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Evaluation is one of the most difficult areas of educational pursuits. The most common type of evaluation and assessment is through a written examination. The majority of the time, questions is drafted right before the examination without going through a quality control process, which might cause confusion or incorrect interpretation of the questions by the students. Students' self-confidence and self-esteem grow as a result of their increased understanding of the question paper's structure, and they then affirm their ability to complete the task. The design of the question paper is prepared, with consideration given to the objectives, the various forms and types of questions, and the various content areas, a projected time, Level of difficulty anticipated. In order to enhance the standard of student evaluation and assessment, this article focuses on offering instructions and a scientific technique for creating effective question papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to review scholarly research on employability and skill gap in the context of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) education in India. This paper provides an overview of the critical themes and identifies research gaps for future investigations. Design/methodology/approach: Published empirical studies were reviewed and thematically analysed using NVivo 11 Pro. Findings: In addition to technical aptitudes and skills, organisations also seek other attributes that are associated with employability, such as communication, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, problem-solving skills and interpersonal skills. Communication is an important skill frequently cited in the literature. Additionally, themes related to reasons for skill gaps are identified. Practical implications: Soft skills and non-technical aptitudes should be emphasised in MBA education. Furthermore, significant reforms in MBA education programmes should be implemented in India to make graduates industry-ready. Originality/value: Several studies have been carried out to verify the existence of and reasons for skill gaps amongst MBA graduates in India. Through integrative literature review, the issue of skill gap is discussed. Future research directions are also recommended in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluency Assessment and Benchmarking for Literacy in Education (FABLe) is the first mobile application being developed for the assessment of foundational literacy skills in India. FABLe passages are currently available in English for Grades 2, 3 and 4, with plans to expand to other Indian languages. FABLe is designed to administer curriculum-based measures for reading (R-CBMs) that have been validated in the Indian context. This paper describes the preliminary benchmarking procedures being undertaken for the Indian student population and how FABLe screens for students at-risk for reading difficulties. Student performance data based on initial FABLe results are compared with international benchmarks and teacher perception data. Overall, FABLe scores are lower than international benchmarks. FABLe was able to accurately identify students needing additional support, with the majority of students identified at-risk falling below the 19th percentile in FABLe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language tasks related to employment are now a main part of the language teaching or training syllabus. Job search is only one part of this process. Newer to the mix is the focus on employability skills. These are the skills needed to keep a job and thrive in a workplace. Though the growing importance of employability skills in higher education cannot be denied, it is only recently that these skills been made explicit in module descriptions, particularly in India. The main aim of the paper is to identify the need of embedding these skills into every programmes and modules. This paper describes the primary employability skills and discusses how these skills can be taught in an ESL classroom. It also presents some activities that can be used by the instructor to hone the employability skills of the learners. The paper uses a descriptive methodology to illustrate how employability skills can be taught in classes. Its main implication is that the integration of employability skills in teaching and learning at higher education can assist students in developing these skills together with their areas of expertise for future employment purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the collaboration of an anthropologist or rural sociologist with field experience in planning the community participation aspects of healthcare. It mentions promoting community participation is a skill which must be taught to community health workers and backed up with support services; and also mentions palliative Care can actually ambulate the life of the people as it is cost effective.

To design and develop a mobile application for pre-school readiness of children with autism and also to identify their learning pattern. Based on strong foundation of functional academics, we have developed a mobile application for providing an early educational intervention program to the children with autism. Three successive software trials have been conducted among 31 children with autism of age group of three to 10 years. The mobile app has been provided to educators and parents and they have been allowed to supervise the children during their learning phase for eight to 10 weeks. The imprint of learning pattern is recorded and learning progress profile is generated for individual child. Data analysis of learning progress profile shows that 90% of the participants preferred drag and drop or simple touch approach over conventional methods practised during classroom teachings. More than 84% of the children are found to adapt pre-requisite skills for writing like scribbling, tracing, dots joining, copying, etc. after using the app on their tablet who are reluctant to hold pencil and paper otherwise. Twenty-five percent of the participants are reported to reciprocate the greeting etiquettes in class such as greeting teachers and their peers. The mobile application made a valuable contribution to early intervention program for children with autism by imparting appropriate learning opportunities readily available to them. Performance metrics underlying each activity form a strong base of identification of learning patterns and formulation of revised individualized education plan (IEP). Children with autism need the mobile application as an educational intervention program for it is readily available and user friendly. Educators need the mobile application to quantify the performance parameters and there by monitor/evaluate the progress of the child. Overall, the present research has aimed to develop an easy reach app by which educating as well as handling challenging behaviour of the children with autism would be easier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of reflective practice in psychotherapy has long been acknowledged. However, there is a paucity of work that elucidates the process of reflection in the context of therapist development. The current study employs reflexive action research for a supervised group-work in a tertiary mental health hospital carried out by two trainee therapists. Group-work intervention was chosen because it was viewed as a cost-effective method given the client-clinician ratio. It also provided a richer context to boost reflective practices in various interactions- with the participants, the supervisor and the co-facilitator. Reflective notes and discussions among trainees, supervisor, as well as verbatim feedback from clients were the sources of information. The paper describes this process of reflection as well as the critical events in the process that posed a challenge for the therapists and opportunities for reflection in these interactions during the course of therapy. The paper, with its reflective stance, has implications for promoting and documenting reflective practice in psychotherapy training using different methods and modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A snapshot study has been done in this paper to examine the compatibility between employee skill and technology adopted by 100 organisations in India, taking top 10 from each of the 10 sectors. A snapshot study has been done in this paper to examine the compatibility between employee skill and technology adopted by 100 organisations in India, taking top 10 from each of the 10 sectors. Technology level is assessed by the conventional measure of net block and employee related cost is considered as the surrogate measure of employee skill. Organisational performance is analysed for the full sample and sector-wise, taking two sets of input parameters, i) net block versus employee related cost, and ii) tech-intensity versus employee skill-intensity. Correlation analysis is done to examine organisational performance for the full sample and sector-wise data. It is found that the employee related cost is below 8 per cent of net block, and employee skill-intensity is just 4 per cent compared to overall tech-intensity of 52 per cent. Correlation gives significant results for the full sample, and six out of 10 sector data. The study indicates that there is much more scope to upgrade employee skill to match with the level of technology adoption to improve their performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Primary Care Doctors (PCDs) are the first contact for majority of patients with psychiatric disorders across the world including India. They often provide symptomatic treatment which is naturally inadequate. Absence or inadequate exposure to psychiatric training during undergraduate medical education is one of the prime reasons. Classroom training (CRT), a standard practice to train PCDs is driven by specialist based psychiatric curriculum and inherently lacks clinical translational value. Aim and Context: The 'Department of Psychiatry' of 'National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences', Bengaluru, India has recently come up with an innovative digitally driven modules of 'Primary Care Psychiatry Program' (PCPP) for practicing PCDs. Goal of this paper is to provide an overview of all these (five) modules with its various stages of implementation. Methods: Authors briefly discuss the current status of primary care psychiatry in India and also narrate the newly designed five modules of PCPP in this paper. Results and Discussion: An adopted psychiatric curriculum is designed in 'Clinical Schedules for Primary Care Psychiatry' (CSP) which is an integral part of PCPP. This is brief clinical schedules contains culturally appropriate screening questionnaire, transdiagnostic classification of 8 core psychiatric disorders, diagnostic, referral and management guidelines. PCPP contains 5 modules named as orientation module, basic module, advanced module [Tele-psychiatric 'On-Consultation Training' (Tele-OCT)], videoconference based continuing skill development module, and collaborative video consultation modules which covers all essential areas of primary care psychiatry for practicing PCDs. Last three modules are fully designed digital modules in hub and spoke model of Tele Medicine. In this designed program, the CSP and Tele-OCT are two path braking innovations having inbuilt higher clinical translation value. The challenges and opportunities that could be faced during its implementation across India are also discussed. Conclusion and Future Directions: Innovative PCPP is pragmatic in nature and has potential for higher clinical translational value. Once validated thoroughly, PCPP has potential for pan-India expansion. There is a need for artificial intelligence-based modules for next phase of PCPP in India considering her population and lesser number of available psychiatrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to a coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patient is challenging for the healthcare providers (HCP). COVID-19 cases have specific CPR requirements, which differ from standard resuscitation efforts. Objective: This paper aims to evaluate whether online learning can be an effective methodology for imparting information on the management of cardiopulmonary arrest in COVID-19 patients due to a novel virus unknown to HCP based on evaluation of knowledge acquisition and satisfaction of the nurses in the new area of medicine and virology. Methodology: In a single-arm, one group before and after design, from a cohort of 160 nurses trained in comprehensive cardiac life support (CCLS) formulated by the Indian Resuscitation Council (IRC), 73 nurses participated in the study. After obtaining informed consent through the email from the nurses, baseline data including demographic profile and knowledge related to CPR in COVID-19 patients were collected. An online intervention spread over 1 week was given using a validated e-learning module. The online intervention was found to be effective (pre- and post-intervention knowledge score 13.65 ± 3.01 vs 19.92 ± 1.94, p = 0.001). The majority of nurses were highly satisfied with the content and the training methodology (37.23 ± 4.70). Conclusion: A well-structured, online study material can be used in imparting knowledge and demonstrating the basic and essential skills to nurses, required for giving CPR to COVID-19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Global business travel spending reached a record breaking $1.2tn in 2015 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016) and the average Indian traveling is now at a phenomenal high for both business and leisure travel. In this context, the paper aims to investigate how the top hotels in India are addressing the issue of human resource shortages and training and how they are preparing for the future when the market, the customer profile and employee expectations are undergoing a major change. In essence, brand loyalty could be minimal and competition intense. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a case study approach and reviews how participating hotels are addressing their talent attraction and retention issues and differentiating their people management processes. Findings: The processes used by top hotel companies provide an overview as to how they manage people and how they will need to innovate to assess progress of the measures and initiatives they are taking. They will also have to be more global in their approach. Originality/value: The findings will be of interest to managers who are responsible for hiring and managing employees. The study also has implications for policymakers and higher education institutions in relation to managing skill shortages that exist in the hotel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the theoretical predictions of most studies, this paper empirically shows that high‐skilled workers in India are sorted into industries with weaker production linkages. I hypothesize that such a reverse sorting pattern (negative sorting) occurs because the returns to skill become lower in industries with stronger production linkages as a result of substantial quality deterioration. Such substantial quality deterioration as the size of production linkages grows is likely to occur in developing countries such as India, which is characterized by a large pool of low‐skilled labor, poor infrastructure, and less‐advanced technology. Using both individual‐ and industry‐level data from the National Sample Surveys and input–output tables for India in 1999 and 2009, I find consistent evidence in favor of this hypothesized mechanism. The results are robust when accounting for possible endogeneity and selection biases and controlling for alternative reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Nutrition education plays a significant role in inculcating lifelong healthy dietary behaviours among adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the opinions of parents and teachers regarding nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional, self-administered, paper-based survey comprising both closed- and open-ended questions was completed by 32 teachers and 280 parents who were recruited from five private English-speaking secondary schools in Kolkata, India. Descriptive and cross-tabulation analyses were conducted to compare the responses of teachers and parents. Thematic data analysis informed by template analysis technique was performed to evaluate the qualitative data. Findings: While the curriculum was considered interesting and easy to understand, the gendered nature of the curriculum, excessive rote learning and lack of synchrony between the curriculum and school food services were highlighted as shortcomings of the existing curriculum. The need for the dissemination of food skills either through a compulsory food and nutrition curriculum or through extra-mural activities was expressed by most respondents. Both these ideas were indicative of strong support and motivation for modification in the current curriculum. Practical implications: These findings emphasise the support for a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to inculcate experiential culinary skills and comprehensive nutrition knowledge in Indian adolescents, thus improving their nutritional and health profiles. Originality/value: This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate the views of parents and teachers about the status of food and nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Mental Health Survey of India reported a higher prevalence and treatment gap of psychiatric disorders among the general population. Task shifting is one of the important solutions to meet this requirement. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among primary care is about 30%--50%. Digitally driven primary care psychiatry program (PCPP) designed to innovate different module to upscale the skills of primary care doctors (PCDs) in live consultation of PCDs in their general patients. To exponential coverage of PCDs, Karnataka Telemedicine Mentoring and Monitoring (KTM) Program is been implemented across all districts of Karnataka. It is the training of trainer version of PCPP where psychiatrists serving in District Mental Health Program of all districts of Karnataka become trainers to implement of two digital modules (Telepsychiatric On-Consultation Training and Collaborative Video Consultations) of PCPP with the target to train all PCDs of Karnataka. This paper aims to provide a glimpse of this innovative KTM program and current progress with a preliminary analysis of translational quotient indicating skill transfer and retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assam has an establishment of 3,900 registered manufacturing units. Most of the units are associated with food processing activities such as flour mills, food and fruit processing etc., varying from medium to small sized units. Some of the units are focused on the production of cakes and biscuits for large multinationals namely, Britannia and GlaxoSmithKline. The manufacturing units employed around 1.4 lakh people in Assam and still, there is a shortage of adequate manpower. The present paper attempts to assess the requirement of skills and talent in the food processing sector of Assam due to the competition and growth opportunities in this sector. The purpose of the paper is to identify the type of skilling required in the area of food processing sector in Assam. Secondly, it will also analyse the skill gap and the programme requirement for the development of skills. In order to achieve the objectives, secondary data is collected. Secondary data from the census, the economic survey of Assam, and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in the area of food processing sector is used to fulfill the study objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose School-based nutrition education programmes have the potential to reinforce healthy dietary behaviours in adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of secondary school students in Kolkata, India, regarding the food and nutrition curriculum, food skill acquisition at school and home and barriers to learning food skills.Design/methodology/approach The sample of 1,026 year nine students was drawn from nine private, English-speaking secondary schools in Kolkata, India to participate in a cross-sectional, self-reported paper-based survey. Data analyses including descriptive statistics and χ2 analyses were performed.Findings The majority of the respondents (65.3 per cent) were female. Biology, Home Science and Life skills classes were the main places in which students acquired food and nutrition knowledge. Almost two-thirds of the respondents acknowledged the importance of acquiring food-related knowledge and skills. Approximately half (48.3 per cent) reported that the food and nutrition curriculum involved excessive memorisation while around the same proportion described the curriculum as interesting (47 per cent) and easy to comprehend (50.3 per cent). However, relatively few students said they enjoyed attending food and nutrition classes (38.7 per cent). Only a minority reported receiving food skills training, i.e. cooking skills (23 per cent), meal planning skills and food purchasing skills (12.3 per cent) at school. Despite some parental support received at home, time constraints (50.5 per cent) and lack of interest (26.3 per cent) were cited as prominent barriers to learning food skills.Practical implications These data underscore the need for a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to improve Indian adolescents’ food-related skills, nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviours.Originality/value This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate the delivery of nutrition education and food skills in the Indian school context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper critically examined the available research on role of family and school contribution in academic achievement and explored their social representations. People adaptation with the prevalent notions and thinking beyond the boundary of common sense is required to explain multidimensional picture of any attribute. Previous research applied social representation theory to understand educability, intelligence, academic achievement and failure, and teachership. This article showed a polysemic understanding of family and school contribution where roles and identity matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of formative and outcome evaluation of two ongoing community-based intervention programmes for integrated non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control in urban low-income settings of Ballabgarh near New Delhi, India, and in Depok, West Java Province of Indonesia. At both sites, a coalition of community members facilitated by academic institution and the World Health Organization, planned and implemented the intervention since 2004. The intervention consisted of advocacy and mediation with stakeholders, training of volunteers and school teachers, communication campaigns, risk assessment camps and reorientation of health services. The formative evaluation was based on the review of documents, and outcomes were assessed using the standardized surveys for NCD risk factors in 2003–2004 and 2006–2007. The baseline surveys showed that tobacco use, low intake of fruits and vegetable, suboptimal levels of physical activity and obesity were prevalent in both the communities. A frequent change in local administrators and lack of perceived priority for health and NCDs limited their involvement. Pre-existing engagement of community-based organizations and volunteers in health activities facilitated its implementation. The reach of the programme among the population was modest (25–32%). Health system interventions resulted in increased diagnosis and better management of NCDs at health facilities. Early outcome measures showed mixed results of change in different risk factors. The experiences gained are being used in both countries to expand and provide technical support to national efforts. This paper adds to the knowledge base on the feasibility of designing and implementing large-scale community-based interventions for integrated prevention of NCDs through modification of risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human resources are the driving force of any organization. The employee workforce, as the main drivers, remain in the 'supply side' of e-Governance applications. Therefore, they need to be equipped with the right aptitude (skill), perception (understanding), attitude (desire), and the motivation to move toward changes. e-Governance involves the application of Information and Communication Technology by government agencies for information and delivery of services to citizens, businesses, and employees. This paper focuses on certain HR issues in e-Governance. It makes a case in favor of implementing thoughtfully designed Human Resource Management strategies in consonance with the changing organizational and employee needs. Application of ICT also makes it essential for an organization to become a learning organization, as these technologies are characterized by continuous change. An attempt is made to investigate the preparedness of employees of Berhampur University, particularly with the entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level employees, to provide a general insight into their levels of aptitude, awareness, and attitude toward e-Governance. It also explores the preparedness, and how the employees of Berhampur University show considerable support for e-Governance with their interest and adaptability to new technologies, and their levels of awareness and attitude toward e-Governance. The study also explores the low level of ICT aptitude. Besides, use of ICT by the official employees is often limited to word processing and other relevant applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retail is a labor-intensive industry. Organized Retail is blossoming in India and thus HR needs to gear up to face the challenges and provide innovative and sustainable solutions for fostering the growth of business and at the same time ensuring opportunities and economic benefits for the present and future employees in this sector. This paper looks at how skill up-gradation opportunities are perceived by the frontline retail staff and their expectations. This is a qualitative, descriptive study and aims to capture the skill up-gradation related expectations, perceptions, and aspirations of the growing number of Indian frontline retail staff in the lifestyle segment. Ten participants from nine different lifestyle stores were interviewed for this study. The findings depict that unfortunately retail does not stand out as a top career choice for Indian youth, given its many challenges and not a very positive image in the minds of the common man. The process of recruitment, quality of training and accessibility to the right kind of training are important factors contributing to the overall experience and satisfaction of the frontline retail staff. Some of the commonly cited challenges by frontline retail staff include long work hours, low pay and unclear future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research paper is to understand the role of employability skills and emotional intelligence toward employer satisfaction in recruiting fresh information technology engineering graduates from institutions of higher learning in India. Using a structured questionnaire, the study surveyed 507 employers from the information technology sector companies in India, who as recruiters conduct campus placement drives across various engineering schools in the country. An application of structured equation modeling to the data revealed emotional Intelligence partially mediates in the relationship between employability skills and employer satisfaction while recruiting these fresh engineering IT graduates. The finding of the study will be supportive for the students, academicians and practitioners in recognizing the need of soft skills for making young engineering graduates employable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing consensus suggests that absorption of new technology has a bias towards skilled labour. We investigate the relationship between technology change and demand for skilled workers by taking into account an array of tests to find evidence if technology has important effects on skill premium. This paper adopts an exploratory approach. Using a panel data for Indian manufacturing industries over the period between 2001–2002 and 2013–2014, this paper depicts the rising trend of skilled workers, decomposes the trend into within and between industries, suggests capital-skill complementarity as an important factor behind increasing skill demand, and identifies whether skill-biased technology change (SBTC) is the key determinant of the trend observed. Our results show that not enough evidence can be found in favour of SBTC in case of India, a pattern comparable to 1990s as shown by previous studies. The study contributes as a good starting point to understand what accounts for the relative changes in industrial skill intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competency-based medical education curriculum (CBME) has received traction worldwide. However, its adoption and implementation have significantly varied across the globe. The National Medical Commission, India (2019) has adopted CBME to improve the quality and content of training of medical students. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has spawned several challenges implementing the CBME. Therefore, there is a need to reflect on using novel teaching and assessment methods to enrich medical and psychiatric training. In this paper, we aimed to study global trends and characteristics of competency-based psychiatry training programs and how these experiences can be utilized to overcome challenges and facilitate the implementation of CBME in Psychiatry in the Indian context. A literature search was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar databases. The findings are presented narratively. Psychiatry training for medical students greatly vary across the globe. High-income countries mainly have implemented CBME and have incorporated psychiatry training during the foundation/pre-clerkship period itself. There is more reliance on skill development and flexible and learning-based training vs. time-based training. Various enrichment activities have been incorporated into the medical curriculum to promote and strengthen psychiatry training for medical students, particularly in developed nations, which have yielded positive results. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the medical student's training, it has reiterated the significance of skill-based education and opened novel avenues for implementing the CBME. Medical educationists need to adapt themselves to provide CBME to the students. Making structural, curricular changes, orienting teachers, and students about the CBME, mentoring teachers, adopting novel training and assessment methods, utilizing enrichment activities, collaborating with educational institutions and technology providers, periodically evaluating the implementation of the CBME, and making appropriate course corrections are essential. In addition, there is a need to address structural barriers, such as lack of workforce, for better realization of the CBME objectives.eriodically evaluating the implementation of the CBME, and making appropriate course corrections are essential. Additionally, there is a need to address structural barriers, such as lack of workforce, for better realization of the CBME objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Procuring communication skills that enable nurses to be effective yet person-centeredness is increasingly a hallmark of quality cancer care. The growing importance of patient outcomes and experiences in health care may mean that communication skill training is finally getting the attention it so clearly deserves. Objectives The main objectives of the study were to assess the efficacy of communication skill training on knowledge and skills of nursing students in conveying diagnosis to patients with cancer. Materials and Methods Quasi-experimental pretest–posttest with control group research design was adopted for the study. A total of 32 third-year BSc nursing students (intervention group, 16; control group, 16) were selected by nonprobability purposive sampling technique from two selected colleges at Mangaluru. Baseline proforma, self-administered knowledge questionnaire, and breaking bad news assessment schedule were used for data collection. Tools were validated by 11 subject experts. Communication skill training was provided for 8 hours (2 hours of theory and 6 hours of skill training on conveying diagnosis). A blinding method was adopted to assess the skill of the students that enable to avoid subjectivity. Results The mean age of participants in the intervention group was 20.56 and of participants in the control group was 20.94. All participants (100%) of both the intervention and control groups were females. The results showed there was a significant difference found in knowledge scores (t = 8.52, p = 0.000) between the intervention and control groups after the intervention. There was a significant improvement found in conveying diagnosis skills among students between the intervention and control groups in different time periods. There was a slight positive correlation found between pretest knowledge scores and eliciting concerns domain of conveying diagnosis skill (r = 0.57, p = 0.023). Conclusion The study results revealed that communication skill training session was very effective for improving the knowledge and skills of students, and it enables them in providing quality care to patients with cancer through effective communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training of medical students in the domain of clinical skills is an indispensable component of medical education delivery. Moulage in medical training deals with producing genuine simulations of wounds, injuries, and other medical conditions, so that students can relate to lifelike scenarios. Medical students through moulage are exposed to the complexities of real-world clinical practice to bring about an improvement in their confidence and competence levels as healthcare professionals. Integrating moulage into medical training essentially requires systematic planning and implementation to ensure that simulations are effective. The success of moulage, in terms of attainment of the learning objectives, can be enhanced by beginning with a few modules and then based on the experience, success, and acceptance, gradually expanding the process. In conclusion, the introduction of moulage into the existing medical curriculum can prove to be an effective tool to enrich the learning experience and aid in the process of acquisition of clinical skills. However, the success of the same in terms of attainment of the learning outcomes essentially depends on the planning and collaboration between different departments and stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Change' is the rule of the disruptive era we are part of. This has been obvious especiallywith regardto the population dynamics of countries and their path towards growth and development. The Demographic Dividend has been upheld as a factor with impeccable potential - that can increase the pace of economic growth for the vast expanse of the developing world if appropriately leveraged. While many East Asian economies seem to have made phenomenal strides in growth owing to the demographic dividend, the same transition has not permeated expected growth outcomes for countries in Latin America. This paper pointshighlights the importance of Governmental Policy making, and developmental programs through upskilling of resource base as a better approachtowards enhancing development in countries like India. The study undertaken among 350 IT skilling graduates in India on their perception of employability potential of the skilling programs and second study parallelly done among 100 trainers on the kind of IT skilling programs rolled out yearly - reveals the existence and the direction of skilling needed in the country by bringing out a measure called the 'propensity to upskilling' in the IT sector. In order to ensure that Development initiatives drive optimum results to economic growth, the need of the hour is an impetus on 'IT Skills' and building up on 'Employability skills' among the people. This undeniable need for change in Development efforts to be able to give the right thrust to IT Skills and to forecast the right kind of Skills to promote employability and productivity increase. This introduces us to the new approach of Community Capacity Building. 'Strengths, Skills and Abilities of masses' - the new direction for governments of developing countries to steer ahead to speedier progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic review on the effectiveness of prevention, early intervention, and harm reduction including treatment of substance abuse among adolescents for tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs. Taxation, public consumption bans, restriction on advertisements, and minimum legal age for consumption, are effective measures to reduce the use of tobacco and alcohol. School-based prevention and skill-training interventions are effective tools to reduce substance use among adolescents. Social norms and intervention to reduce substance use in adolescents do not have strong evidence of effectiveness. Road-side testing and reduction of injection related harm are effective. However, further research is needed to support it. Moreover, the available research evidence comes from the Western countries with questionable applicability in Indian setting. Research is needed to increase the evidence base on interventions that aim to reduce the high burden of substance use in adolescents in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community Re Entry Program (CREP) is a specialized rehabilitation program for individuals with mental disorders, recovering from mental illness. This program is specifically designed to develop and integrate the skills that enable individuals to relearn the skills necessary to fully participate in activities of daily living successfully and return to home or community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Everything has its wonders, including darkness and stillness, and I learn to be satisfied in whatever situation I am in." Research literature illustrates that parents of children with intellectual impairments are exposed to a variety of stressful life events while caring for their children with intellectual disabilities. The pivotal aim is to determine that the parenting intervention has a meaningful impact on parents' care of their intellectual disabled child and also to improve the parenting abilities of intellectual developmentally disabled children. It is indeed crucial to strengthen parenting skills through various means or strategies. Thus, the researcher examined numerous parenting practices that can help the parents in instilling positive attitudes to improve their parenting skills so that they can modify their intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) child's behavioral issues. Researcher has also identified the various strategies and principles to change the inappropriate behavior of IDD child such as acceptance, positive self-beliefs, positive reinforcement, self-efficacy, endurance, consistency, remain calm and be respectful, learn to stand and assertively explore out their feelings, nonjudgmental, and nonpunitive toward their disabled child. Apart from this, behavioral techniques for problematic behavior management such as changing the antecedent, extinction/ignoring, time out, response cost, and overcorrection prove beneficial in making modifications and improvement in child's behavior. It has been found that parenting skill program brings positive motivation, guidance, and zeal in parents and also enhances personal and parental self-efficacy which further helps to improve the family functioning. In addition to this, parenting intervention helps the parents to realize their own potential to manage their daily life stress, thereby living a happy and successful life with the intellectual disability child. It is estimated that disabilities will cross 10 million by 2022 if appropriate skills are not imparted through training programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer, a life-altering diagnosis, profoundly affects patients' wellbeing across various aspects. Essential in this regard is social casework intervention, integral to comprehensive cancer care. This intervention draws from the ecological systems theory, viewing individuals as part of interconnected systems, guiding social caseworkers to formulate a social diagnosis for tailored psychosocial intervention. The strengths-based approach complements this, emphasizing patient resilience and strengths alongside challenges. In India, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare providers (NABH) mandates medical social workers in clinical establishments. These professionals offer crucial emotional support and guidance to patients and families, ensuring psychosocial needs are met. In oncology, medical social workers collaborate with healthcare teams to provide holistic care. Their responsibilities span psychosocial assessments, counselling, discharge planning, resource referrals, and patient education. NABH standards require hospitals to have qualied social workers for psychosocial support, fostering a therapeutic bond and maintaining accurate records. Social caseworkers play a pivotal role in managing emotional distress, aiding healthcare, and nurture psychosocial needs, thereby enhancing coping skills and overall satisfaction. Emphasizing team collaboration, the oncology and palliative medicine sectors prioritize comprehensive cancer care. By uniting various healthcare professionals, they ensure patients receive wellrounded support. The key principles of social casework intervention encompass empathy, active listening, and therapeutic relationship building, essential for understanding patient perspectives. Social casework intervention is indispensable in addressing the multifaceted challenges posed by cancer. Rooted in the ecological systems theory and the strengths-based approach, it fosters collaboration, improves quality of life, and meets patients' diverse needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: Background: In many developing countries, such as India, information on human resources in the health sector is incomplete and unreliable. This prevents effective workforce planning and management. This paper aims to address this deficit by producing a more complete picture of India's health workforce.Methods: Both the Census of India and nationally representative household surveys collect data on self-reported occupations. A representative sample drawn from the 2001 census was used to estimate key workforce indicators. Nationally representative household survey data and official estimates were used to compare and supplement census results.Results: India faces a substantial overall deficit of health workers; the density of doctors, nurses and midwifes is a quarter of the 2.3/1000 population World Health Organization benchmark. Importantly, a substantial portion of the doctors (37%), particularly in rural areas (63%) appears to be unqualified. The workforce is composed of at least as many doctors as nurses making for an inefficient skill-mix. Women comprise only one-third of the workforce. Most workers are located in urban areas and in the private sector. States with poorer health and service use outcomes have a lower health worker density.Conclusions: Among the important human resources challenges that India faces is increasing the presence of qualified health workers in underserved areas and a more efficient skill mix. An important first step is to ensure the availability of reliable and comprehensive workforce information through live workforce registers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the use of filled pauses in the Trinity Lancaster Corpus Sample by 1,244 learners/second-language speakers of English at different proficiency levels (viz. B1-C2) from six different mother-tongue backgrounds, including speech communities in which English is spoken as a Foreign language (Italy, Mexico, Russia and Spain) and two speech communities where English is spoken as a second language (China/Hong Kong, India). Apart from the speakers' country of origin and their proficiency levels, other learning context variables gathered from the learner profiles of the corpus sample are also taken into consideration. The study revealed that, while the number of filled pauses is indeed significantly different across proficiency levels, other learning context variables, such as the country of origin, the age of acquisition or the examiners' experience turn out to have a much stronger effect on the learners'/speakers' use of filled pauses. These findings are discussed with regard to their implications for learner corpus research in general, as well as the relevance of including such performance phenomena in current descriptor scales such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in technology have led to the emergence of smart technology systems in brick-and-mortar stores. This study aims to explore the factors that influence customer adoption of in-store smart technology in a retail setting. By adopting the motivation, opportunity, and ability framework, the present study examines the role of relative advantage, perceived complexity, flow experience, enjoyment, retailer support, perceived attractiveness, technology readiness, and self-efficacy in customer perception of shopping effectiveness, which in turn, impacts their adoption intentions. By adopting a quantitative approach, a survey questionnaire was used to collect 747 responses from Australia and Indian retail shoppers. The results show that the motivation, opportunity, and ability framework provided a very insightful way for understanding customer adoption of IST. Specifically, we find significant differences in the role of flow, retailer support, and perceived attractiveness in determining customer evaluation of in-store smart technology for Australia and India. Findings have important managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the market return timing ability of fund managers of actively managed Indian mutual funds of various categories (small-cap, mid-cap, large-cap, and multi-cap funds) for the period of 2014 to 2019. To assess the exposure of different investment factors like market, value, momentum, and size, we use the 4-factor model. Further, we use the Treynor Mazuy and Henriksson Merton models, to study the timing ability of the magnitude and direction of the style, respectively. We observe that value investing has the least style timing, followed by momentum. The extent of size timing is highest, but the direction timing is least in small-cap. Mid-cap funds place second in size factor timing. The market timing factor shows best results for multi and large-cap funds while showing moderately better results for the other two compared to the value factor. Our findings add another dimension to mutual fund performance evaluation and provide a better understanding of the investment style suitable for different funds. These findings could help fund managers in returns maximisation returns by using the right style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Despite strong evidence about the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, that is the baby receiving only breast milk, no other foods or liquids, rates have remained relatively unchanged over the past two decades in low- and middle-income countries. One strategy for increasing exclusive breastfeeding is through community-based programs that use peer counselors for education and support. The use of mobile health applications is also gaining increasing applicability in these countries. Minimal information is available about training peer counselors in the use of mobile technologies to support exclusive breastfeeding. The present article describes our curriculum in the state of Karnataka, India for supporting new mothers to exclusively breastfeed using a mobile health application in rural India. Methods: Twenty-five women from the community surrounding the city of Belgavi, Karnataka, India were trained to be peer counselors and to use a mobile health application to conduct a structured curriculum to support new mothers in exclusive breastfeeding. The three-day interactive training, conducted in March 2018, was based on the WHO breastfeeding course, translated, and adapted to the local culture The curriculum, which included information collected during a formative research process, consisted of eight visits, two during the antenatal period and continuing for six months postpartum. Twelve nursing and obstetric experts validated curriculum content. Pre-post-evaluation of the training focused on breastfeeding knowledge, self-efficacy, skills, and app usability. Results: We observed a significant increase in the mean scores for knowledge (P < 0.0001) and skills (P = 0.0006) from pre- to post-training. Age of the peer counselors and their own breastfeeding experience correlated significantly with the acquisition of knowledge and skills. The mobile health app showed high usability scores. Conclusions: The culturally adapted curriculum presented here, combined with an mHealth app, can be an important educational strategy for training rural women in the acquisition of exclusive breastfeeding knowledge and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various trainings are designed to educate nurses to become simulation educators. However, there are no good strategies to sustain their learnings and keep them engaged. We developed a series of 10 interactive digital storytelling comic episodes 'The Adventures of Super Divya (SD)' to strengthen simulation educator's facilitation knowledge, skills, confidence, and engagement. This endline evaluation presents results on the change in knowledge after watching the episodes and retention of that knowledge over 10 months. The objectives of this pilot study are to: 1) assess the change in knowledge between the baseline and post-episode surveys; and 2) understand the retention of knowledge between the post-episode and the endline survey. A human-centred design was used to create the episodes grounded in the lived experience of nurse simulation educators. The heroine of the comic is Divya, a 'Super Facilitator' and her nemesis is Professor Agni who wants to derail simulation as an educational strategy inside obstetric facilities. Professor Agni's schemes represent real-life challenges; and SD uses effective facilitation and communication to overcome them. The episodes were shared with a group of nurse mentors (NM) and nurse mentor supervisors (NMS) who were trained to be champion simulation educators in their own facilities. To assess change in knowledge, we conducted a baseline, nine post-episode surveys and an endline survey between May 2021 and February 2022. A total 110 NM and 50 NMS watched all 10 episodes and completed all of the surveys. On average, knowledge scores increased by 7–9 percentage points after watching the episodes. Comparison of survey responses obtained between 1 and 10 months suggest that the gain in knowledge was largely retained over time. Findings suggest that this interactive comic series was successful in a resource limited setting at engaging simulation educators and helped to maintain their facilitation knowledge over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children now participate in audio and video calls with their parents and relatives using smartphones. We assessed if video calls help children to have more expressive conversation. We talked with 60 children aged between four and eight years on audio and video calls using smartphones in a controlled environment. We observed how they participated in the conversation and if they could recall what they heard over a call and solve a problem involving physical artifacts while receiving help on a call. Video calls were found to engage children aged four to six years 32.84% and seven and eight years 47.75% longer than audio calls. The children used bodily gestures and interrupted the person with whom they were having conversation to make a point of their own more often on video calls. The difference in the number of children who could initiate audio and video calls was insignificant. We found that 67% of the children aged four to six years could recall a story they had heard on a video call, while only 27% of them could do so for audio calls. Additionally, 20% of the children aged seven and eight years could solve a problem involving physical artifacts when receiving instructions over video calls, while none of them could do so when receiving instructions on audio calls. Video calls can contribute in child development in several ways including instilling a sense of proximity and security among children. Specialized video chatting apps may be developed for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Leadership skills are vital for efficient delivery of health reforms. India, a low- and middle-income country, is transforming its public health care significantly. The health workforce, particularly doctors, however lacks leadership skills. This study aims to highlight the leadership skills gap and raise concerns about how India might achieve its ambitious health reforms in the lack of formal, prospective leadership training for its workforce. Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted nine management development programmes between 2012 and 2020 and collected data from 416 (N = 444, 94% response rate) health-care professionals using a questionnaire. Participants were asked to inform leadership challenges that they perceived critical. A total of 47 unique challenges were identified, which were distributed across five domains of American College of Healthcare Executives Competency Assessment Tool (2020). Relevant information was also obtained from review of secondary sources including journal articles from scientific and grey literature and government websites. Findings: Majority of participants (85.36%) had never attended any management training and were from public sector (56.1%). Mean total experience was 18 years. Top 5 challenges were lack of motivation (54.26%), communication (52.38%), contracts management (48.31%), leadership skills (47.26%) and retention of workforce (45.56%). Maximum challenges (29) were in domain of business skills and knowledge, followed by knowledge of health-care environment (9), leadership, professionalism, and communication and relationship management (3 each). Originality/value: In absence of the leadership training, senior health professionals particularly doctors in India, suffer leadership challenges. Efforts should be made to strengthen leadership capacity in Indian health-care system to advance the country's ongoing national health reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine how physiotherapy students manage to convert and employ their intrinsic and extrinsic knowledge and skills in clinical contexts abroad outside Europe. The study is based on a qualitative a content analysis of 10 Bachelor theses in the form of case studies written in pairs of Norwegian Bachelor students. Findings that emerged in the document analysis were the students’ uncertainty concerning types of roles and knowledge discourses involved in the interaction. The students who managed to identify critical incidents and apply a cultural relativistic approach managed the converting process. A conscious attitude towards own cultural norms and values opened up for integrating these in the new context. Theory and tools introduced as part of the preparations were shown to be functional when applied in practice. The importance of using critical incidents and culture relativism as methods for the students going abroad will be emphasized in the preparation courses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Surgicaltraining programs across the globe have the responsibility of preparing the future generation of surgeons while promoting quality and patient safety. Surgical training differs significantly between countries, which can be based on the requirements of local accrediting bodies, different patient populations, different healthcare delivery systems and cultural and traditional patterns unique to that particular training environment. In this article, we reviewed General surgery residency training in the USA, UK, and India to identify strengths and challenges. We also highlighted salient aspects of training, including duration of the training, resident work-hours, operative opportunities, rotation and supervision, essential skill development, research activity, assessment, and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between ability and skill acquisition, when technological progress is ability biased and cost of education is a decreasing function of ability. It shows that, if the impact of ability biased technological progress on the productivity of unskilled labour is sufficiently low, the economy will be caught in a steady state where many abler individuals born of poor parents will not acquire skill, while many less able individuals born of rich parents will acquire skill. This is true even when technological progress is not ability biased at all. This result is likely to hold for LDCs like India where ability biased technological progress is confined only to a few pockets of the economy where there is little scope for employment of low-skilled labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fantasy sport has become a digital rage in the US and several European countries, while its presence has started to be felt in India in the 2010s with the expansion of smartphone technology. As the number of Indians playing fantasy cricket has exponentially grown over the last few years, concerns over the game being a front of organized online gambling has surfaced. In this article, I will explore the question whether or not fantasy cricket is a game of skill. I will analyse the extent of knowledge required for excelling in fantasy cricket in view of the 'glorious uncertainty' of cricket and the need to account for luck in any gameplay. Using the methods of autoethnography and phenomenology, I will study fantasy cricket as an object of my experience and offer an interpretive personal account to mediate a discussion about the extent to which knowledge is important in fantasy gaming success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an initial manifold approach, an ensemble forecast methodology is shown to simultaneously increase lead and realizable skill in long-range forecasting of monsoon over continental India. Initial manifold approach distinguishes the initial states that have coherence from a collection of unrelated states. In this work, an optimized and validated variable resolution general circulation model is being adopted for long-range forecasting of monsoon using the multi-lead ensemble methodology. In terms of realizable skill (as against potential) at resolution (~60km) and lead (2–5 months) considered here, the present method performs very well. The skill of the improved methodology is significant, capturing 9 of the 12 extreme years of monsoon during 1980–2003 in seasonal (June–August) scale. Eight-member ensemble-average hindcasts carried out for realizable skill with lead of 2 (for June) to 5 (for August) months and an optimum ensemble is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Talent scarcity in emerging economies such as India poses challenges for companies, and limited labour market participation among well-educated women has been observed. The reasons that professionals decide not to pursue a further corporate career remain unclear. By investigating career decision-making, this article aims to highlight (1) the contextual factors that impact those decisions, (2) individuals' agency to handle them and (3) the implications for talent management (TM). Design/methodology/approach: Following a qualitative research design, computer-aided analysis was conducted on interviews with 24 internationally experienced Indian business professionals. A novel application of neo-institutionalism in the Indian context was combined with the family-relatedness of work decisions (FRWD) model. Findings: Career decisions indicate that rebellion against Indian societal and family expectations is essential to following a career path, especially for women. TM as part of the current institutional framework serves as a legitimising façade veiling traditional practices that hinder females' careers. Research limitations/implications: Interviewees adopted a retrospective perspective when describing their career decisions; therefore, different views might have existed at the moment of decision-making. Practical implications: Design and implementation of gender-sensitive TM adjusted to fit the specific Indian context can contribute to retaining female talent in companies and the labour market. Originality/value: The importance of gender-sensitive TM can be concluded from an empirical study of the context-based career decision-making of experienced business professionals from India. The synthesis of neo-institutionalism, the FRWD model and the research results provides assistance in mapping talent experiences and implications for overcoming the challenges of talent scarcity in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergence of novel coronavirus has resulted in global chaos within days of its first detection in Wuhan, China. To curb the spread of Covid-19, stringent actions like lockdown and social distancing were imposed comprehensively around the World, training Institutes in India and globally, were widely affected by these restrictions. Henceforth, giving rise to an immediate need to extemporize modules to be adjusted to disseminate knowledge through e-learning platforms. This observation is an experience document to share the challenges and usefulness of shifting towards e-learning encountered by The National Cold Chain and Vaccine Management Resource Centre (NCCVMRC), Delhi. This piece additionally discusses the practices that could assist academic institutions in dealing with limitations associated with moving toward e-learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with disabilities ( PWD) tend to experience less career success than their counterparts without a disability, and their talent and skill remain underutilized. Disability literature also outlines various barriers to careers of PWD. Yet there are those who successfully manage their careers. Our aim in the present interview-based study was to understand which strategies PWD engage in to manage their careers proactively. Findings indicate that strategies include maintaining a positive mind-set; trouncing competence stereotypes by sensitizing people to their ability through learning and applying new skills, and by seeking feedback; engaging in disability advocacy to remove performance myths; and building, leveraging, and contributing to disability networks. We noted gender and tenure differences with regard to strategies employed. Findings imply that career objectives of PWD are not those traditionally expected or lauded by organizations, and motivations for career self-management are unique to PWD as compared to those without a disability. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]