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The Indian people have taken satisfaction in being regarded as "unity in variety" even in the face of social unrest, political agitation, and a deteriorating economy. In order to guarantee that this is the case, many provisions of the Indian Constitution have been adopted. However, while India has not declared multiculturalism to be a national policy, its spirit has always been a part of the country's history and culture. Historically, the northeastern region of the country has been isolated from the rest of the country, creating concerns regarding its inclusion in the true sense of the term since the colonial era. Assam, one of the region's eight states, is home to a varied spectrum of ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups, making it a very interesting place to visit. As a consequence, identity politics has played a crucial part in the consolidation of the country's identity. Jihad and murder have played a significant role in Assam's identity politics throughout its history. On occasion, both the federal and state administrations have attempted to satisfy the demands of different political parties; yet, there have been persistent calls for autonomy and independence in various parts of the state. This dissertation is a modest effort to look at the Indian state's and ethnic groups' attempts to embrace the spirit of diversity in Assam from a historical perspective.

Building sector has grown as one of the major resource intensive sector. Consumption of resources is at a much rapid rate resulting in possibility of their becoming scarce and may even be their exhaustion. In the evaluation of sustainability of buildings, impact of resource consumption is required to be addressed along with the environmental impacts. Hence it is important to evaluate the scarcity potential of resources at national and local levels for buildings and develop sustainable models for resources that affect sustainability of building sector as a whole. In this paper a simple predictive model for sustainability of resources has been developed; correlating the rate of consumption of natural resources, future demand, and available reserves of resource for building sector at regional level in Indian context. The model calculates the sustainability score of resource consumption for a residential building and emphasizes the need of incorporating sustainability measures, like use of industrial wastes and recycling and reuse of building demolition wastes, in the building sector.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a paramount role in economic and social growth of every country. FDI acts as a source of external capital and helps in economic growth of the host country. Making decision for FDI during uncertain business environment is a challenge for all stakeholders. Therefore, in this study, we are proposing a decision making framework for FDI. Through literature review, we have identified the factors, on which FDI depends. A process‐based, multi‐criterion, integrated hierarchical approach for deciding about FDI, has been illustrated. In this study, five sectors are considered, that is, petroleum and natural resource, retailing and e‐commerce, healthcare, information technology, and road and highways for illustrating the proposed framework. It is observed that information technology sector has got top priority for FDI followed by retailing and e‐commerce and health care sector. Findings will help in taking appropriate decision by stakeholders for FDI. Ultimately it will also help in creating employment, economic growth, and welfare of society at large in the host country.

India is a rapidly growing economy witnessing continuous growth in the housing sector and living standards. The main focus of construction practices still remains on the architectural aspects of the buildings, largely unconcerned with their environmental impacts. The current thrust of concern for building sector, especially in developing countries, is to assess the environmental impact of buildings in a quantifiable way for implementing sustainable measures and achieving sustainability. Lifecycle assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive tool that is used worldwide to assess the environmental performance of any product or a process. This paper assesses the environmental impact of a residential house at planning stage on the basis of lifecycle assessment (LCA) considering various stages of building like construction, operation (for service life) and demolition, and identifies the hot-spots in the form of building components, materials, and stages.

Buildings consume major amount of energy as well as natural resources leading to negative environmental impacts like resource depletion and pollution. The current task for the construction sector is to develop an evaluation tool for rating of buildings based on their environmental impacts. There are various assessment tools and models developed by different agencies in different countries to evaluate building's effect on environment. Although these tools have been successfully used and implemented in the respective regions of their origin, the problems of application occur, especially during regional adaptation in other countries due to peculiarities associated with the specific geographic location, climatic conditions, construction methods and materials. India is a rapidly growing economy with exponential increase in housing sector. Impact assessment model for a residential building has been developed based on life cycle assessment (LCA) framework. The life cycle impact assessment score was obtained for a sample house considering fifteen combinations of materials paired with 100% thermal electricity and 70%-30% thermal-solar combination, applying normalization and weighting to the LCA results. The LCA score of portland slag cement with burnt clay red brick and 70%-30% thermal-solar combination (PSC+TS+RB) was found to have the best score and ordinary Portland cement with flyash brick and 100% thermal power (OPC+T+FAB) had the worst score, showing the scope for further improvement in LCA model to include positive scores for substitution of natural resources with industrial waste otherwise polluting the environment.

PurposeThe agricultural supply chain is susceptible to disruptive geopolitical events. Therefore, agri-food firms must devise robust resilience strategies to hasten recovery and mitigate global food security effects. Hence, the central aim of this paper is to investigate how supply chains could leverage digital technologies to design resilience strategies to manage uncertainty stemming from the external environment disrupted by a geopolitical event. The context of the study is the African agri-food supply chain during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ strategic contingency and dynamic capabilities theory arguments to explore the scenario and conditions under which African agri-food firms could leverage digital technologies to formulate contingency strategies and devise mitigation countermeasures. Then, the authors used a multi-case-study analysis of 14 African firms of different sizes and tiers within three main agri-food sectors (i.e. livestock farming, food-crop and fisheries-aquaculture) to explore, interpret and present data and their findings.FindingsDownstream firms (wholesalers and retailers) of the African agri-food supply chain are found to extensively use digital seizing and transforming capabilities to formulate worst-case assumptions amid geopolitical disruption, followed by proactive mitigation actions. These capabilities are mainly supported by advanced technologies such as blockchain and additive manufacturing. On the other hand, smaller upstream partners (SMEs, cooperatives and smallholders) are found to leverage less advanced technologies, such as mobile apps and cloud-based data analytics, to develop sensing capabilities necessary to formulate a "wait-and-see" strategy, allowing them to reduce perceptions of heightened supply chain uncertainty and take mainly reactive mitigation strategies. Finally, the authors integrate their findings into a conceptual framework that advances the research agenda on managing supply chain uncertainty in vulnerable areas.Originality/valueThis study is the first that sought to understand the contextual conditions (supply chain characteristics and firm characteristics) under which companies in the African agri-food supply chain could leverage digital technologies to manage uncertainty. The study advances contingency and dynamic capability theories by providing a new way of interacting in one specific context. In practice, this study assists managers in developing suitable strategies to manage uncertainty during geopolitical disruptions.

AbstractAugmented reality (AR) has proven to be a potential source of disruption in the marketing discipline. Abundant research has attested to AR's potential by exploring the impact of AR attributes on behavioral intentions and users' attitudes. However, AR's potential to spark customer interactions, co‐create value, and foster brand advocacy remains poorly understood. This study explores whether and how AR can turn users into brand advocates. Applying structural equation modeling to a sample of 502 AR users, the study finds that AR empowers users during their shopping experience, creating strong brand attachment and engagement and ultimately leading to brand advocacy. This brand‐focused study, which goes beyond the technical aspects of AR, is unique and has the potential to inform the strategic decision‐making of managers aiming to enhance the customer experience by means of AR implementation.

Laser-based methodologies for synthesis, reduction, modification and assembly of graphene-based materials are highly demanded for energy-related electrodes and devices for portable electronics. Laser technologies for graphene synthesis and modification exhibit several advantages when compared to alternative methods. They are fast, low-cost and energy saving, allowing selective heating and programmable processing, with controlled manipulation over the main experimental parameters. In this review, we summarize the most recent studies on laser-assisted synthesis of graphene-based materials, as well as their modification and application as electrodes for supercapacitor and battery applications. After a brief introduction to the physical properties of graphene and a discussion of the different types of laser processing operations, the practical uses of laser techniques for the fabrication of electrode materials are discussed in detail. Finally, the review is concluded with a brief discussion of some of the outstanding problems and possible directions for research in the area of laser-based graphene materials for energy storage devices. ; This research was supported by the financial assistance from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), New Delhi under Ramanujan Fellowship Award (SB/S2/RJN-159/2017) and JSPS KAKENHI Grant JP-18F18063. The author (A.P. Pino) thanks the financial support of MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 under the project PID2020-116612RB-C31 and support from AGAUR of Generalitat de Catalunya through projects 2017 SGR 1086 and 2017 SGR 1771. ICMAB acknowledges financial support from MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033, through Severo Ochoa FUNFUTURE grant (CEX2019-000917-S). ; With funding from the Spanish government through the 'Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence' accreditation (CEX2019-000917-S). ; Peer reviewed