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The purpose of this paper is to have an overview of how Indian institutions offering undergraduate architecture programs have responded to the pandemic situation. It seeks to appraise the alternative approaches adopted for teaching-learning, communication, assignment and evaluation and assess their effectiveness for progressive improvisations or integration with pedagogy. The paper articulates a view on the suitability of online teaching for architecture education in India, on basis of educators' experiences of teaching during the pandemic.

An online survey was conducted for obtaining primary data from the educators given the paucity of information. The questions elicited structured information on aspects of the transition process, IT/online platform and tools, the efficacy of online teaching-learning and trajectory of blended learning.

All institutions managed the transition to online teaching without much difficulty. However, the paper raises the need for professional training and feedback from students. One-third of the respondents express satisfaction with online teaching, despite low satisfaction about the effectiveness of online teaching of a design studio. The results convey the need for more engagement with digital tools and representational software on integrated platforms. The study finds consensus on the future potential of blended learning and advocates developing an integrated framework and curriculum for architecture education in India.

The paper synthesizes viewpoints on online teaching-learning of architecture program in wake of the pandemic from an educators' perspective. The emergent perspectives are viewed dialogically in context of global voices to articulate a future trajectory of blended learning in the domain of architecture education.

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on architectural education (AE) was investigated, and a framework was proposed to reduce the impacts' negative consequences.

Systematic literature review, bibliometric and content analyses were combined to gain an in-depth understanding of the effects of the pandemic on AE and projections for its future. Relevant documents were extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database. Bibliometric connections in the context of AE and COVID-19 pandemic were explored using text-mining and content analysis was performed.

The challenges, development tendencies and collaboration networks in AE during the pandemic were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The most influential articles, journals, authors and countries/regions were highlighted using a bibliometric analysis. The analysis of keyword tendencies and clusters indicates that new concepts have emerged in AE research during the pandemic involving online, in-person and hybrid education. Using content analysis of 57 subtopics, 39 (18) were categorized as having negative (positive) effects. A comprehensive mitigation framework was designed to reduce the impact of the pandemic on AE.

The study findings can enable practitioners to construct effective solutions to COVID-19- and other disaster-related problems regarding AE. The implications, obstacles and mitigation framework presented can help identify gaps in the literature and guide further research.

This paper presents the first bibliometric and content analysis of AE and COVID-19 pandemic-related studies published from January 2020 to June 2022 to highlight several research directions and academic development within the field.

Earthquake tremors not only increase the chances of fire ignition but also hinder the fire-fighting efforts due to the damage to the lifelines of a city. Most of the international codes have independent recommendations for structural safety against earthquake and fire. However, the possibility of a multi-hazard event, such as fire following an earthquake is seldom addressed.

This paper presents an experimental study of Reinforced Concrete (RC) columns in post-earthquake fire (PEF) conditions. An experimental approach is proposed that allows the testing of a column instead of a full structural frame. This approach allows us to control the loading and boundary conditions individually and facilitates the testing under a variety of these conditions. Also, it allows the structure to be tested until failure. The role of parameters, such as earthquake intensity, axial load ratio and the ductile detailing of the column on the earthquake damage and subsequently the fire performance of the structure, is studied in this research. Six RC column specimens are tested under a sequence of quasi-static earthquake loading, followed by combined fire and axial compression loading conditions.

The experiment results indicate that ductile detailed columns subjected to 4% or less lateral drift did not lose significant load-carrying capacity in fire conditions. A lateral drift of 6% caused significant damage to the columns and reduced the load-carrying capacity in fire conditions. The level of the axial load acting on the column at the time of earthquake loading was found to have a very significant effect on the extent of damage and reduction in column load capacity in fire conditions. The columns that were not detailed for a ductile behavior observed a more significant reduction in axial load carrying capacity in fire conditions.

This study is limited to columns of 230 mm size due to the limitations of the test setup. The applicability of these findings to larger column sections needs to be verified by developing a numerical analysis methodology and simulating other post-earthquake-fire tests available in the literature.

The experimental procedure proposed in this paper offers an alternative to the testing of a complete structural frame system for PEF behavior. In addition to the ease of conducting the tests, the procedure also allows much better control over the heating, structural loading and boundary conditions.

There is a lacuna in research work in terms of understanding how Indian IT organizations can become global brands. Benchmarking has not received much attention in marketing literature due to lack of benchmarking framework, and IT organizations are yet to make progress in benchmarking. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of brand strength on global branding by developing a conceptual benchmarking framework for Indian IT organizations.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews are conducted with thirty middle-level managers from two Indian IT organizations, two US-based global IT organizations and one UK-based leading bank, which is a customer of these IT organizations.

Results show a positive relationship between brand strength and global branding, between customer loyalty and global branding, between brand loyalty and competitive advantage and between global branding and competitive advantage. Indian IT organizations can benchmark global IT organizations to improve delivering brand promise, positioning, awareness building and authenticity toward making Indian IT organizations future ready to address the entire breadth of opportunities in the evolving world of cloud and digital.

This research helps managers with a brand strength-based benchmarking framework toward global branding of Indian IT organizations.

IT is instrumental for rapid growth of Indian’s economy. India should optimally utilize its greatest wealth, its human potential, with the latent global demand in IT through building global IT brands.

The originality of the study lies in conducting a qualitative study on global branding of Indian IT organizations and also proposing a conceptual benchmarking framework. The study further validates the model using qualitative analysis.