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This research paper will explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on India's foreign trade. The study will analyze the impact of the pandemic on the trade in goods and services in India. The study will also explore the policy implications of the pandemic on India's trade. Data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Reserve Bank of India, World Bank, and other sources will be used to measure the impact of the pandemic on India's foreign trade. The study will also analyze the impact of the pandemic on India's export and import partners. The paper will provide an overview of the current trends in India's foreign trade and discuss the potential policy options to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. The study will also assess the potential effects of the pandemic on India's economic growth and development. Finally, the paper will conclude by providing policy recommendations to ensure sustained economic growth in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence and severity of Covid 2019 has brought to light new vulnerabilities of Health Care Workers (HCWs) in their working conditions, social protection, and occupational safety and mental health. In view of this, our paper aimed to provide comprehensive analysis of psychological stress, socio-economic impact, government intervention, interpersonal relations, work-life balance, and coping strategies of HCWs during the pandemic time in India. Based on data collected physically from 606 HCWs working in seven hospitals located in Delhi-NCR using structured questionnaires, six latent variables were constructed. T-test and ANOVA technique along with Post-hoc analysis was used to make comparisons and identify groups across which significant differences existed. Further, a two-group discriminant analysis was performed to find the variables that best discriminated between HCWs from private or public hospitals and medically or not-medically trained. Lastly, chi-squared (χ²) test was performed to examine the statistical association between coping strategies and few demographic characteristics. The results revealed that females and medically-trained HCWs were more psychologically stressed than their counterparts. Work-life-balance and interpersonal relations were found to be more disturbed among the medically-trained HCWs. Government regulations favourably affected the non-medically trained and HCWs with children and elderlies. Additionally, the impact of interpersonal relationships and work-life-balance was found to be adverse on permanent HCWs. Discriminant analysis showed that interpersonal relationships, followed by government intervention, work-life balance and socio-economic impact were the most important predictors between medically and non-medically trained HCWs. However, none of these factors discriminated between HCWs from private or public hospitals. Further, the preference patterns of coping strategies suggested that HCWs worked with an optimistic state of mind and adopted positive techniques. To make the healthcare system more resilient, it is strongly suggested that the government should play a key role during the times of pandemic, especially-encompassing females and financially stressed categories of HCWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of prisons in India is poor, especially in relation to overcrowding, healthcare and sanitation. The issue of medical facilities and adequate treatment was brought to light by the Covid-19 pandemic, where over - crowding led to a failure of compliance with the prescribed social distancing norms. This paper deals with the state of prisons in India, highlighting the impact of the pandemic and examining associated changes in incarcer - ation rates. It analyses relevant Supreme Court orders and the effects of alternative house arrest and other state measures. In conclusion, the paper discusses the measures recommended by the United Nations to alleviate the impact of the virus on prisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of COVID-19 on the Global scale is tremendously drastic. There are several types of research going on across the world simultaneously to understand and overcome this dire pandemic outbreak. This paper is purely a statistical study on a distinct set of datasets regarding COVID-19 in India. The motivation of this study is to provide an insight into the rapid growth of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India. The rapid growth of COVID-19 cases in India started in March 2020. The main objective of this paper is to provide a solid statistical model for the policymaker to handle this kind of pandemic situation in the near future with nonlinear data. In this paper, the data was got from 1st April to 29th November 2020. To come up with a solid statistical model, various nonlinear data such as confirmed COVID-19 cases, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, the total population (state-wise), the total area in km2 (state-wise), and the total rural and urban population count (state-wise) have been analyzed. In this paper, six different Generalized Additive Models (GAM) was identified after a thorough analysis of other researchers' (Xie and Zhu, 2020; Prata et al., 2020) findings. In all perspectives, the results were identified and analyzed. The GAM model regarding total COVID-19 confirmed cases, total population, and the total rural population provides the best average fit of R2 value of 0.934. As the population value is quite high, the author has concise it using logarithm to provide the best p -value of 0.000542 and 0.001407 for a relation between the total number of COVID-19 cases regarding the total population and total rural population respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the recent surge in employment figures in India, which is quite unexpected due to several economic disruptions, including COVID-19. This has raised numerous questions regarding the quality and conditions of these newly generated jobs. The findings clearly indicate a rise in the share of unpaid family workers, especially among women in rural areas, while the proportion of regular employment has declined in recent years. Additionally, there is a predominance of informal employment and workers in the informal sector, which is also on the rise. These trends indicate a rise in distress-driven employment and a partial recovery of the labour market post COVID-19. Addressing these challenges requires urgent policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effectiveness of the monetary policies undertaken by the central bank on economic growth during COVID-19 uncertainty in case of India and Indonesia. We use an innovative framework of Growth-at-Risk as oppose to standard macroeconomic models, which can predict the growth in a much robust way particularly when an economy is facing shocks like COVID-19. The empirical results based on Growth-at-Risk model clearly reveal that effect of COVID-19 pandemic on economic growth is much adverse in comparison to actual declines. Further, this study shows the effectiveness of monetary and financial policies undertaken by the central banks of both India and Indonesia, which have actually subsided the adverse impact of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a microcosm of society, colleges hold great potential for inviting young adults’ stories of resistance and hope. This paper describes the application of collective narrative approaches in my work with students at St Mira’s College for Girls, an undergraduate and postgraduate women’s college in Pune, India. I sought to integrate narrative ideas into the existing mental wellbeing program by documenting and showcasing students’ stories of mental health and wellbeing and their local knowledge about making the campus a safe place. The focus of this paper is on a collective suicide prevention project, which took place over four months in online and offline modes. This paper highlights students’ analysis of suicide as a social problem and their unique ways of supporting others through difficult times. Narrative concepts such as enabling contribution, externalising problems and collective documents are demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While authoritarian states promoting neoliberal forms of governance have taken advantage of COVID-19 to weaken the foundations of civil society, there has also been a significant rise in contemporary struggles for a more democratic society during and around the pandemic. From December 2019 to November 2021, India has seen a significant number of protests. The timeline of collective resistance against the state and its divisive, violent and neoliberal agenda represents a critical juncture in Indian politics. This paper focuses on the farmers' protests that started from last November and recently ended in a stunning, hard-earned victory. In a sector that is overwhelmingly male-dominated and deeply patriarchal, women farmers have come out on the streets protesting the controversial Farm Laws hastily passed by the Indian government in September 2019 that threatened to corporatize farming and increase exploitation and marginalisation of small farmers. What is most interesting about the farmers' protests is large-scale participation of women across caste, class, occupational, and religious divide which has changed the composition and dynamics of collective resistance and demonstrate how organised and collective resistance can become symbols of solidarity and intersectional dissent. The paper will examine the role of gender and female agency in protests by female occupying bodies in physical spaces particularly when under the pretext of COVID -19 crisis management the state has severely pushed back against citizens right to dissent and fight for justice. The farmer's protest has brought to the fore women's role in mass mobilisations. Women's participation in the protest has tremendous significance for women's movement for justice, equality and rights and can pose a real challenge to the return of the 'Strong State'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracking and analyzing the labour market dynamics at regular, frequent intervals is critical. However, this was not possible for India, a large emerging economy with a significant population undergoing demographic transition, due to a paucity of data. We use the new dataset Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)—Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS) and use a panel to create Labour Flow Charts and Transition Matrices for India from January 2019 to December 2021. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time these were created for India. We then use that to look at the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian labour market. We not only look at transitions between employment, unemployment and out of labour force, but also across types of employment—full-time and part-time. The rich data also allows us to consider heterogeneity in the labour market and look at the differential impact of the pandemic across different education groups and gender. From the labour flow charts and transition probabilities, we find that while all groups have been impacted, the magnitude of the impact is different across groups. The recovery is also uneven, and the extent depends on education levels. Further, we do an event study analysis to examine the likelihood of getting a full-time job across different educational and gender groups. Men, on average, enjoy a higher likelihood of getting a full-time job than women. The likelihood coefficients also go up with increasing educational qualifications. Looking at skill heterogeneity, while the likelihood of getting a full-time job either goes down for most groups during the pandemic or the change is minuscule, strikingly it goes up for those with no education, for both men and women. The likelihood coefficients remain elevated for men even after the restrictions are removed, and that for women reverts to the level seen before the pandemic. Finally, this paper provides a way to continuously monitor the dynamics of the labour market as data is released in the regular intervals in the future, which would be of great value for researchers and policymakers alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is currently ranked as the largest milk producer, dairy industry being the major commodity in agriculture contributing 5% of the national economy, witnessing 6.4% (CAGR) in the past 5 years. Indian dairy industry is expected to grow by 9-11% in financial year 2022. Dairy sector is dominated by fluid milk with emerging value-added products such as cheese, yogurt, flavoured UHT milk growing at a faster rate than other products. Pandemic has affected severely the lives of farmers who depended purely on milk produce by decrease in purchase price, Industries faced challenges to sell and supply milk, worker shortages and increase in production costs, consumers faced challenge to purchase the dairy products and raise in dairy products cost, since lockdown was imposed throughout. The study is viewed in three different dimensions, especially farmers, dairy industries, consumers and the problems faced by them in pandemic situation. The new experience of pandemic also led to shut down of many dairy industries due to lockdown that was imposed on schools, restaurants and hotels. The purposes of this study based on the conceptual data to identify the challenges faced by dairy industry in India during COVID-19 pandemic. The authors in the paper have tried to suggest the best progress that is required to overcome the future pandemic situations for dairy industries. Specifically, data has been collected from the online portals and e-papers to identify and analyse the challenges faced by the dairy industry during pandemic condition. The need of the hour is to also identify the best possible actions that can be taken by dairy industries and government to meet the challenges faced. The government cooperation is required for hand in hand program with dairy industries by planning long term strategies like providing financial reliefs to industries, discounting on taxes and setting up standard MSP (Minimum Support Prices) to farmers and allowing the best possible supply chain to reach customers. The basic challenge in faced to maintain quality and quantity with supply chain being diversified. The dairy product being perishable requires suitable logistics with supply chain operations to ensure the freshness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is on the path of Digital India, FII and DII's in the country boost the country's economy. Both FII and DII have dominant role in capital formation which assists in assets formation along with investments in the stock market form of trading of various securities. FII funds a capital sources in India from foreign countries, affect the financial system and boost the economical growth. During pandemic, covid -19 the Indian economy has faced severe changes which affected the DII and FDI funds too. The research paper points on the changes in the FII and DII funds due to pandemic with reference to increase in covid cases. Design/Methodology/Approach-The paper employs quantitative approach have exploratory research design. The secondary has been collected from authorized government sites i.e. www.moneycontrol.com & www.statista.com for infusion of FII and DII funds in India and data sheet of COVID-19 cases in India(January 2020 to December 2020). Furthermore, for analyze of data SPSS version 20 has been used. Correlation & regression and ANOVA; Statistical techniques have been applied to reach the findings. The findings exhibits that there has been a significant changes in FII and DII during the COVID first wave period as compared to the pre COVID. Being FII and DII are very important for any countries economy, therefore studying the same and especially for the COVID period is highly essential from the Future perspective. This paper is original as till date no study has been conducted in detail to study the pattern and impact of FII and DII during the COVID times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outburst of the pandemic COVID-19 in 2019 from the land of China to the entire world has brought a major change in people's living style. The severity of the disease is so much that more than 20 million people are affected by it worldwide. The recommended preventive measure to avoid the spread of this fatal disease is to maintain social distance leading to a significant economic disruption that could submerge the economies globally. However in order to keep the economies moving, the work from culture is adopted globally wherein the employees are connected via the internet and the work continues to happen. This paper aims to discover how people adopt such an attempt in the working culture. Also, the purpose of the paper is to find out its bearing on the employees' working capacity and whether they would like to continue with this arrangement in the future. The research employs primary data collected from 400 employees across various industries who are currently working from home. The research proposes advantages and challenges in working from home with a majority of employees preferring the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the spread of disinformation on novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and creating the larger phenomena of information disorder. It analyses an array of definitional meaning and disinformation on COVID-19, which has been identified and grounded with valid information by the fact-checkers. The study's aim is to explore and analyse the intents behind the circulation of misleading information (intended and unintended) on COVID-19. For the study, quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis methods were utilised to explore the extent of the misleading information on COVID-19. Further, in-depth interviews were conducted with factcheckers, media professionals, academicians, and a psychologist to understand the purpose of disinformation and its impact on society at large. The study's findings propose that fact-checking is a crucial method to identify fake/misleading information, which can be counter acted by accurate and verified information. This paper argues that holding journalists, fact-checkers, the Government, and the citizens' accountable, is necessary to counter the threat of disinformation about the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on shopping behavior in two neighboring developing economies: Bangladesh and India. While the previous studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 on shopping behavior have relied on Revealed Preference (RP) data, this paper combines RP and Stated Preference (SP) data to develop joint RP-SP discrete choice models. This makes it possible to quantify the relative impact of the situational contexts on the choice of shopping modes of households and to capture the associated heterogeneity arising from the characteristics of the households. Further, comparison of the data and the estimated model parameters of the two countries with substantial socio-cultural similarities provide insights about how differences in the state of e-commerce can lead to different levels of inertia in continuing the pre-COVID behavior. The results will be useful to planners and policymakers for predicting the shopping modes in different future scenarios and formulating effective restriction measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many, COVID-19 disrupted practices of end-of-life care and made it impossible to carry out rituals of mourning and acknowledgement after the death of a loved one. This paper describes a series of conversations with a woman who was plagued by guilt after not being able to give her aunt 'a proper send-off'. It offers questions that were useful in shifting our conversations from individual self-blame to the shared social context of the pandemic. It considers ideas about a 'good death' and suggests ways to invite exploration of alternative ways to honour loved ones who have died. This paper is accompanied by responses from narrative practitioners in Rwanda and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the incidence of COVID-19 and the associated fatality with altitude using high frequency, district level data from India. To understand the implications of the nationwide lockdown after the outbreak, we use data for about four months- two from the lockdown period starting from March 25 till May 31, 2020 and about two months after unlocking was initiated (June 1-July 26, 2020). The multivariate regression result indicates slower growth in average rate of infection during the lockdown period in hilly regions, the gains of which attenuated after the unlocking was initiated. Despite these early gains, the rate of fatalities is significantly higher during the lockdown period in comparison to the plains. The findings remain robust to multiple alternative specifications and methods including one that accounts for confounding possibilities via unobservable and provides consistent estimates of bias adjusted treatment effects. The evidence supports the need for provisioning of public health services and infrastructure upgradation, especially maintenance of adequate stock of life support devices, in high altitude regions. It also underscores the necessity for strengthening and revising the existing Hill Areas Development Programme and integrating important aspects of public health as part of this policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the wide-ranging impact of COVID-19 on incomes and livelihoods of people around the world will take some time to become known and understood, it is already clear that those who are in manual, mostly low-wage, occupations are among the worst-hit workers. This paper uses data from a sample survey of migrant workers to come up with useful parameters for estimating the potential losses from possible retrenchment of migrant workers due to the pandemic. The paper employs a simple estimation model using parameters derived from data collected from a KNOMAD-ILO survey of low-skilled migrant workers in the India–Saudi Arabia migration corridor, conducted during 2016–2017. An important finding is that the aggregate losses that low-skilled Indian workers in Saudi Arabia are likely to incur due to COVID-19-related retrenchment may be as high as 21% of their expected earnings. Adding recruitment costs can push up their losses to 36% of expected or potential earnings, while the aggregate remittances to their families could drop by USD 2 billion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the factors affecting access to clean cooking fuel among rural Indian households during the COVID-19 outbreak, based on World Bank's rural impact survey, covering 2731 rural households. Our analysis shows a significant decline in access to clean fuel among rural households from 35% in 2018 i.e. before COVID-19 to 19.7% during the COVID-19 pandemic. This implies that in order to meet their cooking needs, many rural households have switched from conventional fuels, which have numerous health and environmental concerns. The association between states and socio-demographic profiles of rural households with access to sources of cooking fuel shows a significant difference. The analysis results further indicate that socio-demographic characteristics and asset holdings of the rural households are the key factors that determine access to clean cooking fuel during COVID-19. Among the socio-demographic variables, age, gender, family size, social category, and income level are estimated to be significant factors that affect the access to clean fuel for cooking. Similarly, ownership of assets such as exclusive kitchen room, refrigerator, pressure cooker, television, and furniture are significant factors affecting access to clean cooking fuel among Indian rural households. Additionally, this study provides policy insights on developing mechanisms to ensure that rural households have an access to clean cooking fuel during crisis situations such as COVID-19. [Display omitted] • COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the access to clean cooking fuel among the rural households. • Only 19.7% of rural households have reported access to clean cooking fuels, which declined during COVID-19 lockdown • The majority of rural households use conventional sources of cooking fuels, which further increased during COVID-19 outbreak • Socio-demographic characteristics and asset holdings are determining factors on access to clean cooking fuel • A targeted strategy for promoting clean cooking fuel in rural India is essential [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamics of COVID-19 outbreak in India are different from other countries for her huge population and different administrative approaches. This paper presents a six compartments (SHIQRD) model with different time delays between them, to analyse and forecast the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The model introduces separate compartments for 'home-quarantined', 'quarantined infectious', and 'undetected infectious' pertaining to the Indian scenario. It also incorporates incubation time, sample testing time, and recovery window as time delays between blocks. With the proposed model, reproduction number of different phases during lock-down are evaluated. Besides, dynamics of pandemic for the next one year are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As far as human life, cultures, and economies are concerned, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is likely the largest worldwide pandemic in more than a century. The global spread of COVID-19 has been exponential, especially when compared to other global pandemics. There have been 3,386,825 fatalities and 163,312,429 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to WHO as of 18 May 2021. There have been a total of 1,407,945,776 doses of vaccination given as of May 18, 2021. Reported cases included more than 65,054,067 in the Americas and more than 53,704,835 in Europe, more than 9,705,215 in the eastern Mediterranean and 2,763,608 in the western Pacific, 3,412,133 in Africa, and 28,671,811 in Southeast Asia. The 2019 coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19) has triggered significant societal and economic shifts (WHO). These changes have also affected many aspects of India. As of May 18, India has a total of 2,55,13,398 confirmed cases and the death toll exceeds 2,83,572 (covid19india.org n.d.). Even after the advent of vaccines, this global dilemma seems to have no end, as it is evident that the virus is getting stronger with each mutation. For a country like India, with a population in the billions, the second wave had a harsh impact. The country suffers from a shortage of medical equipment, with the number of infected increasing every day. Mandatory lockdowns have had a crippling effect on organizations and their performance. This article focuses primarily on the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on organizational culture in total quality management. This paper assesses the impact of COVID-19 on Total Quality Management (TQM) and traces the shift in organizational culture after COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation can help industries in sustainable development without causing any detrimental impact on the environment. Green innovation can be a relief as cottage industries can follow the procedures of green innovation for the growth of the industry. Post-covid these cottage industries are seeing a downfall. In this paper an attempt has been made to find the reasons for downfall and how can green innovation help in uplifting these industries and help in the sustainable development of such industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exponential growth of the pandemic culminated in extensive lockdowns that put a stop to mobility, commercial undertakings and social interactions. In India, the pandemic brought about an acute 'crisis of mobility', for migrant labourers in many major cities looking for a return to their native lands. Their persistent attempts to come back home one way or another made the lockdown unproductive in several areas, causing confrontations with authorities, desperate policy relief and ultimately, the arrangement of transport measures. The major objective of the present paper is to explain the fragility of India's internal migrants in terms of their mobility, gender, mental health, and social insecurity, and food crisis, penalty of joblessness and callous response of the government. In addition, it critically highlights on the constraints of public policy response in addressing migrants and puts forward recommendations for the path to be followed. Alternate policy measures to ensure migrant welfare in the immediate future and inclusive migration governance are also recommended to find this problem into the stage of apposite solution. Coupled with this, it is imperative to build up the institutional mechanism for supporting migrants by means of cash transfers and extension of food subsidies. Specific attention needs to be taken in the case of women migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has shaken the higher education sector. Indian academic institutes are well acquainted with the traditional closed book examination; however, the pandemic has forced the institutes to resort to new methods to evaluate the students. Many academic units in India did not take the examination in the light of public health, but in the case of the University of Delhi, it decided to conduct an online open book examination (OBE). Therefore, in the present paper, we aim to evaluate the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges of conducting online OBE by referring to the vast literature available. We further extended our study by assessing the students' performance in an OBE and closed book examination. The results unveiled that students tend to score higher marks in the case of an OBE set up compared to closed book examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Virtual learning” or “online learning” has become a widely used phrase in the education domain due to the commotion of the COVID-19 pandemic. From a conventional pedagogical slant, many educational institutions in India decided overnight to shift towards virtual learning. When urban India could quickly adapt to this mode, it is still skeptical whether rural India stands justified in its attempt to swing towards virtual learning considering the digital divide. This paper discusses the “academic phobia” of rural students manifested due to the “digital divide,” which results in ultimate “psychological distress” while focusing on the students of higher educational institutions in rural districts of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu the three Southern states of India Design/methodology/approach - A study was directed to test how virtual learning impacts the psychological distress directly and also through mediating variables, academic phobia, and digital divide among the students of higher education institutions in rural India. Data was collected through a judgement sampling method from 522 students of higher educational institutions in rural districts of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu the three Southern states of India. Findings In this research, a substantial positive correlation was established between variables such as virtual learning ↔ academic phobia (r = 0.712), academic phobia ↔ psychological distress (r = 0.684), virtual learning ↔ digital divide (r = 0.751), digital divide ↔ psychological distress (r=0.652), and virtual learning ↔ psychological distress (r=0.599) with reference to the students of higher education institutions in rural districts of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu of India. This research validates that the students of higher educational institutions have a high degree of psychological distress and academic phobia mainly due to the virtual learning glitches in the rural area like deprived access to the e-learning tools and dearth of seamless internet connectivity along with inclusive anxiety regarding the spread of the virus COVID-19. On testing the hypothesis, the result shows that the dependent variable, namely psychological distress, is substantially predicted by virtual learning directly and through specific indirect mediating variables academic phobia and digital divide at a 95 % level of confidence. Originality/value – This study explores the relationship of virtual learning and psychological distress through mediating variables academic phobia and digital divide among the students of the higher education institutions in rural India, which has not been scrutinized theoretically and tested empirically in context with COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning is become a global phenomenon that has been adopted by everyone, regardless of age, resources, and socio-economic background. This change was expected to settle down in academics especially in the Asian countries a bit later however the situation of global lockdown during pandemic Covid-19, all learners, teachers and institutions have accepted, exercised and responded well to the unprecedented shift inentire education system, from in-person learning to online leaning. E-mentoring which is a one-to-one teaching-leaning online practice also facilitated students during the lockdown. In India, where traditional method of teaching and learning believed to be more effective way of education, accepted this new perspective of virtual learning. The paper brings the historical background of the concept ‘electronic mentoring’ and how e-mentoring worked in favor of students/learners during the lockdown (March 2019 to January 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fear of infection of COVID-19 among people has greatly reduced their intention to travel, which needs a deeper understanding to aid the policy-makers in framing robust guidelines to ensure safe travel. This paper aims to present a critical understanding of the traveler's willingness to reduce their trip frequency, using psycho attitudinal analysis of the variables impacting the travel behavior. For this purpose, a web-based survey was conducted across India, and demographic, socio economic and psycho-attitudinal data was collected from 410 individuals, from across 21 states of India. Information regarding the psycho-attitudinal data was collected using a set of indicators. After extraction of latent factors from these indicators using factor analysis, factor scores were determined for each individual for these latent factors. Subsequently, ordered logistic regression models were used to understand the influence of these pandemic-oriented variables upon an individual's intention to travel for essential, recreational and work trips. In the estimation results, majority of the respondents showed a willingness to reduce their essential and recreational trips compared with work trips. The awareness regarding the disease and the regionality of respondents showed a significant influence on their decision. The study concludes by presenting the policy implications of the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which is one of its kind of humanitarian disasters, has affected people and businesses worldwide, triggering a global economic crisis. In this aspect, the tourism sector is not being left behind. The pandemic has not only affected the foreign exchange earnings (FEE) but also affected various regional developments, job opportunities, thereby disrupting the local communities as a whole. As there has been a substantial decline in the arrivals of overseas tourists in India in 2020, the paper aims to predict foreign tourists' arrival in India and FEE using artificial neural networks (ANN). Furthermore, we analyse the impact of COVID-19 based on four scenarios considering with and without lockdown in terms of loss and gain in FEE. Lastly, the results obtained will help policymakers make necessary strategic and operational decisions, along with maximizing the FEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to explore the differences in the use of the internet by the male and female consumers of India as a medium to facilitate the functioning of their lives during the unprecedented and inconceivable situation created by the Covid-19 Pandemic and the consequential lockdown which circumscribed the world to their homes. On investigating using the Media Dependency Theory, which was proposed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur in their path-breaking work, had observed that factors such as instability and uncertain times affect the dependency of the consumers on media. Using Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytical theory, it was observed that people react in different ways to a situation based on mental health, childhood memories etc. The research applies both quantitative and qualitative approach to have a holistic and organic understanding of the issue. Convenience sampling technique was used to gather the primary data using structured questionnaire and to conduct in-depth interviews,in order to justify its descriptive research design. The study makes an attempt to understand the inner drives of the consumers that lead to the dependency on media (i.e. internet here) in the context of social situational factor (such as pandemic). It will explore the intensity of internet dependency to meet the unconscious needs among the two genders in comparison to the normal pre-Covid time. The expected outcome of the study will contribute towards the discipline of consumer psychology in understanding the consumers’ online behavior and motivation behind internet usage. It will also provide inputs to the companies for the effective decision making of digital marketing of their brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown have compounded existing inequalities in India. As a second wave of infections hit, there were shortages of medicines, vaccines, oxygen cylinders and hospital beds, and healthcare professionals were overworked and under-resourced. However, in the midst of these stories of systemic inadequacy, there are rich and powerful stories of collective care and resistance. People stepped in to create alternative forms of community care and mutual aid. This paper describes three stories of community response in the context of systemic collapse. There have been countless other such stories of action and resistance throughout the course of the crisis period as well as in the co llective history of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using state-level aggregate data from India, this paper examines the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and its containment efforts on macroeconomic performance after controlling for several initial conditions, the structure of the state economies, and healthcare and public health capabilities. A panel regression analysis based on state-level monthly unemployment data from April to November 2020 indicates that states experiencing higher spread of Covid-19, with adverse initial economic conditions, and larger employment dependence on secondary and tertiary sector have suffered significantly larger economic losses. In contrast, states with better containment strategy, higher healthcare capabilities, and a relatively larger employment share of the primary sector have experienced smaller economic losses. Further, the nationwide lockdown during the months of April and May had significant adverse effects on the state economies. Finally, the spread of the virus interacts with each of the above factors to significantly impact state economic performances. These results are informative not only for policies and strategies for short and long-term recovery of the state economies in India but also for understanding actual and potential economic impacts of the pandemic acrosscountries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of COVID across world countries is better handled by applying learning algorithms. Machine learning and deep learning algorithms can be applied to analyze the effects of COVID in multidimensional ways. This paper brings a detailed study of the COVID cases, deaths and tests across five of the GCC countries and India. The proposed method analyzes the COVID count against the population density of each of the countries. An analysis of the raw count would only give a false impression, whereas a population-based comparison gives the exact measure of the effect of COVID. As India is a densely populated country, the number of precautionary steps taken by the country against the population count needs to be measured for accurate prediction. Recurrent Neural Network and Long Short-term memory are used to predict the future cases, deaths and tests of India. A time span of 20 days is used in the prediction. In the sense that ith day to (i+20)th day values are taken to predict the (i+21)th day values. The accuracy of the LSTM model designed with multiple hidden layers is notable and the prediction error is minimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the country's health systems and diminished its capability to provide safe and effective healthcare. This article attempts to review patient safety issues during COVID-19 pandemic in India, and derive lessons from national and international experiences to inform policy actions for building a 'resilient health system'. Methods: Systematic review of existing published articles, government and media reports was undertaken. Online databases were searched using key terms related to patient safety during COVID-19 and health systems resilience. Seventy-three papers were included dependent on their relevance to research objectives. Findings: Patient safety was impacted during COVID-19, owing to sub-optimal infection prevention and control measures coupled with reduced access to essential health services. This was largely due to inadequate infrastructure, human and material resources resulting from chronic underinvestment in public health systems, paucity of reliable data for evidence-based actions and limited leadership and regulatory capacity. Conclusions: India's health systems were found ill prepared to tackle large-scale pandemic, which has major implications for patient safety. The shortcomings observed in the COVID-19 response must be rectified and comprehensive health sector reforms should be initiated for building agile and resilient health systems that can withstand future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma is slowly regaining its pre-COVID-19 status in terms of prevalence. Advanced trauma training cannot be deferred indefinitely in the current pandemic owing to defense requirements and disaster preparedness in vulnerable regions. Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) India resumed ATLS and Advanced Trauma Care For Nurses (ATCN) courses at one civilian and one military site. Stakeholders of respective centers for advanced trauma training deliberated over safe means to resume ATLS and ATCN. Meticulous screening of all participants and pre- and post-course tracking were deemed the most important components for the safe resumption of courses. 'Paperless' course, 'open-air' skill stations, 'payment protection', 'buddy system', point of care sanitizer installation, packed food, and potable beverages were major organizational changes. Participants above 60 years and with uncontrolled comorbidities were not enrolled. Two ATCN, one ATLS (civilian), and one combined ATLS-ATCN (military) were conducted. 78 delegates trained by 32 faculties and 13 personnel. All underwent daily thermal scanning and smartphone application-based COVID-19 tracking. Manikins were utilized instead of moulages and instructors took up the role of nursing assistants in Initial Assessment. Exit exams were conducted with full PPE precautions at the military site and mask-distancing precautions at the civilian site. High fidelity simulator was used at one station at the civilian site. Expenses at the civilian site per course were USD 570 lower than conventional courses. There was no incidence of COVID-19 in any of the 123 participants at 14 days follow up. With stringent participant selection and moderate precautions, ATLS and ATCN can be resumed safely in the current COVID-19 pandemic. To the best of our knowledge and after a thorough search of published English literature, this is the first paper reporting on resuming Advanced trauma training in the COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, deep learning is employed to propose an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based online incremental learning technique for developing an adaptive and non-intrusive analytical model of Covid-19 pandemic to analyze the temporal dynamics of the disease spread. The model is able to intelligently adapt to new ground realities in real-time eliminating the need to retrain the model from scratch every time a new data set is received from the continuously evolving training data. The model is validated with the historical data and a forecast of the disease spread for 30-days is given in the five worst affected states of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In University regulated Tier IIB Schools in India, the prominent mode of instruction has been traditional face to face, teaching. The extent of technology to be incorporated in educational pedagogy was always debated. However, with the sudden COVID-19 pandemic, all institutions were compelled to adopt online teaching methodologies. With this background, this paper attempts to analyze the perception of students of Post Graduate Management Programmes from the four different Universities in state of Maharashtra, India, about their online learning experience during the pandemic. The study also attempts to identify various factors that have a bearing on student's perceptions regarding the effectiveness of online teaching. For the purpose of quantitative analysis, factor analysis and multiple regression have been used. Based on the results of quantitative analysis, appropriate qualitative conclusions have been derived. The results of the study in terms of perception of students regarding online learning can contribute significantly in developing a blended approach for management education as per the latest UGC guidelines (2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effects of the 9-min pan-India voluntary lights-off policy that was planned and executed by the Government of India in April 2020 on the National Grid and the steps that were taken to maintain grid stability during the event. The policy was a symbolic gesture of public solidarity with frontline healthcare and emergency workers in the nation's war against the COVID-19 pandemic. The event entailed nationwide switching-off of electric lights and lighting of earthen lamps or switching-on of torch lights. This 9-min event posed a significant challenge to the country's power systems engineers in managing grid stability during the large-scale load reduction, and meticulous planning and implementation of protective measures were carried out. In this article, the strategy implemented by the Indian power sector to manage the grid during the nine-minute event is described. The variations of grid parameters such as frequency, voltage, and load at all dispatch centers before, during, and after the nine-minutes are analyzed, and the generation schedule that was followed is also presented, along with real-time results. This case study provides an overview of power systems management that involves strategic scheduling of generators throughout the country to tackle sudden and mass-reductions of load on the power system. • Covid-19 and its impact on the world • History of blackouts and brownouts brownouts in a power system. • Overview of the India power system and national power grid development. • Pan India lights off policy on 5th April 2020 • Power system operation and control during an emergency [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 has ushered in a renewed focus on health, sanitisation and, in unexpected ways, on the need for productive employment opportunities in rural India. MGNREGA, the rural employment guarantee programme, has had a mixed track record in terms of providing adequate employment to those who need it the most, the quality of asset creation and adequacy of wages offered. This paper makes a case for reorienting a small portion of MGNREGA spending to create micro-entrepreneurs out of the 'reverse migrating' masons, electricians, plumbers and others in rural areas who can directly contribute to augmenting health and sanitization infrastructure in the likely new normal. This will provide relief to those whose livelihoods have been severely impacted and eventually lower dependence on public finances. We propose approval of a new work type for sanitization works without any hard asset creation under MGNREGA and roping in the private sector for its project management skills to quickly skill up the returning migrants as well as to match work with workers on an ongoing basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have suggested herbal medicines as alternatives or adjuvants to modern drugs for COVID-19. Their scientometric analyses can provide a scientific overview of this topic. Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus were searched for articles on the use of herbal medicines in COVID-19 published until 26 October 2020. Collected data were analyzed for document type, subject area, top journal, citation number, and authors' collaboration network using VOSviewer 1.6.15, ScientoPy 2.0.3, Gephi 0.9.2, and SPSS 15 statistical tools. After screening the 3185 retrieved records, 378 and 849 records, respectively from WOS and Scopus, remained for quantity analysis. Original and review articles were the two main types of papers in both databases. Top subject areas were drug and medicine, respectively in the WOS and Scopus databases. The top three productive countries in the field were China, the US, and India. The most cited article was a practice guideline in both databases. "Journal of Biomolecular Structure Dynamics" in WOS and "Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs" in Scopus were the top journals. Top keywords included "COVID-19″ and "Traditional Chinese Medicine". US authors had the highest collaboration with other authors. The current study provides a snapshot of the quantity and characteristics of published scholarly documents in recent months in the intersection of herbal medicines and COVID-19. Our findings help scientists to find the existing gaps, identify the active authors and scientific institutes to collaborate with and use their experience to produce new knowledge in the future. [Display omitted] • This scientometrics was propsed to show an overview of the published documents on herbal medicine therapy for COVID-19 in WOS and Scopus databases and compare their characteristics. • Quantity analysis showed original and review articles as the main types of papers, drug and medicine as top subject areas, and China as top productive country. • A practice guideline was the highest cited article "Journal of Biomolecular Structure Dynamics" and "Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs" were the toppest journals in WOS, and Scopus, respectively. • US authors had the highest collaboration with other authors. • The topic modeling could give an overview of issues that publications have been focused on whether it is clinical care, management, public heath, and pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 is a buzz word nowadays. The deadly virus that started in China has spread worldwide. The fundamental principle is "if the disease can travel faster information has to travel even faster". The sequence of events reveals the upheaval need to strengthen the ability of the early warning system, risk reduction, and management of national and global risks. Digital contact tracing apps like Aarogya setu (India) and Pan-European privacy preserving proximity tracing (German) has somehow helped but they are more effective in the initial stage and less relevant in the community spread phase. Thus, there is a need to devise a Decision Support System (DSS) based on machine learning algorithms. In this paper, we have attempted to propose an Additive Utility Assumption Approach for Criterion Comparison in Multi-criterion Intelligent Decision Support system for COVID-19. The dataset of Covid-19 has been taken from government link for validating the results. In this paper, an additive utility assumption-based approach for multi-criterion decision support system (MCDSS) with an accurate prediction of identified risk factors on certain well-defined input parameters is proposed and validated empirically using the standard SEIR model approach (Susceptible, Exposed, Infected and Recovered). The results includes comparative analysis in tabular form with already existing approaches to illustrate the potential of the proposed approach including the parameters such as Precision, Recall and F-Score. Other advanced parameters such as, MCC (Matthews Correlation Coefficient), ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) and PRC (Precision Recall) have also been considered for validation and the graphs are illustrated using Jupyter notebook. The statistical analysis of the most affected top eight states of India is undertaken effectively using the Weka software tool and IBM Cognos software to correctly predict the outbreak of pandemic situation due to Covid-19. Finally, the article has immense potential to contribute to the COVID-19 situation and may prove to be instrumental in propelling the research interest of researchers and providing some useful insights for the current pandemic situation. • Proposing a Multi-criterion Intelligent DSS • Epidemiology modeling of data using a SEIFR Model • Our approach applies data to get trained using multiple parameters to handle and serve significant challenges existing especially in healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viruses are known to significantly affect global health and are the leading cause of death worldwide as evident from numerous virus epidemics/ pandemics in the present and past. Though there are several antiviral therapies for human health care, only a few of them have significant therapeutic efficacy. The high costs of synthetic antiviral drugs, the rapid emergence of resistance, and the related side effects, are important challenges faced in anti-viral therapies. Traditional Indian Medicine (TIM) has a major advantage over modern medicine with their wider therapeutic window and rare side effects. The phytochemicals from the plants have shown strong inhibition of many viral infections. In the present study, the TIM plants in the classical codified texts of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy, Sowa Rigpa (AYUSH) and plant repository of the National Innovation Foundation –India (NIF) database was reviewed to explore plants that have sufficient scientific experimental data demonstrating efficacy against different viruses. Fifteen years of literature presenting different treatment options available for control of viral infections was reviewed. It was found that reducing inflammation, enhancing immunity, and disrupting viral infection cycle were useful strategies for combating acute viral infections. In this paper, the authors suggest an integrative strategy of incorporating TIM plants in preventive healthcare that may act as the first line of defence against acute viral infections. Development of an effective polyherbal formulation from a combination of potent TLR antagonists (anti-inflammatory), immuno-modulators, antivirals, and herbs that are rich source of micronutrients (especially Vitamin C and Zn) can act as a preventive strategy for a wide range of viral infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a model based on mediative fuzzy logic in this COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 (novel coronavirus respiratory disease) has become a pandemic now and the whole world has been affected by this disease. Different methodologies and many prediction techniques based on various models have been developed so far. In the present article, we have developed a mediative fuzzy correlation technique based on the parameters for COVID-19 patients from different parts of India. The proposed mediative fuzzy correlation technique provides the relation between the increments of COVID-19 positive patients in terms of the passage of increment with respect to time. The peaks of infected cases in connection with the other condition are estimated from the available data. The mediative fuzzy logic mathematical model can be utilized to find a good fit or a contradictory model for any pandemic model. The proposed approach to the prediction in COVID-19 based on mediative fuzzy logic has produced promising results for the continuous contradictory prediction in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Impact of living environment deprivation on COVID-19 hotspots formation is assessed. • GWPCA based improved Index of Multiple Deprivation is devised. • The COVID-19 hotspots and IMD hots spots showing high correspondence. • Northern parts of Kolkata is characterized with COVID-19 containment zone hotspots. • The ZINBR model is best fitted for modelling relationship between living environment condition and COVID-19 hotspots. The emergence of COVID-19 has brought a serious global public health threats especially for most of the cities across the world even in India more than 50 % of the total cases were reported from large ten cities. Kolkata Megacity became one of the major COVID-19 hotspot cities in India. Living environment deprivation is one of the significant risk factor of infectious diseases transmissions like COVID-19. The paper aims to examine the impact of living environment deprivation on COVID-19 hotspot in Kolkata megacity. COVID-19 hotspot maps were prepared using Getis-Ord-Gi* statistic and index of multiple deprivations (IMD) across the wards were assessed using Geographically Weighted Principal Component Analysis (GWPCA).Five count data regression models such as Poisson regression (PR), negative binomial regression (NBR), hurdle regression (HR), zero-inflated Poisson regression (ZIPR), and zero-inflated negative binomial regression (ZINBR) were used to understand the impact of living environment deprivation on COVID-19 hotspot in Kolkata megacity. The findings of the study revealed that living environment deprivation was an important determinant of spatial clustering of COVID-19 hotspots in Kolkata megacity and zero-inflated negative binomial regression (ZINBR) better explains this relationship with highest variations (adj. R2: 71.3 %) and lowest BIC and AIC as compared to the others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]