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Background and Aims: Highly cited papers (HCPs) can influence both research and clinical practice. They help to identify core literature and important advances in a field. This study aimed to assess the current status and prospects of South Asia COVID-19 research from the HCPs using bibliometric indicators. Methodology: COVID-19 literature from South Asia published between December 2019 and 29 November 2023 in the Scopus database was analysed. The top HCPs, having more than 200 citations, were evaluated. Information about citation counts, authors and organisations and their affiliations, year of publication, source journal, geographical origin, subject, article type, funding details, etc. were retrieved and analysed. Data and visualisation analysis was undertaken using Microsoft Excel and other bibliometric software. Results: The 298 South Asia HCPs were published from 2020 to 2023 and were cited 200–3,596 times, with a mean average of 413.9 citations per paper (CPP). Around 24.5% and 51.3% of HCPs received external funding support and were involved in international collaboration, respectively. The most productive organisations were the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, and the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, while the most impactful organisations were Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children, Mumbai, and Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute, Mumbai. The most productive journals were Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews. Conclusions: This study has identified core and significant authors, organisations, journals, subject fields and significant keywords, collaborators and funding agencies involved in South Asia's COVID-19 research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farhat Hasan, Paper, Performance, and the State: Social Change and Political Culture in Mughal India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, xv+155 pp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic survey of the cost of corrosion and wear has been carried out in a major pulp and paper plant in India. It is shown that the annual direct cost of corrosion and wear in the plant under consideration is £20 000. By extrapolation, the annual cost of corrosion in the entire pulp and paper industry in India is estimated to be £1·5 million. It is further shown that opting for an alternative, corrosion resistant material such as duplex stainless steel in the bleaching unit alone could lead to annual savings of almost £130 000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the study of the eco-impact of plastic and paper bags using the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) technique under three different options: usage and disposal criteria with the existing usage behavior to reuse and governmental policies to recycle (option1), usage and disposal criteria as per consumers' perceptions if systems are in place (option2) and usage and disposal criteria in case of absence of recycling systems (option3). The first stage, which was the baseline for other options, comprised of the study of the eco-impact of plastic and paper bags in the manufacturing phase, without considering the usage and disposal phases. LCIA was performed by the Eco-indicator 99, a damage oriented method for LCIA in SIMAPRO 7.1. The single score values calculated by the Eco-indicator '99 were considered as a directive to compare the environmental impact made by plastic and paper bags and a detailed explanation of the results is provided in this article. The next stage was the study of the eco-impact of these bags including their usage and disposal phases. This was undertaken with the three different options as stated above and the results derived were compared with the results derived from the baseline study, which is the main focus of the study under discussion. The values for usage and end-of-life phases were obtained from the questionnaire survey of different user groups of shopping bags in China, Hong Kong and India. The results of this study show that the eco-impact of plastic and paper bags was very high if there were no usage and disposal options provided. When the eco- impact values from options of existing possibilities and consumers' perception were compared, the eco- impact value was lower in option 1 in all the three countries for both types of bags, which is mainly attributed to the fact that in option 1, a higher percentage of reuse is preferred to recycle and disposal to landfill categories. Also the eco-impact of these two types of bags was studied with and without the presence of recycling systems in China, India and Hong Kong, where the eco-impact was lower due to the presence of recycling systems. The results indicate that a higher percentage of reuse could significantly trim down the eco-impact of plastic and paper bags. Consumers' perceptions and usage behaviors in connection with respective government's policies and implementation of recycling systems could be highly decisive in reducing the eco-impact of plastic and paper shopping bags. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon research in the state of Bihar, India, this article argues that informal access to medicines in Northern India is a core element of the government of healthcare. Informal providers such as unlicensed village doctors and unlicensed drug sellers play a major role in access to medicines in Bihar, in the particular context of the dismantling of public procurement services. Building on recent works in the socio-anthropology of pharmaceuticals, the article shows the importance of taking into account the political economy of drugs in India, in order to understand local problems of access more fully. If informal providers occupy such an important position in the government of healthcare in India, this is partly due to the shaping of healthcare as access to drugs on health markets. Elaborating the argument from interviews with health professionals and patients, the article first shows the situation of public healthcare and public procurement in Bihar; then it presents the role of informal medicine providers; lastly, it shows how patients deal with the fact that they live in a ‘pharmaceutical world’ where access to health equates with access to medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The World Health Organization Astana Declaration of 2018 sees primary healthcare as key to universal health coverage and gives further support to the goal of building sustainable models of community palliative care. Yet evaluating the benefits of such models continues to pose methodological and conceptual challenges. Objective: To explore evaluation issues associated with a community-based palliative care approach in Kerala, India. Design: An illuminative case study using a rapid evaluation methodology. Methodology: Qualitative interviews, documentary analysis and observations of home care and community organising. Results: We appraise a community palliative care programme in Kerala, India, using three linked 'canvases' of enquiry: (1) 'complex' multi-factorial community-based interventions and implications for evaluation; (2) 'axiological' orientations that foreground values in any evaluation process and (3) the status of evaluative evidence in postcolonial contexts. Three values underpinning the care process were significant: heterogeneity, voice and decentralisation. We identify 'objects of interest' related to first-, second- and third-order outcomes: (1) individuals and organisations; (2) unintended targets outside the core domain and (3) indirect, distal effects within and outside the domain. Conclusion: We show how evaluation of palliative care in complex community circumstances can be successfully accomplished when attending to the significance of community care values. Plain language summary: Where are the values in evaluating palliative care? Learning from community-based palliative care provision The evaluation of any intervention or service will inevitably involve a series of decisions on what we measure, what criteria we use to judge whether the intervention has been successful (or not), what type of data we actually collect and what methods we use to do this. When evaluating a range of palliative care interventions, we suggest that these decisions have often been taken in a concealed way and tend to favour relatively narrow quantitative measures linked to end outcomes. Our paper reports on the evaluation of a community-based palliative care intervention on Kerala, India. In it, we suggest that such complex work requires a broader approach to evaluation that: makes the values being used to assess success explicit; draws on a range of data types; is interested in delivery processes; and places the voices of participants at the heart of the assessment. The paper concludes with some broader observations on how these principles might be applied more widely within palliative care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper explores the cultural context of maternal and child health (MCH) care practices and beliefs of Irula tribes. It identifies the factors and analyses the pattern of their domiciliary deliveries and neonatal care among Irula, which is one of the PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) in Tamil Nadu. The paper adopted a descriptive research design based on the pilot survey and ethnographic fieldwork. It examines the health care beliefs and practices relating to maternal and neonatal care connected with a holistic view of the Irula community's cultural dimensions. The paper also demonstrates the factors for domiciliary deliveries, non-utilization of prevailing state's health interventions, and incentives for maternal and child health care services among the Irulas. Keeping in view the aforementioned argument, an empirical study was carried out in six Irular settlements of Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We undertake a case study on the SHIKSHA initiative in Uttar Pradesh in Northern India to understand how impactful the technology-integrated pedagogy through public–private partnerships (PPP) in education has been on the learning outcomes of students. A content analysis to understand the processes adopted by the SHIKSHA initiative is attempted. The digitized curriculum developed is found to be contextualized in accordance with the background of students, which can be aligned with constructivist learning theory. We also attempt a quantitative analysis to estimate the impact of these pedagogical practices on learning outcomes. The analysis finds that the average scores of schools with SHIKSHA interventions are higher by 58 percentage points. Also, under SHIKSHA, a 15-day period was given to the students for revision of the courses with the active participation of the teachers. The average scores after these revisions record an improvement as compared to the average scores before revisions. The paper suggests that the digitization of content by the government or through PPPs can help boost effective learning. JEL Classifications: C120, H520, I200, I210, I220, I280 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial surrogacy industry in India administers in a way where the women working as surrogate mothers live in surrogate houses. It is a space deliberately designed and run by either the fertility clinics or a third-party agency, where the surrogate mothers are required to stay for the entire gestation period. The surrogacy industry in India utilizes the vulnerability of couples who do not or cannot have children, in order to prepare valuable and docile bodies which can serve as a platform for accumulation of wealth. This paper draws from an ethnographic inquiry of the surrogate housing facilities functioning in two cities in India: Anand and Bengaluru. The paper will argue that the surrogacy industry in India produces geographies of carceral domesticity by deploying disciplining apparatuses governing the day-to-day mundane activities of the reproductive laborers. The medical experts often resort to the narrative that these women cannot be trusted with the safety of the babies they carry, hence, justifying their confinement in the surrogate house. Further, the possibility that the surrogate mothers may develop emotional attachments to the babies they carry, which in turn, will endanger the surrogacy arrangements, also runs through such narratives of regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious conversion and marriage across communal lines have long been contentious in India. The contemporary debate on 'Love Jihad' – the Hindu Nationalist conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of waging a religious war by seducing and converting unsuspecting Hindu brides – exemplifies the simultaneously geopolitical and biopolitical anxiety that religious conversion inspires. In this paper, I focus on the case of Hadiya, a young woman from Kerala, who, in 2016, found herself remanded first to her university's hostel – as dormitories are called in India – and then to her parents' home as various courts debated on the authenticity of her conversion to Islam, and her marriage to a Muslim partner. Through an examination of media discourse and court records in this case, the paper argues that in 'Love Jihad', the domestic and the carceral are rendered inextricably intertwined through an affective politics that presents desire outside the bounds of caste and religion as geopolitically misoriented. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's work on the phenomenology of orientation, I focus on the intimate geographies of the hostel, which I argue exemplifies a site of carceral convergence between nation and family, in the management of the affective disorder associated with religious conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the developed economies, recent political economy scholarship has highlighted the growing role of intangible assets (brand equity, software, business processes, patents etc.) in corporate portfolios. Much of this literature has emphasized how intangible assets erect barriers to entry, produce artificial scarcity of key inputs, enhance the pricing power of firms and thus lead to greater and greater levels of concentration. Being as they are monopoly rights and privileges, intangible assets represent the relational power of their owner vis-à-vis those excluded from their ownership. While much of this literature has focused on the developed world, this paper turns its gaze to the case of a developing country and analyzes the patterns and trends of intangible assets for a sample of Indian firms for the period 2000–2022. The analysis reveals a substantial acceleration in the weight of net intangible assets relative to net physical assets, especially after 2008. It also suggests that the largest and most powerful corporations are the ones that have contributed to this spike. Ranked by assets, sales and ownership category, the results show that intangible asset accumulation has been the strongest in the highest echelons of the corporate hierarchy. Moreover, the patterns of intangible asset accumulation have been such that they have not been restricted to the traditional "rentier" sectors in the sense that their presence in the "productive" sectors has been as important if not more so. By focusing on firm-level patterns of intangible asset accumulation, the results show the internal and necessary connections between accumulation and value capture that undergirds modern day capitalism in the Southern peripheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most nuclear dyads are characterized by some degree of nuclear and conventional asymmetry. This paper argues that these asymmetries create an environment in which deliberate nuclear first use (DNFU) can be rational. This possibility has been discarded in the formal literature on nuclear escalation because of the common reliance on the assumption of mutually assured destruction (MAD). This paper develops a formal model that traces how and under what circumstances two types of DNFU are rational. First, nuclear imbalances and advancements in counterforce technologies create a damage limitation incentive for a strong actor. Second, conventional asymmetry creates an incentive for the coercive use of nuclear weapons by the weaker player. Moreover, this paper illustrates that these asymmetric conditions are a relevant characteristic in important and very different nuclear dyads: DPRK–US, Pakistan–India, and Russia–US. Thus, the model demonstrates the potential core drivers of DNFU in today's nuclear landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between earnings management and financial distress and considers whether this relationship varies based on the severity of financial distress and signs of discretionary accruals (a proxy for earnings management). For this purpose, multiple regression analysis has been employed on a sample of 192 financially distressed Indian firms during the period 2011–2018, counting to 1,272 firm-year observations. Discretionary accruals are estimated by the Modified Jones model and Raman and Shahrur (2008) model, while Altman's Z -score and distance-to-default model are used to detect the degree of financial distress. The findings disclose that the low distressed firms are indulged in higher earnings management than high distressed firms. Also, the low distressed firms are engaged more in income-decreasing earnings management. However, the results are not consistent across both earnings management and distress measures. The findings have significant implications for investors and creditors. They need to be aware of this fact while evaluating creditworthiness of a firm since firms with even a low degree of financial distress can indulge in earnings management to camouflage their true financial condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit rating agencies (CRAs) play an essential role in efficiently allocating capital in the financial system. However, several researchers have highlighted shortcomings of CRAs, leading to drastic consequences such as the 2008 financial crisis. The paper focuses on the competition among CRAs as one of the critical drivers of issues plaguing the credit rating industry. The paper uses quantitative and regression techniques to check the impact of competition on a firm's credit rating. The paper utilizes firm-level financial and credit rating data from India. The paper uses dual ratings to check whether competition leads to rating inflation and shopping practices in the credit rating industry. The paper finds that CRA inflates a firm's credit rating due to competition from other CRAs. Rating shopping is also evident in the credit rating industry, driven by competition between CRAs to gain new clients. The paper's findings also indicate that increased competition for large-size firms business leads to CRAs showing leniency when rating such firms. The results raise the need for regulators to actively monitor and control the competition among CRAs to ensure the accuracy of credit ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper evaluates endoscopic stapedotomy from the perspectives of a group of 3 surgeons, each of whose experience in endoscopic and microscopic stapedotomy is 3 years and more than 12 years, respectively. Methods: Thirty-four patients clinically diagnosed with stapedial otosclerosis were alternately assigned for unilateral, microscope- and endoscope-assisted stapedotomy following the selection criteria given. Results were evaluated with predetermined epidemiologic, preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative outcome parameters. Results: The microscope group had 12 ears with otosclerosis and the endoscope-assisted group 14. Ears found to have conditions other than otosclerosis at surgery, and patients lost to follow-up were excluded. Apart from the operative time, the difference in the results of none of the parameters was statistically significant in the two groups. The average operative times for microscope- and endoscope-assisted stapedotomy were 63 minutes and 86.5 minutes, respectively, the difference being statistically significant (P <.001). Conclusions: From the perspectives of otologists in differential positions in the learning curve for microscope- and endoscope-assisted stapedotomy, there were no statistically significant differences between the two procedures in the execution of the steps to achieve "adequate surgical exposure" and in postoperative outcomes, except for operative time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and when can religious times become focal points for communal violence? In the context of Hindu-Muslim riots in India, I argue that incompatible ritual holidays where one religion's rituals are at odds with another (e.g., sacrificing cows or engaging in processions with idolatry) help explain the positive effect of sacred time on religious rioting. Holidays with incompatible rituals provide doctrinal differences that make riots more likely. These types of holidays can be used by riot entrepreneurs to incite violence or can independently raise an individual's willingness to engage in violence. I provide support for this argument by analyzing data on Hindu-Muslim riots across 100 years. I investigate the mechanisms through additional analysis and examining historical and present-day cases of riots that occurred on holidays. By focusing on the content of religion, this paper demonstrates how particular religious holidays can provide the underlying conditions that elites use to incite religious violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the debate on the relationship between farm size and utilisation of agricultural land. Since the 1960s, a large number of studies have been examining this relationship and suggesting possible explanations supporting their thoughts. Three significant hypotheses exist in the literature forwarded by different scholars in this regard: an inverse relationship, a positive and a U-shaped one. Using the recent data from the Agriculture Census of India, this paper attempts to analyse the spatio-temporal trends of the relationship between farm size and land utilisation and examine the hypotheses and explanations already advanced, taking a state-level analysis in India. We found an inverse relationship where smaller farms are more fully and intensively used compared to the larger farms; however, the increasing share of unutilised land among the small and medium farms in the recent decade of 2005–2006 to 2015–2016 indicates a losing ground of small farmers because of ongoing agrarian distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian west coast is under constant threat from climate change-induced hazards. Various social, economic, and infrastructural disparities along the coast cause significant variations in climate vulnerability. Current literature assesses vulnerability either over (1) a large area with poor spatial resolution or (2) a local area with better spatial resolution. The former assessments provide more comprehensive and broad insights into large spatial trends of vulnerability, while the latter provide more accurate and specific inputs needed by the local governments for effective intervention. However, there is a lack of studies that assess vulnerability simultaneously at a high-resolution and over a large geographic area, due to inadequacies in existing methodologies and difficulty in data management and analysis. This is a key gap that we address in our paper. We assess climate vulnerability of the entire Indian west coast at the village level, and propose a novel machine-learning based methodology tailored for high-resolution assessment over large geographic areas. This helped us produce the first high-resolution (i.e. village-level) climate vulnerability map of the entire Indian west coast. We found that the state of Maharashtra has the highest number of vulnerable villages and the state of Kerala has the least number of vulnerable villages. We collate and utilize a large dataset of 112 indicators describing socioeconomic characteristics, infrastructure and availability of financial services, among other aspects, to obtain a comprehensive picture of vulnerability. We analyze geospatial trends and attribute high vulnerability to specific indicators, which will help in effective decision-making at the village level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory forms of policy-making have often been criticized for insufficiently theorizing the coproduction of publics and matters of concern. This paper seeks to investigate this relationship further by analyzing how the concept of civic epistemologies (CEs) can provide insights for understanding how political contexts shape both publics and contestable debates. Presenting fieldwork on cyclone governance in Odisha, India, based on the analysis of interviews with vulnerable fishing communities and state actors, the article shows how CEs influence the interdependent formation of vulnerable fisher and state subjectivities on one hand with representations of risk located in external biophysical atmospheric gases on the other, thereby sustaining reductive roles and futures. At the same time, the paper develops the concept of CEs by examining them as performative acts carried out by marginalized communities and state actors at the subnational level of a nonindustrialized country, thereby indicating sites at which epistemic agency can be increased and governed. Participatory knowledge production needs to understand how it is affected by CEs if it is to generate effective expertise for transformative futures in the face of increasing climatic risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial surrogacy marketizes life's work. In the era of neo-liberalism, women's work, which is often intimately performed within a heterosexual marriage in exchange of support, now remains a principal avenue to earn money. This form of feminization of labor has led to the emergence of markets for women's reproductive capacities. The present study stems from my ethnographic journey into the lives of the women who work as surrogate mothers in India. The narratives presented in the paper emerge from my prolonged fieldwork in Anand, Gujarat. It engages with the experiences, understandings, and the voices of these women, who I term reproductive laborers, in order to examine the notion of putting one's reproductive capacities in this intimate market for money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium enterprises are the key engines for the economic development of nations. Their role in sustained growth even during the pandemic era is established. Numerous initiatives thus were planned by the government for their growth, sustenance and expansion. Digitalisation is one such initiative as well as a solution in the 'new normal'. Despite its availability, access and government support, there is considerable digital divide in micro and small businesses. Experience and research confirms that the lack of digital skills and IT literacy is an important reason for this digital divide in India. Studies also reveal a lack of assessment framework to measure the basic digital skills/competencies that cater to micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This paper is an attempt to fill this gap by building a conceptual framework using evidence-centred assessment design (ECD) model that can comprehensively assess the Digital literacy skills/ levels among the MSMEs. This framework will benefit the stakeholders in understanding the current level of digital literacy, skill gap and digital adaptability among the MSMEs and provide a basis for planning digital literacy initiatives and skill development programs. The framework facilitates scale development for empirical testing thus adding to the theoretical rigor. In addition, the paper will open up avenues for future research through scale development to test the measurement of measure digital literacy in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a study on forecasting hourly electricity spot prices for India. Forecasting electricity prices is challenging for its special characteristics. Based on hourly data covering several years, ARMAX models are estimated for forecasting for individual regions. Along with ARMA, intra-day, inter-day and hourly variations and seasonalities on weekdays, holidays and festive days are incorporated. Combinations of static and dynamic forecasts are also examined. The results indicate that prices for Sundays and holidays differ significantly from weekdays; also, a clear region-specific difference between prices in winter and summer months is observed. Price behaviour in the Southern region is different from other regions. The fitted models perform well for forecasting horizons of hourly prices of up to five days. The fitted ARMAX models have an easily implementable simple structure. Such forecasts provide valuable insights for policymakers and market participants, as they incorporate several features of the Indian electricity market, including various dimensions of seasonality of demand. JEL Classifications : C53, Q47, C51 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructure-making in interwar India was a dynamic, multilayered process involving roads and vehicles in urban and rural sites. One of their strongest playgrounds was Bombay Presidency and the Central Provinces in central and western India. Focusing on this region in the interwar period, this paper analyzes the varied relationship between peasant households and town-centred modernizing agents in the making of road transport infrastructures. The central argument of this paper is about the persistence of bullock carts over motor cars in the region. This persistence was grounded in the specific regional environment, the effects of the 1930s economic depression, and the priorities of social classes. Pinpointing these connections, the paper highlights that "modernization" of infrastructure was not a simple, linear process of progressivist change, nor did it mean the survival of apparently "old" technologies in the modern era. Instead, the paper pays attention to conflicting social complexities, implications, and meanings of the connection between infrastructure and modernity that modernization assumptions often overlook. Here, the paper shows how technological change occurred as a result of real, material class interests pulling infrastructural technology in different directions. This was where and why arguments of road-motor lobbyists and cart advocates eventually clashed, and Gandhian social workers resisted motor transport in defense of peasant interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healing of chronic lower extremity wounds is a global problem, especially in the developing world where it is often only folk and traditional medicine that can be afforded. In the structured health services of the developed world, there are usually a wider range of possible therapies. In India, traditional medicines flourish in parallel with Western systems, and those who treat wounds may use the expertise of more than one system. Ayurveda is a traditional system that has evolved in India over centuries using especially native plant sources as remedies. Like many Asian systems, its theoretical basis concerns balance and energy in the individual. In this perspective paper, the author advocates awareness of plant products available for wound healing and a study of the extent of their utilization. They must be developed for safe use and their efficacy reviewed, taking into account cure well-being and patient satisfaction as well as cost. Developing a list of products and classifying them appropriately is a beginning for such studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite exponential growth in Indian research, Indian journals have low impact factors. A previous study by one of the authors (CA) of this paper showed that articles published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (IJP) under-referenced previously published relevant papers in the same journal. Based on this, we decided to investigate the citation characteristics of contemporary scientific articles published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine (IJPM). Methods: The citation characteristics of scientific articles published in 2018 (Vol 40, issues 1–6) in the IJPM were examined to determine how well the authors cited relevant articles published during the past ten years in the IJPM and the IJP. Results: There were 145 and 142 citation-worthy articles in the IJPM and the IJP, respectively; of these, 85.5% and 65.5%, respectively, had not been cited. Conclusions: Authors publishing in the IJPM under-reference previous relevant research published in the IJPM and IJP. This suggests unawareness of, deliberate disregard of, or even disdain for prior Indian research in the field. Additionally, if Indian researchers do not cite previous Indian research in the field published in Indian journals, the citation metrics of Indian journals will not grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research on domestic violence in India recurrently highlight women's economic empowerment as a major deterrent to domestic violence. That said, this paper tries to understand what is the nature of relationship between women's empowerment and their experience of spousal violence? In doing so, it specifically explores how this relationship is interceded by regional specificities. Based on an analysis of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 data in India, this paper observes that the relationship between women's empowerment and domestic violence is contentious. However, women having some education and using mobile phones are less vulnerable. Hence, this study concludes that mobile phones and Internet-based applications as well as community-based interventions could be the effective measures to end domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the growing population and advancing economy, medical waste accumulation has come to the attention of all facets of society. Although the issue of medical waste management planning has been addressed in developed nations, it still exists in several developing nations. This paper examines the effects of barriers under the Organization action, work handling, and Human Resource Practices section on the healthcare waste management (HCWM) sector in a developing country India. In this study, three hypotheses were constructed and tested using Structural equation modeling. The questionnaire was distributed among 200 health professionals to collect their responses. Ninety-seven responses were received, and 15 barriers were identified affecting the healthcare waste management sector. The results show that all three barriers (i.e., Organizational, Waste handling, and Human resources) hinder the Healthcare waste management sector. Organizational Barriers are the most significant among other barriers. So, the hospitals have to take appropriate actions to overcome these barriers. This paper helps to complete the research gap by providing the different characteristics of barriers. The development of a model for the analysis of barriers influencing HCWM is the Author's original contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have found restrictions on minority faith-based communities to be related to the onset of violent religious hostilities. Absent from this work, though, is a consideration of the fact that minority religious discrimination can take different forms, and, consequently, may encourage violence in different ways. This paper seeks to fill this void by examining different forms of minority religious restrictions and their relationship to religious violence. Specifically, we analyze the comparative strength of three basic types of religious discrimination—restrictions on minority religious practices, restrictions on minority religious institutions, and restrictions on conversion and proselytizing —on violence carried out by both religious majority groups and religious minority groups. Interestingly, our analysis shows all three forms of restrictions encourage violence from religious majorities, but not from minorities. We supplement the statistical analysis with a case study of faith-based discrimination and violent religious hostilities in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines religious syncretism in India's Northeast with reference to reformed Heraka. It is perceived, contact of different cultural practices enforces natives to reinterpret and redefined beliefs and practices in conformation to appropriated culture. Historically, birth of Heraka was rooted in resistance against the British occupation, Christian proselytisation and intrusion of other neighbouring communities. To retain indigenous religious practices, reformation took its turn with introduction of new set of rules. In the flow, Heraka appropriated temple, idol and pilgrimage culture into its fold, and scrutinised Christian proselytisation under its radar. In its essence, Heraka is the by-product of Paupai-tenase, Christianity and Hinduism. This paper assesses through constructivist paradigm on how Heraka is perceived to be or not to be of indigenous religion. It is argued that there is a dilution in claim reformed religion, though, has reformed old practices, but with amalgamation in the construction of syncretic religious identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) occupied a unique place in the Indian federal structure as encoded in Article 370 of the Indian constitution. Incorporating Art. 370 in Indian Constitution reflected the recognition of the unique history and circumstances of J&K's accession to India. However, the article proved a roadblock in the Indian state's march to dictate and structure the politics of the state subservient to the perceived national interest, hence the unfailing attempts to gradually dilute it culminating in its total abrogation recently. The paper attempts at deconstructing the Indian state's preoccupation with weakening Art. 370 by arguing that it represented the project of extending homogenization with the ultimate objective of exercising maximum control in a security-sensitive border state. The paper contends that the efforts at homogenization proved counterproductive; it far from bringing stability has caused more political fragility in the state, thus feeding the very dynamics that it has been seeking to contain. In conclusion, the paper offers deepening federalization as the likely pacifier for the festering conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper speaks to the uneven scholarly attention gone into tracing dominant forms of water governance as opposed to practices crafting alternative human-water relations on the ground. Through the case of an Indian-based network mobilising to transform how we understand rainfed regions as rain-dependent socio-ecologies, I theorise their action 'with care', a commitment to think-with grassroots movements as actors capable of bringing new worlds into being. Describing their activities as worlding-practices, I explore how the network confronts the invisibilities inscribed by the current paradigm reducing water to irrigation by defining alternative metrological tools that recentre the governance of water from the perspective of the rainfall. Tinkering with the variables of the constituted metrology, the network utilises an atlas, a formula, and an acronym to enact a different rainfed sociality into being, creating visibilities and cares for neglected things. Through the story of a grassroots group and their strategies of mobilisation, this account contributes to debates on how to pluralise water governance, suggesting that reimagining its practices requires taking seriously the performativity of grassroots knowledges. Building alliances between research and activism as e/affective world-building partners becomes key to co-theorise liveable human-water relations and caring socio-ecologies at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the way the outbreak of coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown has egregiously impeded the Hindu death ceremonies and mourning rituals in India. It makes a comparative analysis of how Hindu death rituals get renegotiated, modified and reinterpreted across two vastly different regions of India, both of which have their local customs. Whilst death rituals in India are contingent on the deceased's caste, community, class, gender and age, the impediment to the major death rituals creates a central conundrum for all mourners. It results from the substitution of 'sacred' ritual guidelines with new 'profane' ones for the 'disposal' of deceased COVID-19 patients. Departure from many significant pre-liminal rites, specific transition rites, and post-liminal rites has eschatological, ritual and cultural ramifications. The inability to grieve in unison during a Shraddh ceremony denies mourners any scope to quell distressing feelings about mortality which serves as a source of consolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists several working papers including "India's Fiscal Policy Space for Investing in Children," by Praveen Jha and Subrat Das, "Including Children in an Inclusive Growth Strategy for the Eleventh Plan," by Santosh Mehtrotra and "The Status of Tribal Children in India: A Historical Perspective," by Virginius Xaxa.

This paper seeks to conceptualize homopopulism as a popular relationality in shifting contexts of inclusion/exclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) identified persons. A new layer of queer politics is visible in contemporary India. Hinged between older colonial discourses, current neoliberal systems, and promises by state actors to include LGBTQ concerns, sexuality is explicitly and implicitly mobilized to create, claim, and resist the present social. This consists of organizational left and liberal efforts to include and represent LGBTQ identified bodies in election promises, with effects that are titled heavily toward the middle to upper-middle class, able, caste-Hindu bodies. Alongside this, groups such as Queer Hindu Alliance are working to claim a stake in the Hindutva regime. Parallel to this, the bodies and voices of queer and trans* persons aim and struggle to connect with Muslim and Dalit individuals and groups around survival and citizenship. This paper attempts to comprehend these unique and tumultuous moments through the concept of homopopulism. I argue that homopopulism offers a useful reference point to understand how a complex democracy, consisting of right-wing, left-liberal, and centrist state practices, uses populist discourses and methods to gradually mobilize LGBTQ identities for thin centered ideologies without necessarily having to create a recognizable population group with affirmative action policies and anti-discriminatory guarantees, as facilitating conditions for a liveable life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The high-cited publications (HCPs) (with 50 or more citations) on orthopedic research from India were analyzed on various parameters. Methodology: The HCPs that were published between 2002 and 2021, on the Indian orthopedic research and indexed in the Scopus database were evaluated on various parameters. A network analysis was used to evaluate and visualize the collaborative interaction among the most productive organizations, authors, and keywords using VOSviewer and Biblioshyn software. Results: Of the total 4606 publications, 179 (3.88%) were HCPs, that were cited 22767 times (averaging 127.19 citations per publication). An external funding was received in 24.58% of publications and 36.87% of publications had an international collaboration. The most productive organizations were the Indian Institute of Science - Bengaluru (n = 11), All India Institute of Medical Sciences - New Delhi, and Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences - Kochi (n = 8 each) and the most impactful organizations in terms of citations per paper and relative citation index were Vellore Institute of Technology - Vellore, TIET - Patiala, and Lovely Professional University. The most productive authors were K. Chatterjee, D. Lahiri, and R. Vaishya. The most impactful authors were P. Mukherjee, S. Rajasekaran, and J. N. Babu in terms of citations per paper and relative citation index. Delhi was the epicenter of research and publications (n = 27). Material science and medicine contributed the largest number of publications (n = 77 and n = 73), followed by Engineering (n = 51). Treatment and clinical studies accounted maximally (24.58% and 8.38%) and hydroxyapatite (n = 40) was the most significant keyword appearing in the literature. Conclusion: This study provided an insight into understanding of research status including trends identified and studied the most influential contributions and performance of Indian organizations and authors and indicated broad and narrow subject fields contributing to this medical specialty. It gives some ideas about past, present, and future hotspots in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effects of WhatsApp as a mode of dissemination of political posters. It found that platform affordances that control the crafting and dissemination of political messages open up the possibility of vague political messaging by conforming to the social media's visual culture and limit the spread of these messages, restricting the ability to organically gather support for a political cause. Despite the growing appeal of social media in political campaigns, social media messages when used by individuals and small, independent social media groups, who are not a part of a larger, organized political party or movement, have little influence on electoral decisions of voters about a political cause that faces weak public support. This was discussed in the context of electoral results of the Leftist political party in India in 2019 national elections. The paper then contributes to our understanding of the extent of the influence of social media platforms on political media messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among several other countries, India has launched numerous digital initiative programmes aimed at integrating and upgrading various socioeconomic, political and health and social care arenas. One such area is child adoption, where a move away from the analogue system and towards digitalisation began in 2015. The Indian Ministry of Women & Child Development introduced the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), a digital adoption formalisation platform, under the Central Adoption Resource Authority, a nodal body that monitors and regulates both in-country and intercountry adoptions. This government initiative centralised adoption data from all over India, including the number of children declared free for adoption and the number of prospective parents registered and seeking to adopt. Against this context, this study aims to map the development of adoption in India through digital systems and the influence of digitilisation on those involved in the pre- and post-adoption phases. Drawing on both Western and Indian literature, as well as observations from an ongoing qualitative study on adoption digitalisation in India, this study discusses the benefits and limitations of digital systems for the people connected to them. The findings provide a comprehensive view of the interaction of technology and society and how this operates in the sociocultural context of adoption in India. Future implications for researchers and adoption social workers and consultants are discussed. Plain Language Summary: The process of adoption in India was largely paper based until 2015. With the launch of the Digital India movement in 2015, newer digital facilities were introduced in various socioeconomic, political, health and social care sectors. Adoption was one such area: the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development introduced a digital adoption formalisation platform called the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS). It was established under the Central Adoption Resource Authority, which is responsible for monitoring and regulating both in-country and intercountry adoptions. CARINGS is a centralised database of the children waiting for adoption and prospective parents registered and seeking to adopt. It aims to streamline the adoption process and make it more efficient and transparent. A qualitative study was conducted to explore the impact of digital adoption on those involved in the pre- and post-adoption phases. The study included the perspectives of adoption social workers, adoption consultants, prospective adopters and adoptive parents. The present paper maps the influence of digital adoption in the pre- and post-adoption phases and discusses the advantages and challenges that arise from the interaction of technology and society. The paper concludes by presenting the future implications of digital adoption for researchers, adoption social workers and consultants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from research conducted in Gurgaon, a city which has been transformed from agricultural hinterland to a bustling metropolis over the course of the past 30 years. The aim of this paper is to expand debates on the uneven geographies of urbanisation in India by reconsidering marginalised urban neighbourhoods as infrastructural nodes, wherein the complex and contested work of reproducing urban life is carried out. Extending scholarship on urban infrastructure, social reproduction and heterodox Marxist political economy, this paper highlights the subaltern processes decay and repair which underpin Gurgaon's rapid urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using recently declassified archival material pertaining to the Chartered Bank of India Australia and China, this article foregrounds quantitative evidence that sheds new light on the history of British banks in Asia. It shows that Hong Kong came to play a critical role in the bank's note issue strategy after the Straits Settlements had moved off the silver standard in 1906. Locally denominated notes issued on mainland China complemented the Hong Kong issue. However, their circulation volume dropped dramatically during the anti-British boycott that followed the May Thirtieth Incident (1925). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is home to a large number of tribal or Adivasi communities. Particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) are one among them. The Indian state initiated several development programs in its affirmative action to benefit PVTGs. However, these initiatives have shown some effects on the ground, still a long way to go. After globalization, a lot of studies claim and argue that the state is slowly withdrawing from its agenda and encouraging multinational companies or corporations (MNCs) to take its role. The MNCs have started their operations by extracting resources without helping Adivasi communities. It led to large-scale protests by the tribal people and civil society organizations. The paper critically discusses development initiatives of the post-independent state to ameliorate the conditions of the PVTGs as part of their affirmative action policies. Furthermore, the paper draws inferences from secondary data sources collected from published and unpublished sources, documents, reports, and online sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has witnessed a dramatic expansion of higher education, and women have emerged as noteworthy winners in the process. This paper focuses on the role of female college education on four dimensions of marriage: age at marriage, autonomy in the choice of spouse, work and financial empowerment, and quality of marital relationship. The study uses a sample of 35,561 currently married women from the 2011-2012 wave of the nationally representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS). It demonstrates that higher education, particularly college education, enables women to lead lives substantively different from their less-educated peers. College-educated women marry at later ages, enjoy greater autonomy in choosing their husbands, and have a more egalitarian relationship with their spouses. Furthermore, the study finds that educational homogamy and hypogamy afford greater autonomy to women. Even without a concomitant increase in labor force participation, college education among women appears to have a transformative effect on marriage in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STRiDE was an ambitious four-year project in seven countries aiming to build capacity around generating and using research to support the development of policies to improve quality of life of people with dementia and their carers. The project's innovative approach combined rigorous academic research and hands-on civil society advocacy. This paper explores the project's unique strategy for policy change and compiles case-studies from several of the STRiDE countries. Finally, we share lessons learned and next steps to keep momentum for policy change going in each of these countries – and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reorganization or revival of the financially distressed corporate person is the prime objective of insolvency law. To rationalize the said objective, the insolvency law in India— Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 has adopted the manager-displacement model of the insolvency regime. It has become progressively evident from existing literature that the development of corporate governance mechanisms may have imperative implications on the aptness of a nation's legal system and its accomplishments. The existing evolutionary theory asserts that corporate bankruptcy and corporate governance structure complement each other. The historical account of corporate ownership structure in India represents a predominance of concentrated ownership patterns. Through the perspective of the existing evolutionary theory of corporate insolvency, the paper analyzes the corporate ownership structure and development of corporate insolvency law in India. The article also explores whether corporate ownership structure as a corporate governance mechanism can explain the progression of the insolvency regime in India. The findings of this paper would be of significance for jurisdictions that are considering reforms within their existing corporate insolvency law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies in the United Kingdom have shown distinctions in intergenerational co-residency between UK-born and foreign-born individuals, however, little research has examined how factors such as immigrant incorporation, economic adaptation, and kin availability shape household formation patterns among immigrants. This paper uses data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2010) to explore differences in the likelihood of UK-born and foreign-born working-aged adults to co-reside with at least one parent, highlighting distinctions by life stage (age) at migration and gender. Results show that, regardless of life stage at migration, foreign-born women and men are less likely to co-reside with parents than UK-born, however, intergenerational co-residency is high among some second-generation immigrant groups, particularly UK-born Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi individuals. These findings challenge cultural assumptions about household formation patterns and point to the need for additional research on how economic inequality, kin availability, and gender norms shape immigrant household composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2008 can be considered a watershed year for generic medicine in India, as it saw the launch of the Jan Aushadi scheme, to provide cost-effective quality medicines to its populace, through special stores called Jan Aushadi stores. With more than 8800 stores, the scheme is touted as one of the world's largest pharmaceutical retail chains. Since then, many generic medicine start-ups have also launched operations in the country- Zeno Health, One India Pharmacy, Generic Aadhaar and StayHappi Generics. These supply side developments will however have to be complemented with commensurate demand side responses for it make a sustainable impact towards the push for affordable and accessible healthcare for all (Sustainable Development Goal 3). Many studies have established that, on the demand side, owing to the lack of requisite medical knowledge on part of the patients, there exists a strong agency relationship, where patients rely heavily on their physicians (prescribers) to make decisions on choice of treatments. Though promotion of generic medicines requires a coordinated effort from many stakeholders, analysis reveals that the prescribers, and hence their perception of generics, plays a pivotal role in their adoption. This study undertakes a bibliometric analysis of the top 100 most-cited research papers published between 2012 and 2022 on the perception of prescribers towards generic medicine from SCOPUS database. Suitable keywords have been incorporated to reach the relevant publications and VOSviewer (version 1.6.10) has been used for analysis. The findings of the study recommend further research on interventions aimed at improving prescriber's perception towards generic medicines to enhance their adoption and promote cost effective healthcare delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a case study on an environmental friendly hotel in Mumbai, India named the Orchid Hotel. Mission statement of the hotel; Architectural design of the hotel; Steps taken to reduce air pollution.

Since the 18th century, scholars have been claiming that Romani people originated from India. Folkloristists, ethnographers, linguists and demographers alike have sought to identify, classify and characterize the 'Roma traits' and map them onto an imagined notion of Indian-hood. Meanwhile, India has reappropriated the originary claim and started to embrace the Roma community as one of their 'own'. This paper focuses on the epistemic and political implications of ascribing an 'Indian origin' to the Roma. How do scholars and savants seek to understand Roma populations with reference to their purported Indian origin and what does it entail epistemologically? To what extent is the 'scientific' legibility of the Roma's origin structured around ideologies of the prevailing episteme? Here, I situate the theory of the Indian origin as a 'field' and argue that its foundation has revolved less around the question of 'scientific' methods and their validity than around reinforcing the episteme in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capitalist progress implies the destruction of the old and uncompetitive sectors and the creation of new ones in their wake. However, in the Global South the loss of jobs in the older sectors is not necessarily offset by the new forms of employment. The objective of this paper is to critically examine how the vast employment in the Indian handloom sector could be sustained, given the competitive pressures from alternative technologies and products. Rather than allow the sector to be a victim of capitalist progress, this paper on moral economy grounds offers an alternative approach, which is to boost the demand for handloom products through commercial branding but one that is rooted in cultural valorization of artisanal craft. This strategy, complementary to state provisioning of subsidized inputs, comes at the expense of authenticity but is expected to enhance consumption and sustain livelihoods in the handloom sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In India, mental health rehabilitation centers run income generation programs (IGP) for therapeutic engagement, skills training, and income generation of clients. The centers have evolved IGP models relevant to their settings. There is a paucity of published literature on practices employed by the centers. Methods: This paper compiles data gathered from visits to 13 centers between November 2018 and April 2019. Information was collected through observation and interviews with staff involved in IGP, using a semi-structured pro forma designed for study. Results: Most centers were based in south India (n = 11) and urban areas (n = 12). Each center ran two to seven IGP. Each center involved 20–50 clients in IGP. Clients involved in IGP were aged 20–60 years. The centers ran a range of IGP, including the manufacturing of household consumables, paper products, textile products, handicraft products, food products, and jute products; animal husbandry and horticulture initiatives; and running cafeterias and petty shops. IGP were mostly selected based on market demand and sales value of products (n = 11); ease of doing (n = 5); interests, abilities, exposure, and experience of clients (n = 5); and availability of resources (n = 3). Products were priced primarily to cover input and labor costs (n = 8), and many centers sold products below the market rates (n = 5). Running stalls during public events was a common strategy for the sale of products (n = 9). Personal contacts and "word of mouth" publicity were used for advertisement (n = 6). Four centers involved family members in IGP. Conclusion: The nature of IGP varied in terms of setting, available resources, and profile of clients availing the services. Marketing and sales were a challenge. A supportive framework of policies and schemes is essential to promote IGP at mental health rehabilitation centers. This report may be helpful for professionals and centers planning to set up an IGP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to address the economic and fundamental inadequacies of ex-ante net neutrality regulations in India. The current net neutrality regulations consider the internet service provider (ISP) market in a two-sided spectrum of content and application providers (CAPs) and end-users. However, the rapidly growing internet space has undergone numerous developments in recent years, giving rise to complexities such as vertical partnerships between the ISPs, CAPs and OTT service providers, the use of content delivery networks (CDNs) for the last mile, deployment of 5G on mobile devices, etc. The main hypothesis is that the ex-ante net neutrality regulations lack the tools to combat modern problems with their antiquated approach and measures. Accordingly, to analyse this proposition, the paper considers the existent literature on the fundamental aspects of net neutrality norms, and juxtaposes the economic and empirical findings from a post‐net neutrality regulation stance. The findings reveal that net neutrality measures that prohibit paid-prioritisation and zero-rating services lead to economic inefficiencies. Further, the restrictive net neutrality measures hamper investment and innovation in the market and fall short in dealing with vertical integration and the use of CDNs. Hence, to promote competition and protect net neutrality, especially in the lower layers of the ISP market, the paper recommends measures such as digital dynamism and transparency rules and studies the role of ex-post competition regulations in aiding net neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]