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While the conventional education system with different forms of E-learning and rigid academic instructive curriculum could not bring desired changes in specified timeframe work at rural level in the targeted communities and groups, a multipronged sociological approach with a sociable and flexible curriculum in new E-Learning programs becomes need of hour. The impact of socializing influence of these E-Learning programs should be properly exploited to motivate and inspire the rural target groups. The benefits of E-learning then become extensive and soon integrate with the needs of the lower strata of the society in order for achieving a rapid social transformation in the lives of the farmers, vocational groups, artisans and small income self help groups comprising women, girls and physically challenged. The paper suggests a number of new generation E-Learning programs as strategies of development communication with a promise of high returns for the industry for its investment in these programs with socially relevant messages and media convergence.

The electronic frontier is not something that education has embraced with open arms. There is a natural tendency to resist new ways of doing things. Our commerce teacher's attitude is responsible for the slow acceptance of modern technology in the educational environment. The paper explores the apprehensions of teachers in the implementation of technology and offers suggestions to integrate technology in the classrooms. Though the study is confined to Udupi District, the findings may be relevant to the entire commerce education.

A developing country like India has realized the vital role of Entrepreneurship in economic growth, and mindfulness is very crucial for becoming a successful entrepreneur. The paper examines the relationship of mindfulness with Entrepreneurial orientation and all of its dimensions. The data was collected from 152 working professionals using a purposive sampling technique. MANOVA is performed to measure the impact of independent variables (gender, thought of doing business and level of mindfulness) on dependent variables, i.e., Entrepreneurial Orientation, Innovativeness, Proactiveness and Risk. Firstly, the results conclude that interaction among the combination of mindfulness, thought of doing business and gender variables have an impact on combined entrepreneurial orientation. Secondly, it is found that mindful females who have thought of doing their own business have a stronger entrepreneurial orientation. The presence of more women in leadership roles will contribute to business growth; thus, such talent must be educated and trained for the benefit of the organization and the nation as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper highlights the implications of Goods and Services Tax (GST), a major tax reform in India launched in July 2017 on the Make in India initiative launched in the year 2014. The GST is expected to trigger its impact on the following eight elements: warehouse efficiency, interstate check‐post operations, informal to formal business transition, interstate business expansion by micro, small, and medium enterprises, simplicity and transparency in tax collection process, logistics cost reductions, ease of doing business in India, and working capital cost realignment, which in turn may accelerate the manufacturing growth in Indian economy. In order to study the impact of the factors of GST on the Make in India initiative and the manufacturing growth, a system dynamics approach has been adopted in this paper. A number of simulation runs carried out using the system dynamics modelling have provided meaningful insights to the policymakers and strategic planners for evolving strategies for manufacturing growth. [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]

Common information model (CIM) in vogue represents transmission and distribution components, and market operations in the perspective of electrical system, as unified modeling language (UML) objects. UML is object centric. CIM can offer interoperability and facilitate model exchange for large systems and is being adopted by many utilities. However, dealing effectively with multiple business processes is the backbone of the restructured power systems. Since CIM lacks chronological process sense, this has to be superimposed on CIM models, which is not easy due to inherent limitations of UML. To overcome this, this paper proposes to utilize business process modeling notation (BPMN) standards as a kind of pre-processor. BPMN is used to represent process centric interoperability requirements as business objects. UML object representation in CIM model is derived subsequently from it. The proposal is illustrated with an application use case—deriving CIM model of day-ahead market (DAM) transaction of distribution company, from its business process representation. Semantic model of DAM transaction using CIM IEC 62325 (Markets) and extensions required are presented with a sample Indian system. DAM models in BPMN and CIM can be utilized to build an efficient software application. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: Healthcare innovations are one of the drivers of healthcare sector growth in India. Innovation policies are challenging because of the uncertainty regarding the outcome of the innovations. Hence, there is a need to understand the interface between policies and healthcare innovations to identify gaps and propose timely recommendations. Accordingly, this study uses the Indian healthcare start-up sector as a case study to analyse the above linkages, gaps and propose recommendations. Methodology: Quantitative data from the Start-up India portal along with qualitative data from key informant interviews have been analysed to draw insights. Findings: Healthcare start-ups have made significant contributions to the economy and healthcare sector, but there are gaps and room for improvement especially in the areas of awareness, funding and mentoring. Conclusions: Based on the study findings a conceptual framework has been created for understanding the nature of gaps and their linkages in the healthcare innovation lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the composition, social organization and wide range of activities of the Indian maritime merchant of the early modern period. Regional contrasts between Gujarat, the Coromandel coast and Bengal are discussed. The last section of the paper discusses the interaction between the Indian maritime merchants and the Europeans, both the corporate enterprises as well as private traders. It is argued that the Indian merchants displayed a remarkable degree of adaptiveness and resilience and refused to be overwhelmed by the competition provided by the Europeans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we draw on three ethnographic studies of surrogacy we carried out separately in different contexts: the western US state of California, the south Indian state of Karnataka, and the western Russian metropolis of St Petersburg. In our interviews with surrogate mothers, intended parents, and surrogacy professionals, we traced the meanings and ideologies through which they understood the clinical labour of surrogacy. We found that in the US, interviewed surrogates, intended parents and professionals understood surrogacy as an exchange of both gifts and commodities, where gift-giving, reciprocity, and relatedness between surrogates and intended parents were the major tropes. In India, differing narratives of surrogacy were offered by its different parties: whilst professionals and intended parents framed it as a win-win exchange with an emphasis on the economic side, the interviewed surrogate mothers talked about surrogacy as creative labour of giving life. In Russia, approaches to surrogacy among the interviewed surrogate mothers, professionals and intended parents overlapped in framing it as work and a businesslike commodity exchange. We suggest these three different ways of ethical reasoning about the clinical labour of surrogacy, including justifications of women's incorporation into this labour, were situated in local moral frameworks. We name them "repro-regional moral frameworks", inspired by earlier work on moral frameworks as well as on reproductive nationalisms and transnational reproduction. Building on these findings, we argue that any international or global regulation of surrogacy, or indeed any moral stance on it, needs to take these local differences into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on an ethnographic study of mobile stores' business practices in a slum community in Mumbai. The basic mobile phone store that sells small "talktime" (the period of billing per call) is graduating to repair, formatting, and maintenance of phone hardware and software. Central to this process of store expansion and skill building is the store entrepreneur. He forges relations with procurement channels and mediating agents, renewing existing ties and expanding business loops by interweaving social and business networks. We refer to these aggregations as "hybrid networks," and we highlight their maintenance as a critical resource governing enterprise potential. By evoking the ecology of the mobile phone business in an urban slum setting, the paper draws attention to the following concepts: 1) the unique potential of ICTs as an entrepreneurial commodity, 2) the micro- and small enterprise (MSE) as a functional model for local technology immersions, and 3) local social networks as pivotal in expanding technology adoption and aligning with the needs of the low-income consumer. In essence, we locate the small mobile phone store as the site of convergence for the commercial expansion of mobile phone technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on family politics and exchange of goods in British India. This paper also situates Anglo-Indian gifts within a spectrum of emotionally-charged exchange mechanisms through which products circulated in British India. The gift-giving and market-orientated consumer behaviors occupied shifting positions within a register of exchange in Anglo-India.

This paper presents the findings of a study of purchasing and supply management professionals in India conducted to identify the key ethical issues they face in carrying out their work related responsibilities as well as to determine the extent to which various factors appear to be helpful or to present challenges to their efforts to act ethically in the course of their work. The Indian findings are then compared to those for studies conducted among purchasing and supply management professionals in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Key findings for the four studies are summarized and implications for business and the professions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the orthopedics markets in the US and the EU reaching a plateau, the market size in countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China is steadily growing. As a result, major orthopedic companies are shifting their focus towards these markets and developing products tailored to their needs. However, a significant challenge associated with this new opportunity is the requirement for the development of more affordable prostheses compared to those sold in the US and Europe. With the introduction of these lower-cost models into the market, this article aims to assess their performance in comparison to traditional models. A literature review was conducted, analyzing four parameters—the Hospital for Special Surgery Score, Knee Society Score, Range of Motion, and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index—to evaluate different models. The findings indicated that low-cost models perform either equally well or, in some cases, slightly worse than traditional ones. It is worth to mention that the existing literature on this topic is limited, resulting in a relatively small number of models and studies included in this specific study. Nevertheless, this latter serves as a valuable foundation for future in-depth analyses and investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine how the intersectoral terms of trade in India between industry and agriculture may have been changing through time, and the associated policy implications which follow. We argue that existing statistical studies of this issue are misleading, not only because they use controlled rather than black market prices, but because in the presence of controls the terms of trade of both sectors can deteriorate. This is because in an equilibrium process in the presence of controls, black markets arise. Buyers' prices on black markets equal controlled prices plus endogenously determined search costs of transactors on controlled markets. Sellers' prices on black markets, less the expected penalty if detected, equal sellers' prices on controlled markets. Thus, black market prices are equal to expected buying prices on either market, and controlled prices equal expected sellers' prices (net of penalties) on either market. As a result, a real income loss results from controls. We illustrate these points using counterfactual equilibrium calculations for India for 1979-80. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although business groups benefit firms when markets fail, does group affiliation continue to be an advantage for firms in deregulated, globally competitive industries? I argue that affiliation allows firms to tap into the knowledge and connections of sister affiliates. This enables them to attract clients from more industries and foreign markets than can unaffiliated firms, and to attain higher international sales. Using data from the Indian software industry, I find support for these hypotheses, but only for 2000-02, when competition increased as a result of new deregulation. These results suggest business groups continue to provide benefits to group-affiliated firms, including information on market opportunities and "reputation signaling" to clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Local people in the Himalayan region use a wide range of wild and non-cultivated edible plants (WNEPs) for food, spice, medicinal, and cultural purposes. However, their availability, use, status and contribution to livelihood security are poorly documented, and they have been generally overlooked in recent agro-biodiversity conservation and management programmes. The study aimed to investigate WNEP diversity and current status in a part of the Kailash Sacred Landscape--a transboundary landscape shared by Nepal, India and PR China--in terms of collection, use, management and conservation initiatives. Methods: Multiple methodologies and tools were used for data collection. A series of participatory tools (45 key informant interviews, 10 focus group discussions, a crop diversity fair, direct observation of species through a transect walk and rapid market assessments) was followed by a household survey (195 respondents) and complemented by a literature review. Results: The study recorded 99 WNEPs belonging to 59 families of which 96 were angiosperms, one gymnosperm and two pteridophytes. Species were used for food, spice, medicine, rituals and income generation. Thirty-five species had multiple uses, including these: 40 species were used for fruit and 31 for vegetables. WNEPs contribute significantly to daily food requirements, especially the vegetables. The use value of Dryopteris cochleata was found highest (0.98) among frequently used vegetable species. The values of informant consensus factor were found maximum for worms in the stomach (0.99) and minimum for skin disease treatment (0.67). Nearly 85% of households depended exclusively on WNEPs for at least more than a month per year. Results on the importance and use of different species, gender roles in WNEP activities and conservation approaches are presented. Conclusions: People living in the Kailash Sacred Landscape depend significantly on WNEPs, and this is especially critical in times of food shortage. The WNEPs have considerable potential as an important supplement to cultivated food crops. Farmers prioritise species with multiple use values and popular vegetables. However, there are numerous challenges and interventions needed to ensure conservation and management of species and their continued availability to support food security and local livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical colleges have become a business industry nowadays, where rich businessmen in the name of trust and foundations are resorting to making huge profits by collecting heavy amount of capitation fees from students without providing quality education to them. It has been observed especially in some of the recently established medical colleges, that the regulations laid by National Medical Council are flouted, and these medical colleges are run with very little patients in the hospital, poor infrastructure and huge number of "Ghost faculties", who are available only during the time of inspection by the regulatory authorities. The regular faculties who are working are overburdened with teaching work, and are also denied relieving and experience letter if they submit their resignation. There is a great need for the regulatory authorities to have a strict scrutiny on such institutions and implement remedial measures to correct these irregularities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book is focused on analysing the limitation of the existing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) statistics in India. The trends, composition and quality of FDI inflows in India after the initiation of 'Make in India' (MII) policy are critically analysed. This is done with a comparative perspective on the nature and quality of FDI since 1990. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the potential of leveraging competitive advantages of markets to address childhood obesity in India, with studies showing lifestyle and eating behaviour influenced by market, particularly in the marketing of processed food to target children. Topics discussed include adverse health outcomes faced by overweight or obese children like metabolic problems, prevalence of the rue of market in society, and the concept of Whole of society (WoS) to prevent childhood obesity.

Drawing on institutional theory and entrepreneurial cognition, we test the environmental perception-scanning framework in the United States and India. The results suggest that culture and transition context help explain scanning frequency, but entrepreneurs in the two countries are similar in their perceptions of strategic uncertainty in environmental sectors. Moreover, the perceptions of increased environmental change and sector importance, as conditioned by perceived information accessibility, are associated with increased scanning. Overall, our results provide important indications about perceptions and information seeking, and lend support to indications of a universal mindset of entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second half of the 1990s has witnessed almost three-fold increase in the exports of Indian electronics industry. The study proposes a model for analysing the export intensity of 164 electronics firms in India and tests the same empirically. The Tobit model is estimated using firm level panel data for the period 2000–2005 for the electronics industry in India. The results show that both size of the firm, foreign direct investment and capital employed have played an important role in boosting exports in this sector. The study has policy implications to improve the performance of the Indian Electronics sector in India and similar other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies and explains the ways in which firms involved in the debate about the role of biotechnology in Indian agriculture have sought to advance their interests. It argues that the public positions of larger biotech and agro-chemical companies, seed enterprises, and newer start-up firms and the associations to which they belong relate to the differences in their underlying corporate strategies. The extent to which these firms are involved in primary research, export their products, or require protection for their products helps to determine their political affiliations to the leading industry bodies that are active on biotechnology issues. In turn, each of these associations has been shown to have distinct patterns of interaction with particular government agencies involved in the regulation of biotechnology products, as well as differing degrees of contact with global industry coalitions. Through a combination of material influences, in most cases high levels of institutional access, and in a context in which claims about the benefits of biotechnology are echoed and repeated in influential media, industry has played an important role in the evolving regulatory regime. These forms of leverage apply to some firms more than others and smaller actors in the vast seed sector in India are barely involved directly in the current debate about India's "gene revolution." Currently, the policy agenda in Delhi appears to be far more influenced by a fairly close-knit policy network of biotech entrepreneurs from larger multinationals and successful start-up firms with good national and global connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust has latterly become an important focus of enquiry across the social sciences, and this article reflects critically upon the current literature on the basis of ethnographic research into the transactions of small companies in several sectors of Indian industry, and the reorganization that is taking place in Indian family business groups in the context of economic globalization. It is concluded that much of the argument about the increasing importance of trust in the context of globalization is misplaced, and that it serves an ideological function. The problem of business management in India is that of bringing about change in the institutional framework and in business behaviour in a context in which these changes confront a culture of ‘selective trust’ amongst groups of people in specific social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the correlation between trade and total factor productivity (TFP) in South Africa. Impact of trade liberalization on the economic performance of the country; Effect of tariff reduction on employment rate; Influence of openness and technology on productivity.

During 1977, IBM was asked to withdraw from India due to its unwillingnesss to comply with the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) of 1973. However, with (1) the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and India, (2) the easing of trade restrictions by the Government of India against foreign firms, (3) the declining value of the U.S. dollar, (4) the slump in the U.S. computer market, (5) the rapid growth in the Indian computer market, and (6) changes in other environmental factors, IBM again began actively seeking and securing new business. By the mid-1980s, IBM had secured a number of large contracts and was on the verge of re-entry into the burgeoning Indian computer market. The purpose of this study is to examine the underlying factors that influence both the divorce and reunification between host country government and the multinational corporation. The study, conducted through personal interviews with chief executives of IBM, government officials, and other knowledgeable persons, examines the social-political aspects of the FERA and its implications for multinationals in India and elsewhere in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unethical business in India became a recognized phenomenon during the second World War. Academic/journalistic/legal concern with ethics has become visible only during the nineties. Corruption-of-the-poor and corruption-of-the-rich need to be distinguished -- especially in the context of globalization. The danger of attributing unethical practices to system failure is recognized. It is also important to bring to bear on intellectual property rights the more fundamental principle of natural property rights. Consciousness ethics will be more crucial than just intellectual ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Call center sector in India is a relatively new industry and one of the fastest growing sectors driving employment and growth in modern India today. While employment in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector has meant that young adults are reaching their career milestones and financial goals much earlier than before, surveys and anecdotal evidence show that workers in the BPO sector experience high levels of stress and its related disorders, primarily due to its contemporary work settings. Safeguarding the health of youngsters employed in this new, growing economy becomes an occupational health challenge to public health specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]