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COVID-19 has had uneven impacts on health and well-being, with Indigenous communities in the Global South facing some of the highest risks. Focusing on the experience of Sri Lanka, this study identifies key policy responses to COVID-19, documents how they evolved over two years of the pandemic, and examines if and how government responses have addressed issues pertaining to Indigenous Peoples. Drawing upon an analysis of policy documents (n = 110) and interviews with policymakers (n = 20), we characterize seven key policy responses implemented by the Sri Lankan government: i) testing for and identifying COVID-19; ii) quarantine procedures; iii) provisional clinical treatments; iv) handling other diseases during COVID-19; v) movement; vi) guidelines to be adhered to by the general public; and vii) health and vaccination. The nature of these responses changed as the pandemic progressed. There is no evidence that policy development or implementation incorporated the voices and needs of Indigenous Peoples. © 2023

Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit den Machtverhältnissen im Kontext mehrerer Immobilienprojekte in einem als "Downtown" Colombo bezeichneten Gebiet. Solche Urbanisierungsprojekte versinnbildlichen die historisch gewachsenen postkolonialen Beziehungen in der sich globalisierenden Welt. Im Zentrum steht das von der chinesischen Regierung und Sri Lankas Ministerium für Megapolis und Westliche Entwicklung unterstützte "Colombo Port City"-Projekt, für das die Insel um 575 Hektar erweitert wurde. Es basiert auf einem 99-jährigen Pachtvertrag mit China für das "John Keels Cinnamon Life"-Projekt. Geplant sind ein großes Hotel, Wohnungen, Einkaufsmöglichkeiten, Restaurants und ein Casino. Durch das Projekt kam es zu Vertreibungen von Einzelpersonen oder Gemeinschaften aus dem Stadtteil "Slave Island", die entweder durch behördliche Eingriffe erzwungen wurden oder Folge steigender Preise waren. Die Autorinnen zeichnen die Politik der Urbanisierung Colombos unter dem Prinzip der "Rückgewinnung" nach. Dabei bezeichnet "Rückgewinnung" sowohl die physische Aufschüttung und Trockenlegung von Land (physical reclaimed land) als auch die Rückforderung von Land aus den Vertreibungen (land reclaimed from the Slave Island evictions) und die weiter bestehende Möglichkeit, außergewöhnliche Herrschaftsgewalt für das "öffentliche Wohl" auszuüben. Solche Investitionen und Partnerschaften deuten auf fortbestehende koloniale Machtverhältnisse ebenso hin wie auf den Versuch der sri-lankischen Regierung, eine Position als geostrategischer Partner in den internationalen Beziehungen erneut einzufordern. Nur eine von den makroökonomischen Ebene bis hin zur Mikroebene der Individuen reichende Sichtweise kann eine postkoloniale Kritik an der Globalisierung und der zeitgenössischen Geopolitik üben und alternative Modelle zu Fortschritt und südasiatischer Moderne bieten. This paper considers the geopolitical and geoeconomic power relations around several recent high rise, commercial, and tourism-based projects in what can be described as a future site of a "downtown" Colombo. These urbanisation projects also provide examples to critique and imagine the historically developed postcolonial relations of globalisation. The paper specifically discusses the Colombo Port City project - a reclaimed land project that is backed by the Chinese government and Sri Lanka's Ministry for Megapolis and Western Development, and includes a 99-year lease for the 575 acres added to the island for China - and John Keel's Cinnamon Life project - a project supported by both local investors and American hedge funds, that contributes not only another large hotel, but also apartments, shopping, restaurants, and a casino. Similar to other hotel developments, such as Shrangi-La, the evictions of Slave Island for the Cinnamon Life developments indicate a trend whereby individuals and/or communities are forced out either by government interference or rising prices. The authors suggest, first, that the politics of Colombo's urbanisation can be traced through the theme of "reclaiming", which includes not only the physical reclaimed land of the Colombo Port City project, but also the land reclaimed from the Slave Island evictions and the ongoing possibility to exercise eminent domain power for the "public good". In addition, this theme asks: do these different investments and partnerships indicate reclaimed or ongoing colonial power relations, or is Sri Lanka re-claiming their position as a geo-strategic partner within international relations? Second, and towards these questions, the authors argue that a dynamic and multi-scale lens - from the macro-economic and political international investments, to the micro-level of individuals - is necessary in order to engage a postcolonial critique of globalisation and contemporary geopolitics. Indeed, such a lens helps interrogate if these projects offer alternative models and relations to progress and South Asian modernity than what has come before in urban, postcolonial development narratives or not?

Airborne microplastics (AMPs) have been reported in indoor and outdoor air in high-income countries and are expected to be a significant contributor to daily MPs exposure for human beings. There are, to date, only a handful of studies in lower-middle-income countries, although pollution can be a more significant issue due to more lax environmental regulations. In this study, AMPs from 5000 – 50 µm were sampled from indoor and outdoor environments across selected areas of Sri Lanka using an active sampling technique. Suspected AMPs were further characterised using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Microplastic concentrations (mean ± SE, particles/ m3) in indoor air (0.13 ± 0.09 to 0.93 ± 0.26) was higher than outdoor air (0.00 to 0.23 ± 0.03). This translates to an average human exposure of a little over 2500 MP particles/year. The types of indoor MPs were related to indoor-generating sources, the number of occupants, and their lifestyles. Outdoor abundance in high-density areas (0.11 ± 0.03 particles/m3) was always higher than in low-density areas (0.04 ± 0.016 particles/m3), albeit not significantly so. The highest outdoor MP abundance was found near an industrial zone, followed by urban and inland locations in high-density areas. The dominant size range of MPs was 100-300 μm, and the only shapes observed indoors and outdoors were fibers (98%) and fragments. Most MP particles were transparent, followed by blue and black. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was the prominent MP type followed by polyester, indicating that textile fibers could be the major source of these AMPs. Acrylic, polyamide (PA), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and nylon were also identified. This study provides the first report on AMPs in Sri Lanka. Considering the population growth and industrialisation, further research should evaluate possible trends and health risks upon inhalation. Also see: https://micro2022.sciencesconf.org/424505/document, In MICRO 2022, Online Atlas Edition: Plastic Pollution from MACRO to nano

Modern understandings of the poetic corpuses of three late medieval and early modern figures: Lal Ded, Bulleh Shah, and Kabir, have been appropriated and reappropriated to serve a particular Hindu nationalist agenda, moving far from the self-understandings these poets displayed in their work of either religious ambiguity or of transgressing boundaries between categories of religious identity in favor of spiritual discourse and intellectual exchange. These poets, through their ambiguity or active transgression of religious boundaries, display both a seriousness about categories of religious identity and their dedication to a spiritual practice and an understanding that ultimately these categorizations are to be transcended. These poets are not interested in political motivations or community formation around a particular religious identity. This is evidenced in how these three figures themselves identified religiously in their poems, the ways in which they inhabit various identities and senses of self, and in their personal relationships with these religious categories. The lineages that spring from their work share a similar seriousness of spiritual practice but do begin to get caught up in the vicissitudes of forming an identity. This is evidenced in the subsequent premodern development of the reception of these poets and their poetry — how groups that received their poetic corpuses and incorporated them as part of their premodern community formation understood categories of religious identity. The discourse of appropriating these figures in the postcolonial period is about politicizing them, creating a public-facing identity and ideology as a means to a particular Hindu Nationalist end, while making the seriousness with which they consider a practical spiritual life secondary. Thus, the poets whose self-understanding and conceptions of religious identity involved transgressing categorization in favor of spiritual discourse and exchange, who spoke from various senses of self, imbibing and adopting the languages of other identities, are now being categorized as strictly existing within rigid boundaries of identity to serve both Hindu Nationalist framings of South Asian religious identity, as well as minority community responses to these framings.

The optical and microphysical properties of aerosols remain one of the greatest uncertainties associated with evaluating the climate forcing attributed to aerosols. Although the trends in aerosol optical depth (AOD) at global and regional scales have been widely examined, little attention has been paid to the trends in type-dependent AODs related to aerosol particle properties. Here, using the aerosol optical component dataset from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument, we investigate decadal-scale trends in total aerosol loading as well as AODs for five aerosol components by particle size and morphology during 2003–2018 over land. Relationships between the total AOD (TAOD) trends and type-dependent AOD changes were examined, and the relative contribution of each type-dependent AOD to the overall TAOD trends was quantified. By dividing the TAOD values into four different aerosol pollution levels (APLs) with splits at 0.15, 0.40, and 0.80, we further explored the relationships between TAOD changes and interannual variations in the frequency-of-occurrences (FoOs) of these APLs. Long-term trends in FoOs in the different APLs show that there was a significant improvement in air quality between 2003 and 2018 in most land areas, except South Asia, corresponding to a shift from lightly polluted to clean conditions. However, the effects of different APLs on TAOD changes are regionally dependent and their extent of correlation varied spatially. Moreover, we observed that the annual mean TAOD has decreased by 0.47% a−1 over land since 2003 (P

This article explores how factors such as gender and cross-religious communication frame and yield utopian perspectives in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's literature and practice as educator and feminist. The article makes the case that Hossain's body of work envisions utopia in complex, many-layered ways. Early in her creative career, as a member of the Muslim youth herself, Hossain created gender-just utopian visions that also embedded cross-religious dialogue and cooperation. She later became an educator, inspiring youth, particularly Muslim girls and young women, with utopian ideas and practices. The article concludes that analyzing Hossain's writing in utopian frames, as well as examining her writing and work through Ruth Levitas's approach to utopia as method, helps to explain Hossain's inclusion of religion and spirituality in her oeuvre.

With the surge of COVID-19 cases worldwide, vaccines against COVID-19 are also developing across the countries. However, the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination among general people is questionable. The availability of several vaccines' options against COVID-19 has perplexed people regarding individual vaccines' efficacy and safety. Therefore, we aim to determine the acceptance, preferences, impact factors of future COVID-19 vaccines in Malaysia and the factors influencing the COVID-19 vaccination acceptance among vaccine demand and vaccine delay groups.An online-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among Malaysian residents 18 years and above of either gender using the snowball sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire was made available to participants through various social media networks, email, and telegram. The data obtained from the survey were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0. Association between background characteristics and respondents were analyzed using the Chi-square test in the vaccine delay group and vaccine acceptance group.Total of 1282 responses were considered for the study, mainly from male respondents (71%). Among the respondents, 95.9% thought that vaccination would be an effective way to prevent and control COVID-19, and 96% would accept vaccination if the COVID-19 vaccine were successfully developed and approved for listing in the future. Essential factors influencing vaccination decisions were vaccine convenience (95.7%) and doctor's recommendation (97.3%). Bivariate analysis revealed that age less than 24 years, Malay race, living in urban areas, tertiary education, students, single marital status, family income (Malaysian ringgits) RM 4,850 to RM 10,959 andRM 10,960 were significantly associated with vaccine acceptance of COVID19 vaccination.All the factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates throughout the country should be studied on a larger scale, and appropriate steps to ensure vaccine acceptance among the public should be meticulously devised by the government and related authorities.Con el aumento de casos de COVID-19 en todo el mundo, las vacunas contra la COVID-19 también están en desarrollo en todos los países. Sin embargo, la aceptabilidad de la vacuna COVID-19 entre la gente en general es cuestionable. La disponibilidad de varias opciones de vacunas contra COVID-19 ha dejado perpleja a la gente con respecto a la eficacia y seguridad de las vacunas individuales. Por lo tanto, tenemos como objetivo determinar la aceptación, las preferencias y los factores de impacto de las futuras vacunas COVID-19 en Malasia y los factores que influyen en la aceptación de la vacunación COVID-19 entre la demanda de vacunas y los grupos de demora de la vacuna.Se realizó una encuesta transversal en línea entre residentes de Malasia de 18 años o más de cualquier género utilizando la técnica de muestreo de bola de nieve. Se puso a disposición de los participantes un cuestionario autoadministrado a través de varias redes sociales, correo electrónico y telegrama. Los datos obtenidos de la encuesta se analizaron con el programa SPSS versión 25.0. La asociación entre las características de fondo y los encuestados fueron analizados usando la prueba de χSe consideró un total de 1.282 respuestas para el estudio, principalmente de hombres encuestados (71%). Entre los encuestados, el 95,9% pensó que la vacunación sería una forma eficaz de prevenir y controlar la COVID-19, y el 96% aceptaría la vacunación si la vacuna COVID-19 se desarrollara con éxito y se aprobara para su inclusión en el futuro. Factores esenciales que influyeron en las decisiones de vacunación fueron la conveniencia de la vacuna (95,7%) y la recomendación del médico (97,3%). El análisis bivariado reveló que la edad24 años, la raza malaya, la vida en áreas urbanas, educación terciaria, estudiantes, estado civil soltero, ingresos familiares RM 4,850 a RM 10,959 yRM 10,960 (enTodos los factores que influyen en las tasas de aceptación de la vacuna COVID-19 en todo el país deben estudiarse a mayor escala, y el gobierno y las autoridades relacionadas deben diseñar meticulosamente los pasos apropiados para asegurar la aceptación de la vacuna entre el público.

This paper demonstrates the mathematical and MATLAB simulation model of 1 KW (28.8Vdc) PEM fuel cell system with boost convertor and RL load to analyze the yield behavior in accordance to control the hydrogen fuel utilization. Two cases have been designed to evaluate the performance of this model. In the first case, fuel cell parameters are examined with and without a fuel regulator that controls the hydrogen fuel rate while in the second case, the operating temperature of a fuel cell stack is varied to observe the impact on the system. PEM fuel cell based power systems can become an alternate choice in the transportation sector to overcome contamination concerns, especially in South Asia where the environmental issues are at peak. The purpose of this work is to introduce such environmentally friendly system of transportation in South Asia, especially in Pakistan and this stack model can be used as a prototype for developing FC based motorbike as currently no practical models have been tested in this region. Therefore, this model has unique advantages over the existing in the literature.

This paper aims to investigate both Fagerli’s (2001) proposal that in serializing languages benefactive and malefactive constructions often involve the morpheme denoting ‘give’, and Radetzky & Smith’s (2010) proposal that East and South Asian languages often involve different morphemes or structures in expressing benefaction or malefaction. Checking the proposals against benefactive and malefactive constructions in Taiwan Southern Min (TSM) which involve optional benefactee and malefactee, this paper shows that both proposals find only partial support from TSM data. TSM uses the morpheme denoting ‘give’, i.e. hoo, in the malefactive construction involving optional malefactee, but not the benefactive construction involving optional benefactee, which involves the use of ka. Moreover, ka can also be used for introducing the malefactive. Even though the hoo malefactive construction and the ka benefactive construction have different structures, the constructions involving ka, no matter whether denoting benefaction or malefaction, have the same syntactic structure.

The species diversity of freshwater crabs of Bangladesh is poorly known. In this study, Acanthopotamon fungosum (Alcock, 1909) and Maydelliathelphusa edentula (Alcock, 1909) are reported as new records from Bangladesh. The two species were identified through morphology and molecular phylogeny based on 16S rDNA gene sequences. Herein, diagnostic characters of both species are provided respective to close congeners. There is concern over the conservation status of A. fungosum due to its narrow distributional range. In addition, an updated checklist and a key to the freshwater crabs of Bangladesh are provided.

This special issue about race, honour, culture, and violence against women in South Asian Canadian communities is proffered as an entry point to a wider, multilayered discussion about race, culture, gender, and violence. It hopes to intensify a debate on gendered violence that could tie in with analysis and commentary on individual killings in family-related sites, murders of racialized women and girls in public sites, and other forms of violence against women and girls in society. We encourage readers to consider how to understand the landscape that South Asian Canadian women and girls are confronting, while also asking critical questions about the wider settler colonial system in which we all participate as we fight gender-based violence.

By the end of the 20th century, mega dams were no longer popular with donors, due to growing socio-environmental opposition; a poor record in terms of outcomes and profitability; and the turn to governance and the ‘soft wiring’ of development amongst donors. However, interest in mega dams has revived, and they are now firmly back on the agenda of international donor agencies and governments in the Global South. The Himalayan region is one of the most iconic sites for contemporary mega-dam infrastructure development, despite ecological precarity, concerns around the increasing intensity and frequency of infrastructure hazards, and dam costs and debt. This thesis contributes to the understanding of the return of ‘faith’ in large hydraulic infrastructure, particularly in relation to projects that were previously halted or suspended due to social and environmental contestation. Starting with the construction of the Arun-3 hydropower project in Nepal, which has been revived after more than a decade-long suspension, I show that the resurgence of mega dams in the region is reflective of a new technopolitical regime. This new regime comprises an expanding base of ‘new’ actors, visions, discursive rationalities, and practices, which operate across multiple spatialities. It is shaped by historic events and changing (geo)political-economic conditions and reflects new levels of complexity and interdependencies in the governance of energy systems, which have made it more difficult for affected persons and activists to contest dams in the new century. The dissertation seeks to advance debates in contemporary development geography concerning new forms of partnerships and practices, and reflects on the significance of sociotechnical imaginaries, discourses, geopolitical and historical conditions, and tensions in explaining the processes and consequences of mega dams as ‘development solutions’. As well as exploring the transnational circuits of planning and finance that are facilitating the making of new hydropower hotspots in the Himalayas, the thesis also assesses how host countries/administrative regions (such as Nepal) deal with the burgeoning interests, strong advocacy, and funding support for hydropower development in their territories. Unravelling the entanglements of this new energy infrastructure wave, I suggest that mega projects like dams are not a singular apolitical, technical entity that are fixed by spatial, temporal, and historical boundaries. Instead, dams are constantly in a state of becoming, as new hegemonies and development logics are established and re-established. Studying the technopolitics of such interventions can alert us to the voices, actors, techniques, practices, and discourses that are prioritized or marginalized in particular historic moments. It can also offer a nuanced perspective on the emergence or re-emergence of certain development priorities and projects at different points in time., Margaret Anstee Centre Studentship; GARS Travel Grant; University Fieldwork Fund; Phillip Lake II Fund

This paper presents a quantitative chronology for the spread of rice, based on the global Rice Chronology Database that builds upon direct datings of archaeological rice remains. Bayesian and spatio-temporal modelling suggest eastern China (lower Yangzi, middle Yangzi, southern Huai River, and Shandong) and northeastern South Asia as two key origins of rice cultivation, dating to ca. 7430 and 6460 BCE, respectively. At least two episodes of spread of rice are identified. The first, dating to the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE, accounts for the appearance of rice in the middle Yellow River and Wei River regions, southeastern China, southwestern China, and Southeast Asia. An examination of population dynamics in China shows that this episode of spread might be associated with farmers whose subsistence was based largely on millets. During a second episode of spread, dating between the 1st millennium BCE and 1st millennium CE, rice spread to the Liao River region, Central Asia, and Africa.

Impacts on households from large carnivores are frequently reported in the conservation literature, but conflicts between households and large carnivore conservation are not. Employing a human-wildlife coexistence framework that distinguishes between human-wildlife impacts on one hand, and human-conservation conflicts on the other, this paper presents data from Annapurna Conservation Area and Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, Nepal, each with different models of conservation governance. Using systematic sampling, quantitative information from 705 households was collected via questionnaires, while 70 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants for cross-methods triangulation. 7.7% of households reported conflicts with snow leopard conservation in the previous 12 months, primarily due to damage to livelihoods; these were significantly higher in the Annapurna region. 373 livestock were reported lost by households to snow leopards in the previous 12 months, representing 3.4% of total livestock owned and US$ 132,450 in financial value. Livestock losses were significantly lower in the Everest area. In linear regression models, total household livestock losses to all sources best explained conflicts with snow leopard conservation and household livestock losses to snow leopards but the models for the former dependent variable had very low explanatory power. Conservation in general, and large carnivore conservation in particular, should distinguish carefully between impacts caused by coexistence with these species and conflicts with conservation actors and over the methods and interventions used to conserve carnivores, especially where these negatively impact local livelihoods. In addition, livestock husbandry standards are highlighted again as an important factor in the success of carnivore conservation programmes.

The objective of this observational study was to determine the incidence of emergence delirium (ED) and its association with preoperative anxiety using the modified Yale preoperative anxiety scale and paediatric anaesthesia emergence delirium scale, in a tertiary care institution in South Asia.A total of 250 children of 2-8 years of age (of either gender, American Society of Anaesthesiology classification I or II, undergoing infra umbilical surgery, using caudal block for analgesia) were enrolled and the study was completed. The primary outcome measure was the presence of ED using the paediatric anaesthesia emergence delirium score. A cut-off value equal to or more than 12 at any time point was taken as ED. The secondary measure was preoperative anxiety, measured using the modified Yale preoperative anxiety scale at 30 minutes before going into the operating room. A cut-off score of 30 was used.The median age of the children was thirty-six months IQR (24-60). There were 230 (91%) males and 20 (9%) females. Twenty-two percent of the children experienced emergence delirium. One-point increase of modified Yale preoperative anxiety scale anxiety score was significantly associated with 1.23 times the odds of emergence delirium OR =1.23 (1.16-1.29) as compared with those without emergence delirium.The incidence of emergence delirium in our cohort was 22.4%, and there was a significant association between preoperative anxiety and emergence delirium.

Mauritian Muslims have undergone a long process of religious standardization and sectarian segmentation. How have sharp religious boundaries such as those that separate Muslims from Hindus and Christians, as well as those that divide Muslims internally along sectarian lines emerged in a creole society such as Mauritius? This article traces how religionization has supplanted race as the chief category of incorporation of people of Indian origins in the creole society of Mauritius. Religionization emerged as a shared project among Mauritians of Indian origins who subsequently became known as Hindus and Muslims. Given the historical interconnectedness of Christianization and creolization in plantation societies such as Mauritius, the shift from race to religion as modes of incorporation among Mauritians of Indian background offers a distinct angle on the question of creolization and religion. It requires a distinction between creolization in a broader sense, and creolization in a deeper sense, the latter inseparable from racialization and Christianization, pointing to the difficulties of the creolization concept in coming to terms with settings of profound religious diversity.

Our aim was to determine the impact of a 3-month diabetes self-management education and support (DSME/DSMS) intervention involving both professional and peer support on glycemic control and diabetes distress in South Asian adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) living in Metro Vancouver.We recruited 114 South Asian adults with T2D for a study conducted across 7 sites in Metro Vancouver. A previous DSME/DSMS intervention was modified using participant feedback. Participants attended the updated intervention involving 6 biweekly group-based DSME sessions co-led by a diabetes educator and peer leader and 6 biweekly DSMS sessions delivered by a peer leader. Assessments were conducted at baseline and 3 months. Primary outcomes were glycated hemoglobin (A1C) and diabetes distress. Secondary outcomes included apolipoprotein B, blood pressure (BP), height and weight, waist circumference, diabetes support and depressive symptoms.After the 3-month intervention, linear mixed-effects modelling demonstrated A1C decreased significantly from 8.2% (66 mmol/mol) to 7.8% (62 mmol/mol) (p0.0001), as did body mass index (from 30.02 to 29.7 kg/mParticipation in a professional plus peer-led intervention tailored by South Asian adults with T2D is associated with improved glycemic control and other favourable health outcomes.

The article surveys the history of South Asian literature and epigraphy for reliable evidence regarding the existence of early hospitals. It explores the reasons that may account for the exclusion of South Asian data from international scholarship on the history of hospitals. The widely-repeated idea that King Aśoka built hospitals is refuted. Nevertheless, hospitals may be very early in India. It is suggested that scholarly medical literature on the building and equipping of a hospital was transmitted to Baghdad in the late eighth century and influenced the construction of early Islamic hospitals

There has been a consistent rise in urban disasters, particularly in developing countries located in tropical areas. Among various challenges of disaster risk management and climate change impacts, it is noted that most residents are poorly informed about their risk exposure or apposite response. The paper is based on the premise that one important cause for this gap is inadequate emphasis on risk communication at different levels of planning and agreements. Accordingly, it highlights some important gaps in the risk communication across international agreements including Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and evaluates their impacts at the local level. It brings three selected urban case studies located in the tropical areas of the South Asia region that illustrate gaps in risk communication that result in enhanced vulnerability and deviations in response. The findings are based on secondary data and literature focusing on global agreements, risk communication, and disaster response. The paper argues that even though global strategies address urban risks, the fragmented nature of risk communication results in poor response and contributes to losses that occur in disasters. Three critical gaps noted in risk communication include (i) it not prioritized at different levels, (ii) inadequate structures to measure its impacts and stakeholders inclusiveness, and (iii) indifference to cultural diversity and integration. Further, it is suggested that there is a need to redefine risk communication at the global scale that extends beyond warning generation and considers multiple factors influencing response including interlinked vulnerabilities and variations in perceptions emerging from varied geographical, socio-cultural, economic, and political processes.

The relationship between the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) and the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM), which remains a subject of controversy, was investigated using data analyses and numerical experiments. We categorized IOD events according to their sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) pattern: type W and type E are associated with stronger SSTA amplitudes in the western and eastern poles of the IOD, respectively, while type C has comparable SSTA amplitudes in both poles during boreal autumn. Type W is associated with a weak SASM from May to summer, which contributes to substantial warming of the western pole in autumn; the east–west SST gradient linked to the warming of the western pole causes weak southeasterly wind anomalies off Sumatra and feeble and cold SSTAs in the eastern pole during the mature phase. Type E is associated with a strong SASM and feeble warming of the western pole; interaction between the strong SASM and cold SSTAs in the eastern pole in summer results in strong southeasterly wind anomalies off Sumatra and substantial cooling of the eastern pole during the mature phase. For type C, warming of the western pole and cooling of the eastern pole develop synchronously without apparent SASM anomalies and reach comparable intensities during the mature phase. Observations and numerical simulation results both indicate the role of disparate SASM anomalies in modulating SSTA patterns during the development of positive IODs. Warming of the tropical Indian Ocean becomes established in the winter and spring following type W and type C IODs but not following type E events.

Convective vertical transport is critical in the monsoonal overturning, but the relative roles of different convective systems are not well understood. This study used a cloud classification and tracking technique to decompose a convection-permitting simulation of the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) into subregimes of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), non-MCS deep convection (non-MCS), congestus, and shallow convection/clear sky. Isentropic analysis is adopted to quantify the contributions of different convective systems to the total SASM vertical mass, water, and energy transports. The results underscore the crucial roles of MCSs in the SASM vertical transports. Compared to non-MCSs, the total mass and energy transports by MCSs are at least 1.5 times stronger throughout the troposphere, with a larger contributing fraction from convective updrafts compared to upward motion in stratiform regions. Occurrence frequency of non-MCSs is around 40 times higher than that of MCSs. However, per instantaneous convection features, the vertical transports and net moist static energy (MSE) exported by MCSs are about 70–100 and 58 times stronger than that of non-MCSs. While these differences are dominantly contributed by differences in the per-feature MCS and non-MCS area coverage, MCSs also show stronger transport intensities than non-MCSs over both ocean and land. Oceanic MCSs and non-MCSs show more obvious top-heavy structures than their inland counterparts, which are closely related to the widespread stratiform over ocean. Compared to the monsoon break phase, MCSs occur more frequently (~1.6 times) but their vertical transport intensity slightly weakens (by ~10%) during the active phases. These results are useful for understanding the SASM and advancing the energetic framework.

Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels (Madan) is widely distributed in South Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, where it was naturally found. There were only few studies reported on S. cumini for its values and other benefits in Sri Lanka. This study focuses on morphological characterization and the diversity of S. cumini trees in seven locations of Sri Lanka. Data were collected on different morphological traits. Leaf, flower and fruit morphology showed significant differences among locations. Further, trees from Batticaloa region showed different morphology, which would potentially open a different avenue for further study to trace different cultivars across the country. Results of the diversity index and multivariate analyses indicated high diversity in morphology and antioxidant capacity of trees. The variables such as leaf area, inter-nodal length, petiole length, anther length, filament length, fruit size and pericarp thickness could be suitable candidates to investigate the morphological variation of S. cumini any further. Antioxidant capacity studies also showed significant differences among locations and trees. Fruit hue angle was positively correlated to antioxidant capacities. Finding of this study concluded that the wide distribution of S. cumini trees throughout Sri Lanka in different geographical locations showed high diversity in leaf, flower and fruit morphology together with antioxidant capacity.

Rationale: To date, there is no published local epidemiological evidence documenting the respiratory health effects of source specific air pollution in South Asia, where PM2.5 composition is differ...

This book is an ambitious, deeply exciting history of subjectivity in eighteenth-century Persianate South Asia. Keshavmurthy crafts meticulous portraits of three authors: literary historian and bio...

This thesis is an observational study that investigates the systemic and domestic obstacles to proposed maritime confidence-building measures (MCBMs) between India and Pakistan. The impediments identified apply to a lack of general cooperation between the South Asian states; however, this thesis leverages prior academic work, which posits that the maritime issues are not only resolvable but may facilitate further momentum to address more contentious disputes. Following the introduction chapter, this study is partitioned into four sections to answer the question: why did the proposed MCBMs not hold between India and Pakistan? First, a thorough overview of the two relevant maritime issues, namely the Sir Creek dispute and the maritime boundary demarcation, are examined in tandem with MCBM progression and the implications left unresolved. Second, the systemic obstacle is argued by investigating 20th-century historical legacies and how they precipitated the social construction and institutionalization of enmity. Third, the domestic obstacle is posited by observing each state’s 21st-century media environments and how the fourth estate may contribute to hostility. Lastly, the conclusion argues for the urgent need for greater MCBMs, given the current maritime volatility in South Asia, and recommends proposals for the United States, India, and Pakistan. Lieutenant, United States Navy Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

This study applies quasi-experimental designs to assess how successful the special economic zones (SEZs) have been in offering a better investment climate than what is available to firms outside of them in three South Asian countries: India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The World Bank Enterprise Surveys’ data for 2013–2014 on 68 investment climate factors for all the three countries have been organized into 50 onsite and offsite investment climate variables for the assessment. The study is the first to provide causal evidence based on the matching and weighting methods. The key argument is that what sets SEZs apart from other economic zones is their ability to overcome growth impeding institutions. The results however show that the SEZs could not be insulated from the wider institutional contexts in which they are embedded. There are gaps between promises and implementation on the one hand and perceived and actual improvement on the other. The paper has important implications for policy makers who seem to be in a rush to set up SEZs as a development panacea.

Background: Patients’ illness stories are valuable information that supports person-centred care across the illness trajectory. Aims: To learn how older South Asian immigrant women experience living with heart illness long after discharge from hospital. Method: We used narrative inquiry, a personal experience method that explores and interprets lived and told stories through the three dimensions of experience. Design: Four participants, over the age of sixty, living with heart illness for over ten years, were invited to engage in narrative interview and Narrative Reflective Process. Outcomes: Giving patients voice, allows caregivers insight into the human experience of illness beyond hospitalization. Considering the increased migration of people around the globe, this knowledge is significant in provision of person-centred care. Implications: Person-centred care does not end with the hospitalization and outpatient clinics. Inter-disciplinary teams need to reconsider the trajectory of chronic illnesses and the care required throughout, especially for marginalized populations.

Working across South Asia, the CGIAR research initiative‘TransformingAgrifood System in South Asia(TAFSSA)’aims to deliver a coordinated program of research and engagement across the food production–to–consumption continuum to support equitable access to sustainable healthy diets, improve farmer livelihoods and resilience, and conserve land, air and groundwater resources. This transdisciplinary research seeks to map the impact of food waste across the different stakeholders in the food supply chains in India and Bangladesh using‘lean thinking’principles. In so doing, a sustainability performance matrix will be developed for encapsulating the economic, social, and environmental indicators as well as key performance indicators (KPIs) for identifying, assessing and benchmarking food waste across the food supply chains. The holistic sustainability performance matrix will help guide industry and policymakers to better understand the external costs of food waste and enable different stakeholders along the value chain to manage food waste more effectively. The new sustainability dimension of mapping the impact of food waste will contribute to both academic knowledge and improving industrial performance.

Supply Chain and Sustainability Research (SCSR), 1, 2, 38-53

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the significance of empowering local authorities to respond to health emergencies. This policy brief, drawing on a comparative analysis of four Indian states, shows that a successful pandemic response depends on factors such as local governance, community engagement, and decisive leadership. As India's federal system has demonstrated, an undue centralisation of authority combined with a decentralisation of responsibility without adequate resources can undermine the efficacy of a crisis response. Political polarisation can be a formidable obstacle, obstructing coordination and exacerbating the inefficiency of crisis response. Kerala's and Odisha's crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic has been commendable, with dedicated leadership, coordinated efforts between the respective state and local administrations, and active public engagement contributing to their success. Despite having a weaker healthcare system, Odisha's response to the crisis was comparable to Kerala's, while Uttar Pradesh's was hindered by uncommitted leadership and polarisation along political and communal lines. Karnataka, with a stronger healthcare infrastructure than Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, performed only marginally better than Uttar Pradesh, primarily due to a lack of committed leadership, cooperation, and trust across government agencies. Decision-makers in federal systems worldwide, and in the European Union in particular, can benefit from studying India's COVID-19 response. To achieve a successful response, policymakers should prioritise horizontal and vertical coordination and encourage subnational innovation. India's state-level experiences suggest the importance of leveraging networks between different levels of government and civil society. Key factors for success include strong infrastructure, committed leadership, collaboration across government departments, empowerment of grassroots initiatives, and active community engagement.

This article probes the history of education and current pedagogical practices among Malayali physician-teachers, vaidya-gurus, of Ayurveda in central Kerala. Considering the sources vaidya-gurus cite as the bases of their teaching styles, especially a three-part method known as mukhāmukhaṃ (‘face-to-face’ instruction), I discuss the place, production, and practice of texts in the didactic arrangement of the ayurvedic gurukula, ‘teacher’s residence’. Unlike subject-specific textbook learning at ayurvedic colleges, where students attend lectures and take exams in subjects like anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and so forth, mukhāmukhaṃ education entails a rigorous philological investigation of the Sanskrit medical classics and allied regional sources that, under the guidance and modelling of a vaidya-guru, empowers students to do things with the texts in their own clinical engagements with patients. During mukhāmukhaṃ training, the ayurvedic gurukula becomes a discursive space wherein formal rules concerning the interpretation and transmission of technical healing knowledge in texts are, by design, upended with improvisational inquiry and exploration, inter- and intratextual referencing, and an ongoing production of new texts to meet the healthcare needs of patients.

Economic growth necessitates the development of human capital and education. It plays a critical and necessary role in the formulation of income distribution policies and alleviating poverty. This study investigates the relationship through ordinary least square (OLS), fully-modified OLS and dynamic OLS models using panel data from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries from 1990 to 2018. According to the findings, imbalance plays an important role in influencing poverty and concludes that the government should embrace procedures that help improve pay distribution to reduce poverty at the strategy level. Furthermore, the findings state that a bi-directional Granger causality exists between schooling and poverty. In terms of strategy, SAARC countries should continue to increase the proportion of sustainable energy used for financial development, thereby decreasing the use of fossil energy for environmental improvements. Additionally, this study shows that the association of pay disparity hoses the positive effect of financial development on poverty, and it supports the contention that the degree of imbalance reduces the impact of comprehensiveness. Pay disparity is now a critical determinant of poverty.

SUMMARYThe substantial strain that women are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic can affect their menstrual cycle and further impair their quality of life. In low- and middle-income countries, this strain is exacerbated by: cultural taboos and poor education related to menstruation; ‘period poverty’; unavailability of menstrual hygiene products; and poor hygiene facilities. We suggest actions that governments, healthcare professionals and individuals can take to address these factors and minimise the psychological impact of COVID-19 on women's physical and mental health.

This paper brings the life and social world of a cross-dressing Sufi in rural Pakistan into relationship with the Sufi textual tradition to demonstrate that living gendered practices of sexual difference may serve as a form of what I call embodied metaphor that carries multiple layers of significance. Such embodied metaphors are not mere expressions or negotiations of identity but go beyond gender to point to other desires and realities. Drawing on a Lacanian interpretation of metaphor and metonymy, I argue that gender play allows confrontation with an aporia of sexual difference that unsettles the speaking subject. I demonstrate the rich intertextuality of the Sufi body as metaphor while also addressing how the metaphorical possibilities of the Sufi body have been affected by the recent development of a legal discourse of the third gender in Pakistan and the intensification of efforts to reform or purify Islam.

Candida meningitis is a rare life-threatening yeast infection mostly involving immunocompromised or paediatric patients undergoing neurosurgical procedures or shunt placement. Due to difficulties in diagnosis because of diverse clinical manifestations, the number of patients affected is most likely underestimated. Therefore, the correct diagnosis may be delayed for months, and accurate species identification is highly recommended for administering appropriate antifungal therapy. We report the first case of fluconazole-resistant Candida auris meningitis in a paediatric patient in Iran. This strain was probably imported, as it genotypically belonged to Clade I from South Asia. Furthermore, we include a literature review of C auris meningitis cases, as the number of cases with C auris meningitis has increased with reports from the United Kingdom, India and Iran. This problem might increase further in the era of COVID-19 due to attrition of experienced healthcare personnel and a high workload of hospital healthcare workers. To understand the precise prevalence of this emerging multidrug resistance pathogen, epidemiological surveillance studies are urgently warranted.

Since mid-second millennium BCE, glass bangles have been an item of mass consumption throughout South Asia. The archaeological community has spent considerable time and energy reconstructing ancien...

Scaffolding poetry, drawing, and narrative fragments from lived experience, I offer mishritata (mixedness) as a way to make meaning of multiply minoritized identity through the “doing” of dissertation research with one’s communities. Conceptualized as an orientation, mishritata is an indigenized embodied borderlands positionality that recognizes and celebrates the mixedness of the Queer Desi/South Asian experiences: an interplay of histories and contexts, of people and places, and of structures and systems that organize them across borders, both real and imagined.

This study analyzes how the “commercialized performance of affiliative race and ethnicity” (CPOARAE) generates boundary processes that disrupt established ethnoracial hierarchies. The CPOARAE involves three parties: managers of a service workplace, workers lowly positioned in the ethnoracial hierarchy, and ethnoracial majority customers. The managers hire workers to carry out affiliative racial and/or ethnic performance to make customers feel that they are being served by workers who belong to highly positioned ethnoracial groups. I analyze the symbolic boundary disorientations of Han-Chinese Hongkonger customers, which result from customers’ confrontation with ethnoracial ambiguity during CPOARAEs. These boundary processes show that despite being a capitalistic product and a popular cultural practice, CPOARAEs have the potential to disrupt and remake ethnoracial hierarchy. This study’s data are primarily collected from multiple in-depth interviews with 24 customers and participant observation in several restaurants, and secondarily from interviews with managers and workers.

In 1943, Freda Bedi – a woman who was English by birth but who made her life in South Asia – wrote a pioneering weekly column “From a Woman’s Window” for a leading nationalist-minded daily newspape...

Reflexivity is not a new concept; however, the researcher’s reflexivity on caste and gender preconception in the South Asian context is an understudied area in qualitative studies. We know less abo...

This article presents a translation from the Sindhi oral tradition of bhagat. It originates in Sindh, Pakistan. Today it is practiced by Hindu narrators in post-Partition India. The song translated in this paper focuses upon Bhagat Kanvar Ram, who contemporary bhagat narrators mention frequently. This essay exemplifies his influence on the bhagat tradition in the areas of inspiration, authority, and performance style. It offers a glimpse of the dynamics of the live performances of oral texts.