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Purpose: As Covid-19 became a pandemic, numerous people were forced to stay at home, leading to increased intimate partner violence (IPV) in many countries, particularly in developing and least-developed ones. This paper aims to highlight the IPV based on 15 different cases formed from the practical evidence of five developing countries. Design/methodology/approach: The authors interviewed 15 women from five countries who were the victims of IPV during the early periods of Covid-19 outbreak. Due to geographical remoteness, the authors conducted informal telephone interviews to collect the participants' personal experiences. The conversations were recorded with participants' permission; afterwards, the authors summarized participants' experiences into 15 different cases without revealing their original identities (instead, disguised names were used). Findings: It was revealed that the women were the primary victims of such violence, particularly from their intimate partners (husbands). In most cases, such IPV, as reported by the interviewees, originated or increased after the pandemic when they were forced to stay at home, losing their partners' jobs or income sources. Originality/value: The authors summarized the causes of IPV and put forward a few action recommendations based on the interviewees' practical experience and existing literature. This paper will open a new window for research investigations on IPV during emergencies such as Covid-19 outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to provide an insight on effect of stringency in Covid-19 spread in India especially in Chennai, a city were more lockdown, and restrictions was imposed to control the infection. Even though the restriction was imposed in the country by the end of March 2020, the growth reduction was seen in the mid of June as the awareness was increased. The average Covid-19 case growth was got reduce from 3.43 to 2.62% by July mid. To analysis the impact of stringency, a detailed analysis was done on Chennai city which was imposed with more repeated lockdowns to flatten the curve. We tried to fit a regression line with three difference scenario of data. The results show a promising R-squared and p value, with a right skewed distribution normal probability plot. The impact of lockdown in people's lives in different sectors were also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the pain and suffering of elderly age people during the COVID-19 lockdown. It was an unpleasant experience for old age people. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, primarily, the information has been collected through interviews and observation. The researchers interviewed the older people and discussed their experience during the lockdown, and they also observed their activities during that period. Findings: The main results of this paper suggested that lockdown appeared as double-edge sword for old age and elderly people. They are not allowed to go outside to safeguard their lives, and inside the home, they are facing issues of anxiety, fear and mental trauma. They are not able to complete their daily routine, and it is hampering their mental strength. Originality/value: The paper is based on firsthand information received from an old-age couple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic, India's government instituted a severe nationwide lockdown in late March 2020. In this paper, we analyze household survey data on income from an Indian state, Punjab. We analyze the impacts of the pandemic and lockdown on total household income, as well as its components, including wages, business income and transfers. This paper innovates in this area by using Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood estimation to deal with the skewed distributions of various income components, as well as quantile regressions to examine differential impacts across the income distribution. We examine the differences between rural and urban households, differential impacts on female-headed and laborer households, and the time pattern of impacts. We find that rural households experienced more persistent income declines than urban households, and their wages suffered relatively more. Households with daily laborers were most badly affected, and this was especially true at the bottom of the income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the impact of COVID-19 on working women in India. The available literature revealed the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the income and jobs of working women and housewives, especially domestic workers, casual workers, health workers, and women working in sectors such as manufacturing, home-based activities for assembling production, teaching, coaching, and agriculture-based activities. Due to the lockdown, working women faced the challenges of increasing workload at home. Meeting deadlines of outside work and household work has ultimately increased their mental stress, thereby adversely affecting their health. This paper also highlights the issue of domestic abuse during the lockdown, which is supported by the various case studies of National Commission for Women, and the challenges faced by women working in the health sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyze the various problems related to older people during this pandemic lockdown and suggest some valuable measures to cope with it. A comprehensive and progressive review of the literature was done using appropriate keywords and highlights in various search engines. Also, multiple collections of newspapers and reports from India and globally were analyzed related to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on older people. Besides, a recent survey report of Helpage India and the Agewell foundation regarding the nationwide scenario of the elderly in this lockdown gives more strength to the paper. The findings revealed that in India, due to the current pandemic lockdown, the lives of the elderly were more critical and treacherous. With the commencement of the lockdown, the problems like inadequate access to the medical facility and health checkups, increasing mental burden, the accumulation of various worries, and amplifying elderly abuses and violence are widespread. It may be concluded that with increasing age, our elderly are getting weaker and more fragile, which further getting inferior due to the current Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is an ancient country to establish sericulture industry and it manufactures and even exports the tasar cloth (Kosa) to various countries since several centuries prior to the B.C. During the second century B.C., the silk was exported from India to European countries. It has been studied that the production of tasar silk was much more than that of mulberry silk during the Mughal period.1 India is unique in producing all four commercial silk varieties viz. Mulberry, Tasar, Eri and Muga. Sericulture is well-established agro-cottage industry and suited to rural-based farmers with a good cost-benefit ratio. It provides employment to six million rural populations. Covid-19 was caused by the novel corona virus and was first identified in Wuhan, China. This disease is transmitted through direct contact with the respiratory droplets of infected person, especially when the person coughs and sneezes. Covid-19 has led to a huge loss of human life, food system, millions of agricultural workers had gone through working poverty, mal nutrition and poor health. The Covid -19 crisis has created a dire impact on the complete world. The Lockdown declared by Government had an awful impact on the financial growth and development of every individual. The sericulture sector has also vouched such condition. The sericulture farmers, reelers, weavers and traders have to face various issues like marketing of cocoons, silk, its products, non availability of vehicles for transportation, non availability of the workers from sericulture sector, problems regarding hard currency flow. During pre Covid-19 period the average selling price of cocoon was 400 Rs/Kg while the price during Covid-19 period was Rs. 200/Kg. This paper helps to study the impact on Covid-19 peak period on the livelihood of sericulture farmers, reelers, weavers and traders. Different activities involved in sericulture were affected by pandemic. Due to difficulty in import and export of silk and other related materials, Government has to be self reliant for the production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown introduced to break the chain of disease transmission brought numerous challenges to people living with Type 2 diabetes. The present paper attempts to explore and understand the challenges faced by people living with diabetes and the variation in experiences based on their socioeconomic context. This qualitative study was conducted during the pandemic’s first and second waves in rural areas of West Jaintia Hills District, predominantly inhabited by the Pnar tribe. In-depth interviews with 90 Pnar men and women living with diabetes were undertaken. Findings from the present study reveal the perception that COVID-19 is not severe, limited knowledge about complications of diabetes, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, multiply to increase the vulnerability of the tribal populations living in the hilly and difficult terrain of the district. Therefore, addressing the burden of chronic illnesses in rural tribal areas in times of emerging infectious pandemics by providing comprehensive care and services at public health facilities is the need of the hour. The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown introduced to break the chain of disease transmission brought numerous challenges to people living with Type 2 diabetes. The present paper attempts to explore and understand the challenges faced by people living with diabetes and the variation in experiences based on their socioeconomic context. This qualitative study was conducted during the pandemic’s first and second waves in rural areas of West Jaintia Hills District, predominantly inhabited by the Pnar tribe. In-depth interviews with 90 Pnar men and women living with diabetes were undertaken. Findings from the present study reveal the perception that COVID-19 is not severe, limited knowledge about complications of diabetes, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, multiply to increase the vulnerability of the tribal populations living in the hilly and difficult terrain of the district. Therefore, addressing the burden of chronic illnesses in rural tribal areas in times of emerging infectious pandemics by providing comprehensive care and services at public health facilities is the need of the hour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already existing gender inequalities with substantial implications on women. With the closure of offices and educational institutions, and the emerging norm of work from home and online education, along with the lack of services of domestic worker, the need to perform unpaid chores in the household has increased. Simultaneously, the requirements of social distancing and sanitization have created new unpaid chores. Owing to the sexual division of labour, and gendered roles and social norms of performing domestic and care work, the burden of unpaid work falls disproportionately on women. In this context, the objective of the paper is to study the impact of COVID-19 on time spent on unpaid work and the underlying gender differences in the urban centres in India. Specifically, the paper will do a comparative analysis of the gender differences in time spent on unpaid work before and during the lockdown, and analyse the reasons for the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the globe Covid-19 has created economic hardship for businesses as well as communities and affected the livelihood. Intensive of spread of the corona virus has forced the Indian Government to announce lockdown on March 24, 2020.Indian economy was already struggling with lower growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), theCOVID-19 pandemic smashed the Indian industries in an unprecedented and unexpected way. It is the first time in the history that COVID-19 pandemic has influenced industrial demand, supply and availability of workforce in the same time globally. Month's together lockdown and global slowdown has considerably disrupted demand-supply chain and dented the economy as well as industries deeply. Present lockdown has impacted industrial sector enormously with lessened industrial output and lower profitability. The main objective of this paper is to study and analyze the impact of covid 19 on industrial sector of India and to know how industries are striving to cope up with lockdown and its impact. Genuine effort have made in this paper to analyze the current Industrial sectors situation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To monitor the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), India, during the last week of March 2020, imposed national restrictions on the movement of its citizens (lockdown). Although India's economy was shut down due to restrictions, the nation observed a sharp decline in particulate matter (PM) concentrations. In recent years, Delhi has experienced rapid economic growth, leading to pollution, especially in urban and industrial areas. In this paper, we explored the linkages between air quality and the nationwide lockdown of the city of Delhi using a geographic information system (GIS)-based approach. Data from 37 stations were monitored from 12 March, 2020 to 2 April, 2020 and it was found that the Air Quality Index for the city was almost reduced by 37% and 46% concerning PM2.5 and PM10, respectively. The study highlights that, in regular conditions, the atmosphere's natural healing rate against anthropogenic activities is lower, as indicated by a higher AQI. However, during the lockdown, this sudden cessation of anthropogenic activities leads to a period in which the natural healing rate is greater than the induced disturbances, resulting in a lower AQI, and thus proving that this pandemic has given a small window for the environment to breathe and helped the districts of Delhi to recover from serious issues related to bad air quality. If such healing windows are incorporated into policy and decision-making, these can prove to be effective measures for controlling air pollution in heavily polluted regions of the World. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 preventive measures have been a hindrance to millions of people over the globe not only affecting their daily routine but also affecting the mental stability. Among several preventive measures for COVID-19 spread, the lockdown is an important measure which helps considerably reduce the number of cases. The updated news about the COVID-19 is drastically spread in social media. Particularly, Twitter is widely used to share posts and opinions about the COVID-19 pandemic. Sentiment analysis (SA) on tweets can be used to determine different emotions such as anger, disgust, sadness, joy, and trust. But transparence is needed to understand how a given sentiment is evaluated with the black-box machine learning models. With this motivation, this paper presents a new explainable artificial intelligence (XAI)-based hybrid approach to analyze the sentiments of the tweets during different COVID-19 lockdowns. The proposed model attempted to understand the public's emotions during the first, second, and third lockdowns in India by analyzing tweets on social media, and demonstrates the novelty of the work. A new hybrid model is derived by integrating surrogate model and local interpretable model-agnostic explanation (LIME) model to categorize and predict different human emotions. At the same time, the TopjSimilarity evaluation metric is employed to determine the similarity between the original and surrogate models. Furthermore, top words using the feature importance are identified. Finally, the overall emotions during the first, second, and third lockdowns are also estimated. For validating the enhanced outcomes of the proposed method, a series of experimental analysis was performed on the IEEE port and Twitter API dataset. The simulation results highlighted the supremacy of the proposed model with higher average precision, recall, F-score, and accuracy of 95.69%, 96.80%, 95.04%, and 96.76%, respectively. The outcome of the study reported that the public initially had a negative feeling and then started experiencing positive emotions during the third lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Lockdown and accompanying principles, such as social-discrimination restrictions and demand swings triggered by constantly varying health and economic conditions, have had a significant impact on small enterprises and new projects. However, the COVID-19 epidemic has not only forced the closure of many firms, but it has also paved the way for new generations to enter the world of small companies. Many businesses were compelled to terminate staff as a result of the shutdown and terrible economic conditions. This resulted in a massive increase in unemployment around the world, as well as a near-zero chance for new and fresh talent to break into the corporate world. Indeed, extensive research and studies conducted during the epidemic revealed that current personnel of organisations and institutions were not fully compensated. New youthful entrepreneurs have been seen coming up with innovative concepts and turning them into successful firms. There has been little research on young entrepreneurs, thus this paper examines the consequences of the Corona Virus Outbreak (Covid-19) on small companies conducted by young people of the city Bilaspur in the state Chhattisgarh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The worldwide lockdown and social isolation measures during COVID management are likely to have a negative impact on emotional wellbeing. While the psychological impact on health care workers or the general adult population are being studied, not much data is available about the psychological impact on adolescent population (and none from India so far), an already sensitive and vulnerable developmental age. This study tried to bridge that gap. AIM: This pilot study was planned to assess the emotional wellbeing of adolescents during these socially distant times causing school closures. METHOD: 60 Indian adolescents enrolled from 9th to 12th standards of a few private schools with medium of instruction as English, participated in web based assessments where standardized tests were used to assess different components of emotional wellbeing: Positive affect, Negative affect, Difficulty in emotion regulation, and Life satisfaction. The measures used for these were Positive And Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). RESULTS: The adolescents were found to be experiencing high negative affect and low positive affect. Also, mild to severe difficulties with emotion regulation were found in 23.33 percent of the sample, and low satisfaction with life in 30 percent of the sample. Gender differences weren’t found in all study variables. While satisfaction with life was found to be modestly negatively associated with difficulty in emotion regulation, both these variables were found to be strongly associated with relative presence of positive affect over negative affect, with nil to low correlations with absolute values of both kinds of affects, revealing thought provoking insights about this differential. The results have been discussed in the context of restrictions on wellbeing promoting activities, and other factors associated with the lockdown. CONCLUSION: Relevant recommendations for caregivers and mental health practitioners in contact with adolescents have been offered in the paper, which may help buffer the impact of the lockdown, and help enhance adolescents’ emotional wellbeing while they cope with a new albeit temporary norm of being, and communicating. For mental health practitioners and psychotherapists especially, the case for more tele mental health services, mental health apps, web based group interventions becomes stronger than ever. Therapeutic focus could be on introducing more experiences and opportunities in their lives which allow for an increase in positive affect, irrespective of the level of negative affect experienced by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data for the period between April 2019 and September 2021, this paper investigates how the Covid‐19 pandemic‐induced lockdowns imposed differential labor market shocks on different social identity groups. We find that while all caste groups lost jobs in the first 2 months of the lockdown, the job losses for lowest‐ranked caste are greater by factor of more than two. The data shows that caste gaps in employment outcomes remain sizeable, even when we compare groups within the same industry, occupations, or those who have completed secondary schooling. These findings suggest that caste is not merely a proxy for class, and identity‐based policies might be essential to overcoming these disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic across India has created huge challenges, as well as a strong sense of fear, anxiety, insecurity and uncertainty among the people, migrant workers in particular. A vast majority of migrant workers suffered enormously as their livelihoods are being threatened. This paper discusses the socio-economic, psychological, livelihoods challenges faced by migrant workers in India. It examines the role of the government to secure the fundamental rights of migrant workers. It reviews the impact of policies/programmes for the migrant workers. The paper concludes that despite government efforts, large numbers of migrant workers who have been living hand-to-mouth ended up in destitution as they have no identity and not covered by any official social security policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Development Research is the property of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In a global pandemic, containment became a major concern after confronting such a large scale spread of COVID-19 infection all over the world. Many agencies are devoted to analytically understand how practicing social distance minimize the impact of major outbreaks of infections at large scale. Nearly all strategies are based on isolating the entire country or total lockdown in primary phase, while less attention has been paid to other alternative interventions during the process. This paper discusses the challenges in maintaining an effective social alteration method, social distancing followed by self-isolation in India. People are facing psychological challenges during the practice of Social distancing method. The paper explores how social distancing has been used to minimize crowd interactions and prevent the spread of disease within groups of people in India. Lastly, the main focus is theoretical discussion with conceptual understanding of the protection practices in India on a daily basis and challenges faced in social, medical to professional dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Investigación Económica is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Facultad de Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

COVID-19 is a huge tragedy for the world community. Everything in the world is affected due to this pandemic right from economy to resources where the economy of major countries of the world are facing recession and resources are surplus with no takers at all. The measures to contain COVID-19 pandemic include lockdown, social distancing, isolation, and home quarantine. Lockdown adopted by the different governments which involve non-functioning of all the industry and manufacturing units. However, as a blessing in disguise, these measures have a positive effect on the environment in terms of reduction in toxic gasses like nitrogen dioxide, aerosols, atmosphere ozone, particulate matter, and improvement in air quality. In this paper, the effect on various environmental parameters like aerosol, ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and temperature on India by lockdown due to COVID-19 as a preventive measure has been analyzed. The work involves the refining and preprocessing of raw data of this year and last year of various harmful pollutants present in the environment along with satellite images from National Aeronautics and Space Administration for comparison of different parameters. It has been observed that with the above adopted measures temperature has been reduced to near about 15 degree Celsius, there is also reduction in humidity i.e. it is reduced to 40%, particulate matter (PM2.5) reaches near about normal i.e. 40 g/m3 and carbon monoxide levels has also been reduced to 10 ppm. The main idea is to emphasize the fact that how the environment is self-healing during the lockdown. And this study will be beneficial to environmentalists and industry professionals to make the future strategy for improving the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to quantify the changes in the pollutants level in the ambient air of Madhya Pradesh during COVID-19 induced 21 days lockdown. The data of 16 continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) for six pollutants, namely PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NOx, CO, and Ozone for pre-lockdown (1–21 March 2020) and lockdown (25 March-14 April 2020) period was compiled and appropriate statistical analysis was done. The result showed a reduction of 13%, 20%, 37%, 39% and 25% in the ambient air level of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NOx and CO, respectively, during the lockdown. No such declining trend was observed in the ambient air ozone level. Ambient air ozone level changed between −22 and +30% compared to pre-lockdown concentrations. The mean ambient air ozone concentration was reduced at the residential/commercial stations (−5%), but was increased at the industrial stations (+19%) concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although both central and state governments in India took the decisions to impose hard paternalistic policies of lockdown/shutdown to manage the spread of COVID-19, new cases were rising even after the first and second waves. Reverse migration, lack of social distancing, and failure to adhere to appropriate covid behavior are attributed as the leading cause of COVID-19 spread. The policy measures like 'Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana,' financial assistance, and series of lockdowns and shutdowns by the government of India have not significantly controlledthe spread of disease owing to a lack of understanding of individual's reaction to the pandemic and their reactive behavior. This paper used daily COVID-19 positive cases data to show the overall picture of COVID-19 in India. It used the explorative method to review articles related to behavioral biases involved in the decision-making process of migrant workers and individuals during the pandemic. The paper's findings show that different behavioral biases like base rate neglect, herd behavior, anchoring effect, availability bias are responsible for creating chaos, trauma, and anxiety among the migrant workers and leading to reverse migration in India. Despite knowing that COVID-19 is a fatal disease, some individuals' reaction to it was casual mainly because of hyperbolic discounting bias, optimism bias, overconfidence bias, confirmation bias, status quo bias, and loss aversion. Taking behavioral economics lessons, the paper suggests different nudging techniques for guiding people to maintain social distancing during this pandemic. Nudging has been proved to be an inexpensive tool in bringing desired behavioral changes in health economics. The paper concludes that nudging techniques can influence human behavior to control the spread of the disease. In the end, it gives direction for future work in this area to explore how behavioral economics can help policymakers to tackle the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has led to a severe health crisis. This sudden and wide impact of corona virus has brought the global economy to its knees. The virus has spread across the world through the chain of transmission. In India, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the month of February 2020 and has spread drastically within past four months. As a preventive measure, the government announced complete lockdown in the month of March 2020 to stop this pandemic situation in India (Suri, April 30, 2020). This invisible virus has compelled many business organizations to shutdown their respective activities and to follow social distancing norms. The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted the Chinese economy first and then it led to affect global economy. This paper models the impact of COVID-19 on Indian economy (Sansa, 2020). The researcher shows the impact using System Dynamics modeling approach. The causal loop diagram was used to explain the causality of series of events. The results show that the strategy of shutdown/lockdown tends to increases the unemployment and ultimately causes negative impact on Indian Economy. In order to revive economy, we recommends, that the focus to be shifted on the factors such as new startups, Government relief funds, development of COVID-19 vaccine, generating employment and better health care facilities to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and strengthen Indian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neo-liberal model of development has facilitated the cross-border movements, thereby making both national and international migration one of the survival strategies to fight against persistent poverty, economic insecurity and deepening inequalities. It is known to all that Covid-19 and lockdown measures had a large impact on employment and labour market affecting human lives across the globe. This paper focuses on the experiences of women migrant workers situated within one of the most populous states of India, i.e., Uttar Pradesh. How did they make sense of their lived realities in the face of downsizing being done by the companies, which meant partial wages or losing the jobs permanently, and also the sudden transition that they had to opt for and negotiate with? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining is an essential industry that will provide key materials needed for India infrastructure development. Mining is one of the core sectors and growth driver of Indian economy. Minerals and ores provide basic raw materials to many important industries like power generation (thermal), iron and steel, cement, petroleum and natural gas, petrochemicals, fertilizers, precious and semi-precious metals/stones for jewellery, electrical and electronics equipment, glass, ceramics, etc. The mining sector in India was poised for robust growth in financial year 2020–2021, on the back of rising demand from end-use sectors and fresh investments announced by the mining companies. However, the spread of COVID-19, right at the beginning of the financial year, has led to disruptions across industries. There is a significant scope for new mining capacities in iron ore, bauxite, coal and other minerals and considerable opportunities for future discoveries of sub-surface deposits. Infrastructure projects continue to provide lucrative business opportunities for steel, zinc and aluminium producers. Iron and steel make up a core component for the real estate sector. Demand for these metals is set to continue given strong growth expectations for the residential and commercial building industry. India's mining sector expected to show positive growth in 2021 compared to 2020. As different arms of the government work with stakeholders to bring the economy on the growth path, it is important for the policymakers of mining to continue making such changes to the policies, which can ramp up the contribution of the sector to GDP. In the present paper, an overview of impact of lockdown on the mining industry in India is discussed with special reference to production scenario of minerals, employment, export-import scenario of ores and minerals and other developments during the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic impacts of COVID‐19 lockdowns on poor and vulnerable households living in rural areas of developing countries are not well understood due to a lack of detailed micro‐survey data at the household level. Utilizing weekly financial transaction data collected from households residing in a rural region of India, we estimate the impacts of India's COVID‐19 lockdown on household income, food security, welfare, and access to local loan markets. A large portion of households living in our study region is reliant on remittances from migrants to sustain their livelihoods. Our analysis reveals that in the month immediately after India's lockdown announcement, weekly household local income fell by INR 1,022 (US$ 13.5), an 88% drop compared to the long‐term average with another 63% reduction in remittance. In response to the massive loss in earnings, households substantially reduced meal portions and consumed fewer food items. Impacts were heterogeneous; households in lower income quantiles lost a higher percentage of their income and expenditures, but government food aid slightly mitigated the negative impacts. We also find an increase in the effective interest rate of local borrowing in cash and a higher demand for in‐kind loans, which are likely to have an adverse effect on households who rely on such services. The results from this paper have immediate relevance to policymakers considering additional lockdowns as the COVID‐19 pandemic resurges around the globe and to governments thinking about responses to future pandemics that may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VUCA i.e. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, is the best word that describes the current situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is interesting to note that despite the gloom, things are looking optimistic. The marketers of Two-wheeler are argue, that things will normalize soon. They believe that the negative repercussions of the pandemic are estimated to be short lived and may last for a few months. They believe that in the long run, the Corona effect will lead to a major boost in the sales figures of Two-wheeler. The research undertaken is unique as it deals with a phenomenon never experienced before. The earlier research studies were related to consumer buying behaviour for Two-wheeler. These research studies were limited to the profile of the consumers, their expectations, satisfaction level and the features of the Two-wheeler. This research undertaken provides a holistic picture of the Two-wheeler industry in era of COVID-19 crises. The research is of great significance as the automobile sector of the country is considered to be one of the most vibrant and happening industry in the country. The study and its findings will lead to congruence of marketing strategies of Two-wheeler companies and customer expectations. It will also help in seeking the much required support from policy makers in the government by bringing to their notice the plight of the automobile sector with the advent of COVID-19 situation. The paper aims to influx positivity in the minds of the marketers and make them feel optimistic about the new normal. It proposes that despite the big blow, the economy of the country has taken, especially the industrial sector, things are not that bad for the Two-wheeler industry. The study will give a new dimension to the way the manufacturers of the automobile industry view the market. The research will highlight reasons for the demand that is likely to unfold in future. The researcher also intend to give satisfactory reasons why some companies had increased sales in 2020 as compared to the corresponding months of 2019 in the previous year. The study based on exhaustive research of available secondary data aims to examine the marketing strategies of six major Two-wheeler companies during the unlock phase. The six companies that are considered for the study are Hero Moto Corp, Honda, TVS, Bajaj Auto, Yamaha and the Royal Enfield. These six companies were considered due to their significant market share and the brand value they command in the Indian market. The combined market share of these six companies accounts for more than 95 percent share of the Two-Wheeler market. The period of the study is from January 2018 to November 2020. The sales figures of the six leading Two wheeler manufacturing companies for the year 18/19 and 2020 were considered for the study. A comparison of the sales figures of 2019 and 2020 for each month was done so as arrive at a conclusion. Appropriate percent increase and decrease in sales are highlighted. Appropriate tables and graphs that depict sales figures for the current year (2020) and previous two years (2018 /2019) are considered so that the hypothesis that is framed can be tested and the objectives of the study are achieved. The study makes a comparison of sales figures between the months post the unlock phase for the current year i.e. 2020. An attempt has also been made to compare the market share of companies and the positive / negative impact on sales of the COVID-19 pandemic on the six companies considered for the study. An analysis for the increase or decrease in the market share has been done to as to suggest suitable remedies. A proper SWOT analysis of the existing situation will help in giving new insights on how to sail through the existing situation and make the most of the opportunity. The important reasons why sales of Two-wheeler are likely to increase are, people will avoid the public transport system and may opt for the Two-wheeler mode of transportation as it is very economical and convenient, many employees have faced salary deductions and hence for the time being, they will avoid buying a car and instead buy a two wheeler. Many women who till date did not think of buying a Two wheeler for self-use, will now consider buying one, this will include house wives, who need to venture out of their homes to fulfill many domestic obligations. Many Two-wheeler manufacturing companies are making loan options more simplified to make things easy for the buyers during times of financial crisis. Home delivery of goods has increased, so companies in the business of delivering goods to customers like Swiggy, Zomato Domino's and courier companies may indulge in placing orders for bulk purchases for their employees. Post the pandemic it is estimated that Two-wheeler service taxi may be the new lucrative business, resulting in more demand for Two-wheeler. The rural markets of the country may also see a boost in sales of Two-wheeler as the country has witnessed a more than satisfactory rainfall resulting in good harvest by the farmers. The special COVID relief funds may increase the surplus of cash. The loan waivers announced by the government will increase the level of motivation among the rural folks. Companies are well aware that aspirations of rural consumers are on the rise due to rising incomes, educational levels and the increasing penetration of television and internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India had made an early move to constrain the spread of COVID 19, requesting a 21 day across the country lockdown for its population 1.3 billion persons beginning March 25th 2020. The progressing wellbeing emergency had influenced various society including agriculture and farming. This paper represents the effect of lockdown on hill agriculture especially the agricultural business performed by the native peoples of Darjeeling hills who are basically the daily labours. Soils of hills are not suitable for performing agriculture so easily like plain lands and non-application of synthetic pesticides makes hill agriculture so tough. The survey work was divided into two parts one containing period before the lockdown and another lockdown period as well as the unlock phases. Outcome of this report reveals that there was a significant loss to the farmers during the lockdown and unlock phases, especially due to failure of selling the products. Although government has taken several steps to combat this situation, but the crisis is yet unsolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision on immediate lockdown in India put economic, social and religious activities to a grinding halt. The paper examines the impact of the lockdown and social distancing policies on economic activities in India, using a multivariate econometric model for the data collected in the period from 1st January to 31st August 2020. While the social distancing policy is captured in terms of internal movement, domestic travel and international travel restrictions, its effect on the economic activity and the business activity is captured through stock prices, purchasing managers' index and the exchange rate. Confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths are also used as the independent variables. The results reveal a significant negative impact of social distancing policies on the economic activity and the business activity, the stock market and the exchange rate. Furthermore, the economic stimulus provided by the Government could not bring a positive influence on the stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrival of nCoV virus took the existence of human race in the toss, thus to slow down the spread of the virus Indian Government imposed a nationwide lockdown. In this paper, we aim to find the liaison between the impacts of lockdown on slowing down the spread of the virus along with the unprecedented blow to the small cap companies enlisted in the stock market. The impact of lockdown model has been assessed by proposing a differential equation based mathematical modelling (SIQR Modelling). Along with that, the stock market effect has been analyzed using a proposed Bi-Directional LSTM model optimized using Genetic Algorithm. In this present research, we have optimized the time-stamp window using genetic algorithm, before passing through the LSTM architecture. The novelty of the paper lies in the bi-fold approach to assess the chaos of the stock market, under 2 conditional scenarios i.e. with and without the lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, partly written in the first person, describes the struggle and also the gains made by both an adolescent patient and her therapist when they had to move to a digital platform for their therapy sessions. The particular focus is on the shift in the countertransference and what became possible for both in their responses, when forced to move to digital work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments across the globe have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by imposing restrictions of various magnitudes on citizen activities. The Indian government imposed one of the strictest lockdown among all nations. The lockdown initially meant for 3 weeks has been extended thrice for a total duration of about 10 weeks. During this period, there has been closure of nonessential services. While the government did take certain proactive steps, however much remains to be desired at the ground level. This unprecedented move and other precautionary steps to control the pandemic unearthed numerous psychosocial consequences; however, for this particular paper, we will focus on social challenges such as migration, poverty and hunger, social disconnection, homelessness, and increased screen time arising as a result of government-based measures. Government policies for health-care workers have been only partially successful as there had been numerous incidents of struggles expressed from different corners of the country. Further stigma related to pandemic has had a serious impact on control measures. It remains unclear whether the social changes occurring to combat the crisis are transient or will create a totally transformed society. The true extent of the devastation due to the pandemic will only be clear in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the biggest health calamities that the world has faced, which has infected millions of people and lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths all over the world. It has impacted the economic, social and health aspects of the countries to quite an extreme level. But an indirect positive impact can also be seen on the environment. In this paper, taking the example of Delhi, one of the most polluted cities of India, an analysis has been done to compare the levels of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NOx and ozone) during the lockdown and the same period in the previous years. The study shows that the extent to which the industries, vehicles, power plants etc. release the air pollutants and severely impact the environment and human health. As during the lockdown when all such activities were either stopped or very much restricted, a reduction of almost 60% in the particulate matter pollution and up to 40% in the NOx pollution was observed while the ozone levels were reduced by 30-40% as compared to the same period during the previous two years. In the end, some suggestions have been made which can play some part to control air pollution once the lockdown is over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lockdown imposed in India on 25 March 2020 resulted in the indefinite closure of education institutes all across the country. The government and educational institutes were quick to respond, they shifted teaching from offline to online mode. This article aims to identify the approaches made by the higher education institutions for continues imparting of education amidst lockdown. The article also identifies the challenges faced by teachers in online teaching from their homes. The study is descriptive and analytical in nature and data has been collected from secondary sources like reports, news articles, blogs, interview videos, magazines, social media, and journals to achieve the objective of the paper. Based on the secondary sources' information, the article also advocates the learning curve for the future to deal with any such crisis impact on the education system of India. The findings revealed that higher education institutions (HEIs) have taken many initiatives in this pandemic situation for imparting education. But these initiatives have not been very successful from the teacher's perspective. Teachers faced may issue in online teaching such as lack of technical facilities, family interruption, lack of training, lack of clarity & direction, lack of technical knowledge. The learning curve of the article facilitates the HEIs to help them to execute the online educative in an effective manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper fulfills an identified need to study the mental health status of the population under situations like lockdown, thereby helping fill a persistent gap in Indian research on this issue, and present research on the impact of lockdown on mental health during epidemics is limited, especially in India. This study aims to scale the association between anxiety and sociodemographic factors during the coronavirus disease 2019 lockdown among the general Indian population. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional nationwide study designed to enroll the general population. The inclusion criteria for this study were Indian citizens aged 18 years and above. The study was conducted from March 29, 2020, to April 12, 2020, using an online google questionnaire. The anxiety among respondents was detected and measured using a Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Scale, which consists of seven questions (in English), that is, GAD-7. Results: Responders were 392, and from these participants, the prevalence of anxiety was 25.3%. The predictors of anxiety were gender, religion, occupation as business/self-employed, marital status, family size, health status, and sleep deprivation based on the bivariate logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: This study reports the early prevalence of anxiety among the Indian population who were grounded at their homes during lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 virus has resulted in the lockdown of schools, offices, factories, temples, railway stations, and even the airspace. It is estimated that due to the lockdown, the Indian economy may face prolonged adverse impact. The paper is an attempt to ascertain the impact of lockdown on the Indian economy and explore future perspective. The study has addressed important issues like consumption expenditure, demand & supply, unemployment rate, purchasing power, financial market, etc. Under the given circumstances, the lockdown will cost India around USD 120 bn. The manufacturing and service sector has come to an abrupt stop and interrupted domestic supply chains. If this crisis continuous it will indirectly affect all economic sectors. The study has given suggestions as a learning curve which can be used by different stakeholder to improve the economic situation of the country and minimize negative effect of lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karur, one of the oldest towns in Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India, embedded with its rich cultural history and heritage of over more than 2000 years can be considered a key textile hub in present times. Being perennially busy with home furnishings and garment exports, like any other "Textile" town of India or other textile players of the world, Karur was pushed into lockdown one after another from March 2020 for a few undecided months owing to the pandemic outbreak of the disease Covid-19 with a new class of corona virus, known as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) being responsible for the occurrence of this disease. With uncertainty and a lack of clarity looming over their heads, many owners with the backing of their employees of the textile firms and industries jumpstarted their lives trying their best in beating the odds laid on themselves in quite successful ways backed with technical innovations. Though it happened for few, it didn't realize for some. This paper attempts to track and research on some of the life stories of achievement and the unprecedented misery few were suddenly pushed into. While this town's success stories as a meticulous process of change in its people's mindset in desperate times toward themselves and those around can be studied to be implemented as a role model for other towns, the future lying in its unpredictability can never be ascertained thereby only making the successful solutions of those a base study of learning for the next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To arrest the spread of COVID-19, most countries have imposed some form of lockdown to ensure social distancing. For India, a complete was imposed by the Central Government over four phases and over two months (April-June, 2020). While the effectiveness of such a stringent measure is yet to be established, some estimates of the economic distress owing to lockdown are available and it projects a substantial drop in GDP as well as State Domestic Products. It is therefore important for India to plan the unlock down phase well. Unfortunately, with the possibility of may more pandemic related disruptions that are likely to happen in the future, both lock down as well as removal of lockdown becomes a key determinant for both controlling the spread of pandemics as well as revive the economy. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework to address how un lockdown must be planned and discuss the respective roles of the States as well as the Centre. The model is set against the backdrop where a large part of the migrant labor has also been forced to return to their home States. In our model, the Centre as well as the States maximize the Expected Economic output while planning un lockdown. The probability of COVID spread is modeled using simple Epidemiological probability function. We find that a centralized lockdown would mean lower lockdown levels for the labor receiving state compared to the case when such decisions were decentralized and a higher lockdown level for the labor sending state as compared to the case when such decisions were decentralized. We recommend that the role of the Centre in easing of lockdown must be limited to two things. One, support the States with more investments in health infrastructure that will help them reduce lockdown intensities. Two, compensate the expected shortfall in wage income through a Direct Benefit Transfer to the labor in the two States. Our model can be used to implement unlock down phases should a contingency in the future arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No nation is untouched by domestic violence, and it is well-known that it seriously impacts women's health and well-being. The present study aims to assess the prevalence and characteristics of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, as compared to the years before, using National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data from 2015-16 and 2019-21. The NFHS collects data nationally through surveys covering various topics, including domestic violence. For this study, graphical representations were created of physical, sexual, and spousal violence and marital control to compare data. Analysis showed that the prevalence of domestic violence has increased during the COVID-19 lockdown, and there has been no significant improvement in domestic violence rates, despite the disparity in the age of respondents between the two surveys. This indicates that more social and governmental programs and policies must be implemented to improve the prevalence of domestic violence in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to contribute to the research of future possibility of Work from Home (WFH) during the pandemic times of Covid 19 and its different antecedents such as job performance, work dependence, work life balance, social interaction, supervisor's role and work environment. A structured questionnaire was adopted comprising of 19 questions with six questions pertaining to work related infrastructure at home. Data was collected from 138 full time employees working from home which revealed the influence of work dependence, work environment and work life balance which were hypothesized to be directly related to the willingness to work from home in future if given an opportunity. Qualitative analysis revealed that job performance, social interaction and supervisor's role related hypothesis are refuted. The study tries to bridge the gap between the existing research done in past during normal course of time and current pandemic. The current research of WFH during the Covid 19 in employees working from home in India is an attempt to assess the antecedents in current situation. These results have important theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food addiction (FA) has a long-term impact on the health of individuals. This study analyses the changes in FA and related behaviour in India in the wake of lockdown which started on 25th March 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This paper provides insight into the food consumption behavior of various segments of the population during this lockdown. It offers some new insights in this regard by establishing the relationship between a temporary pause in the consumption of palatable food and FA. This study was conducted between March and May 2020 in two stages. First, a quantitative study used the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) to identify food addicts from a sample of 150 respondents. In the second stage, in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with the food addicts; the responses were recorded, transcribed, and analysed to ascertain the changes in their overall consumption and addiction behavior towards palatable foods. This was done by conducting a thematic analysis with the help of the NVivo software where various tools like word cloud and cluster analysis were used. This study found that COVID-19 restrictions had significantly brought down the addiction to palatable food in India as the regular consumption chain had got broken during the lockdown. The consumption of palatable food is expected to remain low for a brief period after the lockdown due to hygiene issues like improper or lack of sanitization and cleanliness. However, in the long-run, the consumption of palatable food is expected to rise in India owing to its growing population, modernisation, increasing disposable income and changes in customer preferences. These findings have significant implications for the food, packaging and health industries as the changes in customer behavior will certainly impact them, and they need to duly change their strategy to adapt to the changes promptly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The pandemic has placed considerable strain on health systems, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), leading to reductions in the availability of routine health services. Emerging evidence suggests that people with disabilities have encountered marked challenges in accessing healthcare services and supports in the context of the pandemic. Further research is needed to explore specific barriers to accessing healthcare during the pandemic, and any strategies that promoted continued access to health services in LMICs where the vast majority of people with disabilities live. Methods: Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with persons with disabilities in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Viet Nam, Türkiye (Syrian refugees), Bangladesh, and India as part of a larger project exploring the experiences of people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and their inclusion in government response activities. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: This research found that people with disabilities in six countries - representing a diverse geographic spread, with different health systems and COVID-19 responses - all experienced additional difficulties accessing healthcare during the pandemic. Key barriers to accessing healthcare during the pandemic included changes in availability of services due to systems restructuring, difficulty affording care due to the economic impacts of the pandemic, fear of contracting coronavirus, and a lack of human support to enable care-seeking. Conclusion: These barriers ultimately led to decreased utilisation of services which, in turn, negatively impacted their health and wellbeing. However, we also found that certain factors, including active and engaged Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) played a role in reducing some of the impact of pandemic-related healthcare access barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SARS-CoV-2 is a type of coronavirus that has caused the pandemic known as the Coronavirus Disease of 2019, or COVID-19. In traditional epidemiological models such as SEIR (Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, Removed), the exposed group E does not infect the susceptible group S. A distinguishing feature of COVID-19 is that, unlike with previous viral diseases, there is a distinct "asymptomatic" group A , which does not show any symptoms, but can nevertheless infect others, at the same rate as infected symptomatic patients. This situation is captured in a model known as SAIR (Susceptible, Asymptomatic, Infected, Removed), introduced in Robinson and Stillianakis (2013). The dynamical behavior of the SAIR model is quite different from that of the SEIR model. In this paper, we use Lyapunov theory to establish the global asymptotic stabililty of the SAIR model, both without and with vital dynamics. Then we develop compartmental SAIR models to cater to the migration of population across geographic regions, and once again establish global asymptotic stability. Next, we go beyond long-term asymptotic analysis and present methods for estimating the parameters in the SAIR model. We apply these estimation methods to data from several countries including India, and demonstrate that the predicted trajectories of the disease closely match actual data. We show that "herd immunity" (defined as the time when the number of infected persons is maximum) can be achieved when the total of infected, symptomatic and asymptomatic persons is as low as 25% of the population. Previous estimates are typically 50% or higher. We also conclude that "lockdown" as a way of greatly reducing inter-personal contact has been very effective in checking the progress of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Maharashtra, India, remained a hotspot during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the initial complete lockdown, the state slowly relaxed restrictions. We aim to estimate the lockdown's impact on COVID-19 cases and associated healthcare costs. Methods: Using daily case data for 84 days (9 March–31 May 2020), we modeled the epidemic's trajectory and predicted new cases for different phases of lockdown. We fitted log-linear models to estimate the growth rate, basic (R0), daily reproduction number (Re), and case doubling time. Based on pre-restriction and Phase 1 R0, we predicted new cases for the rest of the restriction phases, and we compared them with the actual number of cases during each phase. Furthermore, using the published and gray literature, we estimated the costs and savings of implementing these restrictions for the projected period, and we performed a sensitivity analysis. Results: The estimated median R0 during the different phases was 1.14 (95% CI: 0.85, 1.45) for pre-lockdown, 1.67 (95% CI: 1.50, 1.82) for phase 1 (strict mobility restrictions), 1.24 (95% CI: 1.12, 1.35) for phase 2 (extension of phase 1 with no restrictions on agricultural and essential services), 1.12 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.23) for phase 3 (extension of phase 2 with mobility relaxations in areas with few infections), and 1.05 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.123) for phase 4 (implementation of localized lockdowns in high-case-load areas with fewer restrictions on other areas), respectively. The corresponding doubling time rate for cases (in days) was 17.78 (95% CI: 5.61, −15.19), 3.87 (95% CI: 3.15, 5.00), 10.37 (95% CI: 7.10, 19.30), 20.31 (95% CI: 10.70, 212.50), and 45.56 (95% CI: 20.50, –204.52). For the projected period, the cases could have reached 631,819 without the lockdown, as the actual reported number of cases was 64,975. From a healthcare perspective, the estimated total value of averted cases was INR 194.73 billion (USD 2.60 billion), resulting in net cost savings of 84.05%. The Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) for implementing the lockdown, rather than observing the natural course of the pandemic, was INR 33,812.15 (USD 450.83). Conclusion: Maharashtra's early public health response delayed the pandemic and averted new cases and deaths during the first wave of the pandemic. However, we recommend that such restrictions be carefully used while considering the local socio-economic realities in countries like India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. The WHO recognized the spread of COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The present study sheds light on the mental health of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic by assessing the 4 psychological problems - post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and stress. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 60 individuals from the Delhi NCR region of India. An online questionnaire was created using "Google Form" and sent to all participants through social media platforms. The 2 psychological scales IES-R and DASS-21 were used and the collected data was statistically analyzed. The data from this study indicated that gender was a risk factor for overall high levels of PTSD, depression, anxiety and stress, with all 4 factors significantly elevated in women. There was no association between age and education with the 4 parameters. However, a person's occupation contributed to high levels of psychological distress, with all 4 parameters significantly elevated in students compared to working professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 first case was reported in India on January 30, 2020, and in Chhattisgarh on March 19, 2020, and since then a sharp surge has been noticed. The government of India imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25, 2020, a complete suspension of human activities, viz., industry, construction, transport, academic institutions, etc., which resulted in an improvement in air quality (a decrease in PM2.5 and PM10, alteration in NO2 and an increase in O3). But the rate of cases of COVID-19 has increased sharply, and eventually, under economic pressure, the lockdown was withdrawn on June 1, 2020, which further accelerated the exponential growth of COVID-19 cases. We noticed that in the Chhattisgarh State of India, the alteration in the air quality index during the lockdown period is continuing even after the restoration of anthropogenic activities. Among PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and O3, the behavior of NO2 was found to be different than others; it was found to increase during the lockdown period but further decreased with the resumption of anthropogenic activities. We conclude that the air quality index has an insignificant impact on COVID-19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study was planned to estimate the effect of lockdown on psychosomatic problems and sleep of children and their association with screen the time during the lockdown. Methods: A cross‑sectional study was conducted among 1–12‑year‑old children at a tertiary care hospital in South India. A pre‑validated questionnaire with 20 related questions was disseminated through pediatric OPD, telemedicine service, and social media to eligible parents. Results: A total of 278 children aged 1–12 years with a mean (SD) age of 6.92 (3.01) years were studied. Most under 5‑year‑oldchildren had screen time of ≤2 hours/day, whereas 58.16% of children between 5 and 12 years spent >4 hours/day (P < 0.000). A significant proportion of participants aged 5–12 years had vision problems (P = 0.019), whereas under 5‑year‑old children had significant associated behavioral changes (P = 0.016) and sleep problems (P = 0.043). Conclusion: Behavioral and sleep problems were significantly high and correlated with an increase in screen time among under 5‑year‑old children. Vision problems were more in 5–12‑year‑old children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The current study investigates the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown restrictions on air quality in an industrial town in Himachal Pradesh (HP) (India) and recommends policies and strategies for mitigating air pollution. Design/methodology/approach: The air quality parameters under study are particulate matter10 (PM10), PM2.5, SO2 and NO2. One-way ANOVA with post-hoc analysis and non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test, and multiple linear regression analysis are used to validate the data analysis results. Findings: The findings indicate that the lockdown and post-lockdown periods affected pollutant levels even after considering the meteorological conditions. Except for SO2, all other air quality parameters dropped significantly throughout the lockdown period. Further, the industrial and transportation sectors are the primary sources of air pollution in Paonta Sahib. Research limitations/implications: Future research should include other industrial locations in the state to understand the relationship between regional air pollution levels and climate change. The findings of this study may add to the discussion on the role of adopting clean technologies and also provide directions for future research on improving air quality in the emerging industrial towns in India. Originality/value: Very few studies have examined how the pandemic-induced lockdowns impacted air pollution levels in emerging industrial towns in India while also considering the confounding meteorological factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effect of COVID‐19‐induced lockdown on the profitability of listed firms in India. We use quarterly income statement of 4168 listed firms for the period between April–June 2020 quarter and April–June 2022 quarter and compare their financial data with previous quarters (2015–2019). Using a difference‐in‐difference estimation framework and various profitability measures, we find that the COVID‐19 lockdown has reduced profits by around 15 per cent for listed firms in India. Our results are robust to various robustness tests and alternate specifications. We find evidence of firms losing revenues more than expenses, thus leading to decline in profits. The main effect is conditioned by firm‐specific factors. Specifically, firms that are smaller, older, unlisted and that do not belong to any group witnessed larger decline in profitability due to lockdown. Additionally, the effect of lockdown is more pronounced in areas that had lower mobility and higher COVID‐19 spread. These results underscore the importance of institutional factors and pre‐existing firm characteristics in conditioning the impact of lockdown on firm profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the Prime Minister of India announced a nationwide lockdown to curb its spread. Subsequently, some groups of people found themselves away from their family or friends, and were unable to return to them. The aim of the research was to explore the lives of young adults who were living alone and working, during the lockdown in India. Focus was on their daily living, their relationships and their mental health. Twelve participants residing in various cities of India were included via the Internet. Focus group discussions were used to attain the objectives of the study. The data that emerged from the discussions, was analysed using thematic analysis. All participants had experienced different kinds of disruptions in their life due to the lockdown. This effect was mediated by their financial situation, their general comfort and preference for living alone, media, opportunities for non-virtual interactions and other kinds of recreation, quality of relationships and more. Though there were similarities in their coping methods, their perspective on the lockdown, the meaning they attributed to their current situation and their vision for their future was unique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]