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Quality aims at meeting customer satisfaction through its various attributes in a product, process or system. Quality has to meet the requirements of a competitive environment, offer good price for cost and meet customer satisfaction. In the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system, quality means the special attributes of ODL, such as being learner-centric and product centric, the value for cost, and the ability to fulfill the expectations of the shareholders. The ODL system in India is almost thirty-five years old and has met the educational needs of millions of students in India and abroad. The system needs to further improve the quality of its products and services. There is growing demand for adopting innovative measures for improving the quality of ODL system in India. This paper examines the quality aspect of the ODL system from different perspectives with the objectives of identifying the gap areas and parameters of quality. Based on the findings, this paper proposes an implementation framework for improving quality in the ODL system in India. This proposed framework is expected to facilitate the policymakers in assuring quality in the system.

Traditionally, the well-being and living standards of an individual were measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Later, a gradual shift was noticed from economic to socio-economic measures leading to prioritization of the Human Development Index (HDI). However, to overcome certain limitations in the HDI, a detailed analysis of its sub-indices is necessitated. Thus, the contextualization of Living Standards (LS) one of the sub-factors of HDI may be introduced applied to broaden the domain of human well-being. Since then, living standards have expanded from economic indicators to that of non-econometric factors such as family concern, occupational status, personality etc. Despite this, there is hardly any indicator measuring the Living Standard Index (LSI) in the Indian context, especially for the older adults in India. Here, the study is conducted amongst 390 older adults' respondents of a peri-urban region of India through a multi-stage cluster sampling. This study outcome reveals that the LSI of the Indian older adults is dependent on the region-specific amenities, their age-groups, and living arrangement within their proximate networked members. Thus, the LSI may be influential in implementing policies for the older adults in the Indian context and that may be replicated across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Disembarking from a traditional approach of narrow hazardous environmental and structural conditions in understanding urban slums' health problems and moving towards a new notion of what constitutes health for slum dwellers will open a new avenue to recognise whether and how health is being prioritised in disadvantaged settings. Drawing on in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with a total of 67 men and 68 women from Kolkata slums and 62 men and 48 women from Bangalore slums, this study explored how knowledge, social realities, material and symbolic drivers of a place interweave in shaping slum‐dwellers' patterned way of understanding health, and the ways health and illnesses are managed. The current study adds to the growing evidence that ordinary members of the urban slums can articulate critical linkages between their everyday sociocultural realities and health conditions, which can support the design and delivery of interventions to promote wellbeing. The concept of health is not confined to an abstract idea but manifested in slum‐dwellers' sporadic practices of preventive and curative care as well as everyday living arrangements, where a complex arrangement of physical, psychological, financial, sociocultural and environmental dimensions condition their body and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was twofold: firstly, it objectively measured the composite satisfaction index of a social support network on the elderlies' wellbeing; and secondly, identified the subjective pivotal functional roles of the social support networks, which boost their psycho-physical wellbeing. The study is triangulated in nature which follows a multistage cluster sampling method to survey 390 elderly respondents of 60 years and above, residing in a peri-urban district of West Bengal, India. The composite satisfaction index revealed that the satisfaction derived from the components such as family, friends, and neighbours, are correlated with their psycho-physical wellbeing. Further, the principal component analysis is applied here, explores various psycho-social activities enabling the functional roles of the social network by enhancing perceived satisfaction amongst them. The present findings may give directions towards formulating appropriate policies by provisioning the functional roles of social support networks to achieve subjective wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality aims at meeting customer satisfaction through its various attributes in a product, process or system. Quality has to meet the requirements of a competitive environment, offer good price for cost and meet customer satisfaction. In the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system, quality means the special attributes of ODL, such as being learner-centric and product centric, the value for cost, and the ability to fulfill the expectations of the shareholders. The ODL system in India is almost thirty-five years old and has met the educational needs of millions of students in India and abroad. The system needs to further improve the quality of its products and services. There is growing demand for adopting innovative measures for improving the quality of ODL system in India. This paper examines the quality aspect of the ODL system from different perspectives with the objectives of identifying the gap areas and parameters of quality. Based on the findings, this paper proposes an implementation framework for improving quality in the ODL system in India. This proposed framework is expected to facilitate the policymakers in assuring quality in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nomenclatural status of the names Memecylon deccanense C.B. Clarke, M. heyneanum Benth. ex Wight & Arn., M. jambosioides Wight and M. wightianum Triana is discussed here. The name M. jambosioides, earlier considered a synonym of M. heyneanum, is here reinstated and treated as an accepted name. The binomial M. wightianum is rejected as superfluous and illegitimate, and M. deccanense is reduced to a synonym of M. heyneanum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Empirical evidence shows that the relationship between health-seeking behaviour and diverse gender elements, such as gendered social status, social control, ideology, gender process, marital status and procreative status, changes across settings. Given the high relevance of social settings, this paper intends to explore how gender elements interact with health-seeking practices among men and women residing in an Indian urban slum, in consideration of the unique socio-cultural context that characterises India's slums. Methods: The study was conducted in Sahid Smriti Colony, a peri-urban slum of Kolkata, India. The referral technique was used for selecting participants, as people in the study area were not very comfortable in discussing their health issues and health-seeking behaviours. The final sample included 66 participants, 34 men and 32 women. Data was collected through individual face-to-face in-depth interviews with a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The data analysis shows six categories of reasons underlying women's preferences for informal healers, which are presented in the form of the following themes: cultural competency of care, easy communication, gender-induced affordability, avoidance of social stigma and labelling, living with the burden of cultural expectations and geographical and cognitive distance of formal health care. In case of men ease of access, quality of treatment and expected outcome of therapies are the three themes that emerged as the reasons behind their preferences for formal care. Conclusion: Our results suggest that both men and women utilise formal and informal care, but with different motives and expectations, leading to contrasting health-seeking outcomes. These gender-induced contrasts relate to a preference for socio-cultural (women) versus technological (men) therapies and long (women) versus fast (men) treatment, and are linked to their different societal and familial roles. The role of women in following and maintaining socio-cultural norms leads them to focus on care that involves long discussions mixed with socio-cultural traits that help avoid economic and social sanctions, while the role of men as bread earners requires them to look for care that ensures a fast and complete recovery so as to avoid financial pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Slum dwellers display specific traits when it comes to disclosing their illnesses to professionals. The resulting actions lead to poor health-seeking behaviour and underutilisation of existing formal health facilities. The ways that slum people use to communicate their feelings about illness, the type of confidants that they choose, and the supportive and unsupportive social and cultural interactions to which they are exposed have not yet been studied in the Indian context, which constitutes an important knowledge gap for Indian policymakers and practitioners alike. To that end, this study examines the patterns of illness disclosure in Indian slums and the underpinning factors which shape the slum dwellers' disclosing attitude. Methods: In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted among 105 men and 113 women who experienced illness in the year prior to the study period. Respondents were selected from four urban slums in two Indian cities, Bangalore and Kolkata. Results: Findings indicate that women have more confidants at different social levels, while men have a limited network of disclosures which is culturally and socially mediated. Gender role limitations, exclusion from peer groups and unsupportive local situations are the major cause of disclosure delay or non-disclosure among men, while the main concerns for women are a lack of proper knowledge about illness, unsupportive responses received from other people on certain occasions, the fear of social stigma, material loss and the burden of the local situation. Prompt sharing of illness among men is linked with prevention intention and coping with biological problems, whereas factors determining disclosure for women relate to ensuring emotional and instrumental safety, preventing collateral damage of illness, and preventing and managing biological complications. Conclusions: The findings reveal that patterns of disclosure are not determined by the acknowledgment of illness but largely depend on the interplay between individual agency, disclosure consequences and the socio cultural environment. The results of this study can contribute significantly to mitigating the pivotal knowledge gap between health policymakers, practitioners and patients, leading to the formulation of policies that maximise the utilisation of health facilities in slums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rabindranath Tagore's Vishwa Bharati, established in 1901, is a well-known innovation in the education system. What is perhaps less known is his innovation in the open and distance learning (ODL) system. A few years into his establishing Vishwa Bharati, he realized the pressing need to take education to the doorsteps of the unreached. He observed, "Universities here are like a lighted railway compartment in a train passing through the countryside which is enveloped in darkness." His goal was to empower those people, who never had the opportunity to get a formal education, with necessary knowledge and skills. In 1939, he was inspired by the ideas to establish the Lok Siksha Samsad or the Peoples' Education Council, which was the foundation of the first open ODL system in India and perhaps in the world. He ensured that the students of this 'non-formal' system received all the educational facilities necessary for their knowledge and skill development through a network of the resources available at Vishwa Bharati and Sriniketan. This paper draws upon some of the original articles of Tagore to understand his philosophy behind this innovation. The paper further attempts to elucidate the innovative aspects of Lok Siksha Samsad with reference to the parameters of innovation, such as novelty, meeting specific needs, feasibility, scalability and costeffectiveness. The findings of this paper are expected to throw light on the potential of Tagore's innovation to introduce new ideas and practices into the present ODL system for skill development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid climatic shifts across the last glacial to Holocene transition are pervasive feature of the North Atlantic as well as low latitude proxy archives. Our decadal to centennial scale record of summer monsoon proxy Globigerina bulloides from rapidly accumulating sediments from Hole 723A, Arabian Sea shows two distinct intervals of weak summer monsoon wind coinciding with cold periods with in Ållerød inerstadial of the North Atlantic named here as IACP-A1 and IACP-A2 and dated (within dating uncertainties) at 13.5 and 13.3 calibrated kilo years before the present (cal kyr BP), respectively. Spectral analysis of the Globigerina bulloides time series for the segment 13.6-13.1 kyr (Ållerød period) reveals a strong solar 208-year cycle also known as de Vries or Suess cycle, suggesting that the centennial scale variability in Indian summer monsoon winds during the Ållerød inerstadial was driven by changes in the solar irradiance through stratospheric-tropospheric interactions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) occupies a prominent position in the academic world by way of shouldering the responsibility of providing quality education to the growing numbers of learners. Its journey of achieving its objectives is marked with the problems of efficiency, equity, quality and benchmarking of the ODL system. The IGNOU had established the experience that there are several impediments to innovation, most of which are of bureaucratic nature. In this paper we present our experience of nurturing innovations with an aim to sensitize the ODL functionaries towards creativity and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is the driving force for the socio-economic development of a country and there is a/ways a need of human resource with an innovative attitude. Education can play an important role in developing the innovativeness of the human resource of a country, and the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system, with millions of leamers on its roils, can play an extremely important role. Efforts should therefore be made by the ODL system to develop an innovative outlook among its learners. Innovation, according to Dr. A.RJ Abdul Ka/am, the former President of India, centres around five key areas, namely inquiry, creativity, technological capabilities, and entrepreneurial and moral leadership. These five key attributes need to be built into the education process so that the learners can develop their inherent innovativeness and excel in their future endeavours. In the ODL system, academic counselling plays the most important role, wherein an environment of learning is created and the learners interact with the academic counsel/ors to develop their knowledge and ski/Is. Development of innovativeness in the learners is only possible when the academic counsellors possess, appreciate and transmit the five key attributes of innovation on to the learners. The key issue is whether the academic counsellors at present are equipped with the know how to impart these five competencies, taken together, on to the/eamers. To investigate the present status of these five competencies among the academic counsellors, the authors carried out a study, where the academic counsel/ors' perspective was presented. In continuation of the same study, this paper provides a learners' perspective on the present status of these five competencies among the academic counsellors. It a/so identifies important areas that need suitable intervention to foster these competencies among the academic counsellors to help the IGNOU learners develop into creative and innovative individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this research was to assess microplastics (MPs) in the sediments of Chilika lake. MPs were extracted from 22 sediment samples using the density separation method combined with vacuum pump filtration. A stereo-zoom microscope and Raman spectroscopy were employed to identify the sediment-associated MPs. The total MPs collected from all 22 sites was 440 ± 3.53 particles kg -1 wet sediments, with sizes ranging between 50 and 500 μm. In terms of morphology, fibers and fragments emerged as the dominant MP types, with counts of 210 ± 1.66 and 175 ± 1.76 particles kg -1 wet sediments, respectively. Raman spectroscopy verified the presence of various MP polymers in the sediments, predominantly HDPE (37 %), followed by PS (20 %), PET (18 %), PA (11 %), PP (7 %), and PC (7 %). A notable color variation was observed in MPs; black being the most prevalent (38.8 %), succeeded by blue (19.5 %), green (11.8 %), white (11.5 %), red (10.6 %), and transparent (7.5 %). ANOVA results indicated significant (p > 0.05) variations in MP abundance across the 22 sampling locations. However, principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression analysis indicated that water quality parameters did not significantly influence MP abundance, yet it was found that MP retention was higher in fine-grained sediments like clay and silt. The leading sources of MPs in Chilika lake were found to be aquafarming, trailed by river and sewage discharges, fishing activities, antifouling coatings and tourism. Additionally, the pollution load index (PLI) was employed to gauge the ecological risks, categorizing the lake under risk category 1, which implies a minimal level of MPs pollution. This research aims to serve as an early warning system for MPs pollution in productive brackish water habitats globally, including Chilika lake, guiding policymakers towards appropriate management strategies and preventive measures., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A new species of the family Endromidae, Mustilizans zolotuhini sp. nov. is described from Dihang-Dibang Biosphere Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh, India. The subspecies, Mustilizans dierli refugialis Zolotuhin, 2007 is recorded for the first time from Sikkim, India. The distribution of the species known from India is mapped. The holotype of the new species is deposited in the Lepidoptera Section, National Zoological Collections, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata.