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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to provide equitable access to safe and affordable water services. Yet, the lack of potable water in Bangladesh's coastal region is a significant barrier to attaining this target. This study examines how socio-demographic factors influence water-fetching practices in coastal Bangladesh. Using a self-administered questionnaire, we surveyed 371 people from three vulnerable sub-districts, and the Chi-square test and a Multinomial Logistic Regression were utilized to explore significant factors affecting water-fetching practices. Findings show that water-fetching is typically considered a woman's responsibility. Although three-quarters of the respondents stated that women usually collect water at home, most believe they should not be the only household member responsible for this task. Despite many initiatives, women are still left behind, resulting in inequities and gender injustices in their homes and society. Nonetheless, this study unfolds that water-fetching practices are biased and influenced by social and gender roles, where intensive attention is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Asia primarily consists of developing economies with diverse financial systems. The commercial banking industry plays a crucial role in each country's financial development in the region. This research aims to evaluate commercial banking industries' efficiency and productivity growth in the South Asian (SA) region over 6 years (2013–2018). In addition, the technology gap among the banking industries of all countries is also explored. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) Meta-frontier is employed to measure the technical efficiency (TE) and technology gap ratio (TGR) among the countries. Further Malmquist productivity index (MPI) is used for productivity change estimation. Results indicate that, on average, 147 commercial banks (CBs) have a technical efficiency score of 0.6208, while CBs in Nepal are the most efficient in the region with an average score of 0.7153. The Meta frontier analysis also confirms the presence of different production technologies in CBs. Nepal's CBs group frontier is closer to meta-frontier (technology gap ratio, TGR = 0.9361) While, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka rank second, third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. The results of productivity contend that the total factor productivity change of all 147 CBs decreases by 0.8 percent on average over the study period. CBs have enhanced their productivity growth in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan, but declining trends have been witnessed in Indian and Bangladesh's commercial banking industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of Industry 4.0 on the performance of the cargo logistic business (service sector) in Bangladesh and Canada. Our drivers of Industry 4.0 include big data, smart factory, cyber physical systems (CPS) and the Internet of things (IoT). However, there is dearth of research showcasing the effects of these drivers on the service sector in various countries. For this reason, we consider the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework, as shaped by the institutional theory, within the context of this research. This research adopts a cross-sectional quantitative approach to identify the variation in sub-groups that refer to the samples in Bangladesh and Canada. Through purposive sampling, networking, and connections, a total of 210 (105 each) survey questionnaires, as completed by employees working in logistics companies, were gathered. Smart partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the collected data, which revealed that Industry 4.0 has a significant role in promoting and improving the performance of the services industry of both economies. However, the impact of all drivers is more highly statistically significant for Canada than for Bangladesh. Thus, this research demonstrates the role of Industry 4.0 in terms of improving the performance of the logistics industries in contrasting economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developing world is facing pivotal challenges in recent times. Among these, global warming has ominous repercussions on every segment of society, thus tracing its underlying causes is imperative. This research attempts to investigate the impact of urbanization and energy consumption on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) for a panel of 8 Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) over the period 1982 to 2017. The analyses are executed using panel co-integration and Granger causality techniques. The main findings of panel co-integration reveal a long-run relationship between urbanization, energy consumption, and CO 2 emissions. Furthermore, the results indicate a positive and significant impact of urbanization and energy consumption on CO 2 emissions, indicating that urban development and high energy consumptions are barriers to improve environmental quality in the long run. The results also highlight bi-directional causality between energy consumption and urbanization, while unidirectional causality exists between energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. Based on the obtained results, this study offers useful policy implications for plummeting carbon emissions.