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This paper aims to gain insight on the perception and role of the local government officials on climate change and resilience in Uttarakhand, India. Uttarakhand, being a sensitive mountainous region in India, faces the brunt of frequent climate-related disasters and their severe impacts. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how authorities perceive the issue of climate-related disasters and their level of commitment toward mitigation and adaptation programs.

The literature review method was used for a holistic understanding of the impact of climate change and consequential disasters. A questionnaire survey method, comprising open- and closed-ended questions, was also used on officials of different departments.

Among the noteworthy findings of the study include the understanding of the perceptions of authorities and their role in decision-making on mitigating impacts of climate change-related disasters, their support or lack of it, for measures toward capacity building and spreading awareness of the intervention programs by the government. The study analyzes the perception of decision-making officials at state and district levels and infers that the variation on opinions may be attributable to multiple factors, including their past experiences of dealing with disasters.

This study offers insights into the role of perception of local government officials concerning climate change-related disasters and alleviation of their consequences through related programs. The findings have the unique potential to serve as a guide for the government at state and district levels to assess various aspects of different disaster mitigation measures based on sectors and departments.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the bioactive ingredients of whole flours of oat, maize and soyabean, utilise them for developing functional cookies and evaluate their physical and nutritional quality parameters.

Cookies were prepared from blends of whole flours of wheat, oats, maize and full fat soyabean. Whole wheat and oat flours were blend in different proportions (100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 40:60 and 20:80 and 0:100, wheat:oat, w/w) and supplemented with quality protein maize (QPM) and full fat soyabean flours, at 10 per cent (w/w) each, of the total blend. Cookies were studied for their physical attributes, proximate and nutritional compositions. A significant (p=0.05) increase in spread ratio, crude protein, crude fat and crude fibre contents of the cookies was observed with increase in the proportion of oat flour in the blend.

Cookies prepared from blend containing QPM and soyabean flours had higher antioxidant activity than control whole wheat cookies. An increase in extractable β-glucan content and in-vitro protein digestibility was also observed with the increase in the proportion of oat flour. The highest overall acceptability was observed for cookies prepared from blends having a wheat–oat proportion of 60:40. These cookies also had a 17.5 per cent higher genistein content as compared to their raw flour blend. Higher genistein levels were observed in the composite cookies.

The cookies prepared from composite whole flours rich in isoflavones and β-glucan reflect their potential as a new functional food for the prevention and management of diseases such as cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders.

The present study was carried out to standardize the method for preparation of naturally carbonated fermented paneer whey beverage by incorporating pineapple and strawberry fruit juice and to check their suitability in the beverage by evaluating the organoleptic characteristics and shelf life of product.

Beverage was inoculated with yeast culture Clavispora lucitaniae at 0.5 per cent v/v and fermented at 35 ± 1°C for 36 h aerobically. Standardization of total soluble solids (TSS) (16, 15, 14, 13 and 12oBrix) and juice concentration (15, 20, 25 and 30 per cent) of beverage was done on the basis of organoleptic evaluation, and the beverage with TSS 12oB and 30 per cent juice was selected best for further storage study. Two types of beverages were prepared: paneer whey beverage blended with pineapple juice and paneer whey beverage blended with strawberry juice, and were stored at refrigerated (4 ± 1oC) and ambient (25 ± 5oC) conditions. Effect of storage on physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory attributes were studied periodically after every 15 days for 90 days of storage period.

There was significant decrease in brix:acid ratio (p = 0.0008) from 12.0 to 9.3, total sugar (p = 0.017) from 10.8 to 6.8, ascorbic acid (p = 0.002) from 17.8 to 9.3 mg/100 mL and lactose (p = 0.037) from 3.1 to 0.6 per cent content over 90 days of ambient storage period. Total yeast count increased during the initial stages of fermentation and started declining after 60 days of storage. The alcohol production started after 15 days and reached 0.7 per cent after 90 days for paneer whey beverages blended with strawberry juice. The more variations were found in the physico-chemical and microbiological properties of the beverage at ambient storage than refrigeration storage. Highest score for color, flavor, mouthfeel and overall acceptability was found on third days, which decreased further during the storage. The comparative study of the paneer whey beverage blended with strawberry juice stored at ambient and refrigeration temperature showed that maximum decrease was found for score of appearance/color, flavor, mouthfeel and overall acceptability at ambient temperature as compared to refrigeration temperature. Beverage stored at refrigeration temperature was found more acceptable than the beverage which was stored at ambient temperature irrespective of all types of beverages.

The refrigerated beverage was found more acceptable up to 90 days, whereas beverage stored under ambient conditions was found acceptable up to 60 days. The products so obtained had naturally produced CO₂, and little alcohol content added effervescence, sparkle, tangy taste and flavoring characteristics.

This paper aims to assess the impact of incorporating foxnut powder (FP) into bakery products to evaluate their effect on product quality and nutritional characteristics.

Samples of refined flour (control) and refined wheat flour with varying levels of FP were prepared for each bakery item. Sensory evaluations using a nine-point hedonic scale were conducted. Different concentrations of FP (20% for cakes, 12.5% for bread and 12.5% for doughnuts) were tested to achieve sensory acceptability.

The addition of FP at specified concentrations achieved sensory acceptability in the tested bakery items, significantly impacting overall acceptability. Incorporating FP led to textural attribute alterations, including increased hardness, gumminess and chewiness, alongside reduced cohesiveness and elasticity. Color properties were influenced, affecting lightness, redness and yellowness of the bakery items. Proximate composition analysis highlighted shifts in moisture, protein, fiber, fat and ash content between control and accepted samples. Mineral content analysis revealed notable differences in calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium and sodium between control and accepted samples.

These findings demonstrate the potential of FP to enhance bakery products, offering promising industrial applications in producing nutritionally enriched and visually appealing baked products.

The purpose of this paper is to construct the social and environmental disclosure index for Indian companies in order to examine the relationship between social and environmental disclosure and select corporate attributes.

The sample covers annual reports of companies for financial year 2011-2012. The sample represents both financial and non-financial companies that constitute Nifty 50 Index companies as on March 31, 2012. The actual size of the sample analyzed represented 41 companies. The unweighted disclosure index approach has been used to measure the extent of disclosure of social and environmental information where an item scores 1 if disclosed and 0 if not disclosed. The authors built a model using regression which indicates the variables that are significant in determining the social and environmental disclosure of a company. The regression model can be used to predict the degree of disclosure of a company given the values of explanatory variables. Content analysis from annual reports of the companies has been used in constructing the dependent variable.

Regression results indicate that location (place where the registered office of company is located), number of operations of company, turnover, sales and administration expenses, age of company, employee cost and interest paid by company are significant in determining the disclosure index of the company.

Sample size can be increased by considering more companies. In addition, a longitudinal study would enable in drawing comparison over a period of time with respect to disclosure index. The increased sample size would help in validating the disclosure score by dividing the data set into two: one as observation window and the other as validation window.The model explains 23 percent variation in disclosure index. More variation may be explained by incorporating more explanatory variables in the model.

The authors indicate the level of disclosure in case of Indian companies which may prove to be an indicator for prospective investors especially in the present era of global financial and economic downturn. The paper may assist the regulators in framing policies regarding corporate governance. This will enable the regulators of corporate sector to frame laws in order to predict the degree of disclosure of a company based on certain explanatory variables.

The authors focus especially on Indian companies for constructing the disclosure index which to the best of knowledge has not been attempted till date.

Nature’s evolution has shaped intelligent behaviors in creatures like insects and birds, inspiring the field of Swarm Intelligence. Researchers have developed bio-inspired algorithms to address complex optimization problems efficiently. These algorithms strike a balance between computational efficiency and solution optimality, attracting significant attention across domains.

Bio-inspired optimization techniques for feature engineering and its applications are systematically reviewed with chief objective of assessing statistical influence and significance of “Bio-inspired optimization”-based computational models by referring to vast research literature published between year 2015 and 2022.

The Scopus and Web of Science databases were explored for review with focus on parameters such as country-wise publications, keyword occurrences and citations per year. Springer and IEEE emerge as the most creative publishers, with indicative prominent and superior journals, namely, PLoS ONE, Neural Computing and Applications, Lecture Notes in Computer Science and IEEE Transactions. The “National Natural Science Foundation” of China and the “Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology” of India lead in funding projects in this area. China, India and Germany stand out as leaders in publications related to bio-inspired algorithms for feature engineering research.

The review findings integrate various bio-inspired algorithm selection techniques over a diverse spectrum of optimization techniques. Anti colony optimization contributes to decentralized and cooperative search strategies, bee colony optimization (BCO) improves collaborative decision-making, particle swarm optimization leads to exploration-exploitation balance and bio-inspired algorithms offer a range of nature-inspired heuristics.