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Healthcare is indispensable for any civilisation to attain a good quality of life and well-being on both mental and physical levels. The healthcare domain primarily falls under pharma, medical, biotechnology, and nursing. Also, other fields may be aligned with these primary fields. Healthcare amasses the contemporary trends and knowledge of upcoming techniques to improve healthcare processes. The practitioners are primarily doctors, nurses, specialists and health professionals, hospital administrators, and health insurance.

It is a fundamental attribute needed for any society to attain good quality of life and well-being in mental and physical health. It is a fundamental right of people to receive good healthcare where drug treatment and hospitalization are available at a nominal cost, as a requirement of today’s modern era. There appears to be a significant disparity in the availability of good healthcare in rural areas compared to urban in India. Even though we enter the digital era with the facilities offered in Industry 4.0 and other advanced technologies brings about a significant change of overall processing within healthcare systems. During the pandemic of COVID-19, there has been digital transformation with success globally. Healthcare cooperatives are a new norm to support the healthcare systems globally. The chapter discusses Gampaha healthcare cooperative and reviews Ayushman Sahakar scheme in India. The reforms require time to evolve.

Industry 4.0 has been identified as a key cornerstone to modernise economies where man and machines complement each other seamlessly to achieve synergies in decision-making and productivity for contributing to SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. The integration of Industry 4.0 remains a challenge for the developing world, depending on their current status in the industrial revolution journey from its predecessors 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. This chapter reviews reported findings in literature to highlight how robotics and automated systems can pave the way to implementing and applying the principles of Industry 4.0 for developing countries like Mauritius, where data collection, processing and analysis for decision-making and prediction are key components to be integrated or designed into industrial processes centred heavily on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques. Robotics has not yet found its way into the various industrial sectors in Mauritius, although it has been an important driver for Industry 4.0 across the world. The inherent barriers and transformations needed as well as the potential application scenarios are discussed.

Although healthcare and healthy living are integral to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, the coronavirus epidemic has dealt a devastating blow to these efforts. As governments and policymakers were compelled to shift their focus to lockdowns, sustenance, procurement, and distribution of vaccines, the momentum for health initiatives slowed, and the already fragile health systems of emerging markets were subjected to additional shocks. However, in many underserved regions of the globe, the introduction of technology has greatly facilitated the distribution and adoption of healthcare services.

This chapter highlights mini-cases from four emerging nations: Bangladesh, Nigeria, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Although the countries are emerging, each one of them are in a distinct stage of development and face a unique set of healthcare-related challenges. The chapter showcases how four different organizations based in these countries leveraged the use of technology to take healthcare services to underserved populations. In doing so, they addressed the key challenges of imparting healthcare: geographic accessibility, availability, financial accessibility, and acceptability.

This chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of expanding healthcare industries leading to increased healthcare waste. To prevent mass population exposure to hazardous substances, the emergence of intelligent healthcare waste collection and disposal systems will be an absolute necessity. Hence, with the development of healthcare services, governments and policymakers need to mechanize smart waste management systems to safeguard humans, animals, and the environment.

The development puts the problem under consideration in a strategic light and gains attention with its wide comprehensiveness on the plane of unification of the activity of several modern scientific fields, which have always had intersections, but in their essence perform rather different roles – human resources management (HRM), public relations (PR), and sustainable development (SD). Examining the possibilities of applying innovative approaches in the research of these areas, in the context of the influence of digital and smart technologies and an entirely new scientific field. In this sense, the theoretical substantiation of the thesis on the synergy between HR, PR, and sustainable development is targeted in the aspect of highlighting contemporary challenges and the relevant response to achieve organizational effectiveness, based on knowledge of the impact of digitization processes and their connection with the development of human capital in the organization.

Emphasis in the present work is placed on the relationship between the management of human capital in the organization and the influence of digital and smart technologies on these processes. Focus in the research is placed in three directions – first of all – the role of digital/smart/technologies on sustainable development. Second, the impact of digital and smart technologies on green human resource management is explored, and third, emphasis is placed on the changed role of strategic communications in the context of the digital revolution.

The development brings out some good practices and ideas in the described areas.

This chapter investigates the ongoing process of academization within the field of educational therapy in Germany, particularly in the context of the introduction of university degrees in integrative educational therapy and the psychology of learning. The introduction of these degrees brought about transformative changes in the professional landscape. Educational therapists holding such degrees often demonstrate a more advanced understanding of their roles, which is underpinned by thorough university education and the legitimizing influence of their academic titles. Prior to the establishment of these degree programs, the field of educational therapy was notably unregulated, devoid of a protected professional title or a specific qualification. This lack of regulation resulted in a proliferation of varied providers, giving rise to what’s known as the “after-school market” phenomenon. This chapter explores the genesis and institutionalization of degree programs in educational therapy as a path toward professionalizing the field. It reveals the crucial role that professional associations along with scientific experts have played in launching these degree programs. Additionally, it discusses the impact of competition among different approaches to educational therapy within this rapidly evolving landscape.