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The purpose of this paper is to undermine the role of cellular technology, government and the funding agency to deliver reliable and cost-effective health services for the people living in the bottom of pyramid and remote areas of the country where quality healthcare facilities are not available. The people living in rural Bihar (India) have a limited education and are reluctant to visit the female healthcare centers. The Ananya Bihar project has employed volunteers from the same community and aid from the foundation and government to improve the maternity and neo-natal healthcare initially in eight districts of the state.

The study reviewed various m-health projects and m-education projects with a detailing of the Anaya Bihar Project initiated by Melinda Gates foundation and Government of Bihar, India. The study uncovers technical, operational aspects and methodology followed by Ananya. It has detailed the best practices followed by the project. The study also features the capability of mobile as a tool to reach the masses in most cost effective way.

The use of mobile application with the association from the social worker has been tremendously successful in maternity and child healthcare in the state of Bihar, India. The application includes educating the user’s about the healthcare, training for midwives, alerts related to vaccination and thereby reducing the mortality rate and improving the maternal healthcare for the people from the bottom of pyramid. The project has created awareness among the rural families and has improved the maternity healthcare in the eight districts of Bihar, India. They were also planning to expand the project in other states of India.

The study is exploratory in nature and has not involved primary data collection and statistical analysis. The study has compiled the data and information available.

The present study may be used as a reference to the organization working on mobile healthcare projects to understand the best practices of m-health project. The study also explains the role of various stakeholders (as Ananya-Bihar was a collaborative effort of Social trust, Technical experts, Network service provider, Community, State Government and the People) in the success of the project.

The study explains the role of technology for the benefit of people. In the present case mobile healthcare initiated by the foundation has been very effective in dealing with maternity healthcare in rural Bihar, where people cannot afford expensive healthcare facility. The only silver lining is increasing tele-density at the most affordable rate in the globe, with funding from NGOs and full support from government. Such types of m-healthcare projects will support the government in delivering quality healthcare to the people who are living below poverty line and deprived of basic healthcare facilities.

The study details the methodology and technical details of Ananya Mobile health care platform.

This paper presents a cross-sectional study that assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural migrants in Bihar. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the overall impact of the pandemic on migrants and examine their livelihoods, with a focus on identifying measures that can mitigate the economic consequences.

This study used a telephonic survey to collect primary data from 419 respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data, and three indices were constructed: fear and worries, trust and prevention.

The findings provide insights into the psychological well-being of migrant workers and highlight the challenges they face in sustaining their livelihoods amidst the pandemic. This study concludes by suggesting potential measures to alleviate the economic impact and enhance the resilience of this vulnerable population.

This study may be limited by the representativeness of the sample as well as the potential for social desirability bias. The study may also be limited by the reliability and validity of the measures used to capture the fear and worries, trust and prevention indices.

Numerous studies have examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural migrants. However, there are limited studies that estimate the impact of the proposed study based on the challenges faced by rural migrants in Bihar during the pandemic.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze disaster exceptionalism in India, focusing on the case of Kosi river floods in the State of Bihar and their impact on Dalit communities. Data were gathered through document analysis and a qualitative approach based on interviews with national and local leaders and activists of NGOs and Dalit organizations. The main finding is that there are no second-generation social movements related to disasters in India, mainly in what concerns Dalit discrimination. The Disaster Management Act of 2005 reinforced the centralized and top-down nature of the Indian state concerning disasters. On the other hand, national Dalit organizations like National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR) and National Dalit Watch do not possess the expertise to alter the approach to disasters from a contingent and exceptional one to a more structured and long-term perspective.

The chapter shows how extreme events and permanent hazardous situations tend to increase the legitimacy of state intervention, often involving the suspension of social and economic norms, creating a state of exception, which indicates the inevitable presence of the state. The abyssal line that separates those individuals and groups that are integrated from those defined as disposable and invisible crosses through both the Global South and the little colonies of the North, reinforcing the logic of states that want to be bigger and stronger than their own citizens.

In the developing world, the adoption of new technology in agriculture has emerged as a tool to address the problem of investment-disincentive effect of capital investment on smallholders. In Indian agriculture, which is dominated by smallholders, technological adoption becomes very essential. In this regard, along with the government, local level organizations also provide training and other support to adopt the new agricultural technique. The present study is an attempt to assess the counterfactual impact of this sort of initiative in the context of Bihar, a state in India.

The study uses field survey data which are collected from the Gaya district of Bihar. Overall, 249 sample farmers are surveyed from 23 villages of four blocks of the Gaya district. There are two groups of selected farmers: treatment and control groups. Farmers who adopted the new technique belong to the treatment group, and otherwise, the control group. For analytical purpose, a propensity score matching method has been used to estimate the counterfactual impact of the adoption of the new technique of farming on farmers' agricultural income.

The study observes a significant improvement in the agricultural income of the farmers who adopted the new technique. New agricultural techniques, propagated through the local level organization, might be instrumental to enhance farmer's skill as well as income.

This type of approach may be adopted, complementary to the government's extension initiative to enhance farmers' income through adoption of the advanced farming process, as well as to improve the human capital of agriculture production.

The study laid a framework of assessing the counterfactual impact of intervention of local level organization and adoption of new farming techniques in the context of Bihar, India.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0606

COMFED, Bihar State Co-operative Milk Federation Ltd., which involved 6 lakh farmers across India in 2012, was a rural organisation established in 1983 as the implementing agency of Operation Flood programme of dairy development on “Anand” pattern in Bihar. In 1983, COMFED started with just 1,030 cooperatives, which had risen to 11,400 in 2012. Apart from B2C segment of milk and milk products in Bihar and Jharkhand, COMFED’s major revenue source was its B2B business where they sent bulk milk to Kolkata, Manesar and Delhi. They supplied to Amul and Mother Dairy, which were the biggest Indian cooperatives, and allowed them to use their own brand names. In 2012, Mrs Harjot Kaur, the Managing Director of COMFED, aspired to market COMFED products all over India under the “Sudha” brand, with special focus on National Capital Region region. Moreover, Mrs Kaur also wanted to expand COMFED’s geographical reach to other countries such as Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Strategic management, Diversification.

Mrs Harjot Kaur was the Managing Director of Bihar State Co-operative Milk Federation (COMFED). COMFED is a rural organisation involving 6 lakh farmers. Starting with just 1,030 cooperatives in 1983, the number of cooperatives had risen to 11,400 in 2012. The milk production was 11 lakh litres per day, and the annual turnover in 2011-2012 was Rs 1,503.00 crore, 11 per cent more than that of previous year. Mrs Kaur was committed to serve COMFED customers and realise the dream of having at least one dish of Bihar in the plate of every Indian. Mrs Kaur envisaged COMFED producing 44 lakh litres milk per day from the existing 11 lakh litres per day, covering around 60 per cent villages of the state against the existing 33 per cent in 2013. COMFED was also trying to capture new markets. At present COMFED sent bulk milk to Delhi, Manesar and Kolkata, where it was sold by various dairy cooperatives such as Amul and Mother Dairy under their own brand names. Mrs Kaur aspired to market COMFED milk under the “Sudha” brand all over India. Moreover, Mrs Kaur was also looking to export to other countries such as Bangladesh and Bhutan. As Mrs Kaur was crafting the future path for COMFED, she also realised that above all the external challenges that exist, an internal vice – complacency – was the biggest hurdle her company had to face.

The case would be helpful for students to understand the concepts of competitive advantage, sustainable competitive advantage, industry structure, general environment, strategic positioning, diversification, internal analysis, external analysis and business level strategy in a strategic management course.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Agricultural aggregation schemes provide numerous farmer-facing benefits, including reduced transportation costs and improved access to higher-demand urban markets. However, whether aggregation schemes also have positive food security dimensions for consumers dependent on peri-urban and local markets in developing country contexts is currently unknown. This paper aims to narrow this knowledge gap by exploring the actors, governance structures and physical infrastructures of the horticultural value chain of Bihar, India, to identify barriers to using aggregation to improve the distribution of fruits and vegetables to more local market environments.

This study uses mixed methods. Quantitative analysis of market transaction data explores the development of aggregation supply pathways over space and time. In turn, semi-structured interviews with value chain actors uncover the interactions and decision-making processes with implications for equitable fruit and vegetable delivery.

Whilst aggregation successfully generates multiple producer-facing benefits, the supply pathways tend to cluster around urban export-oriented hubs, owing to the presence of high-capacity traders, large consumer bases and traditional power dynamics. Various barriers across the wider enabling environment must be overcome to unlock the potential for aggregation to increase local fruit and vegetable delivery, including informal governance structures, cold storage gaps and underdeveloped transport infrastructures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first critical analysis of horticultural aggregation through a consumer-sensitive lens. The policy-relevant lessons are pertinent to the equitable and sustainable development of horticultural systems both in Bihar and in similar low- and middle-income settings.

Increasing trends of climatic risk pose challenges to the food security and livelihoods of smallholders in vulnerable regions, where farmers often face loss of the entire crop, pushing farmers (mostly men) out of agriculture in destitution, creating a situation of agricultural making agriculture highly feminization and compelling male farmers to out-migrate. Climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) are promoted to cope with climatic risks. This study aims to assess how knowledge related to CSAPs, male out-migration, education and income contribute to the determinants of male out-migration and CSAPs adoption and how they respond to household food security.

Sex-disaggregated primary data were collected from adopter and non-adopter farm families. STATA 13.1 was used to perform principle component analysis to construct knowledge, yield and income indices.

Yield and income index of adopters was higher for men than women. The probability of out-migration reduced by 21% with adoption of CSAPs. An increase in female literacy by 1 unit reduces log of odds to migrate by 0.37. With every unit increase in knowledge index, increase in log-odds of CSAPs adoption was 1.57. Male:female knowledge gap was less among adopters. Non-adopters tended to reduce food consumption when faced with climatic risks significantly, and the probability of migration increased by 50% with a one-unit fall in the nutrition level, thus compelling women to work more in agriculture. Gender-equitable enhancement of CSAP knowledge is, therefore, key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods.

The enhancement of gender equitable knowledge on CSAPs is key to safeguard sustainable farming systems and improved livelihoods.

This study is based on the robust data sets of 100 each of male and female from 100 households (n = 200) using well-designed and validated survey instrument. From 10 randomly selected climate-smart villages in Samastipur and Vaishali districts of Bihar, India, together with focus group discussions, the primary data were collected by interviewing both men and women from the same household.