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Purpose: The garments/textiles industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. However, efforts to understand and curtail its adverse environmental impacts have not been commensurate, and previous works have largely been fragmented and disjointed. This study aims to coduct a comprehensive and systematic green supply chain management (GSCM) investigation on this industry, where a multidimensional framework involving green supply chain practices and performance is developed, validated and applied. Design/methodology/approach: A framework consisting of 12 constructs (8 on practices and 4 on performance) and their underlying measures were developed through an extensive literature review. A survey methodology was used to obtain responses from 403 garment-manufacturing firms in Bangladesh, one of the leading garment producers in the world. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used first to validate the first- and second-order constructs and then test the hypothesized relationships. Findings: Internal environmental management and cooperation with stakeholders were identified as necessary precursors for implementing the second-order green supply chain practices comprising green design, green purchasing, green manufacturing, green transportation, green facilities and end-of-life management. The implementation of green supply chain practices was found to have a (direct) positive impact on environmental, economic and operational performance and an indirect positive impact on organizational performance. Similarly, both economic and operational performance was found to impact organizational performance positively. Surprisingly, a negative relationship (albeit low) was observed between environmental and organizational performance. Also, garment-manufacturing firms were found to have been unable to translate their IEM capabilities into strategic and long-term cooperation with stakeholders. Research limitations/implications: The study fills a gap in the literature about applying/implementing GSCM in the garment industry. Future studies in the garment industry and elsewhere could utilize the framework to understand further the synergistic impact of green supply chain practices on performance. Practical implications: The findings provide practitioners, policymakers and organizations associated with the garment industry with critical insights on the various opportunities and challenges in adopting GSCM. Also, the positive impact of green supply chain practices on performance could provide the impetus for manufacturing firms to adopt GSCM. Originality/value: A comprehensive GSCM investigation on the garment industry has not been previously attempted and constitutes the novelty of this work. Also, Bangladesh is the second-largest garment exporter worldwide, making this study contribution even more valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Tobacco uptake in adolescents is associated with a range of predictors. We examined the predictors of cigarette smoking, smokeless tobacco (ST) consumption, and use of both ST and cigarettes among adolescents in four South Asian countries.Methods: We analyzed the Global Youth Tobacco Surveys (GYTS) data for Bangladesh (2013), India (2009), Pakistan (2013), and Sri Lanka (2015), using multinomial regression to examine associations between several predictors and tobacco use.Results: Data from 23 681 adolescents were analyzed. Overall, 82.8% of the study population were between 13 and 15 years and 52.7% were girls, 2% were cigarette smokers, 6.5% were ST users, and 1.1% used both ST and cigarettes, in the past 30 days. Exposure to smoking in public places was associated with past 30-day smoking (relative risk ratio [RRR] 5.59, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 4.28-7.28), ST use (RRR 2.07, 95% CI 1.84-2.32), and use of both ST and cigarettes (RRR 11.42, 95% CI 7.44-17.54). Exposure to tobacco use in electronic media and being offered free tobacco products were associated with all forms of tobacco use. Shopkeepers' refusal to sell cigarettes protected adolescents from smoking (RRR 0.47, 95% CI 0.36-0.63) and ST use (RRR 0.65, 95% CI 0.45-0.95). However, exposure to antitobacco mass media messages was not protective for any form of tobacco use. Adolescents taught at school about harmful effects of tobacco were less likely to use ST; no evidence of this association was observed for smoking.Conclusion: The associations between tobacco use and protobacco factors were strong, but the associations with antitobacco factors lacked strength and consistency in this study population.Implications: The predictors of adolescents using different tobacco products, crucial to inform and evaluate tobacco control efforts, are poorly understood. We investigated the associations between several environmental-level factors and cigarette smoking, ST consumption, and use of both forms among adolescents, whereas most of the previous studies focused on individual-level factors. Our study found strong associations between tobacco use and protobacco factors and lack of strength and consistency in associations between antitobacco factors and tobacco use in the study population. Our results indicate that the current tobacco control policies need strengthening to curb the tobacco epidemic in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Community Health Workers (CHWs) function as liaisons between communities and public health systems through educating, informing, and creating awareness about healthy lives and healthcare facilities. Existing studies have emphasized the importance of CHWs for Universal Health Coverage (UHC), but overlooked the challenges they face during delivery of the services. This study seeks to assess the multiple roles of health workers, the challenges and barriers they face during the delivery of services in the peripheral region of India. The study triangulates the findings of qualitative interviews with quantitative findings. 16 CHWs were interviewed in the three districts of Assam adjacent to the Indo-Bangladesh border areas. Besides, a cross-sectional survey with 355 women who gave birth in the last year or were pregnant (during the time of the survey) was conducted to substantiate the qualitative findings. The in-depth interviews broadly focus on the daily activities of the workers, which includes services towards reproductive and child healthcare, and vaccination and immunization services. The mix-method study analysis included thematic framework approach followed by the interpretation and exerts from the in-depth interviews and substantiated by the descriptive statistics. The analysis reveals that majority of the respondents rely on the services of the CHWs from minor ailments to registering for pregnancy, assistance with financial services provided by the government, assisting during pregnancy, arranging transportation for the hospital, assisting with abortion, assisting child immunization, educating about a healthy lifestyle. The significant challenges that the workers face are the incentive and remuneration structure, along with the inadequate supply of medical equipment and medicines. The socio-economic condition of the community, as well as the geographical terrain, adds more to the challenges and barriers. The health administrators must enhance the working conditions of the CHWs through restructuring the incentive pattern and easy access to health deliverables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the use of evidence in policy making means strengthening capacity on both the supply and demand sides of evidence production. However, little experience of strengthening the capacity of policy makers in low- and middle- income countries has been published to date. We describe the experiences of five projects (in Bangladesh, Gambia, India and Nigeria), where collaborative teams of researchers and policy makers/policy influencers worked to strengthen policy maker capacity to increase the use of evidence in policy. Activities were focused on three (interlinked) levels of capacity building: individual, organizational and, occasionally, institutional. Interventions included increasing access to research/data, promoting frequent interactions between researchers and members of the policy communities, and increasing the receptivity towards research/data in policy making or policy-implementing organizations. Teams were successful in building the capacity of individuals to access, understand and use evidence/data. Strengthening organizational capacity generally involved support to infrastructure (e.g. through information technology resources) and was also deemed to be successful. There was less appetite to address the need to strengthen institutional capacity-although this was acknowledged to be fundamental to promoting sustainable use of evidence, it was also recognized as requiring resources, legitimacy and regulatory support from policy makers. Evaluation across the three spheres of capacity building was made more challenging by the lack of agreed upon evaluation frameworks. In this article, we propose a new framework for assessing the impact of capacity strengthening activities to promote the use of evidence/data in policy making. Our evaluation concluded that strengthening the capacity of individuals and organizations is an important but likely insufficient step in ensuring the use of evidence/data in policy-cycles. Sustainability of evidence-informed policy making requires strengthening institutional capacity, as well as understanding and addressing the political environment, and particularly the incentives facing policy makers that supports the use of evidence in policy cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on relationship between Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Borehole data reveals that during Late Quaternary, the Ganga river was non-existent in its present location near Varanasi. Instead, it was flowing further south towards peripheral craton. Himalayan derived grey micaceous sands were being carried by southward flowing rivers beyond the present day water divide of Ganga and mixed with pink arkosic sand brought by northward flowing peninsular rivers. Subsequently, the Ganga shifted to its present position and got incised. Near Varanasi, the Ganga river is flowing along a NW-SE tectonic lineament. The migration of Ganga river is believed to have been in response to basin expansion caused due to Himalayan tectonics during Middle Pleistocene times. Multi-storied sand bodies generated as a result of channel migration provide excellent aquifers confined by a thick zone of muddy sediments near the surface. Good quality potable water is available at various levels below about 70m depth in sandy aquifers. Craton derived gravelly coarseto-medium grained sand forms the main aquifer zones of tens of meter thickness with enormous yield. In contrast, the shallow aquifers made up of recycled interfluve silt and sandy silt occur under unconfined conditions and show water-level fluctuation of a few meters during pre- and postmonsoon periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arsenic contamination of the environment is a serious problem threatening the health of millions of people exposed to arsenic (As) via drinking water and crops grown in contaminated areas. The remediation of As-contaminated soil and water bodies needs to be sustainable, low-cost and feasible to apply in the most affected low-to-middle income countries, like India and Bangladesh. Phytoremediation is an aesthetically appreciable and successful approach that can be used for As decontamination with use of the best approach(es) and the most promising plant(s). However, phytoremediation lacks the required speed and sometimes the stress caused by As could diminish plants' potential for remediation. To tackle these demerits, we need augment plants' potential with appropriate technological methods including microbial and nanoparticles applications and genetic modification of plants to alleviate the As stress and enhance As accumulation in phytoremediator plants. The present review discusses the As phytoremediation prospects of soil and water bodies and the usefulness of various plant systems in terms of high biomass, high As accumulation, bioenergy potential, and economic utility. The potential and prospects of assisted phytoremediation approaches are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice–wheat cropping system (RWCS) is considered as the furthermost vital system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South-Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Recently, the deficiency of micronutrients like zinc (Zn) has emerged as one of the prime limitations for the sustainability issues of this RWCS in Zn deficient calcareous soils, particularly in India, as a result of the calcareous typic ustifluvents taxonomic nature of the soils. Therefore, a new Zn fertilization approach for soils is very much needed in the intensive RWCS. Thus, a six-year-long investigation was designed with three different modes of Zn application, viz., the application of Zn only in the first year of study, application in alternative years, and application in every year. Four different rates of Zn applications in a hectare of area for a single year, viz., 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, and 10 kg ha−1 year−1, and times of Zn application, viz., only at first year, alternative years, and in each year. The major aims of the study were to determine Zn concentration in soil; yield; and Zn accumulation by wheat crop under different application methods of Zn. From this study, it was found that a large portion of the applied Zn was present in the residual fraction, and it was also revealed that increasing the frequency of Zn application resulted in the increment in the crystalline fraction. Significant correlation of water-soluble and exchangeable Zn (WS+EX-Zn), complexed Zn (COM-Zn), amorphous Zn (AMO-Zn), organic Zn (ORG-Zn), total Zn (TOT-Zn), grain yield, and grain Zn uptake by wheat indicated that these Zn fractions were dominant forms in the soil to be utilized by plants under rice–wheat rotation. Concerning yield and Zn uptake by wheat, it was noted that the Zn application at 10 kg ha−1 in alternate years was the best Zn application method, while application of Zn at 7.5 kg ha−1 in each year also resulted in comparable yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Rice–wheat rotation is the most important cropping system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) and is responsible for the food security of the region. The effect of different integrated nutrient management practices on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and its fractions, SOC sequestration potential as well as the sustainability of the rice–wheat system were evaluated in long term experiments at different agro-climatic zones of IGP. Application of NPK either through inorganic fertilizers or through combination of inorganic fertilizer and organics such as farm yard manure (FYM) or crop residue or green manure improved the SOC, particulate organic carbon (POC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) concentration and their sequestration rate. Application of 50% NPK+50%N through FYM in rice and 100% NPK in wheat, sequestered 0.39, 0.50, 0.51 and 0.62MgCha−1 yr−1 over control (no N–P–K fertilizers or organics), respectively at Ludhiana, Kanpur, Sabour and Kalyani using the mass of SOC in the control treatment as reference point. Soil carbon sequestration with response to application of fertilizer partially substituted (50% on N basis) with organics were higher in Kalyani and Sabour lying in humid climate than Ludhiana and Kanpur lying in semiarid climate. The rice yield recorded a significant declining trend in Ludhiana and Kanpur where as the yield trend was stable at Sabour and Kalyani under unfertilized control. The system productivity in N–P–K fertilized plots and NPK along with organics showed either an increasing trend or remained stable at all locations during last two and half decades of the experiment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The 7th International Conference on "Human Values in Higher Education: Education for Holistic Human Health" (ICHVHE-18) was held from April 26 to 28, 2018, at Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan, Thimphu, Bhutan. This conference also celebrated the 50th year of Indo-Bhutan friendship. ICHVHE-18, was the culmination of the collaborative efforts of eight universities, two from Bhutan and six from India. The ICHVHE is an annual conference aimed at developing a shared vision of holistic, humane education, particularly in institutions of higher learning. The initial plan is to implement human values and education for holistic health in higher education within India and other SAARC nations. Delegates from five SAARC nations, viz, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives, participated in this conference. Ultimately, the effort is to provide universal human value-based education to every child, globally.