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People’s perceptions on cultural knowledge of on-farm tree plantation have become fundamental elements of sustainable forest resource management. The study examined the people’s knowledge on cultural practices of on-farm tree plantation and their socioeconomic determinants in rural communities of Gurez Himalaya. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select 337 households from 18 sample villages for field survey. Data were collected through personal interviews administering structured interview schedule and non-participant observations. Data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Results indicated that majority of the people were belonged to low socioeconomic status class as reflected by their household characteristics. Among the ten selected major cultural practices about on-farm tree plantation the ‘spot weeding’ (WMS, 2.87; priority percentage, 12.83%) was ranked 1st while ‘thinning’ (WMS= 1.31; priority percentage, 5.85%) was ranked 10th. Majority of the respondents (54.88%) had medium knowledge on cultural practices for on-farm tree plantation followed by high (23.78%) and low (21.34%) classes. Adoption of tree plantation, problem faced in tree cultivation, experience in tree cultivation, training exposure on tree cultivation and level of education had significant contribution on people’s knowledge on cultural practices about on-farm tree plantation. The findings suggested that the trainings on cultural practices about on-farm tree plantation is the crucial intervention for livelihood diversification, socioeconomic development and forest conservation; hence, need-based trainings must be planned and imparted to the individuals for improving the tree resource production, harvesting and marketing.

Entrepreneurship on non-timber forest resources (NTFR) is an important source of sustainable livelihoods and income diversification in the Gurez valley of Kashmir. In order to increase the efficiency of NTFR stakeholders, training is indispensable. This study attempts to assess the training needs, suitable training programme and socioeconomic profile of the NTFR stakeholders. Multistage random sampling procedure was used to select 337 households from 18 sample villages for field survey. Data were collected through personal interviews administering structured interview schedule and analysed using simple descriptive statistics. Results indicated that majority of the NTFR stakeholders were belonged to low socioeconomic status class as reflected by their household characteristics. Among the ten selected major thematic areas the ‘commercialization of NTFR’ (WMS, 3.00; priority percentage, 12.87%) was ranked 1st while ‘conservation of NTFR through JFM’ (WMS= 1.68; priority percentage, 7.21%) was ranked 10th. The short duration trainings (1-7 days) (WMS, 3.00) was ranked 1st among the delivery methods followed by the medium duration trainings (8-14 days) (WMS, 2.84; rank 2nd) and the long duration trainings (3-4 weeks) (WMS, 2.79; rank 3rd). The findings suggested that the trainings on NTFR entrepreneurship of stakeholders is the crucial intervention for livelihood diversification, socioeconomic development and forest conservation; hence, need-based trainings must be planned and imparted to the individuals for improving the entrepreneurial productivity, performance and efficiency. To achieve the desired change in the NTFR entrepreneurship, the training needs identified in this study must be given due consideration during designing the training curriculum.

The expansion of E-logistics services globally and in Pakistan has made customer satisfaction crucial for the success of many businesses. However, customer satisfaction in the E-logistics industry has been overlooked. This research aims to determine the factors affecting E-Logistics performance and its impact on customer loyalty in Pakistan through a quantitative survey approach using questionnaires. The sample consisted of 659 E-logistics users in Pakistan and data was gathered through physical and online surveys. Customer satisfaction was measured as the dependent variable, with distribution rate, transit time, staff service quality, and traceability as the independent variables. The study also utilized E-payment as a mediating variable. For Normality (Shapiro-Wilk) and for reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) tests were conducted. The results of the descriptive statistics indicated that customers were generally satisfied with the E-Logistics performance. The multiple regression analysis showed that all the independent variables, including distribution rate, transit time, staff service quality, and e-traceability, had a significant impact on customer satisfaction with a significant mediating effect of E-Payment. Staff service quality had the highest impact, followed by transit time, distribution rate, and traceability. In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the factors affecting customer satisfaction and loyalty in the E-Logistics industry in Pakistan. The results can help E-Logistics companies to better understand their customers' needs and preferences and improve their performance accordingly.

Developing the knowledge base concerning the agroforestry’s contribution to fodder production that integrate livelihood security, relieve forest pressure and safeguard ecosystem services is pre-requisite for sustainable development. The study investigated the extraction and consumption pattern of fodder and extent of livestock dependency on natural forests to evolve silvipastoral agroforestry strategy for revitalizing fodder security in forest-fringe landscape of Ganderbal district, Kashmir. A total of 222 households were selected from 5 sample villages adopting multi-stage random sampling technique for field survey. Both secondary and primary sources were used for data collection. Household data were gathered administrating well-structured interview schedule and non-participant observations. Simple descriptive statistics were employed to analyse the data. Results revealed that total fodder extraction from various sources was 27,066.21 tons/year @12.19 tons/household/year and the forests were exposed to fodder pressure of 11,995.92 tons/year (44.31%) posing ample degradation. Focusing on the socioeconomic and ecological aspects, silvipastoral agroforestry strategy is designed, the implementation of which on cultivable wastelands would secure 11,847.73 tons/year of green fodder, tree fodder of 3846.67 tons/year, fuel wood of 307.73 tons/year, small timber of 320.43 m3/year, grass seed of 8.46 tons/year besides income of $ 66.13/household/year and employment of 9.98 man-days/household/year. Economic viability of the silvipastoral agroforestry strategy confirmed NPV of $ 734,192.67, BCR of 3.57 and IRR of 155.73% @12% annual discount rate on 12-year rotation. The strategy proposed needs to be implemented to mitigate the present unsustainable fodder extraction, safeguard the future fodder crisis, eliminate the fodder pressure on forests besides socioeconomic improvement.

Human resources’ is one of the pivot elements in business enterprises to achieve set goals and objectives of new millennium. Competent and skilled workforce have to be permanent stakeholders of a corporation where they use acquired knowledge and gained skills to achieve set milestones in particular industry. Talent management is the task of attracting, acquiring, developing and retaining skilled workforce to achieve desired goals of corporation. The main objective of this research study is to explore the need for talent management and investigating its impact on the organizational performance of higher education institutes. Three factors of talent management are taken into consideration; talent attraction, talent development and talent retention. Using simple random sampling method, one hundred questionnaires were distributed to academic and administrative heads of three public sector universities in jamshoro city. Data is analyzed using cronbach’s alpha, Mean and standard deviation, regression analysis and one sample t test. After analyzing observed data results show positive and significant effect of all three factors of talent management i-e talent attraction, talent development and talent retention on the organizational performance of higher education institutes. It is concluded that talent management is integrated part of better performance and key factor in achieving standards of excellence in higher education institutes. Practicing and implementing talent management will upgrade ranking of institutes at national and international level. Furthermore higher education institutes will show impetus for continuous improvement in imparting quality education to the masses. Faculty and administrative staff of higher education institutes will have opportunity to develop their careers and top management will surely retain skilled employees and have opportunity to grow at par excellence. Keywords: Talent Management, Organizational Performance, Higher Education Institutes.

Critical analyses of the perceptions on SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) have become a fundamental element of multi-criteria decision making for developing wicker handicraft entrepreneurship. The study examined the effectiveness and prioritization of entrepreneur's perceptions towards SWOT categories and factors and provided insights for developing wicker handicraft entrepreneurship in Pulwama district of Kashmir. Data were collected through structured interviews and focus group discussions of 100 wicker handicraft entrepreneurs of 20 villages selected by multi-stage random sampling. Simple descriptive statistics were used for the data analysis. Results showed that the factors like income generation (19.30%) and employment generation (19.00%) were viewed as most important strengths while labour intensive and less remunerative livelihood (18.80%) and seasonal subsistence (18.70%) were identified as main weaknesses. Further, poverty alleviation (20.70%), preservation of traditional art craft (19.00%) and improvement in public-private relations (17.50%) were adjudged as strong opportunities whereas limited marketing facilities (20.70%), lack of co-operative societies (18.90%) and harassment by officials in withies collection (16.50%) were seen as chief threats. The challenges (weaknesses and threats) (50.40%) for wicker handicraft entrepreneurship outweighed the prospects (strengths and opportunities) (49.60%) while the internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) (54.80%) prevailed over the external factors (opportunities and threats) (54.20%). F statistics (p

One of the main objectives of this study is to determine the empirical effect of financial and moral incentives on job satisfaction of teachers at higher education institutes. Financial incentives are monetary or tangible in form; two main financial types of incentives included in the study are promotion and group insurance. Moral incentives are non-monetary or intangible in nature; two main types of moral incentives are also included in the study, i-e Achievement and Recognition as well as Growth. Job satisfaction is considered as dependent variable in the study. Research instrument used to collect primary data was closed ended questionnaire which was adopted from previous relevant research studies. Primary data was collected from one hundred teachers working in three different universities located in Jamshoro city, Sindh. Data was analyzed using different statistical techniques like Cronbach alpha, Descriptive Statistics, Mean, Standard Deviation, Skewness and Kurtosis, Correlation Coefficient R and Structured Equation Modeling. All results of Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and Factor loadings, T statistics and P values of Structured Equation Modeling shown positive and significant effect of financial and moral incentives on job satisfaction of teachers. Only one hypothesis related to one of the moral incentives, Growth, is rejected, all other hypotheses are accepted. This research study concludes positive and significant effect of three incentives, two financial incentives i-e Promotion and Group Insurance, and one moral incentive i-e Achievement and Recognition on job satisfaction of teachers. Findings of research studies are practical guidance for top management of higher education institutes to increase job satisfaction and devise attractive incentives policy for teachers. It is also a valuable guidance for other private higher education institutes to increase job satisfaction of teachers as the proposed study only covers three largest and well recognized public sector universities of the country.

Objective: To determine the frequency of impaired fasting blood glucose in healthy obese first degree relatives of type-2 diabetes mellitus patients. Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted at Medical department of Liaquat University Hospital, Jamshoro over a period of six months. A total of 152 first degree relatives of type-2 diabetes mellitus patients, who were 18 years or older, having a BMI >25kg/m2 were included. Known diabetic individuals, having any other endocrine disorders, pregnant women and women with polycystic ovarian disease were excluded. Fasting blood glucose between 100-126 mg/dL was labeled as Impaired Fasting Glucose. Results: 60.5% (n= 92) of the sample comprised of males while 39.5% (n= 60) comprised of females. Female to male ratio was 1:1.53. The mean ± SD age was 29.92 ± 8.33 years with a range from 18 to 45 years. The mean ± SD BMI was 31.68 ± 3.31 Kg/m2 while mean ± SD FBS was 88.92 ± 16.33mg/dL. FBS ranged from 60 to 162 mg/dL. The frequency of impaired fasting glucose in healthy obese first degree relatives of type-2 diabetic Patients was 13.2% (n = 20) [Odds ratio = 1.61, with 95% confidence interval of 7.82, 18.58]. Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is emerging as a major health-care challenge for Pakistan. The impaired fasting glucose (IFG) is frequent in healthy obese first degree relatives of type-2 diabetic patients. Recommendations: Proper and regular screening programmes are strongly recommended in this regard using the tests which are highly specific and sensitive. Key words: Diabetes mellitus, Impaired fasting glucose, Obesity, BMI, Healthy.