS and Fuzzy DEMATEL methodologies. Results indicate that cybersecurity, Cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are the most commonly used technologies in agile manufacturing. The fuzzy DEMATEL-based framework identifies cybersecurity, Big data, Cloud, simulation, augmented reality, and IoT as 'cause' technologies, while additive manufacturing, robotics, mobile devices, and systems integration are identified as 'effect' technologies. The paper proposes practical strategies for managers in India to facilitate the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, thereby enhancing firms' agility in the digital age. By highlighting the specific technologies critical to agile manufacturing, our study not only addresses a notable gap in the literature but also provides a roadmap for their practical implementation, empowering businesses to thrive in an increasingly digitalized landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital identity platforms are a recent e-governance innovation for improving social assistance programming in the development context, the most well-known of which is India's Aadhaar. While a significant number of studies have accumulated on Aadhaar, so far under-researched is the importance of local government practices and processes in shaping usage of the platform to support social assistance programming. In this paper we theorize how local government intermediation on digital identity platforms can improve social assistance programming through a case study of the Aadhaar-enabled Fertilizer Distribution System (AeFDS) in Andhra Pradesh. Our findings show how the relevance of the platform for low-income farmers depends crucially on the proactive adaptation of the technology by key local government intermediaries. From a policy perspective, this result emphasizes the importance of supporting efforts to acknowledge the role of responsive local government agencies in ensuring that centralized digital identity platforms remain relevant for implementing social assistance programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to information is the hallmark of democracy. The government of India is trying its best to provide free and timely information to all citizens. For bringing effectiveness and efficiency in the governance, an electronic mode of governing has been adopted. This paper endeavors to relate the digital transformation of Bharat and various information needs of citizens. The article also highlights how public libraries can help in achieving the goals of digital Bharat and end with the discussion that the government should frame the proper policy for the provision of e-government services in public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many of the ex‐colonies of European empires, biometric technology systems are being built under an ethos of welfare and financial service delivery. One case in this broader trend of postcolonial governance is India's Aadhaar and India Stack. This paper uses this case to explore how the in‐sourcing of technology into means of governing, behind a front of participatory "good governance," is contributing to the historical trajectory of citizenship regimes in India. Through claims of reducing financial "leakages," Aadhaar, a biometric identification database consisting of fingerprint, iris scan, and photograph, has become compulsory for accessing welfare in India. The Indian government makes a case for Aadhaar using a propaganda discourse of its success, based on weak evidence. The India Stack, a set of cloud‐based application programming interfaces (APIs) built on top of the Aadhaar database, offers a digital infrastructure for private companies to verify identities using Aadhaar data and to offer other "services" including "financial services." The ability to access data, paired with a "revolving door" of individuals between state and corporations, points to an ulterior goal of both Aadhaar and the India Stack: creating winners in the corporate and financial technology sectors. The Indian corporate‐state run through a "governtrepreneurism" uses Aadhaar and the India Stack as new digital technologies of governmentality to transform populations into subjects or customers. This paper uses the case of Aadhaar, a biometric identification database consisting of fingerprint, iris scan, and photograph, and the India Stack, a set of cloud‐based application programming interfaces (APIs) built on top of the Aadhaar database, to explore how the in‐sourcing of technology into means of governing is contributing to the historical trajectory of citizenship regimes in India. It argues that Aadhaar and the India Stack manifest as new technologies of governmentality, pushing populations further into a status of subjects or customers of the Indian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper points to an underexplored relationship of reinforcement between processes of quantification and digitisation in the construction of mental health as amenable to technological intervention, in India. Increasingly, technology is used to collect mental health data, to diagnose mental health problems, and as a route of mental health intervention and clinical management. At the same time, mental health has become recognised as a new public health priority in India, and within national and global public health agendas. We explore two sites of the technological problematisation of mental health in India: a large-scale survey calculating prevalence, and a smartphone app to manage stress. We show how digital technology is deployed both to frame a 'need' for, and to implement, mental health interventions. We then trace the epistemologies and colonial histories of 'psy' technologies, which question assumptions of digital empowerment and of top-down 'western' imposition. Our findings show that in India such technologies work both to discipline and liberate users. The paper aims to encourage global debate inclusive of those positioned inside and outside of the 'black box' of mental health technology and data production, and to contribute to shaping a future research agenda that analyses quantification and digitisation as key drivers in global advocacy to make mental health count. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, we have seen a rise in digital technology. In response to the tempestuous nature of technology and its manifold "threats", the State has adopted fresh armoury. It has inducted mass surveillance programmes, which collect information on every citizen. In India, these measures were adopted in 2007. India's bulk phone metadata collection programme, equivalent to the National Security Agency is called the Central Monitoring System. Additionally, India has created the Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network System, a nation-wide reposity of criminal data. This paper delves into a constitutional analysis of the validity of these programmes by identifying the key constitutional concerns and reviewing whether these programmes satisfy the test of proportionality. Finally, this paper critiques the ramifications of these measures on democracy. It argues that these measures stifle the exchange of information in the public sphere and reduce public space for reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 75 years of our Independence from the British, India has experimented with a variety of publishing models. These have been effective and usually worked as a response to the environment. This article documents the variety of choices that exist in the Indian languages for readers using new digital technology. For India, in particular, it has been the standardization of Unicode that helped transform communication in the languages apart from English. This paper outlines some of those innovations in an ever-changing digital publishing landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people's lives are inextricably tied in with the digital, whether it is for education, engagement, leisure, or work. Studies from the Global North have examined children and social media from several perspectives, with discourse now veering towards a rights-based approach to foreground young people's voices in a digital and social media world, something that is missing in countries like India. This paper drew on deep interactions with young people from a large Indian city to gain preliminary insights into social media practices and modes of engagement with particular reference to management of access, privacy, safety, and negotiating challenges or problem solving. Our study suggests that conversations about digital platforms, particularly social media spaces, in relation to children's everyday life practices need to begin early, at the point when children begin interacting with these technologies. Critical digital literacy must recognize the agency of young people, their naturalized interactions with the digital world, as well as the complexities of family and school life that moderate such interactions. These contextual nuances become significant when framing regulatory policies, parental advisories and critical digital literacy and media education programs. This article adds to the slowly growing literature from the Global South that enhances and diversifies our understanding of how the 'born digital' generation lives with/in social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catfishing is a peculiar digital phenomenon that involves a relationship using a fictional online persona. What distinguishes catfishing from other forms of digital production that deploy 'misleading' information or impersonation is that although this phenomenon might include such strategies, it is often employed for romantic scams. This paper looks at the alternative forms of intimacy afforded by digital platforms with their particular set of tools, especially in the context of digital cultures in India. By using catfishing as a lens to read intimacy in the digital, this study looks at unexpected possibilities of the digital as a mediatized space that in turn generates new types of relationalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital revolution in India has played a significant role transforming traditional organizations through adoption of mobile commerce (m-commerce) and transforming the way they do business. For the successful implementation of m-commerce, a thorough understanding of the stakeholder perspectives is always important. Hence, to summarize the issues and perspectives of the women fish vendors (WFVs) and to study the effect of crucial parameters on the implementation success of m-commerce a system dynamics (SD) approach was used. SD methodology is used to develop a simulation model to understand the m-commerce adoption rate amongst WFVs considering multiple scenarios. The research findings reveal that, word of mouth (WOM) and user experience plays a major role towards the adoption of m-commerce. However, the WFVs were sceptical about the capabilities of m-commerce and weren't well equipped with infrastructure. This approach will enable the academicians and social entrepreneurs to formulate strategies to empower WFVs by using technology. Also, it opens a new area of simulation-based policy modelling in the fisheries retail sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The push for digital technologies during the Covid-19 pandemic has put a question mark on the relationship between the state and society in India. In particular, it has highlighted the gap between the lofty promises of digital welfare by political leaders and businesses, and the widespread discontent with digitalization as evident on the ground. In this paper, I take this gap as a starting point to conceptualize the nature of politics in the data state, drawing on Polanyian themes to understand how the contentions are gradually "embedding" the digital economy in society. Tracing the arc of the interactions between domestic ideas, interests and institutions alongside the development of digital capitalism, I also show that caught in these entanglements, digital economy can no longer remain a one-way street for data "extraction". More specifically, I argue that at the end of its first decade of since the emergence of surveillance capitalism in 2010s, politics has ensured that it confronts ground level resistance that revolves around themes of inclusion, welfare and pluralism rather than the liberal conceptions of privacy and individual consent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fisheries and aquaculture have emerged as a promising food production sector at the global level as well as regional levels. Fish and fish products are produced in one region and then are traded across various parts of the world. The whole sector is dependent on chains of workers engaged at landing centres, breeding units, processing units, and the trade and export chains. When the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown hit the country, it affected the whole sector and caused a huge decline in the production and trade of fishing products. This article aims to have a glimpse into the aquaculture sector and evaluate the impact of the pandemic on this sector in India. This valuable information can be of great importance to government and aquatic food suppliers so that they can evolve their strategies to withstand ongoing and future pandemics. It also helps them in framing regional and sectorial adjustments to transform investment plans, match market demands, improve monitoring strategies and get prepared for future needs. • The purpose of this article is to have a glimpse into the aquaculture sector and evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this sector in India. • This valuable information can be of great importance to the government and aquatic food suppliers so that they can evolve their strategies to withstand ongoing and future pandemics. • It also helps them frame regional and sectorial adjustments to transform investment plans, match market demands, improve monitoring strategies and prepare for future needs. • Some of the major challenges the entire fishing community faced during the COVID-19 lockdown are (i)difficulty in hiring truck drivers for transport of cargo. • (ii) Delayed seaweed seed material transportation. • (iii) Total shutdown of shrimp processing unit, forced engagement of minimal labour in shrimp feed, medicine and probiotics industries. • and (iv) Negative impacts on the livelihood of local fishermen due to fishing ban and low demand. • The paper also summarizes the reformations in the aquaculture sector in India to future pandemics. • Outbreak of COVID-19 has stimulated digital transformation across many aquaculture supply chain in India to reduce the dependence on manpower. • Scientific farming practices, the inclusion of technology and decreasing the over-dependency on export (around 90%) can recover the sector and can help take it to a desired level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education especially management education in India stands at a crossroad. Without change, the traditional university structure of educating and training tomorrow's business leaders is likely to be surpassed and discarded in the increasingly diverse and technological global economy. The Objective of this is paper is to study the competencies and characteristics of Management Teachers in the changing digital age, to identify the issues and challenges that arise in management education. This paper will help in developing better understanding of issues and challenges related with Management Education and will be helpful for Owners, Administrators and Government. It has been found that the current curriculum in management education does not prepare students to face the challenges in business environment. Managing uncertainty and complexity are not taught in Business Schools. Business Schools merely teach the concepts with case studies and does not focus on the challenges arising out of rapid growing technology and the challenges involved in running an enterprise. Unfortunately, the best talent is going to industry where salaries are lucrative. Those who come to academic area are the ones who could not be absorbed in the industry or joined this profession by chance or chose this career out of passion. The data collected from respondents suggests that Management Students should be provided with latest teaching pedagogy and Management Teachers should be paid good remuneration for their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper the findings of a pilot study to determine the Digital Awareness and Internet usage among the school students of age-group 14 to 19 years in Raipur city of Chhattisgarh are presented. The random sample survey method is used to collect the data from randomly selected private and government schools. The questionnaire was designed to know the use of digital gadgets by the students and also the usage of Internet by them. This study reveals that the students of selected age-group in Raipur city are digitally aware and most of them use Internet for various purposes. The pattern of their Internet surfing is also studied. This study also reveals that majority of the students of this age-group are members of Social Networking sites and/or Social Apps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper gives an overview of open access (OA) institutional digital repositories (IDRs) in agricultural fields. The main objective is to provide free and unrestricted access to the public funded research outputs in global-scale in the domain of agricultural by developing a single window search interface as a useful tool for agricultural researchers in developing countries with special reference to India keeping in view the exorbitant cost of research output. It reports the design and development of a federated search interface, viz. AgriCat that facilitates resource sharing through extracting metadata from different OAI (Open Archives Initiative) compatible agricultural IDRs registered in OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories) database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this paper, remote sensing, evaluation of digital elevation models (DEM), geographic information systems (GIS) and fieldwork techniques were combined to study the groundwater conditions in Mamundiyar basin, Tamilnadu. Several digital image processing techniques, including standard color composites, intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) transformation and decorrelation stretch (DS) were applied to map rock types. Remote sensing data were interpreted to produce lithological and lineament maps. DEM was used for lineament and geomorphologic mapping. All thematic layers were integrated and analyzed in a GIS. The overall results demonstrate that the use of remote sensing and GIS provide potentially powerful tools to study groundwater resources and design a suitable exploration plan. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Total costs for developing the digital training program was 208,814 USD, with 61% for salary and benefits of the personnel involved in development. • This paper contributes towards India's experience to the WHO's guideline on monitoring and evaluating digital health interventions. • Policymakers or implementers considering adoption of digital training program within their respective settings can use this information as a reference point. • We propose survey instruments and checklist for collecting and reporting development costs of the digital training program. • We also recommend standardizing cost reporting practice for developing digital health interventions. Digital technology has emerged as a promising approach for training and building capacity of community health workers in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Little is known about the cost of developing digital training programs in LMICs, which hinders the adoption, implementation, and scaling up of the programs in routine primary care settings. This study assessed the costs of developing a digital program for training community health workers to deliver a psychological treatment for depression in a rural district of Madhya Pradesh, India. We developed survey instruments to document required resources in development, including involved personnel (their roles, responsibilities, time spent, and salaries or payments), information technologies (e.g. , smartphones, software programs), and infrastructure-related costs (e.g. , vehicle, office space, utilities). Costs were estimated from an accounting perspective. Over a 10-month developmental period, the total costs were 208,814 USD, with the largest portion on human resources (61%, with 14% on management and supervision), followed by information technologies (33%), and infrastructure-related costs (6%). These findings could inform policymakers in LMICs on costs of developing online-training programs, which will be especially useful during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]