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Sustainable development goals (SDGs) designed by the United Nations include ‘universal and equitable access to affordable, reliable and clean energy’ as one of the pathways to achieve a better and more sustainable future by 2030. Universal access to electricity, clean cooking fuel, increasing share of renewable resources and improving energy efficiency are the key components of SDG7. In India, the government has undertaken targeted programmes to ensure full electrification of households and greater use of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) for clean cooking replacing traditional solid biomass fuels in poor households. Installed capacity targets are set to raise the share of renewable resources in total energy mix along with the policies undertaken to make it cost-competitive (SDG India, 2019–2020). However, the economic crisis experienced by India during COVID-19 pandemic is likely to affect this ongoing drive towards clean energy use. Sudden fall in income and loss of employment particularly in the unorganised sector might have made the poor rural households vulnerable to reversion to their traditional cooking fuels. The renewable sector has also faced uncertainties due to halted construction works and disrupted global supply chains during lockdown. The present chapter discusses these pertinent issues crucial for achieving SDGs. It investigates how far the COVID-19-driven economic crisis has delayed India's clean cooking fuel programme for different states. It further examines the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on renewable energy sector, particularly on the solar energy sector. The study suggests some policy measures for a robust recovery, ensuring transition towards clean energy use and sustainable growth to protect the environment.

The hospitality industry is on the cusp of a culinary revolution, propelled by the integration of smart cooking technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). This article delves into how these innovations are transforming hotel and restaurant kitchens, emphasizing food quality, operational efficiency and sustainability. Through AI, the culinary domain promises not just refined dining experiences but also a fundamental reshaping of kitchen operations.

The study includes a document review prepared by examining the academic literature regarding the chosen concepts in a wide range of contexts.

Smart cooking provides much convenience in working life with the help of technology, and this technology will be given more space in the future.

This article presents a review of the relevant literature on smart cooking systems, one of the developing digital gastronomy tools.

This paper aims to explore challenges and opportunities associated with young carers' employment in Australia.

Using a multi-stakeholder approach, this study captures the reflections of stakeholders (n = 8) and young carers (n = 10) about opportunities for, and experiences of, paid employment for young carers.

Despite many organisations internationally increasingly pushing diversity agendas and suggesting a commitment to equal opportunity experiences, this study found that young carers' work opportunities are often disrupted by their caring role. For young carers to be successful in their careers, organisations need to provide further workplace flexibility, and other support is required to attract and retain young carers into organisations and harness their transferrable skills for meaningful careers.

The paper highlights important implications for human resource management practitioners given the need to maximise the participation of young carers as workers, with benefits for young carers themselves, employers and society.

The research adds to the human resource management and work–family conflict literature in examining young carers through drawing on Conservation of Resources theory to highlight resources invested in caring leads to loss of educational and work experience resources. This leads to loss cycles and spirals, which can potentially continue across a lifetime, further contributing to disadvantage and lack of workplace and societal inclusion for this group of young people.

Community centers play a socio-economic and urban role of combining different communal necessities, that serve inhabitants, at different neighborhoods in cities. Their role emerged in importance as being a hub for improving and customizing quality of life experiences of the public. This research presents a code-based risk assessment tool for evaluating fire safety measures that can be adapted in the context of community centers. It also provides an exemplary case study to demonstrate its application.

The study identified the factors that render community centers as a high-risk type of facilities in fire events. Various fire codes and standards were reviewed to describe the relevant fire safety measures. A code-based fire risk assessment tool was developed and implemented, through a case study. A set of recommendations were developed to improve the fire safety conditions of the case study facility.

Several violations to fire safety were identified in the case study building. The findings led to identifying a set of recommendations to improve its fire safety conditions.

This research introduced a systematic approach to raise awareness about fire incidences and consequences in community centers, and provides facilities managers with a tool, to assess compliance based on international fire code requirements.

In fire events, community centers are considered as high-risk facilities that may lead to significant losses of human lives and damages to assets. It is significant to study the causes of fire, for ensuring effective prevention and safe operations.

Clean energy is the most demanding issue for sustainable development, especially in post-COVID-19 scenario. The Government of India (GOI) has adopted various reform policies in the energy sector focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7). India has taken initiative on SDG 7 to ensure access to sustainable energy for all. The core interest area of this paper is to analyse recent energy reform policies in energy sectors covering power generation, transmission, distribution and consumption and discusses mechanism SDG target achievement within 2030 in India. In the COVID-19 pandemic scenario, every country faces a major issue of energy security since the undisrupted energy security is related to energy demand. In the time period of pandemic, industrial energy demand goes down rapidly all over the world, especially in India. Though in the eve of festive season in India the difference between the energy supply and demand slightly overcomes. In the year 2003, GOI through Electricity Act opened electricity market for private participation to increase efficiencies. In the COVID-19 pandemic scenario, every country faces a major issue of energy security since the undisrupted energy security is related to energy demand. Further, the Ministry of Power has taken several policies such as National Electrification Policy in 2005, National Tariff Policy, Rural Electrification Policy in 2009 and Integrated Energy Policy. This policy brief paper highlights the progress of clean energy in India and provides their future trajectory towards achieving SDG targets, especially in the period of COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aimed to assess the influence of the community-based campaign on weight loss and healthy lifestyle adoption among Bahrain's adult population.

A cross -sectional self-reported online questionnaire completed in February 2021. The survey evaluated the impact of the community-based campaign health program which includes (exercise, diet plan and psychological eating behavior) weight reduction using social media platforms. The authors employed data from young and middle-aged healthy adults (n = 842) between the ages of 18-55 years, of both sexes. The intervention group (n = 842) was made up of the supporters of the voluntary community initiative called Obesity does not Suit Me (n = 194), and the control group (n = 648) was made up of non-followers of the campaign.

The study showed a statistically significant difference among the followers of the community-based campaign health program in the following parameters: 3.90-4.23 kg less, 1.46-1.59 difference in BMI and 0.05-0.06 WHR. All changes were of low effect size.

Diet and exercise had significant impact on weight, BMI and WHR among the followers of the community campaign. However, more research is required for sponsorship to increase the motivation and rewards for the community campaign.

The authors conducted 22 in-depth longitudinal interviews with 11 Hungarian migrant workers in the Dutch logistics sector, before and during the COVID-19 crisis, using thematic analysis and visual life diagrams to interpret them.

This study aims to contribute to conservation of resources theory, by exploring how global crises influence the perceived employability of migrant workers in low-wage, precarious work.

The authors find that resources are key in how migrants experience the valence of global crises in their careers and perceive their employability. When unforeseen consequences of the COVID-19 crisis coincided with migrants' resource gain spirals, this instigated a positively valenced career shock, leading to positive perceptions of employability. Coincidence with loss spirals led to negative perceptions.

The authors contribute to careers literature by showing that resources do not only help migrants cope with the impact of career shocks but also directly influence the valence of global crises in their perceived employability and careers.

Interestingly, when the COVID-19 crisis did not co-occur with migrants' resource gain and loss spirals, migrants experienced resource stress (psychological strain induced by the threat or actual loss of resources) and no significant change in their perceptions of employability.

First-generation college students in the United States are a unique demographic that is often characterized by the institutions that serve them with a risk-laden and deficit-based model. However, our analysis of the transcripts of open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 22 “first-gen” respondents suggests they are actively deft, agentic, self-determining parties to processes of identity construction that are both externally imposed and potentially stigmatizing, as well as exemplars of survivance and determination. We deploy a grounded theory approach to an open-coding process, modeled after the extended case method, while viewing our data through a novel synthesis of the dual theoretical lenses of structural and radical/structural symbolic interactionism and intersectional/standpoint feminist traditions, in order to reveal the complex, unfolding, active strategies students used to make sense of their obstacles, successes, co-created identities, and distinctive institutional encounters. We find that contrary to the dictates of prevailing paradigms, identity-building among first-gens is an incremental and bidirectional process through which students actively perceive and engage existing power structures to persist and even thrive amid incredibly trying, challenging, distressing, and even traumatic circumstances. Our findings suggest that successful institutional interventional strategies designed to serve this functionally unique student population (and particularly those tailored to the COVID-moment) would do well to listen deeply to their voices, consider the secondary consequences of “protectionary” policies as potentially more harmful than helpful, and fundamentally, to reexamine the presumption that such students present just institutional risk and vulnerability, but also present a valuable addition to university environments, due to the unique perspective and broader scale of vision their experiences afford them.

This study aims to investigate the impact of service quality (SQ), perceived value (PV) and consumer satisfaction on Thai street food, with customer satisfaction (CS) as a mediator for customer loyalty and repurchase intention (RI). It also explores how consumer trust (CT) in Thai street food safety moderates these relationships.

Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilised to analyse the complex interrelationships between various constructs. Multi-group analyses were conducted to investigate the moderating effects of CT on the structural model, considering two distinct groups based on trust levels: low and high.

The findings revealed that SQ and PV significantly influenced CS and behavioural intention, while the perceived quality of Thai street food had no significant impact on post-COVID-19 consumer satisfaction. The study highlighted the critical role of CT in moderating the relationships between SQ, PV and CS, with distinct effects observed in groups with varying trust levels.

The research emphasises the importance of enhancing SQ and delivering value to customers in the context of Thai street food, which can contribute to increased CS, RI and positive word-of-mouth. Furthermore, the study underscores the critical role of building CT in fostering enduring customer relationships and promoting consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

This research offers valuable insights into consumer behaviour and decision-making processes, particularly within the realm of Thai street food. It underscores the significance of understanding and nurturing CT, especially in the post-COVID-19 landscape, emphasising the need for effective business strategies and consumer engagement.

Considering food waste as a global problem resulting from the wastage of valuable resources that could fulfil the requirements of malnourished people, the current research focusses on understanding consumerism’s impact on this phenomenon. Additionally, the circular economy (CE) approach can be critical in reducing food waste and promoting sustainability.

A systematic literature review was conducted using bibliometrics and network analysis. The study reviewed 326 articles within 10 years, from 2013 to 2023.

The findings reveal four prominent factors – behavioural, environmental, socioeconomic and technological – in managing food waste (FW). Reducing FW at a holistic level can benefit individuals and the environment in several ways.

Consumers are encouraged to be more responsible for their food consumption by reducing food waste, as it affects societies and businesses both economically and environmentally. This can help promote a responsible consumption culture that values quality over quantity and encourages people to make more informed choices about what they eat and how they dispose of it post-consumption. All stakeholders, including firms, the government and consumers, must examine the motives behind inculcating pro-environmental behaviour.

Addressing consumerism and the ability to decrease FW behaviour are complex issues that require a multidimensional approach. This study seeks to fill the gap in understanding consumerism and the capacity to reduce FW using the CE approach and understand the research gaps and future research trends.