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The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 shook up the Global tourism and threatened many tourism destinations. After the first wave of COVID-19, the invention of vaccines prevented the spread of virus and the industry started healing itself. However, the second wave of the pandemic disrupted the recovery plans and polices of many tourism companies and planners. Tourism and Hospitality industry has faced many challenges in the past. But pandemic of this magnitude was unexpected. The impact is much deeper and complete end of such virus is unpredictable. The need of the hour is to take actions to unpack and reduce such recurring repercussion of COVID-19 and rethink and repackage tourism for restoring the demand. This foregrounds a framework to identify the impact of COVID-19 on Odisha Tourism and formulate a strategic approach for the restoration and survival of the tourism industry in Odisha. The study is both exploratory and descriptive in nature, based upon a qualitative research approach and includes collection of both primary and secondary data. Results of the study reveal that lockdown/shutdown and other restrictions due to pandemic have impacted the key tourism stakeholders in Odisha leaving them under financial instability. The study emphasises on promotion of domestic tourism in a big way. The study focuses on alternative tourism development and improved infrastructure relating to the screening, sanitisation and social distancing of the visitors will build confidence among the visitors and recreate interest in travel. IATA Travel Pass/Vaccination certificate should be a mandatory travel document for safe travel practice.

The infill design approach for heritage settings is a challenging task, and it draws the attention of design professionals and residents. The extant literature has advocated for a contextual design approach for new buildings in heritage sites. However, the degree of contextualism for a new building in heritage sites is subjective, and it varies between exact replication and contrast scales. This study aims to evaluate an appropriate design approach for historic precincts of Odisha, an eastern state of India.

Two prime eastern heritage sites (Puri and Ekamra Kshetra) are selected as cases in this study. This research methodology involves identifying key architectural elements from both sites and a questionnaire (prepared by design experts) based on interviewing 400 residents and 36 design professionals on their aesthetic preferences for the different architectural styles and elements. The questionnaire was prepared by the design experts based on the identified architectural styles and elements of both sites. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis are used to measure the significance of design approaches and elements.

This study's outcome confirms that most of the respondents (design professionals and residents) prefer the replication design approach with traditional architectural elements of Odisha. Also, documentation of the chronological development of architectural styles and elements of heritage sites of Odisha is done in this research.

This study has a few limitations: first, the land use characters (mixed, residential, commercial, etc.) of buildings in the heritage precinct are not considered in this research; second, this research has not included the financial aspect of infill design and last, the impact of respondents' socioeconomic factors on their aesthetic perceptions is not considered in this research.

The development authorities can use the outcomes of this research to implement a design strategy for infill buildings in the historical sites of Odisha.

This research article has documented traditional architectural elements of two prime heritage sites of India.

To date, no quantitative research has been done on infill design approaches in any Indian heritage precincts. This is the first quantitative research on the perception of stakeholders and users on the infill design in historical settings of Eastern India. This research has identified key architectural styles, elements and materials of the heritage sites.

Retention of medical doctors and nurses in remote and rural areas is a key issue in India. The purpose of this paper is to assess the relevant policies and provisions with respect to health care professionals, aiming to develop feasible retention strategies in rural areas of Odisha state of India.

The study employed documentary review and key informant interviews with policy elites (health planners, policy maker, researchers, etc.). The document review included published and unpublished reports, policy notifications and articles on human resources for health (HRH) in Odisha and similar settings. Throughout the study, the authors adapted World Health Organization’s framework to study policies relevant to HRH retention in rural areas. The adapted framework comprised of the four policy domains, education, regulation, financial incentives, professional and personal support, and 16 recommendations.

In Odisha, the district quota system for admission is not practiced; however, students from special tribal and caste (Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste) communities, Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of citizens, and Persons with Disabilities have some allocated quota to study medicine and nursing. Medical education has a provision of community placement in rural hospitals. In government jobs, the newly recruited medical doctors serve a minimum of three years in rural areas. Doctors are given with location-based incentives to work in remote and difficult areas. The government has career development, deployment, and promotion avenues for doctors and nurses; however, these provisions are not implemented effectively.

The government could address the rural retention problems, as illustrated in the study and put in place the most effective policies and provisions toward recruitment, deployment and attraction of HRH in remote and rural areas. At the same time, implementation HRH strategies and activities must be rigorously monitored and evaluated effectively.

The concept of multi-purpose cyclone shelters has been found effective in saving various lives during past cyclones. The recent cyclone Amphan, which hit the Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal in the middle of pandemic COVID-19 has posed severe issues related to cyclone shelter management in the rural areas. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the case of Odisha in a pandemic and draw some key lessons of cyclone shelter management, which can be useful for future cascading risks in other parts of the country and the region.

Cyclone shelters are critical infrastructures in the management of cyclones, associated hazards and saving crucial lives. The effective management of shelters during emergencies is dependent on the existing institutional mechanism, local stakeholders and their understanding of the key functions of the emergency shelters. This paper reviews the key challenges through literature, reports and direct interviews of field professionals and practitioners.

In normal times, cyclone shelters are used as schools and their management lies with the local communities and/or elected bodies. Some of the key emerging issues include: the convincing population at risk for evacuation with proper care, existing emergency shelters being repurposed as COVID-19 facilities, need for hygiene and safety material, special arrangement and segregation of population at higher risk of COVID-19 and large destruction of social infrastructures.

During cascading disasters, adaptive governance becomes important. With the study of cyclones during the pandemic period, the paper draws key decision-making and governance points of cyclone shelter management. This case analysis can be useful to other similar situations during the prolonged pandemic time.

This study examines how tourists’ buying behavior toward souvenirs plays a pivotal role and explores the moderating role of prominent souvenirs in the marketing context. This study aims to examine the importance and the current status of the souvenir purchase behavior in Raghurajpur and Pipili village of Puri district in Odisha.

Purchasing behaviors of tourists such as different variables and tourist demographics were examined. The current study used the structural equation model (SEM) and regression in analyzing unique data from 400 tourists visiting the villages.

The research findings indicate that all the variables taken into consideration for research are accurate and are positively associated with tourist engagement in souvenir buying. All the factors are taken into consideration also proved significant toward the dependent variable, i.e. buying behavior. It is argued that adequate attention to the purchase behavior of tourists was not given by academic scholars, professionals and officials in Odisha.

The current study was limited to the two prominent villages of Odisha famous for handicrafts. Future research might address behavioral studies in other states of India or the place of Odisha. In the present study, data were collected from the tourist sample while exiting the village after shopping. Methods could be developed to elicit responses from tourists after they reached their homes to determine if their responses toward souvenir buying differ. Souvenirs and souvenir buying behavior is an untapped field of research in India.

This study has enormous potential to contribute to the existing literature on souvenir purchase behavior of tourists in Indian context. The current study will use the identified variables to predict the behavior of tourists towards souvenirs so that craftsmen and policy makers can make an effective marketing mix to brand the souvenirs.

This study is intended to anchor on souvenir purchase patterns of tourists in Pipili and Raghurajpur. An investigation of tourist shopping orientations for souvenir product holds potential for retailers to better direct marketing efforts to a non-local clientele. Understanding and analyzing variables would give government, craftsmen and other stakeholders to properly make marketing strategies for the handicraft sector. Handicrafts of Odisha are rapidly becoming commercialized items, and the authenticity is dying. This study can make the stakeholders aware of the tourist’s needs and preferences.

The authors provide a holistic and grounded understanding of the souvenir buying behavior of tourists in two prominent villages of Odisha through SEM and other indicators of souvenir buying from tourist’s perspective.

Financial Services Marketing, Financial Inclusion, Emerging Market Studies.

The case is suitable for graduate management students in courses such as general management and marketing courses. It is also suitable for a specialised rural marketing course and marketing of financial services. In business schools outside India, the case can be used in a course on marketing strategies for emerging economies. The case is suitable for executive development programmes for the areas pertaining to rural banking, marketing of banking services and financial inclusion programmes.

The case analyses the financial inclusion initiative by Odisha Gramya Bank, a regional rural bank set up after amalgamation of three banks in the state of Orissa, India. The topic of financial inclusion has been the attraction from bankers, policymakers and academia in light of linkage between formal financial system and inclusive growth. To harness the fortunes at the bottom of pyramid, the case looks into the development of financial inclusion, business strategies and strategies for various customer segments.

To introduce students to analyse and compare various financial inclusion options. The case is useful to comprehend the various methods of financial inclusion. To analyse the evolution of regional rural banks and Odisha Gramya Bank after its amalgamation. To appreciate the issues faced by Odisha Gramya Bank. To understand various market segment and to evaluate its potential. To suggest appropriate strategies for each market segment. To appreciate how technology can be harnessed for business correspondents. To recommend the roadmap for financial inclusion to Mr Sidharthan, Chairman, Odisha Gramya Bank.

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 8: Marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on female health workers (FHWs) in Odisha (India). Here, this study discusses the economic hardship of the FHWs during the pandemic time. Additionally, this study also identifies the various socio-economic factors responsible for the increasing mental stress level of FHWs in Odisha.

The study is based on a telephonic survey method. Overall the study has collected 80 samples of FHWs from Odisha (India). Additionally, the study uses a logistic regression model to measure the impact of various socio-economic factors affecting the mental health status of FHWs during the pandemic time.

The findings of this study depict that FHWs working as a Covid warrior during the pandemic time are facing severe economic vulnerability in their life. It is found that though the FHWs have worked tirelessly to save millions of human lives, but irregularity in salary payment and temporary jobs position have caused more mental distress to them. Moreover, the empirical findings have shown that factors such as joint family, social isolation, having an elderly member in their family, duty in Covid ward, staying in staff quarter and temporary job position are responsible for increasing the mental stress of FHWs in Odisha during the Covid-19 pandemic time.

This study is a first attempt to explain the life struggle, economic vulnerability and mental stress of Indian (Odisha) FHWs working during the Covid-19 pandemic period to save millions of human lives.

Familiarize with the retail operations of handicrafts, facility location problem, apply multi-criteria decision through the goal programming approach and solving the same with MS Excel.

The case portrays a dilemma in the context of retail operations of a small-scale handicraft company known as Odisha Craft. Located in Odisha, Susanta Mohanty, the owner, was finding it a challenge to decide on the most promising location for his new retail outlet in the neighbouring city of Kolkata. He had five choices for the locations. Odisha craft was established by his father-in-law in 2009 with an objective to preserve and promote the rich culture of the handicrafts designed by the local artisans and ensure sustainable rural livelihood. The company had been facing numerous challenges and the pandemic has given a very formidable blow to the monthly revenues. The case brings out the multi-faceted dilemma of deciding on the facility location in 2020, involving a set of conflicting criteria. The case unfolds a systematic solution approach resolving the dilemma using MS Excel.

Courses such as operations research, operations management, service operations and retail operations for MBA students and trainings for junior-middle level executives.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 09: Operations and Logistics

The authors intend to assess the village health sanitation and nutrition committees (VHSNC) on six parameters, including their formation, composition, meeting frequencies, activities, supervisory mechanisms and funds receipt and expenditures across nine districts of the three states of India.

The cross-sectional study, conducted in the states of Uttar Pradesh (five districts), Odisha (two districts) and Rajasthan (two districts), used a quantitative research design. The community health workers of 140 VHSNCs were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The details about the funds' receipt and expenditures were verified from the VHSNC records (cashbook). Additionally, the authors asked about the role of health workers in the VHSNC meetings, and the issues and challenges faced.

The average number of members in VHSNCs varied from 10 in Odisha to 15 in Rajasthan. Activities were regularly organized in Rajasthan and Odisha (one per month) compared to Uttar Pradesh (one every alternate month). Most commonly, health promotion activities, cleanliness drives, community monitoring and facilitation of service providers were done by VHSNCs. Funds were received regularly in Odisha compared to Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Funds were received late and less compared to the demands or needs of VHSNCs.

This comprehensive analysis of VHSNCs' functioning in the selected study areas sheds light on the gaps in many components, including the untimely and inadequate receipt of funds, poor documentation of expenditures and involvement of VHSNC heads and inadequate supportive supervision.

VHSNCs assessment has been done for improving community health governance.

Dynamic economic and emission dispatch (DEED) aims to optimally set the active power generation with constraints in a power system, which should target minimum operation cost and at the same time minimize the pollution in terms of emission when the load dynamically changes hour to hour. The purpose of this study is to achieve optimal economic and emission dispatch of an electrical system with a renewable generation mix, consisting of 3-unit thermal, 2-unit wind and 2-unit solar generators for dynamic load variation in a day. An improved version of a simple, easy to understand and popular optimization algorithm particle swarm optimization (PSO) referred to as a constriction factor-based particle swarm optimization (CFBPSO) algorithm is deployed to get optimal solution as compared to PSO, modified PSO and red deer algorithm (RDA).

Different model with and without wind and solar power generating systems; with valve point effect is analyzed. The thermal generating system (TGs) are the major green house gaseous emission producers on earth. To take up this ecological issue in addition to economic operation cost, the wind and solar energy sources are integrated with the thermal system in a phased manner for electrical power generation and optimized for dynamic load variation. This DEED being a multi-objective optimization (MO) has contradictory objectives of fuel cost and emission. To get the finest combination of the two objectives and to get a non-dominated solution the fuzzy decision-making (FDM) method is used herein, the MO problem is solved by a single objective function, including min-max price penalty factor on emission in the total cost to treat as cost. Further, the weight factor accumulation (WFA) technique normalizes the pair of objectives into a single objective by giving each objective a weightage. The weightage is decided by the FDM approach in a systematic manner from a set of non-dominated solutions. Here, the CFBPSO algorithm is applied to lessen the total generation cost and emission of the thermal power meeting the load dynamically.

The efficacy of the contribution of stochastic wind and solar power generation with the TGs in the dropping of net fuel cost and emission in a day for dynamic load vis-à-vis the case with TGs is established.

Cost and emission are conflicting objectives and can be handled carefully by weight factors and penalty factors to find out the best solution.

The proposed methodology and its strategy are very useful for thermal power plants incorporating diverse sources of generations. As the execution time is very less, practical implementation can be possible.

As the cheaper generation schedule is obtained with respect to time, cost and emission are minimized, a huge revenue can be saved over the passage of time, and therefore it has a societal impact.

In this work, the WFA with the FDM method is used to facilitate CFBPSO to decipher this DEED multi-objective problem. The results reveal the competence of the projected proposal to satisfy the dynamic load demand and to diminish the combined cost in contrast to the PSO algorithm, modified PSO algorithm and a newly developed meta-heuristic algorithm RDA in a similar system.