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All over the world, waste and its disposal are becoming a more prominent issue, as landfills swell up and growing evidence points to its contribution to climate change and environmental degradation. In the developing world, waste pickers sort through solid waste and sell it to vendors, who will recycle the product into something consumable. The work they do is vital to climate change mitigation, as well as urban cleanliness. In a way, waste pickers, especially in India, are vehicles of environmental justice, but they are often discriminated against and subjected to inhumane working conditions. In this environment, the pandemic hit, making waste pickers' already precarious life even worse. This paper attempts to fill the gap in the academic literature by compiling a systemized literature review of the impacts of COVID-19 on waste-pickers' lives using an environmental justice perspective. The review also uses a Feminist Political Ecology perspective to illuminate the double jeopardy that female waste pickers face in the era of COVID-19, which academia often ignores. Ultimately, this paper shows that COVID-19 exacerbated the preexisting injustices that the waste picker community face and created an immense burden on women. This paper will show that it is important to notice the differentiation between female and male waste picker challenges, especially at the crux of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper has important policy implications as well as research considerations for both environmental justice and feminist political ecology scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the U.S. reportedly online sales hit $791.70 billion in 2020, up 32.4% from $598.02 billion in the prior year, according to Commerce Department figures. With an eye on the pandemic ecommerce seems to have thrived in 2020 because of store closures and shoppers' fear of contracting the Corona virus in public. This was largely because with the corona virus cases spiking in January, 2021, many of the consumers were avoiding direct contact at stores and purchasing online. Focus: This paper looks into the market reports and surveys conducted by various government, non-government and civil society bodies. There were several factors that contributed to the rapid adaptation of online shopping by population across the developed and developing world and especially in India. Method: The current research work is based on primary and secondary data. The tools of research were a telephonic interview of a sample of Punjab's college going youth. The students of the Science and Humanities streams of two colleges were taken up for the study randomly. Snowball sampling was done to take up influences of opining leaders who were emulated as examples by most other students. Scope: The research would enhance the market understanding of the online shopping trends and benefit the retailers greatly. In a way the pandemic presented online shopping as a genuine step up from the traditional retail measures. It has equally boosted the small time business houses as well as large chain retailers of the world. Results and Findings: On line shopping has presented a world-class shopping experience supported by the best shopping opportunities technology to the urban and rural youth of Punjab who are entrenched in utilizing the best post the Lockdown and the pandemic. As their expectations are growing they are including more adherents to this mode of shopping. In the case of India the on-line shopping range of consumables has grown from bare necessities to essentials and finally to luxury goods like branded clothes and gadgetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 is threatening economic globalization. Global production networks are being disrupted on a never-before-seen scale as a result of simultaneous shocks to supply and demand caused by containment measures. The pandemic has highlighted how globally interconnected the flow of goods and services has become vulnerable, and countries are now reframing their international trade strategies to handle economic shocks post pandemic. The drop in FDI will be especially hard on developing countries. FDI inflows to developing countries are expected to fall even more than the global average, given that sectors severely impacted by the pandemic account for a larger share of FDI inflows in developing countries. Also, over the last few decades, developing countries have become more dependent on FDI. Between 1985 and 2017, FDI inflows to developing countries increased from 14 billion to 690 billion US dollars (in current prices). This represents an increase in share of global FDI inflows from 25% to 46%. The rise in FDI to developing countries is being supported by an increase in offshoring and global fragmentation of economic activities, particularly in the manufacturing and services sectors. The drop in global FDI is thus closely related to disruptions in global supply chains, which we have also seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper is an attempt to review the impact of current pandemic on FDI inflows in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global health diplomacy has gained significant importance and undoubtedly remained high on the agendas of many nations, regional and global platforms amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Many countries have realized the importance of the health sector and the value of a healthy workforce. However, there is little control on issues related to trade that impact on human health due to the dominance of profit-oriented business lobbies. A balance, however, needs to be struck between economic profits and a healthy global population. This paper aimed to highlight the importance of building capacity in global health diplomacy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic so that health personnel may effectively negotiate on the multisectoral stage to secure the resources they need. The recent proposal to waive off certain provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19 by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization (WTO) presents an important opportunity for all governments to unite and stand up for public health, global solidarity, and equitable access at the international level so that both developed and developing nations may enjoy improved health outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite several research evaluating the connection between sustainability and the bottom line of firms, the existing research is inconclusive. In addition, most studies focus on multinational firms based in the United States or Europe, while research in the context of emerging economies is scant. This paper endeavours to investigate the strength of the association between Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure scores and the financial performance of 272 Indian firms listed on National Stock Exchange for the period 2015 to 2021 by employing panel data regression techniques. The results indicate that organisations having better ESG performance outperform their industry peers financially and are valued more by the market. Moreover, the data indicates that financial markets for lenders consider ESG disclosure when determining creditworthiness. In accordance with this, businesses can examine their operations and become more aligned with eco-friendly methods. Even though ESG disclosure appears to be associated with improved financial success, this is not the case across all industries and during COVID-19 pandemic. This study is relevant due to the growing significance of sustainability and the role of emerging nations in international commerce. It helps managers prioritize resource allocations to ESG-related activities that may affect financial performance differently across industry sectors, thus adding to the literature on the financial effects of ESG disclosures, particularly industry-specific aspects. This research represents a pioneering effort by assessing the impact of ESG disclosure on the profitability, market value, and cost of financing of Indian firms using both aggregation and disaggregation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The movement toward systems thinking and complexity-informed evaluation has been ongoing for some time. COVID-19 has increased the salience of contextually aware, adaptive forms of evaluation. Purpose: Drawing very specifically upon experiences in the Global South, this article presents our reflections on competencies that have been integral to a collaboration involved with developmental health systems evaluation in India. Setting: This work is based on our experience over 3 years of providing monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) to a large philanthropic organization's portfolio of health systems work in India. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Not applicable. Data Collection and Analysis: Not applicable. Findings: We identify three types of evaluator competencies that derive from complexity-driven practice in a developing country. The first competency relates to deriving evidence in contexts where there are very few traditional forms of data. The second competency is related to skills required to play a convening role across varied stakeholders. The final competency relates to operational adaptiveness while evaluating an ecosystem with few constants. The pandemic created a natural experiment that required a reexamination of priorities in the unique context of reliable donor support in uncertain times. These three capacities are in fact interdependent and could only be developed iteratively, over time. Building competencies isn't simply about capacity building but rather requires a recognition of the diversity of skills and worldviews that need to be encompassed within our MERL functions for today's complex, discontinuous health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As a developing country, India initiated several labor measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. This study analyzes the impact of the Covid-19-induced comprehensive labor measures by Indian states on the Case Fatality Ratios and Recovery Rates. Such an analysis will provide deeper insights into the importance of labor measures during a health emergency. It will also be a reality check to the existing National Health Policy. Design/methodology/approach: The study examines the four major aspects of labor measures on migration, social security, state-specific needs and health and human rights. The authors use these to formulate a composite labor measure index to comprehend the Covid-19-induced various labor measures. Additionally, the authors apply pooled ordinary least squares and panel random-effects models with the state-wise monthly data to examine the impact of Covid-19-induced labor measures on the severity of the pandemic. Findings: Covid-19-induced comprehensive labor measures reduce fatalities and increase recovery rates. In particular, the measures on labor migration, state-specific needs and health and human rights adopted by the Indian states successfully reduce the Covid-19 fatalities and improve the recovery rates. However, the measures taken to address social security have been ineffective in reducing the severity of the pandemic. The study results are robust to various other specifications. Research limitations/implications: The time period covered in this research is very brief and does not account for the qualitative impact of labor measures on the severity of the pandemic. This study specifically addresses the number of Covid-19-induced labor measures and not the resources allocated to their implementations or the number of people who benefited from the measures. Practical implications: This study emphasizes the need for subnational comprehensive labor measures to reduce the severity of the pandemic in developing countries. The study confirms the need for effective Covid-19-induced social security measures to cope with the pandemic in India. This study also ascertains the beneficial impact of the measures on migration, state-specific needs and health and human rights. Originality/value: The authors make a composite labor measure index that captures state-level Covid-19-induced labor measures on diverse aspects, namely migration, social security, state-specific need and health and human rights, hitherto unexplored. In addition, the authors analyze the impact of these labor measures on the severity of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is known for the multiple mutations and forms that have rapidly spread across the world. With the imminent challenges faced by low- and middle-income countries in curbing the public health fallbacks due to limited resources, mucormycosis emerged as a fungal infection associated with high mortality. In this rapid review, we explored MEDLINE, Cochrane, Web of Science, WHO Global Database, and the search engine—Google Scholar for articles listed until July 2021 and presented a narrative synthesis of findings from 39 articles. The epidemiology, causative factors, incidence parameters, pharmacological treatment, and recommendations for low- and middle-income countries are enlisted. This study concludes that a majority of the globally reported COVID-19 associated mucormycosis cases stemmed from India. Individuals receiving systemic corticosteroids or who have a history of diabetes mellitus are more prone to contracting the disease. Public health authorities in LMIC are recommended to strengthen antifungal therapies for COVID-19 associated mucormycosis and to strategize reduction in diabetes mellitus prevalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]