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This paper presents the current status of Indian smart cities and examines their preparedness and response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The study focuses on implemented & ongoing projects under the Smart City Mission of the Government of India, which have contributed significantly to controlling the pandemic along with other channels. The study finds that modern cities in both developed and developing countries were not well-prepared to deal with the emergency situations and struggled in providing a satisfactory response during the pandemic. The analysis of primary and secondary data has shown that digital surveillance and movement control through integrated control command centers (ICCC) were the most useful projects in monitoring the COVID-19 cases. However, the lack of technology integration in smart cities hinders the effective usage of implemented projects. Thus, the study recommends integrated network-based applications that include healthcare, essential services, mobility, and movement across smart cities in India. The proposed framework is expected to provide the much-needed alignment at the policy, objective, and implementation levels of smart city framework designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of global health diplomacy (GHD), with India emerging as a key player. India's commitment to GHD is demonstrated by its active participation in regional and multilateral projects, pharmaceutical expertise, and large-scale manufacturing capabilities, which include the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and essential medicines. India has supported nations in need through bilateral and multilateral platforms, providing vaccines to countries experiencing shortages and offering technical assistance and capacity-building programs to improve healthcare infrastructure and response capabilities. India's unique approach to GHD, rooted in humanitarian diplomacy, emphasized collaboration and empathy and stressed the well-being of humanity by embracing the philosophy of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam," which translates to "the world is one family." Against this background, this paper's main focus is to analyze the rise of India's GHD amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and its leadership in addressing various global challenges. India has demonstrated its commitment to global solidarity by offering medical supplies, equipment, and expertise to more than 100 countries. India's rising global leadership can be attributed to its proactive approach, humanitarian diplomacy, and significant contributions to global health initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare systems worldwide has been compromising the progress made in the fight against HIV. This paper aims to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted HIV comprehensive care service delivery globally as well as to consolidate the evidence and recommendations that may be useful in averting future crisis. Methods: This review adheres to PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, DOAJ, Science Direct and other sources like Google Scholar and citations from included studies were searched methodically to locate studies evaluating the effects of COVID on services for HIV care. The NIH and JBI quality assessment tools were used for the quality assessment of individual studies. Results: In the present review 31 eligible studies were included and the impact on HIV care cascade were summarised under six themes: Lab services, Treatment and allied services, Counselling services, Outreach services, Psycho-social impact and Implementation of sustainable strategies. The studies also presented many innovative alternatives which were lucidly highlighted in the present article. Conclusion: Current evidence depicts multiple factors are responsible for the interruption of HIV care service delivery during the pandemic, especially in low resources settings. The prospective, alternative solutions that have been used to circumvent the threat have also been addressed in this review, in addition to the negative aspects that have been observed. Transition with new innovative, sustainable care paradigms may prove to be the building blocks in removing HIV-AIDS as a public health threat. Registration: Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/74GHM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corona pandemic altered many traditional and historical norms of society and law. COVID-19 created a humanitarian crisis in some parts of globe, while pandemic privacy and civil liberties were under threat all over world. To combat the deadly virus, individual liberty and equality were compromised. This paper focuses on how India's health problem has compromised people's right to privacy. It will highlight how strict executive policies led to the creation of a massive surveillance system in the name of combating the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how the absence of any policy or legal framework led to the exclusion of individuals and their families who were suspected of having the virus or caring for those who were infected with the deadly virus. The paper uses case studies and data collected from primary as well as secondary sources. The authors will also point out how the absence of privacy regulation puts millions of citizens' private information at risk of being compromised or exploited against their will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic negatively influenced the entire life globally including various aspects of patients' care. Its effect on medical research production is not known. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on medical research reporting trend. Methods: Advanced search on PubMed was performed over 2011- August, 2021. Monthly comparison was done for the years 2019, 2020, and 2021. Kruskal Wallis test was used to compare continuous distributions. Results: The total publication count showed constant increment over the study period. Faster rise was noticed on 2020 (15.7%). A steady growth in publications over the years and through the pandemic was also seen in seven studied countries with variable, both in total and also after exclusion of COVID-19 related papers. Italy and India have the highest proportions of COVID-19 related publications in comparison to the total papers in 2020, but USA has the highest quantity. Statistically significant differences exist between the first eight months of the last three years with and without counting COVID-19 related publications (p-values=0.0003907 and 0.001084, respectively). Conclusion: Our results reflect that investigators world-wide succeeded to reconfigure their work style and utilize the spared time induced by the lockdown to enrich the medical research platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the narrative of modernity has been rejected by numerous scientists, it remains a powerful paradigm. Several Western countries have, during the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessed renewed interest in some archaic practices and beliefs. Based mostly on media analysis, this paper provides an insight into religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia and India, two completely different cultural areas. Simultaneously, it challenges the self-identification of the West as the epicentre of rational thought, in contrast to the so-called non-Western world. The self-image of superiority adopted by the modern West in terms of religious relevance has proved to be distorted, as the tendency to turn to spiritual practices in times of crisis is not exclusively a feature of non-Western societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown introduced to break the chain of disease transmission brought numerous challenges to people living with Type 2 diabetes. The present paper attempts to explore and understand the challenges faced by people living with diabetes and the variation in experiences based on their socioeconomic context. This qualitative study was conducted during the pandemic’s first and second waves in rural areas of West Jaintia Hills District, predominantly inhabited by the Pnar tribe. In-depth interviews with 90 Pnar men and women living with diabetes were undertaken. Findings from the present study reveal the perception that COVID-19 is not severe, limited knowledge about complications of diabetes, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, multiply to increase the vulnerability of the tribal populations living in the hilly and difficult terrain of the district. Therefore, addressing the burden of chronic illnesses in rural tribal areas in times of emerging infectious pandemics by providing comprehensive care and services at public health facilities is the need of the hour. The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown introduced to break the chain of disease transmission brought numerous challenges to people living with Type 2 diabetes. The present paper attempts to explore and understand the challenges faced by people living with diabetes and the variation in experiences based on their socioeconomic context. This qualitative study was conducted during the pandemic’s first and second waves in rural areas of West Jaintia Hills District, predominantly inhabited by the Pnar tribe. In-depth interviews with 90 Pnar men and women living with diabetes were undertaken. Findings from the present study reveal the perception that COVID-19 is not severe, limited knowledge about complications of diabetes, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, multiply to increase the vulnerability of the tribal populations living in the hilly and difficult terrain of the district. Therefore, addressing the burden of chronic illnesses in rural tribal areas in times of emerging infectious pandemics by providing comprehensive care and services at public health facilities is the need of the hour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the SARS CoV2 virus, commonly referred to as the COVID‐19 pandemic, has impacted the social, economic, political, and cultural lives of citizens around the world. The sudden outbreak of the pandemic has exposed the legal preparedness, or lack thereof, of governments to reduce and contain its drastic impact. Strong legislative measures play a crucial role in any epidemic or pandemic situation. In this situation, the Indian Government has requested all state governments to invoke the Epidemic Disease Act (EDA) of 1897 to address the COVID‐19 emergency. The Central Government has also used the powers provided in the Disaster Management Act (DMA) of 2005. As the country is facing its first major health emergency since independence, the existing legislative measures to deal with a COVID‐19 like situation are lacking and require certain amendments to address such situations in the future. This paper aims to present the current constitutional and legislative response to health emergencies in India and attempts to identify gray areas in the statutory provisions. Based on the analysis, this paper suggests several recommendations for amending current legislation and suggests the promulgation of comprehensive public health law. This paper is largely based on primary sources such as the EDA and the DMA, regulations, guidelines, rules issued by the public authorities and court cases related to health and health emergencies along with secondary resources such as newspaper articles and published papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether investing in R&D reduces the impact of exogenous shocks like the COVID‐19 on stock market performance and accounting performance of manufacturing firms in India. For the sample of listed manufacturing firms, the paper finds that the firms engaged in R&D activities had lower negative cumulative abnormal return than those firms that did not invest in R&D in the pre‐pandemic period using multiple event windows. The result suggests that R&D investments can lower value erosion for the shareholders during a severe crisis period. Further, using a difference‐in‐difference fixed effects model, the study finds that manufacturing firms engaged in R&D activities in the pre‐pandemic period exhibited higher return on sales and growth of total income during the pandemic quarter vis‐à‐vis the non‐R&D firms. The favorable accounting performance indicates the possibility of firm‐level R&D being associated with the firm's ability to adjust its functioning during a crisis, thereby reducing the effect of the crisis. Finally, the study documents that government intervention to reduce the spread of the virus had a differential impact on firms based on their industry of operation. The findings have implications for investors, corporate managers, and policymakers in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the spread of disinformation on novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and creating the larger phenomena of information disorder. It analyses an array of definitional meaning and disinformation on COVID-19, which has been identified and grounded with valid information by the fact-checkers. The study's aim is to explore and analyse the intents behind the circulation of misleading information (intended and unintended) on COVID-19. For the study, quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis methods were utilised to explore the extent of the misleading information on COVID-19. Further, in-depth interviews were conducted with factcheckers, media professionals, academicians, and a psychologist to understand the purpose of disinformation and its impact on society at large. The study's findings propose that fact-checking is a crucial method to identify fake/misleading information, which can be counter acted by accurate and verified information. This paper argues that holding journalists, fact-checkers, the Government, and the citizens' accountable, is necessary to counter the threat of disinformation about the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on shopping behavior in two neighboring developing economies: Bangladesh and India. While the previous studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 on shopping behavior have relied on Revealed Preference (RP) data, this paper combines RP and Stated Preference (SP) data to develop joint RP-SP discrete choice models. This makes it possible to quantify the relative impact of the situational contexts on the choice of shopping modes of households and to capture the associated heterogeneity arising from the characteristics of the households. Further, comparison of the data and the estimated model parameters of the two countries with substantial socio-cultural similarities provide insights about how differences in the state of e-commerce can lead to different levels of inertia in continuing the pre-COVID behavior. The results will be useful to planners and policymakers for predicting the shopping modes in different future scenarios and formulating effective restriction measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a global pandemic, containment became a major concern after confronting such a large scale spread of COVID-19 infection all over the world. Many agencies are devoted to analytically understand how practicing social distance minimize the impact of major outbreaks of infections at large scale. Nearly all strategies are based on isolating the entire country or total lockdown in primary phase, while less attention has been paid to other alternative interventions during the process. This paper discusses the challenges in maintaining an effective social alteration method, social distancing followed by self-isolation in India. People are facing psychological challenges during the practice of Social distancing method. The paper explores how social distancing has been used to minimize crowd interactions and prevent the spread of disease within groups of people in India. Lastly, the main focus is theoretical discussion with conceptual understanding of the protection practices in India on a daily basis and challenges faced in social, medical to professional dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly growing rate of infection among health workers during the current COVID-19 pandemic, is posing a serious challenge to global health systems. Lately, India is also witnessing an intensifying COVID-19 disease burden and its impact on health workers. This paper aims to discuss the challenges to health worker protection in India and the possible ways forward. Given the inadequate and unequally distributed healthcare workforce, it is highly essential for the country to strategize prompt measures for ensuring occupational health and safety of its health workers. Information for this paper were gathered by searching PubMed and Google Scholar databases using "COVID-19", "Infection Control", "Health worker", "India" as search keywords in different combinations. In addition, websites of Government of India, relevant UN agencies and leading news agencies were also searched manually for related reports and publications. India must take timely measures in rapid manufacturing and procurement of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensure adequate stockpiling to meet the rising demands. Comprehensive and repeated training with sharply focussed content including usage of PPE kits as well as active surveillance of adherence to recommended protocol are critical in protecting health workers especially the primary care physicians and frontline health staff from the deadly COVID-19 infection. The provision of psychological and financial support for health workers and their families is absolutely critical in building trust and dedicated work efforts by the health workforce for a continuous fight against the deadly disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the World Health Organization, over 41 million cases of COVID-19 and 1 million deaths have been reported globally. More than 7 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in India alone. The growing number of cases of coronavirus worldwide poses numerous challenges to the country's current healthcare delivery system, especially in developing nations such as India. In such a situation, the task of maintaining continuity in the provision of comprehensive primary healthcare services in the community becomes a big challenge. This article discusses how family physicians can help to augment the healthcare system at the time of pandemic by providing easily accessible, holistic healthcare and by use of telemedicine. It also talks about the need to mainstream family medicine into the undergraduate and postgraduate medical curriculum and establish a robust network of family physicians trained in outbreak response and disease preparedness. For this study we looked for all papers with the terms 'Family physician', 'COVID-19', 'pandemic', and 'Primary health care'. Databases searched include PubMed, Google Scholar and DOAJ, using key words – family physician, family medicine, primary healthcare, COVID-19, and pandemic in different combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, gender issues have received importance from scholars across disciplines. The literature on the pathophysiology and epidemiology of domestic violence is extensive but an increase in domestic violence has led the academicians to seek epistemological answers from society. Further, the surge in domestic violence cases during the COVID-19 necessitated quarantine posed challenges for the government in terms of policy, governance and crisis management. In this view, the present article reviews the efficacy in implementation of fast track interventions during the lockdown period (March to August 2020) and their coherence in dealing with domestic violence at the micro and macro levels. The multifaceted aspects responsible for domestic violence have been discussed which have aggravated during the current pandemic. The paper analyzes the scope of the existing government strategies in intercepting violence against women especially during the management of the current crisis. The paper draws majorly from newspaper and government reports since research articles on the social impact of COVID-19 are limited. Studies based on theoretical frameworks from the discipline of anthropology can give an in-depth understanding of domestic violence in a varied sociocultural context, and reflect upon the structuration of gendered male-female relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally the cases of Covid-19 are making the world panic. Undoubtedly, all the countries are involved in management of COVID-19 whether it is a country with a population over a billion or less than a billion in numbers. India, with a population of 1,324,171,000 (according to 2016 Census). It can't act as the other nations are working. It is important to India to work on a strategy that shall manage the pandemic. The paper reveals on various surveillance strategies to be taken by the countries around the globe in covid-19 pandemic management. The strategies in control and management of Covid-19 are based on the spread of the pandemic in the country as well on the basis of density of population of the country affected by the pandemic. The paper recommends a density of population-based surveillance strategy can really help in the Covid-19 pandemic management. And also concludes taking into the consideration of the economics of countries, a different surveillance strategy will work for Governments in Covid-19 management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To overcome the spread of the noble coronavirus, the lockdown was imposed on March 25, 2020 by the Government of India which adversely affected the education system in the country and changed the traditional classroom teaching to online teaching. This paper aims to explore the factors encouraging university teachers to use and adopt e-learning systems during the COVID-19 pandemic and to find out the major challenges faced by them in adopting e-learning systems in Odisha, an Indian State. Design/methodology/approach: The population of this study was teachers of different universities in Odisha, India. An online questionnaire was administered to collect data from the teachers of the state who were involved in the e-learning system for taking their online classes during the COVID-19 situation. During the study 610 valid responses were processed for data analysis. The results of the analysis were presented through factor analysis, t-test and structural equation model. Findings: The findings revealed three major factors as user-friendly, convenient and performance encouraged teachers to use and adopt e-learning systems. The results also identified major challenges such as accessibility to the internet, information and communication technologies literacy and skills and technological support, faced by university teachers in adopting e-learning systems. Research limitations/implications: The findings of the study have suggested that the university authorities can develop an effective e-learning system to support their teachers for the continuance of education and learning opportunities. The insights of this study can help the regulatory authorities of higher education to redesign policy and infrastructure for promoting effective e-learning systems. Originality/value: Many studies have been conducted in relation to e-learning during COVID-19. However, this is a unique study that identifies supporting factors and addresses the challenges faced by university teachers in adopting an e-learning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated medical centers across the world to deliver healthcare through telemedicine. We discuss the adoption, delivery of telemedicine services at a tertiary care center and patient satisfaction involving 456 patients in south India. Most respondents had sought telemedicine care at the department of Medicine (16.23%). The maximum satisfaction was reported by patients in OBG (100%). The responses were generally positive across all the age groups. The paper offers insights on best practices adopted at the center, lessons learnt, and provides recommendations for health care systems offering telemedicine during COVID-19 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit India a year ago, and the ensuing turmoil is putting the country's economic and psychological resilience to the test. At least 1,366 million people in 29 states are said to be staying at home to avoid the pandemic. Meanwhile, the effect of COVID-19 on consumers and, as a result, the consumption community has received little attention. A micro-level study was established to assess the direct effect on household income, savings, and consumption behaviour in order to quantify the socio-economic impact of the pandemic in particular. During a lockdown, consumer behaviour has abruptly shifted. This paper looked at how people's behaviour changed during the COVID-19 crisis and afterward. The present research focuses primarily on the COVID-19 pandemic and how buyer buying behaviour has changed as a result of it. The findings indicate that it would cause a significant economic shock to the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the impact of the current pandemic caused by COVID-19 on the academic libraries in India. It identifies four areas concerned with an academic library namely, space, collection development, service, and the overall management to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by them in view of the COVID-19. It shows how COVID-19 posed several challenges to run the academic libraries in India in comparison to pre-COVID-19 period regarding these areas. It also presents the opportunities to the libraries. It suggests that that if the libraries use these opportunities, it may prove to be beneficial to it in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal comfort standards are essential to ensure comfortable and enjoyable indoor conditions, and they also help in optimizing energy use. Thermal comfort studies, either climate chamber‐based or field investigation, are conducted across the globe in order to ascertain the comfort limits as per the climatic and other adaptive features. However, very few studies are conducted when the occupants are subjected to a stressed condition, like the COVID‐19 lockdown, which may not only have the health impacts but also have psychological impacts on the adaptation. In this paper, we present the results of the online study conducted regarding the status of thermal comfort during the COVID‐19 lockdown in India. A total of 406 complete responses were collected from subjects located across 3 different climatic regions of India, that is, cold climate, composite climate, and hot and humid climate. Variations in clothing insulation, thermal sensation, and preference were noted across the different climatic regions. We also present the variation in opening of windows and running of fans with the variation in outdoor mean air temperature. The self‐judged productivity, comfort, desire to go outdoors, and effectiveness of working from home were seen to vary with the increase in the days of lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The declaration of COVID pandemic by the WHO can certainly be seen as a watershed era the world has witnessed in modern times. All non-essential industries and services have taken a back seat including aesthetic medicine. Over the last decade, India has witnessed a steady growth in medical tourism owing to global standards of care and services at a relatively modest cost. The following study was conducted to ascertain the sea change that this pandemic has brought into aesthetic surgeons' practice, patient management, planning and consultation. This paper throws light on the journey of Indian aesthetic surgery from its infancy to its current presence in the global market as a context of the study. We have also discussed the impact of social media on aesthetic surgeons' practice, lifestyle and its role as an emerging new method of medical education. Methods: A questionnaire consisting of 62 questions divided in 3 sections was rolled out to 150 Indian aesthetic surgeons who have been practising either independently in their clinics or are associated with hospitals. A: Pre-COVID practice management and lifestyle; B: life during the lockdown; C: anticipated changes in post-COVID era. Results: In the pre-COVID era, an average aesthetic surgeon was finely balancing his profession, personal lifestyle, learning, and recreation. The lockdown clamped their practices which lead into a financial drought; despite which, they were able to maintain their productivity by engaging in webinars, reading, and research. The post-COVID times demand an implementation of safety protocols along with changes in set-up, regulating patient traffic, engaging in distant learning through virtual conferences, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle acquired during the lockdown. Conclusions: India was rightly witnessing a surge in popularity of aesthetic surgery and medical tourism over the last decade. The corona pandemic has definitely hit this escalating growth curve hard, and it will take some time for the demand to recover. Our study revealed the following conclusions: The effect of COVID 19 demands a major change in aesthetic surgeons' professional practice like limiting consultations, changing hospital floor plan, following COVID testing, and having new safety protocols. Social media is rightly poised to be a major tool for education and marketing as also for recreation and leisure. The role of teleconsultation needs to be reprised and legalised. Webinars and virtual conferences will find more takers in future. Level of evidence: not ratable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education system worldwide has been greatly impacted by COVID-19 pandemic 2019–2020, which has led to the temporary closure of both primary and higher education sectors, posing an uncertainty among the system and other concerned fraternities. Citing the potential disruption of learning activities, the UNESCO recommended the use of distance learning programs and open educational platforms that schools and teachers can use to reach learners remotely and limit the disruption of education. With the challenge of fighting the pandemic in one hand and preventing the hampering of education on the other hand, India has called to continue the educational process making an effective use of technology and other available options. The paper is aimed to review such e-platform and initiatives set up in the government portals itself long before any idea of the dawn of current pandemic which can offer a great bundle of resourcefulness for the faculties to monitor continuous learning experience in this pandemic time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory tract infection caused by a highly contagious and lethal beta coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which has spread fast to encroach the entire globe and hence declare pandemic. Pregnancy alters body physiology and immune systems, can have worse effects of some respiratory infections and due to limited research and published data we still are in dilemma of appropriate management guidelines This article covers the updated guidelines for infection prevention and control (IPC), screening, sampling, antenatal visit schedules, risk scoring, triaging, supportive care, delivery, postpartum care and care of the newborn. This article aims to provide up-to-date information as per recent guidelines of various association which would serve as guidance in managing pregnant women and newborn with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. All the published papers till date, NCPRE, WHO Interim guidelines, RCOG, FOGS GCPRI, Medical Council of India, ICMR, MOFHW, CDC, ACOG guidelines are referred to compile this article to reach to a conclusion of evidence based management of pregnant ladies during COVID-19 pandemic. This article covers the not only infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines, but also screening and sampling guidelines, antenatal visit schedules, risk scoring, triaging but also in-patient supportive care, delivery, postpartum care and care of the newborn. Data are very limited and hence very difficult to accurately define clinical management strategies and needs to be constantly updated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Included here are some cases that highlight exceptional behaviour under the novel coronavirus (CV) pandemic that cuts across religious boundaries. The Christian cases were drawn from the United States and South Korea; Islamic cases were drawn both from India and Iran; and the Hindu and Sikh cases were highlighted from India. Of these, notably, Iran is a declared theocracy, whereas the United States and India are arguably contexts of rising Christian and Hindu theocracies. We are familiar with the evidence of the positive role of religions in society. This paper brings together exceptional cases where irrationality, control and selfishness trump wisdom and altruism. The evidence highlighted here shows that people are capable of suspending reason and behaving with a motive inspired by faith (often tarnished by the state's intervention), even when it is clear there might be serious personal and social costs involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telemedicine and related e-health facilities facilitate care from a distance through electronic information systems. COVID-19 pandemic is establishing telemedicine in the health care delivery system of countries. Telehealth is contributing significantly in health care delivery during the COVID-19 crisis. For mild-to-moderate symptoms of COVID-19 or any illness, telehealth services might represent a better, efficient way to receive initial care and perform triaging. Telemedicine also has a significant role in screening for COVID-19 symptoms and delivering routine needs and follow-up care. The large-scale adoption of telemedicine in public health care delivery is still not visible in low- and middle-income countries like India. Adoption by patients and healthcare professionals is limited and their concerns need to be addressed to ensure its utilization in future of the care continuum. In the current paper, we aim to review recent measures of Telemedicine adopted during the course of pandemic and its impact on public health in lower-middle income countries like India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020 editor-in-chief (Andrew Malekoff) issued a special call for papers for group work stories on pandemic 2020. Among the 28 stories accepted for the series there were 16 from India, 9 from the United States, 2 from Canada and 1 from Israel. General submissions from the U.S., Canada and Israel were typical for the journal. Atypical are submissions from India. Rather than publish the stories in one special issue of the Journal, he decided to spread them out over several issues through 2022. In the course of organizing the special series (with a December 2021 deadline) he continued communication with a few of the authors from India, with particular interest and concern in the deteriorating situation as 2021 unfolded. Although the present commentary is not about group work per se, it is an update by Ajay Saini, Nancy and Andrew Malekoff on the current state of affairs in India, with some contrast to the situation in the U.S., that offers continuing context for the stories in the series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cataract is the second leading cause of preventable blindness on the globe. Several programs across the country have been running efficiently to increase the cataract surgical rates and decrease blindness due to cataract. The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to a complete halt of these programs and thus accumulating all the elective cataract procedures. At present with the better understanding of the safety precautions among the health care workers and general population the Government of India (GoI) has given clearance for functioning of eye care facilities. In order to facilitate smooth functioning of every clinic, in this paper, we prepared preferred practice pattern based on consensus discussions between leading ophthalmologists in India including representatives from major governmental and private institutions as well as the All India Ophthalmological Society leadership. These guidelines will be applicable to all practice settings including tertiary institutions, corporate and group practices and individual eye clinics. The guidelines include triage, use of personal protective equipment, precautions to be taken in the OPD and operating room as well for elective cataract screening and surgery. These guidelines have been prepared based on current situation but are expected to evolve over a period of time based on the ongoing pandemic and guidelines from GoI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it the huge burden of mortality and morbidity across the world and the added effects of the mandatory lockdown measures to try and control the spread. A number of aspects of healthcare including eye donation and eye collection require adequate safety precautions in place to keep both the involved healthcare workers and patients safe. This paper highlights the consensus-based guidelines by an expert panel on how to restart eye banking and eye collection services and carry out emergency corneal surgeries during this COVID-19 time. These guidelines will be applicable to all eye banks across the country and should help ophthalmologists and eye banking staff to restart eye banking while safeguarding themselves and their patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of social media, every second thousands of messages are exchanged. Analyzing those unstructured data to find out specific emotions is a challenging task. Analysis of emotions involves evaluation and classification of text into emotion classes such as Happy, Sad, Anger, Disgust, Fear, Surprise, as defined by emotion dimensional models which are described in the theory of psychology (www 1; Russell, 2005). The main goal of this paper is to cover the COVID-19 pandemic situation in India and its impact on human emotions. As people very often express their state of the mind through social media, analyzing and tracking their emotions can be very effective for government and local authorities to take required measures. We have analyzed different machine learning classification models, such as Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest Classifier, Decision Tree and Logistic Regression with 10-fold cross validation to find out top ML models for emotion classification. After tuning the Hyperparameter, we got Logistic regression as the best suited model with accuracy 77% with the given datasets. We worked on algorithm based supervised ML technique to get the expected result. Although multiple studies were conducted earlier along the same lines, none of them performed comparative study among different ML techniques or hyperparameter tuning to optimize the results. Besides, this study has been done on the dataset of the most recent COVID-19 pandemic situation, which is itself unique. We captured Twitter data for a duration of 45 days with hashtag #COVID19India OR #COVID19 and analyzed the data using Logistic Regression to find out how the emotion changed over time based on certain social factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced substantial changes in the practice of psychiatry, including that of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). There is higher risk of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during ECT unless due care is taken. However, in many cases, ECT cannot be avoided. In this paper, we discuss various measures that may be adapted to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus during ECT. We also suggest certain modifications to the practice of ECT in order to achieve a balance between risks and benefits of the procedure during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the mathematical modeling of the second wave of COVID-19 and verifies the current Omicron variant pandemic data in India. We also we discussed such as uniformly bounded of the system, Equilibrium analysis and basic reproduction number R 0 . We calculated the analytic solutions by HPM (homotopy perturbation method) and used Mathematica 12 software for numerical analysis up to 8th order approximation. It checked the error values of the approximation while the system has residual error, absolute error and h curve initial derivation of square error at up to 8th order approximation. The basic reproduction number ranges between 0.8454 and 2.0317 to form numerical simulation, it helps to identify the whole system fluctuations. Finally, our proposed model validated (from real life data) the highly affected five states of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. The algorithm guidelines are used for international arrivals, with Omicron variant cases updated by the Union Health Ministry in January 2022. Right now, the third wave is underway in India, and we conclude that it may peak by the end of May 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore how India's complex regime of control and management of religious institutions and communities—ironically, particularly Hindu institutions—influences the capacity of these institutions to promote various dimensions of human flourishing and socio-economic uplift among the most marginalized. In addition, I provide an overview of India's highly varied landscape when it comes to the freedom of religious institutions from state control, and in particular discuss how some minority religious institutions experience fewer government constraints on some aspects of their freedom to self-identify and self-govern, especially when compared to some majority institutions, such as Hindu temples. Although some minority institutions still face constraints on certain aspects of their operations, the freedom they have to manage their internal affairs can, at times, translate into greater agility and the ability to innovate and flourish in the context of 21st-century India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]