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Development economists have considered physical infrastructure to be a precondition for industrialization and economic development. Infrastructure investments play a particularly important role in expanding overall employment opportunities either directly by absorbing workers or indirectly by crowding in private investments, technology adoption, and production activities through which new jobs are created. As investments in infrastructure increasingly address the integration of technology and sustainability principles, the nature of jobs and skill requirements are also changing. On one hand, augmented public funding can favor infrastructure investments that have higher employment elasticity to ensure adequate job creation. On the other hand, the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution calls for a more skill-intensive workforce. Using findings from existing studies on infrastructure and data from Asian Development Bank, this paper discusses changing infrastructure investments in a rapidly changing technological environment and how developing countries can reap employment creation benefits through innovations.

This paper looks at the diffusion and applications of mobile phone technology in Asia and Africa, compared with North America. It indicates that Asian distance education can be the global leader in the development of educational uses for the mobile phone; and it considers the potential for mobile learning in Africa and other developing regions. The paper concludes that it would be a serious disservice to learners and instructors if Asia and Africa were to cast their lot with Web-based learning. By comparison, mobile phone technology is widespread, easy to use, and familiar to learners and instructors.

The position of science and technology (S&T) in a society changes through time and from one society to another. In developing countries, many young people would like to opt for a career in S&T, while many rich, highly-developed countries notice declining recruitment of students to science and technology studies. In this article, the authors discuss the "The Relevance of Science Education" (ROSE) project, and include a few general results from analysis of the data material. In the discussion of the results, special attention will be paid to the countries at the Asian continent.

The United States has long been a world leader in education, innovation, high-tech employment, and research and development (R&D). Its future status, however, is not secure. This is the conclusion of more than two dozen reports in recent years from a variety of groups of business leaders, educators and government officials. In this article, the author determines why U.S. leadership in education, innovation, high-tech employment and R&D is in jeopardy--with particularly significant implications for technology-oriented New England.

The article briefly describes the first Asian-Pacific Conference on Deafness held in Hong Kong in December, 1986. Conference topics included overcoming prejudice and suspicion, the expense of technological aids, the importance of prevention through better medical services, and lack of effective legislation and institutions. (DB)

This article uses theories of industrial policy to assess the development of China's 5G telecommunications equipment policy. It considers the path China's 5G build-out has taken, and American security concerns in reaction to several nations' potential adoption of China's latest generation of communications equipment. It focuses on several East, South, and Southeast Asian countries and their decisions on whether or not to incorporate China's 5G technology for their networks. It concludes with assessment of future paths in the Sino-US competition over 5G and later generation communications systems adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (GBV) is a pervasive issue. Yet, most research focuses on high-income countries and few studies comprehensively summarize its prevalence, manifestations, and implications in the Global South. This scoping review sought to examine technology-facilitated GBV in low- and middle-income countries across Asia, specifically focusing on trends, common behaviors, and characteristics of perpetrators and survivors. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed and gray literature published between 2006 and 2021 yielded 2,042 documents, of which 97 articles were included in the review. Across South and Southeast Asia, findings indicate that technology-facilitated GBV is a widespread phenomenon, with increased incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology-facilitated GBV comprises various forms of behaviors and prevalence varies by type of violence. Women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities, especially those with other intersecting marginalized identities, are often more vulnerable to experiencing online violence. Alongside these findings, the review revealed gaps in the literature including a lack of evidence from Central Asia and the Pacific Islands. There is also limited data on prevalence which we attribute to underreporting, in part due to disjointed, outdated, or nonexistent legal definitions. Findings from the study can be leveraged by key stakeholders such as researchers, practitioners, governments, and technology companies to develop prevention, response, and mitigation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on how field-based research is being conducted globally. Given the challenges of undertaking fieldwork during epidemics and the need for mixed methods research to address the social, political, and economic issues related to epidemics, there is a small but growing body of evidence in this area. To contribute to the logistical and ethical considerations for conducting research during a pandemic, we draw on the challenges and lessons learnt from adapting methods for two research studies conducted in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings: (1) in-person research in Uganda and (2) combined remote and in-person research in South and Southeast Asia. Our case studies focus on data collection and demonstrate the feasibility of conducting mixed methods research, even with many logistical and operational constraints. Social science research is often used to identify the context of specific issues, to provide a needs assessment, or inform longer-term planning; however, these case studies have shown the need to integrate social science research from the start of a health emergency and in a systematic way. Social science research during future health emergencies can also inform public health responses during the emergency. It is also crucial to collect social science data after health emergencies to inform future pandemic preparedness. Finally, researchers need to continue research on other public health issues that are ongoing even during a public health emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical research on the race between education and technology has focused on the West but barely touched upon 'the rest'. A new occupational wage database for 50 African and Asian economies allows us to compare long‐run patterns in skill premiums across the colonial and post‐colonial eras (c. 1870–2010). Our data reveal three major patterns. First, skilled labour was considerably more expensive in colonial Africa and Asia than in pre‐industrial Europe. Second, skill premiums were distinctly higher in Africa than in Asia. Third, in both regions, skill premiums fell dramatically over the course of the twentieth century, ultimately converging to levels long observed in the West. Our paper takes a first step to explain both the origins of the Africa–Asia gap and the drivers of global skill premium convergence, paying special attention to the colonial context that shaped demand, supply, and labour market institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All around the world, but particularly in developing nations, carbon dioxide emissions are on the rise, and climate change and global warming are brought on by an increase in CO2 emissions. This article provides an overview of the technological effect on energy consumption in the residential, transport, and industrial sector and its ultimate effect on the environment. Using the STIRPAT-Kaya-EKC model for the years 1990 to 2020, this study looked at the threshold impact of technological advancements on the link between disaggregated energy use and CO2 emissions for a panel of 10 Asian countries using the panel threshold regression. Findings demonstrate that the EKC phenomenon is present in the chosen Asian region. Findings also suggest that technology has a threshold influence on the relationship between energy use and carbon emissions; however, this effect varies across sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banks focus on digital transformation to improve their overall efficiency and reduce operational costs. In this study, we argue that banks focusing on diversification might not benefit from digital transformation in context of stability. Precisely, this study explores the impact of digital transformation on banks' stability while considering diversification as an important factor. Overall, the results suggest that investment in technology and increased diversification makes banks riskier and more fragile. More importantly, we report digital transformation and the diversification to be substitutes in impacting the stability. In other words, we show digital transformation is beneficial for banks with low-income diversification. The reported findings have implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past four decades the dietary needs of the global population have been elevated, with increased consumption of animal products predominately due to the advancing economies of South America and Asia. As a result, livestock production systems have expanded in size, with considerable changes to the animals' management. As grazing animals are commonly grown in herds, economic and labour constraints limit the ability of the producer to individually assess every animal. Precision Livestock Farming refers to the real-time continuous monitoring and control systems using sensors and computer algorithms for early problem detection, while simultaneously increasing producer awareness concerning individual animal needs. These technologies include automatic weighing systems, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensors for individual animal detection and behaviour monitoring, body temperature monitoring, geographic information systems (GIS) for pasture evaluation and optimization, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for herd management, and virtual fencing for herd and grazing management. Although some commercial products are available, mainly for cattle, the adoption of these systems is limited due to economic and cultural constraints and poor technological infrastructure. This review presents and discusses PLF applications and systems for grazing animals and proposes future research and strategies to improve PLF adoption and utilization in today's extensive livestock systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Technological disasters in Asia have significant public health and environmental implications, but there is limited epidemiological analysis of these events. This study aims to characterize the epidemiological profile of technological disasters in Asia from 2000 to 2021, focusing on morbidity and mortality trends., Methods: A retrospective descriptive observational analysis was conducted using data from emergency events database (EM-DAT), DesInventar, NatCAt, and Sigma. The study categorized disasters into transport, industrial, and miscellaneous accidents. Statistical analyses were used to examine frequencies, trends, and correlations among the different disaster types., Results: From 2000 to 2021, Asia experienced 2333 technological disasters, with transport accidents being the most frequent (55.77%), followed by industrial (26.10%) and miscellaneous accidents (18.13%). The overall trend showed a statistically significant decrease in the frequency of these disasters and in average mortality and injury rates. The study highlighted the varying impact of different disaster types, with industrial accidents causing the highest fatality and affected rates despite being less frequent than transport accidents., Conclusions: The study indicates a declining trend in the frequency and severity of technological disasters in Asia, reflecting improved safety measures and disaster management. However, the high impact of industrial accidents underscores the need for targeted prevention strategies., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Aim: In this study, we conduct a systematic review of literature to understand the effectiveness of interventions on continuum of maternal and child healthcare services, the inter-linkages across different levels of continuum of care and the impact of continuum of care on child mortality in South Asian countries from 2000 to 2017. Methods: The Electronic databases like, Popline, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO and Google Scholar were systematically scrutinised to obtain relevant papers. A total of 19 papers were shortlisted for the final analysis. As per our knowledge, this is the first study which conceptualises the continuum of maternal health care framework through demand-based and supply-based interventions. In addition to this, we also present pathway models collating the evidence of continuum of maternal health care services in improving maternal and child health. Furthermore, both narrative synthesis approach and theme-wise categorisation approach is adopted to analyse the selected studies. Results: Our findings reveal a strong relationship between Demand-based & Supply-based interventions and continuum of maternal and child healthcare. Demand-based intervention (i.e. training health workers, spreading awareness through flip-charts, and folk dance) is effective in improving the CoC, while, Supply-based interventions (i.e. building hospitals, providing medicines and other equipment) strengthens the CoC in the context of South Asian countries. It also divulges strong inter-linkages across the CoC interventions. Conclusion: Hence, the policy makers and public agencies should emphasize more on strengthening Demand-based & Supply-based interventions that would strengthen the interlinkages across CoC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to analyze the remarkable pace of industrialization in Asia during the past half century, even if its distribution was most unequal between countries, with a focus on selected countries described as the Asian-14. It argues that economic openness, while necessary was not sufficient. It was conducive to industrialization only when combined with sensible industrial policy that was implemented by effective governments. There was, of course, an enormous diversity in the nature of openness and the process of industrialization across countries. Yet, there were discernible patterns in the different paths to industrialization, pointing to determinants of success and factors underlying failure. The analysis highlights the importance of technological capabilities, learning and innovation, which were essential for the few countries that joined the league of industrialized nations. It concludes that this will be just as necessary for countries that follow in their footsteps or aspire to sustain their industrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction provides an overview of the two main themes of this special issue--contemporary cultural engagements with Asian geopolitics and the roles played by new media and genres in shaping these geopolitical imaginations--as well as summaries of the following six articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]