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The purpose of this paper is to present a methodological framework and practical application of the sustainable development assessment in Lithuania.

The assessment was performed by deriving composite economic, social and environmental indexes and combining them into the integrated sustainable development index. Each composite index aggregates number of selected indicators, which were essential for the assessment of the country's development during the last decade. Having in mind that sustainable development is the development in consistency, the authors have used equal weights for calculation of economic, social and environmental indexes.

The composite indexes indicate rapid economical growth and environmental state; however, social development was comparatively slow. The economical decline in 2008 has influenced also environmental and social development and revealed new trends of sustainable development in Lithuania. The analysis results demonstrate that goals brought forward in the Strategy for Sustainable Development of Lithuania were not achieved.

The paper provides a methodology of integrated sustainable development index and its application for the Lithuanian case. The greatest advantage of a proposed calculation methodology is its flexibility, because it can be applied for any period of sustainable development evaluation, with a possibility to select a desired number of sustainability aspects that reflect an evolution of a country the best.

This chapter discusses the positioning of Belarus in the international context of socioeconomic development based on an assessment of the country's dynamics in world rankings. The country's presence in the recognized world rankings and its holding high positions in them is an obvious advantage for achieving a favorable investment image. Ratings characterize the country's comparative position at the international level in a number of areas: from credit capacity to human capital development.

There has been analyzed the position of the Republic of Belarus in several recognized international comparisons, such as Human Development Index, Doing Business, ICT Development Index, Global Innovation Index, Sustainable Development Goals Index, Corruption Perceptions Index, Rule of Law Index, Worldwide Governance Indicators, and others.

However, Belarus is not yet participating in the international competitiveness assessment through such popular international ratings as Global Competitiveness Index and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. The research findings show that the strongest aspects of the socioeconomic development of Belarus are in place due to the high educational level of the human capital development, gender equality, and the implementation of the UN sustainable development goals. The analysis also shows that the weaknesses of institutional environment and public administration do not enable the full implementation of the planned goals of socioeconomic development.

The research aims to include good governance as a facet in the measurement of human development.

A modified Human Development Index (MHDI) was computed by including a governance dimension computed using the six governance indicators published by the World Bank. The rankings using the new index were obtained and compared to the rankings of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP's) HDI.

The rank correlation of the original and modified indices was very high, but there were many big rank changes for individual countries in each HDI group. These rank changes could be largely reconciled in the light of the rankings of these countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Democracy Index.

The research considers the measurement of human development at a point in time alone and incorporates 2010 governance indicators into the 2011 HDI, which could lead to a discrepancy in time periods considered. Furthermore, the governance indicators are measures of perceptions which can be subjective. The Practical implications paper does not delve into the country-specific factors that may have caused big rank changes.

The paper builds a case for incorporating, or at least providing the option of including a governance dimension in the HDI.

The paper is a novel attempt to incorporate good governance as a dimension in the HDI. It reasserts the need for policy-makers and governments to realize that peoples' capabilities cannot be realized in the absence of good governance, and that whilst improving other facets of human development, much attention needs to be paid towards establishing good governance.

China's marine economy occupies an important position within the national economy, and its contribution thereto is constantly improving. The overall operation of the marine economy shows positive developmental trends with potential for further growth. The purpose of this research is to analyse the prosperity of China's marine economy, reveal trends therein and forecast the likely turning point in its operation.

Based on the periodicity and fluctuation of China's marine economy development, China's marine economic prosperity indicator system is established from five perspectives. On this basis, China's marine economic operation prosperity index can be synthesised and calculated, then a dynamic factor model is constructed. Using the filtering method to calculate China's marine economic operational Stock–Watson index, Markov switching has been used to determine the trend to transition. Furthermore, China's current marine economic prosperity is evaluated through analysis of influencing factors and correlation analysis.

The analysis shows that, from 2017 to 2019, the operation of the marine economy is relatively stable, and the prosperity index supports this finding; meanwhile it also exposes problems in China's marine economy, such as an unbalanced industrial structure, low marine economic benefits and insufficient capacity for sustainable development.

Through the analysis of the prosperity of China's marine economy, the authors reveal the trends in China's marine economy and forecast its likely future turning point.

Given the fact that the Islamic economic paradigm differs from the secular capitalist paradigm in terms of its emphasis on morality and spirituality, the author thinks that the current Human Development Index (HDI) does not capture human development from an Islamic perspective. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a paradigmatic, theoretical, and conceptual model for the suggested Islamic HDI (iHDI) and second, to present several proxy variables for multi-dimensional iHDI and test the proposed index through empirical data for ten Muslim countries.

The author developed eight-dimensional composite iHDIs based on the understanding of human nature from the Tawhidi anthropology. These dimensions included physical, reasoning, spiritual, ethical, animal, social, deciding, and oppressive selves. The author measured them using nine different indices, three of which came from the conventional HDI (cHDI). The author then compared the rankings of those Muslim countries in iHDI to those in cHDI.

The iHDI rankings for all Muslim countries except two differed from those in cHDI. The difference was more substantial for countries with higher economic development. Thus, improved cHDI rankings for Muslim countries based on their economic development do not necessarily mean that they move toward ideal human development. This finding confirms the need for an alternative human development indexing approach from an Islamic perspective.

The paper is likely to initiate movement to develop an alternative HDI from Islamic perspective.

The paper findings have important policy implications for Muslim countries.

It is the first empirical paper showing how to develop an alternative HDI from an Islamic perspective.

Attempts to present a commentary on a few recent attempts at constructing a composite index of human development, and in the process briefly traces the trends in thinking that show marked shifts from economic growth to social development and to further human development. Shows that national income still remains an important indicator of overall development, and further, that various methodologies of compositing several indicators of development into one index produced broadly similar rank ordering of the nations.

The study attempts to assess the socio-economic development in Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) of Assam in North Eastern Region of India. This region is one of the most underdeveloped areas in India. The study also examines whether demographic and social characteristics in the form of social groups, number of family members, number of employed members in the family, education of the head of household, sources of income and location determine the variation in the level of socio-economic development. The authors surveyed 400 households during February to May 2018 in both rural and urban areas of BTAD to achieve the objective of the study.

The authors use the concept of Amartya Sen's capability approach (CA) for assessment of development and constructed an index of Multidimensional Development.

There is variation in the distribution of developmental parameters across the study area. It is found that urban locations have better achievement in the multidimensional index score, while the spread of development is not even in the rural locations. An interesting revelation of this study is that while urban areas depict better performance in income, asset, education and empowerment, they have a relatively lower score in health dimension as compared to rural areas. The study shows that level of development depends on demographic as well as social characteristics of the households.

This study does not analyse temporal dynamics of development that is necessary to examine how development evolves because of data constraints.

The study provides an understanding of the socio-economic development in BTAD area in a multidimensional framework. This study is the first of its kind to assess the nature and extent of development realised in BTAD through the capability framework. The study supports more recent findings.

Based on data collected over a 15 year period (2000–2015) for 89 countries selected across nine geopolitical regions of the world, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of economic development and the Hofstede index of national cultures in influencing level of government effectiveness and ICT diffusion; as well as the impact of ICT diffusion on government effectiveness. The level of economic development and a country’s ranking on the E-government index were found significant in explaining ICT diffusion and level of government effectiveness, respectively. But the findings also indicate that only the cultural factors such as Indulgence and long-term orientation (LTO) were quite significant in explaining level of government of effectiveness and ICT diffusion, respectively. The findings conclude that while some cultural factors may provide partial explanations for a country’s level of government effectiveness or ICT diffusion, but for other cultural elements, the path of influence is still unclear and at best debatable. Hence, in light of the growing emphasis placed on it in the literature, the effect of culture is limited and may have been overstated. ICT diffusion, while a necessary tool for administrative efficiency, is only but one piece of a larger puzzle and should be developed in consideration of and in the context of a broader framework of economic development, institutional design and behavioral practices.

This study examines how existing ICT diffusion and infrastructures among a set of 89 countries spread across nine world geopolitical zones has been able to improve their government effectiveness – as measured by their relative scores or rankings on the global “government effectiveness index” over a 15 year period (2000–2015); and also how specific cultural factors may influence the level of ICT diffusion. Drawing data from the United Nations e-Government knowledge database, the United Nations Development Program, the GlobalEconomy.com, as well as other socio-demographic sources, I examine key and associated indicators that influence information technology diffusion and its contributory effects on level of government effectiveness; as well as the impact of national cultures on ICT diffusion.

Overall, the finding from this analysis point to the fact that only two of the Hofstede national culture variables were significant (LTO and Indulgence). The other four national culture variables (Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity/Femininity and Uncertainty Avoidance) were not. Indulgence has a negative effect on level of government effectiveness, while LTO has a positive effect on ICT diffusion. The other culture variables were not significant in any of the regression models, but they seem to congregate much closer to or around the mean.

This is the only work of its kind that has utilized the seven Hofstede indicators to test for the relationship between culture and technology over a long period of 15 years.