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Age gap between spouses has important implications for a range of outcomes—from fertility and longevity, to gender relationships, marital quality, and stability. This paper examines the age gap between spouses in 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia. The average age difference (husband's minus wife's age) is positive in all countries and ranges from 2.7 in Myanmar to 8.4 in Bangladesh. Age homogamous marriages accounted for 5% of all marriages in Bangladesh to close to half of all marriages in Thailand. The proportion of age hypogamous marriages was uniformly low in all the countries except for Myanmar where it reaches close to 10%. Men's marriage age has a stronger effect in determining the age gap. In general, the age gap for women with lower education was larger than for those with higher education. However, much of this effect was explained by the difference in marriage timing across educational groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Tobacco use, in both smoking and smokeless forms, is highly prevalent among South Asian adults. The aims of the study were twofold: (1) describe patterns of SLT and combustible tobacco product use in four South Asian countries stratified by country and sex, and (2) assess the relationships between SLT and smoking intensity, smoking quit attempts, and smoking cessation among South Asian men. Methods: Data were obtained from South Asia Biobank Study, collected between 2018 and 2022 from 148,944 men and women aged 18 years and above, living in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka. Mixed effects multivariable logistic and linear regression were used to quantify the associations of SLT use with quit attempt, cessation, and intensity. Results: Among the four South Asian countries, Bangladesh has the highest rates of current smoking (39.9% for male, 0.4% for female) and current SLT use (24.7% for male and 23.4% for female). Among male adults, ever SLT use was associated with a higher odds of smoking cessation in Bangladesh (OR, 2.88; 95% CI, 2.65, 3.13), India (OR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.63, 2.50), and Sri Lanka (OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.14, 1.62). Ever SLT use and current SLT use was associated with lower smoking intensity in all countries. Conclusions: In this large population-based study of South Asian adults, rates of smoking and SLT use vary widely by country and gender. Men who use SLT products are more likely to abstain from smoking compared with those who do not. What this paper adds?: • Tobacco use remains a leading risk factor of chronic disease in South Asia. Smokeless tobacco use is particularly popular in this region, even among adult women. Evidence on smokeless tobacco use and smoking cessation are inconclusive and may be dependent on specific cultural and historical factors. • Contemporaneous data on smokeless and combustible tobacco use patterns in South Asia are limited. Little is known whether SLT use is associated with smoking cessation in South Asia where the vast majority of the world's SLT users reside. • This study provided information on patterns of SLT use and smoking in four South Asia countries using a large population-based sample of 148,944 adults collected between 2018 and 2022. We observed that SLT use was associated with higher smoking cessation and lower smoking intensity among men. Strengthening SLT product regulation may have important population health implications with the changing tobacco use landscape in South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1962 and 1965, a broad definition of dependence allowed for the migration of Commonwealth Citizens to join working family members in Britain. This article investigates how the Home Office targeted male dependent youth as a category that could reduce unwanted immigration from the Commonwealth, particularly South Asia. Home Office officials obscured the stories of dependent migrants, constructed the figure of the 'bogus child', and denigrated male familial connections, which resulted in the denial of family reunion. Colonial assumptions about the mendacity of South Asians and the illegibility of South Asian family forms shaped British policy. The 1965 White Paper and the 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Act foreclosed the possibility of a broad definition of family and consolidated the legitimacy of the cisheterosexual family. Home Office discussions dovetailed with an emergent common sense circulated in newspapers and public debate about the illegitimacy of the South Asian family in Britain. This article interrogates the racist reasoning of the Home Office and this emergent common sense not only to show how immigration policy generates racialization but also to reveal the specificity of South Asian racialization in the post-imperial social formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Nurture Early for Optimal Nutrition (NEON) study is a multiphase project that aims to optimize feeding, care and dental hygiene practices in South Asian children <2 years in East London, United Kingdom. The multiphase project uses a participatory learning and action (PLA) approach facilitated by a multilingual community facilitator. In this paper, we elaborate on the process and results of the Intervention Development Phase in the context of the wider NEON programme. Methods: Qualitative community‐based participatory intervention codevelopment and adaptation. Setting: Community centres in East London and online (Zoom) meetings and workshops. Participants: In total, 32 participants registered to participate in the Intervention Development Phase. Four Intervention Development workshops were held, attended by 25, 17, 20 and 20 participants, respectively. Results: Collaboratively, a culturally sensitive NEON intervention package was developed consisting of (1) PLA group facilitator manual, (2) picture cards detailing recommended and nonrecommended feeding, care and dental hygiene practices with facilitators/barriers to uptake as well as solutions to address these, (3) healthy infant cultural recipes, (4) participatory Community Asset Maps and (5) list of resources and services supporting infant feeding, care and dental hygiene practices. Conclusion: The Intervention Development Phase of the NEON programme demonstrates the value of a collaborative approach between researchers, community facilitators and the target population when developing public health interventions. We recommend that interventions to promote infant feeding, care and dental hygiene practices should be codeveloped with communities. Recognizing and taking into account both social and cultural norms may be of particular value for infants from ethnically diverse communities to develop interventions that are both effective in and accepted by these communities. Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement: Considerable efforts were placed on Patient/Participant and Public Involvement and Engagement. Five community facilitators were identified, each of which represented one ethnic/language group: (i) Bangladeshi/Bengali and Sylheti, (ii) Pakistani/Urdu, (iii) Indian/Gujrati, (iv) Indian/Punjabi and (v) Sri Lankan/Tamil. The community facilitators were engaged in every step of the study, from the initial drafting of the protocol and study design to the Intervention Development and refinement of the NEON toolkit, as well as the publication and dissemination of the study findings. More specifically, their role in the Intervention Development Phase of the NEON programme was to: 1.Support the development of the study protocol, information sheets and ethics application.2.Ensure any documents intended for community members are clear, appropriate and sensitively worded.3.Develop strategies to troubleshoot any logistical challenges of project delivery, for example, recruitment shortfalls.4.Contribute to the writing of academic papers, in particular reviewing and revising drafts.5.Develop plain language summaries and assist in dissemination activities, for example, updates on relevant websites.6.Contribute to the development of the NEON intervention toolkit and recruitment of the community members.7.Attend and contribute to Intervention Development workshops, ensuring the participant's voices were the focus of the discussion and workshop outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Cobras (Naja Laurenti, 1768) are a group of well-known highly venomous snakes, which cause numerous cases of snakebites every year, especially in South Asia and Southern China. Taxonomic framework is essential for the medical treatment of snake bites and accurate antivenin development. However, the taxonomy of Asian cobras is still puzzling, especially for the widespread species Monocled Cobra (N. kaouthia Lesson, 1831). This study provided new materials and understanding for the taxonomy of this species by combining mitochondrial phylogenetic analysis and morphological comparisons based on samples from a vast area in Asia. The results showed that the Chinese population of N. kaouthia represents a new species. This study also provided new data for N. atra and designated a neotype for it. Furthermore, the subspecies N. naja polyocellata was resurrected and recognized as a full species, N. polyocellatacomb. nov., and the subspecies N. sumatrana miolepis was also resurrected. This study highlighted the necessity to evaluate the effectiveness of cobra antivenin based on a comprehensive taxonomic framework. Taxonomic frameworks for medically important species such as cobras (genus Naja Laurenti, 1768; Squamata, Elapidae) are essential for the medical treatment of snake bites and accurate antivenin development. In this paper, we described the former N. kaouthia populations recorded from China as a new species and designated a neotype for N. atra-based morphological and mitochondrial phylogenetic analysis. The new species N. fuxisp. nov. was morphologically diagnosed from N. kaouthia by (1) regular single narrow crossband present on the middle and posterior parts of the dorsum (3–15, 7.9 ± 2.7, n = 32) and the dorsal surface of the tail (1–6, 4.2 ± 1.1, n = 32) of both adults and juveniles, buff-colored with dark fringes on both edges, vs. South Asian populations (n = 39) and Southeast Asian populations (n = 35) without cross bands, with irregular cross bands or multiple light-colored crossbands pairs, or densely woven lines; (2) small scales between the posterior chin shields, usually three (40%) or two (37%), rarely four (13%), or one (10%) (n = 30) vs. mostly one (81%) and rarely two (19%) (n = 28); (3) ventrals 179–205 (195.4 ± 6.7, n = 33) vs. South Asian populations 179–199 (188.7 ± 5.9, n = 12); Southeast Asian populations 168–186 (177.8 ± 4.9, n = 18). Phylogenetically, the new species forms an independent sister clade to the clade including N. atra, N. kaouthia, N. oxiana and N. sagittifera. Furthermore, the subspecies N. naja polyocellata should be resurrected and recognized as a full species, N. polyocellatacomb. nov., and the subspecies N. sumatrana miolepis should be resurrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the status of institutional repositories (IRs) in the South Asian region. The various characteristic features of IRs are studied. Design/methodology/approach: Open directory of open access repositories (DOAR) as a data-gathering tool was consulted for extracting the desired data. Findings: India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh lead other South Asian nations in terms of IRs count. Majority of the IRs are operational in nature with higher number of operational IRs from India. In terms of record count, India leads the list. "Journal articles" outscore other content type and majority of the IRs have OAI-PMH as their base URL. DSpace stays a prioritized software for content management in IRs. Majority of the IRs have not defined their content management policies. English stays a prioritized language of the content dotting the South Asian IRs and majority of the IRs not providing usage statistics. A good score of IRs has incorporated Web 2.0 tools in them with RSS as the preferred Web 2.0 tool. A good count of the IRs has not customized their interface. Majority of the IRs have interface in two languages. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of the study is that the findings of the research are based on the data collected through the repositories indexed by Open DOAR. Originality/value: The study tries to explore the characteristic features of IRs from the South Asian region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst South Asia presents substantive market potential with large, dense populations and significant growth in gross domestic product (GDP), the growth in air transport (freight and passenger) has been much less than in the developed world and very different across countries in this region. This paper examines the determinants of air transport demand in South Asian countries over 43 years (1973–2015) using fixed effects models as well as a three-step error correction mechanism (ECM) approach. The results suggest that per capita income, foreign direct investment (FDI), flight frequency and jet fuel price play a vital role in determining air passenger demand in these low-income countries. Income, FDI, industrialisation and jet fuel price are further found to be significant factors that influence air freight demand in South Asian countries. Moreover, short run and long run equilibrium relationships among the variables were investigated, and our findings suggest a long-run equilibrium relationship with a lag of five years in the air passenger model and a lag of three years in the air freight model. However, only the air passenger model reports a short-run impact from independent variables to air passenger demand, and no short-run relationship is found between our set of independent variables and air freight demand. • Econometric and ECM models applied to aviation in South Asia. • Short-run for passenger and long-run equilibriums for both air passenger and freight. • Income impacts over proportionally on air passenger transport in low-income context. • FDI, frequency, oil price and industrialisation also determine air passenger transport in South Asia (five year lag). • Income, FDI and oil price determine air freight growth in South Asia (three year lag). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax evasion is a much challenging issue in both developed and developing countries specifically in South Asia. This study examines the tax evasion problem which erodes revenue generation for the Tax authorities and Governments in South Asian context. The objective of this study is to explore major determinants which influence tax evasion in this region. This research provides a basic framework to understand the impact of socio-economic, behavioral, institutional and political factors towards the decision of evading taxes. The research has conducted an empirical investigation of four South Asian countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka through OLS panel regression analysis and Fixed Effect (FE) approach using a dataset from 1988 to 2017 derived from World Economic Forum Annual Reports for the period 1988- 2017. The measures that may help tax agencies and the governments to discourage tax evasion have also been highlighted in the last part of this paper. it is observed that factors like age, corruption, high-income level, marginal tax rate, ease of doing business, and accountability are positively related to the tax evasion with varying magnitude whereas the variables for gender, services income, HDI, public trust in politician and rule of law are negatively associated with the dependent variable. self-assessment, agriculture income source and technological readiness show mixed results both insignificant and significant for the region. it is concluded that economic and institutional factors are more strong determinants of tax evasion in comparison with the demographic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability and low-carbon economy strategies have been widely studied in the past; nevertheless, researchers often ignore the effects of combining energy, economic, and environmental factors when assessing sustainability performance. To fill this gap, we measure the environmental sustainability performance of South Asia using a common weight Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-like mathematical model encompassing a comprehensive, up-to-date, and relevant set of indicators. In this paper, we present a measurement of South Asia's environmental sustainability performance for the years 2001–2015. Our results reveal that Bhutan outperforms the rest of the countries in South Asia, with an overall index score of 0.72. Nepal comes second in the region, with a stable score, followed by the Maldives. Afghanistan and Bangladesh are ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, and their overall scores indicate strong potential sustainability performances. India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan follow this list, with poor scores, with Pakistan having the lowest scores during the study period. Based on these findings, we propose a policy to boost the cross-border renewable energy trade for long-term environmental sustainability. Image 1 • We select a meaningful, comprehensive, and relevant set of indicators. • A DEA-like mathematical model programming approach is adopted. • Measurement of South Asia's sustainability performance for 2001–2015 is addressed. • Bhutan is more energy secure and environmentally sustainable in South Asian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study develops energy security and environmental sustainability index for South Asia. • We select comprehensive, meaningful, and most relevant set of energy and environmental indicators. • Mathematical programming approach is adopted for weighting and aggregation of indicators. • Results reveal Bhutan as more energy secure and environmentally sustainable country in South Asia. • Maldives obtained lowest ESESI score. The concept of energy security has received significant attention in studies. However, most of the studies often ignored to integrate environmental aspect in the energy security assessment. Therefore, to measure the energy security and environmental sustainability of South Asian countries, this study develops a new index, i.e., Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability Index (ESESI), which combines energy and environmental indicators. The study presents an analysis of the period 2006–2017. The results show that Bhutan outperforms the rest of the countries in South Asia based on different indicators. Likewise, the overall ESESI score reveals Bhutan as more secure regarding energy security and environmental sustainability. India comes second in the region with a stable score followed by Sri Lanka, which substantially increased its performance over time. Pakistan is ranked fourth; however, the country experienced a decreasing trend of ESESI score. Nepal, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan follow the list with reduced scores. Maldives obtained the lowest ESESI score during the study period 2006–2017. Lowest ESESI implies that the Maldives is the least energy secure and environmentally sustainable country in the region. Based on the above findings, this paper recommends cross-border energy trade and increase in trans-regional renewable energy investments for long-term energy security and environmental sustainability in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]