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Many nations have implemented policies to improve drinking water quality, but challenges arise from overexploited or contaminated groundwater-based sources. This paper aims at examining the aspects of water scarcity, security, and sustainability within an Indian village context. We attempt to compare two rural water supply sources in Nagla Chandi village in Uttar Pradesh, India: (a) untreated groundwater sourced from bore wells and (b) treated water from a reverse osmosis (RO) plant. We observed that subterranean minerals are the primary pollutants of unprocessed water drawn from borewells, which form the main source of drinking water. Even though water from the RO plant meets all the quality parameters of potability, frequent breakdowns of the plant due to improper management force the villagers to drink untreated water from the dug wells fitted with hand pumps, affecting their health. We also found a high incidence of water-borne diseases. The case analysis suggests enhancing village water treatment projects by training local artisans in system repair and increasing Panchayat staff to include trained engineers for technical advice and maintenance. The paper proposes reducing water testing cost in rural areas to make it possible Q4 for local organizations to regularly assess water quality and implement corrective actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performers play a crucial role in the creative process by bringing various copyrightable subject matters, such as songs, dances, dramatic performances, and films (cinematographic works), to life. However, unlike other stakeholders, including lyricists, music composers, and production companies, performers often do not receive equivalent property rights. This paper contends that despite certain protections granted to performers under copyright laws in many countries, including India and Australia, there remain gaps and limitations that hinder the full recognition and protection of performers’ rights. This situation leads to questions regarding the nature of performers’ rights and how the law distinguishes neighbouring rights within the copyright law framework. The primary aim of this paper is to assess whether the existing framework of performers’ rights principally benefits the performers themselves or leans more towards a market-centred approach favouring producers. This analysis, particularly focused on the contexts of India and Australia, builds a case for the recognition of coauthorship rights for performers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Being the final end of the logistic distribution, attended home delivery (AHD) plays an important role in the distribution network. AHD typically refers to the service provided by the distribution service provider to the recipient's doorstep. Researchers have always identified AHD as a bottleneck for last-mile delivery. This paper addresses a real-life stochastic multi-objective AHD problem in the context of the Indian public distribution system (PDS). Design/methodology/approach: Two multi-objective models are proposed. Initially, the problem is formulated in a deterministic environment, and later on, it is extended to a multi-objective AHD model with stochastic travel and response time. This stochastic AHD model is used to extensively analyze the impact of stochastic travel time and customer response time on the total expected cost and time-window violation. Due to the NP-hard nature of the problem, an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm, tuned via response surface methodology (RSM), is proposed to solve the problem. Findings: Experimental results show that a change in travel time and response time does not significantly alter the service level of an AHD problem. However, it is strongly correlated with the planning horizon and an increase in the planning horizon reduces the time-window violation drastically. It is also observed that a relatively longer planning horizon has a lower expected cost per delivery associated. Research limitations/implications: The paper does not consider the uncertainty of supply from the warehouse. Also, stochastic delivery failure probabilities and randomness in customer behavior have not been taken into consideration in this study. Practical implications: In this paper, the role of uncertainty in an AHD problem is extensively studied through a case of the Indian PDS. The paper analyzes the role of uncertain travel time and response time over different planning horizons in an AHD system. Further, the impact of the delivery planning horizon, travel time and response time on the overall cost and service level of an AHD system is also investigated. Social implications: This paper investigates a unique and practical AHD problem in the context of Indian PDS. In the present context of AHD, this study is highly relevant for real-world applications and can help build a more efficient delivery system. The findings of this study will be of particular interest to the policy-makers to build a more robust PDS in India. Originality/value: The most challenging part of an AHD problem is the requirement of the presence of customers during the time of delivery, due to which the probability of failed delivery drastically increases if the delivery deviates from the customer's preferred time slot. The paper modelled an AHD system to incorporate uncertainties to attain higher overall performance and explore the role of uncertainty in travel and response time with respect to the planning horizon in an AHD, which has not been considered by any other literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper farmers’ resilience index (FRI) was constructed considering the natural disaster using five dimensions including physical, social, economic, human and natural. The scale is administered to the 240 paddy farmers in two coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. Principal component analysis was performed in order to fix the weightage for each variable. About (39.58%) of farmers are resilient to natural disasters with the highest resilience score for financial capital (0.641) and natural capital with less resilience score (0.401). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to determine how well the generated model of the scale fits the data. The structural equation modelling (SEM) path diagram was developed based on the conceptual model, which uses resilience as a latent variable. The SEM analysis revealed that four dimensions of capital positively affect farmers’ resilience except for the human capital which negatively affects resilience. To reduce the effects of natural catastrophes in the upcoming years, the adaptation strategies from the highly resilient places can be examined and put into practice in the less resilient areas. It is imperative that development programmes at all levels incorporate climate awareness and stakeholder capacity building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swachh Bharat Mission-Rural (SBM-R) is a flagship programme aimed at ending open defecation in rural India. In this paper, we study institutions and processes using Amartya Sen's conception of justice. We review the outcomes by assessing agencies, actions and processes involved in the implementation of the SBM-R programme. The findings are analysed using the Sanitation Well-being Framework. Sanitation well-being is achieved when an individual is able to experience the sanitation life cycle stages of acceptance, construction, utilisation and maintenance of safe disposal, which are part of the framework. The capability factors grouped under personal, cultural, structural, environmental and service elements of the framework determine the sanitation environment facilitated by the state. Failure in experiencing one of the life stages leads to slippage in sanitation, where people resume open defecation, despite possessing toilets. The paper presents a review of literature on the political, technological and structural issues in programme implementation, followed by an analysis of 42 interviews and 12 focused group discussions of state and non-state actors conducted in rural Shravasti, Uttar Pradesh, India. We found that slippage is prevalent in the field site and identified 26 capability factors (expansion and constraints) that led to slippage in sanitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to improved drinking water and sanitation has been declared a fundamental right by the UN General Assembly. However, around 25 and 50% of the global population lacked access to safely managed drinking water and improved sanitation in 2020, respectively. India, the second most populous country in the world, has around 3.7 and 31% of its population without access to improved drinking water and sanitation, respectively. This paper explores the factors determining a household’s access to improved drinking water and sanitation in India, using India Human Development Survey (IHDS) II data. The results indicate that urban households with bigger family sizes, with fewer rooms, married but uneducated household heads, belonging to forward castes, were more likely to have access to improved drinking water. Similarly, households with married female heads, belonging to forward castes, small household sizes, older aged heads with primary education, from Non-EAG (Empowered Action Group) states, located in urban areas, earning higher incomes and having more rooms were more likely to have access to improved sanitation. Findings suggest subsidized improved water and sanitation services and an increase in public investment to make these facilities affordable for poor rural households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a deterministic fractional-order epidemic model (FOEM) for studying the transmission dynamics of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The model highlights the substantial role of unaware and undetected HIV-infected individuals in spreading the disease. Control strategies, such as wielding condoms, level of preventive measures to avoid infection, and self-strictness of susceptibles in sexual contact, have been incorporated into the study. The basic reproduction number ℛ 0 α has been derived, which suggests the conditions for ensuring the persistence and elimination of the disease. Further, to validate the model, actual HIV data taken from Mexico and India separately have been used. The disease dynamics and its control in both countries are analyzed broadly. The values of biological parameters are estimated at which numerical solutions better match the actual data of HIV patients in the case of fractional-order (FO) instead of integer-order (IO). Moreover, in the light of ℛ 0 α , our findings forecast that the disease will abide in the population in Mexico, and at the same time, it will die out from India after a long time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the current study was to examine the previously unexplored relationship between positive reframing as a mediator between gratitude and technostress in Indian students. By examining this relationship, the authors aim to expand the theoretical domain of gratitude research by examining its potential influence on technology-induced stress. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional survey was used to collect and analyze data from 552 Indian college students who participated in graduate and postgraduate programs across various educational institutions in India. Regression and mediation analyses were performed with both IBM SPSS 25 and AMOS. Findings: This study's data suggest that positive reframing plays an important mediating role between gratitude and technostress. Gratitude also encourages positive reframing, which reduced technostress among the students. Taken together, our data showed that gratitude induces positive reframing, which in turn reduces techno-stress among Indian students in the current study. Research limitations/implications: The sample size in this study is relatively small in relation to the student population in India. The current study relied primarily on quantitative data and analysis and further research could use a mixed-method approach to better understand the underlying mechanisms between positive reframing, gratitude and technostress. The results are derived under an extreme coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic situation; therefore, the results cannot be generalized to normal times. Practical implications: The paper includes implications for teachers, academic leaders, parents and civil society. Originality/value: Overall, the relationship between positive reframing, gratitude and technostress has not been thoroughly explored. To the best of the authors' understanding, this is the first study to examine the influence of gratitude on technology-induced stress and the role of reframing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the stock market performance of India. It mentions that country's Nifty so and Sensex indices reached record highs at the end of November, and as to many fund managers desperate for diversification, India looks the most promising alternative. It also mentions that the central bank has been forced to raise interest rates in defence of the rupee impacting its domestic monetary policy.

The Ocimum genus is one of Indiaʼs prominent botanical classes of traditional medicinal culture comprising medicinally and agronomically important plants. Morphological resemblances, overlapping geographical distribution, and history of traditional nomenclature have necessitated a comprehensive qualitative report for effective quality control and removing the species ambiguity pertaining to this genus. This paper provides detailed morpho-micrometric characteristics used to differentiate between six indigenous Ocimum species of India. Among them, O. gratissimum was distinguished as the only shrub with a fleshy petiole. In green and purple forms, O. tenuiflorum leaves had serrate margins and showed no particular anatomical differences except for the anthocyanins containing epidermal cells of the latter. O. basilicum had glabrous leaves except for the veins, which were puberulous. O. filamentosum had tenuous anther filaments and was the least aromatic while O. africanum had a citrusy odour, which along with the number of xylary rows, size of mesophyll cells, and epidermal cell wall architecture, distinguished it from O. americanum. An HPTLC method was developed using experimental design and validated for quantification of multi-class compounds from terpenoic, phenolic acids, and flavonoids in Ocimum leaves. It was found linear (r 2 > 0.99) with recoveries between 95 – 100% for all compounds. The eluted bands of marker compounds were subjected to HPTLC-MS analysis as a confirmative tool. This is the first anatomical and analytical report of O. filamentosum Forssk. The obtained results could be effectively used for species identification using vegetative characters alone with the anatomical-HPTLC data backing up the former as a rapid and economical tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a survey of selected Water Users' Associations (WUA) and their members in West Bengal, India, this paper examines the nature and determinants of member participation in irrigation management. WUA meetings were held on a regular basis with higher member participation under Tube Well, Check Dam and River Lift Irrigation schemes. Their physical characteristics (e.g., high sub-surface storage and flowing rivers with large catchment areas) and system features (e.g., centralized pump house and defined distribution infrastructure) contribute to better water availability, incentivizing the members to participate. Our regression analysis suggests that along with these factors, the socioeconomic attributes of members and their perception about the functioning and decision making of the WUA influence participation in the collective management of schemes. The more the members perceive the functioning of WUAs as democratic and transparent, the greater is their incentive to participate. Greater participatory involvement of the members in the form of donating land for irrigation construction and in training programs is also found to be crucial. So, this paper argues for making the decision-making processes within WUAs democratic and transparent, along with greater efforts toward capacity building of the members, including training for skill enhancement, management and provision of agricultural support practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to accurately estimate harmonics/interharmonics in modern power system. There are several high spectral resolution techniques that have been in use for several years like Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Technique (ESPRIT), Prony methods, etc. but these techniques require prior knowledge of number of modes present in the signal. Model Order (MO) estimation techniques have to make a trade-off between accuracy and their speed i.e., computational burden. Therefore, there is always a requirement of a technique that is fast as well as accurate. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed standard deviation (SD) method eliminates the requirement of energy validation test and analyses the distribution pattern, i.e. standard deviation of eigenvalues to identify the number of modes present in the signal. Signal is reconstructed using estimated modes and reconstruction error is obtained to show accuracy of the proposed estimation. Findings: Six test synthetic signals as well as one practical signal have been taken for validating the proposed method. The paper shows that proposed methodology has a better accuracy compared to modified exact model order (MEMO) method in high noise environment and takes very less computation time compared to the exact model order (EMO) method. Practical implications: The proposed method has been practically implemented for harmonic/interharmonic analysis at a sewage treatment plant at GIFT City, Gujarat, India. Apart from this the proposed method is modeled in python-based tool and is run into low-cost Raspberry Pi like hardware to create an onsite as well as remote monitoring device. Originality/value: SD-based approach for model order estimation is novel to this area. Further, the proposed method is compared with EMO and MEMO under varying noise conditions to check for accuracy and estimation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper focuses on reviewing and theorizing the factors that affect the adoption of cloud computing in the education sector narrowing the focus to developing countries such as India. Design/methodology/approach: Through an extensive literature survey, critical factors of cloud computing for education were identified. Further, the fuzzy DEMATEL approach was used to define their interrelationship and its cause and effect. Findings: A total of 17 factors were identified for the study based on the literature survey and experts' input. These factors were classified as causes and effects and ranked and interrelated. "Required Learning Skills and Attitude," "Lack of Infrastructure," "Learners' Ability" and "Increased Investment" are found to be the most influential factors. Practical implications: The resultant ranking factors can be used as a basis for managing the process of cloud adoption in several institutions. The study could guide academicians, policymakers and government authorities for the effective adoption of cloud computing in education. Originality/value: The study investigates interdependency amongst the factors of cloud computing for education in context with developing economy. This is one of first study in higher education institutes of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provisioning of water and sanitation services has become one of the key determinants of SDGs. This review focuses on the trends in water and sanitation services and reforms in India and Ghana over the last two decades. The findings reveal that access to water has improved in India and Ghana at 81.5 and 92.7%, respectively. However, access to sanitation continues to be a challenge in both countries, with the currently reported coverage being 59.5% and 18.5%, respectively. The index of sustainable development goal (SDG) performance of Ghana and India stands at 65.4 and 61.9 with global rankings of 100 and 117, respectively. The adverse impacts of poor access to sanitation increasingly reflect on rising numbers of population suffering from water-borne diseases. From the policy perspective, the paper highlights the need for framing pro-poor water and sanitation policies; focusing on women and girls' education; promoting affordable water and sanitation services; promoting collaboration of stakeholders involved in the rural water and sanitation sectors; and increasing budgetary allocations by local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent droughts, growing water demand, and the ease of accessing groundwater, particularly through boreholes, have led to an over-dependence on groundwater to meet notably agricultural demands in India. This has led the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) to motivate and capacitate rural communities for 'water stewardship' in which the village as a whole comes together to learn about its resources to manage them better. However, improving the management of the water resource is challenging as the general perception is that the water found below one's farm belongs to the landowner. Moreover, what is below the surface is not visible, therefore not well understood. Thus, WOTR designed a water stewardship initiative (WSI) with the Community-Driven Visual Integrator (CoDriVE-VI or CDVI) as one of the important tools; it produces an operational 3D map of the local aquifer. WOTR implemented the WSI in villages in Maharashtra, India. This paper evaluates the impacts and potential of the WSI and CDVI. We observed that the visual effect of these 3D models of aquifers helps local communities and farmers better understand and appreciate groundwater as a shared resource. This tool is effective in promoting water stewardship, achieving behavioural change in water users, and helping implement groundwater laws and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based framework for estimating the flood vulnerabilities in river basins. The methodology has been exemplified for the 21 districts of the Narmada river basin in central India. Sensitivity and adaptive capacity indicators have been identified and used for the development of the Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI). DEA-based study was employed to assess the Scale Efficiencies and the Returns to Scale and insights drawn from the analysis have been discussed in the context of policy and planning related to reduction of flood vulnerabilities. Cluster analysis has also been deployed to classify districts in terms of flood vulnerabilities. Results from the flood vulnerability assessment model case study indicate that 76% of the districts in the Narmada river basin remain highly vulnerable to flood-risk, while the socio-economic parameters and physical sizes of districts and their resources play a crucial role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a Chikungunya dynamical model with virus mutation and transovarial transmission is developed, which incorporates the effect of seasonal temperature changes on disease transmission through time-dependent parameters. Firstly, the threshold parameter R 0 m that determines the persistence and extinction of mosquito populations is given, and then the disease reproduction number R 0 is defined. Secondly, it is proved that if R 0 m > 1 and R 0 < 1, the disease disappears; if R 0 m > 1 and R 0 > 1, then Chikungunya with mutants and non-mutants will persist simultaneously. Finally, a case study is carried out with the data in Kerala, India, where the virus mutation causes the outbreak of Chikungunya. Data on newly confirmed human cases in the state between 2007 and 2010 is fitted and the theoretical results obtained in the previous section are validated. In addition, the effects of seasonal temperature change, virus mutation and transovarial transmission on the prevalence of the disease are studied by numerical simulations from different aspects. 2020 MSC: 34K13; 37N25; 92D30. • A Chikungunya model with virus mutation and transovarial transmission is developed. • The effect of seasonal temperature changes is incorporated. • If there is no seasonality, R 0 will be overestimated. • If there is no virus mutation, the infected population will be underestimated. • When R 0 is less than and close to 1, increasing of transovarial transmission rate will lead to disease outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SAR-CoV-2) is the strain of coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the respiratory illness that resulted in COVID-19 pandemic in early December 2019. Due to lack of knowledge of the epidemiological cycle and absence of any type of vaccine or medications, the Government issued various non-pharmacological measures to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Several researchers applied the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered-Deceased (SIRD) compartmental epidemiology process model to identifying the effect of different governments intervention methods enforced to mollify the spread of COVID-19 epidemic. In this paper, we aim to provide a modified SIRD model for COVID-19 spread prediction. We have analyzed the data of the Northern and Southern states of India from January 30, 2020, to October 24, 2020 using the proposed SIRD model and existing SIRD model. We have made the predictions with reasonable assumptions based on real data, considering that the precise course of an epidemic is highly dependent on how and when quarantine, isolation, and precautionary measures were imposed. The proposed method gives better approximation values of new cases, R0 (Reproductive Number), daily deaths, daily infectious, transmission rate, and recovered individuals.Through the analysis of the reported results, the proposed SIRD model can be an effective method for investigating the effect of government interventions on COVID-19 associated transmission and mortality rate at the time of epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Compartment model susceptible-exposed-home quarantine-infected-hospital quarantine-recovered is developed to understand the transmitting behaviour of pandemic COVID-19 in human population. • Local and global asymptotic stability established for the conditions of reproduction number. • Statistical Analysis has been performed to analyse the impact of lockdown in different part of the world badly infected by COVID-19 with India. • Also time series forecasting model for the case fatality rate in India and time series forecasting of actual cases versus predicted cases in India is performed. Pandemic COVID-19 which has infected more than 35,027,546 people and death more than 1,034,837 people in 235 countries as on October 05, 2020 has created a chaos across the globe. In this paper, we develop a compartmental epidemic model to understand the spreading behaviour of the disease in human population with a special case of Bhilwara, a desert town in India where successful control measures TTT (tracking, testing and treatment) was adopted to curb the disease in the very early phase of the spread of the disease in India. Local and global asymptotic stability is established for endemic equilibrium. Extensive numerical simulations with real parametric values are performed to validate the analytical results. Trend analysis of fatality rate, infection rate, and impact of lockdown is performed for USA, European countries, Russia, Iran, China, Japan, S. Korea with a comparative assessment by India. Kruskal - Wallis test is performed to test the null hypothesis for infected cases during the four lockdown phases in India. It has been observed that there is a significant difference at both 95% and 99% confidence interval in the infected cases, recovered cases and the case fatality rate during all the four phases of the lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]