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Introduction: The Udaan Scheme was implemented in response to enduring conflict, economic downturn, and employment scarcity. Under the Rangarajan Committee, the scheme aimed to address unemployment in a selected region through skill development programmes. Based on practical experience, Udaan aimed to build a competitive workforce for India and the global economy.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the success ratio of the Udaan Scheme in addressing the employment challenges faced by the youth.

Need of the study: The chapter highlights the potential of the scheme to be a part of a resilient industry for job employability in politically disturbed areas.

Methodology: The compiled data were analysed using a spreadsheet collected from online sources, providing information on the number of registrations for the skill development programme between March 2012 and May 2018, that is, the programme’s implementation in the pre-UT era, mainly sourced from the Udaan Impact Assessment Report and the Review of the Udaan Scheme in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

Findings: The programme, which provided professional training and increased the job-securing capacity of youth, has had a dismal success rate despite the government’s investment of Rs 246 crore. The initiative has employed less than 10,000 individuals, or at most 10% of the target population, falling short of its claimed goals.

Significance of the study in the global market: The scheme addresses unemployment and career development for educated youth, enhancing India’s economic growth and global competitiveness. By providing skill development and exposure to the corporate sector, it empowers youth and attracts international business opportunities. It aligns with global efforts to bridge the skills gap and showcases India’s commitment to human capital development in a conflict-driven state.

Over the past decades, changes in climate have been commonly observed in many parts of the world. It is apparent that changes in temperature and rainfall and resulting increases in frequency and intensity of flood and drought events have affected ecological and social systems on the earth. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warming atmosphere of the climate system is now unequivocal (IPCC, 2007). Climate change poses significant risks to the livelihoods, culture, and health of millions of people (Barnett, 2003). Ecological and climatic disasters – hurricanes, tornadoes, draught, flooding, landslides – are becoming more frequent, resulting in devastation to family and communities, especially the poor living in precarious environments (Ogata & Sen, 2003). Related to this, the number of climate-led disaster events and affected populations has been increasing during the last decades according to the data from EM-DAT (2010).

Chilika Lagoon is the largest brackishwater lagoon in the Indian subcontinent, situated at latitude 19°28′ and 19°54′ north and longitude 85°05′ and 85°38′ east (Fig. 2.1). The lagoon extends from the southwest corner of Puri and Khurdra districts to the adjoining Ganjam district of Orissa state. The pear-shaped lagoon is around 64.3km long and its width varies from 18to 5km. It is connected to the sea through irregular water channels with several small sandy and usually ephemeral islands (CDA, 2008). The average lagoon area is 1,055km² which increases to 1,165km² during the rainy season and shrinks to 906km² during the summer season. Chilika Lagoon becomes less saline during the rainy season due to flood waters from 52 rivers and rivulets. It becomes more saline during the dry season as the supply of flood water is cut off when the south wind begins to blow and saline waters enter from the Bay of Bengal at high (Patro, 2001). The lagoon has three hydrologic subsystems (Mahanadi delta, western catchments, and the Bay of Bengal) influencing the hydrological regimes as shown in Fig. 2.1. The total inflow of freshwater from the Mahanadi delta has been estimated to be 4,912 million cubic meter, accounting for 80 percent of the total water flow. The maximum discharge of 3,182 million cubic meter comes from Makara River, followed by Bhargavi River (1,108 million cubic meter) and Luna River (428 million cubic meter) (CDA, 2008). Meanwhile, the western catchments account for 20 percent of the total fresh water flow.

The objective of this chapter is to discuss how different techniques in Regional Science and Peace Science and the emerging techniques in Management Science can be used in analysing Disaster Management and Global pandemic with special reference to developing countries. It is necessary for me to first discuss the subjects of Disaster Management, Regional Science, Peace Science and Management Science. The objective of this chapter is to emphasise that the studies of Disaster Management should be more integrated with socioeconomic and geographical factors. The greatest disaster facing the world is the possibility of war, particularly nuclear war, and the preparation of the means of destruction through military spending.

To identify research work on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the context of young girls’ affective responses to access and use of ICT in developing countries.

A literature search covering the period from early 1990s to date in fields of information science, human–computer interaction, ICT, and educational technologies was performed using relevant databases and Google Scholar. Related literature in the context of specific theoretical frameworks was retrieved and analyzed.

Abundant research exists on ICT in developing countries. However, little empirical work was found on young girls’ affective responses to access and use of ICT. The gendered digital divide in relation to ICT showed differing perspectives on this issue. Generally, affective information behavior is much less observed in empirical research than the cognitive behavior, regardless of age, gender, or culture.

Young girls’ affective responses to access and use of ICT in these countries warrant additional research in this area of study. Findings from research on youth information behavior in Western countries may have little or no bearings on youth in developing countries. The study of young girls’ access and use of ICT in developing countries should account for cultural, socioeconomic, and institutional differences among countries and between societies or communities in a given developing country.

Minimal research exists on young girls’ affective responses to accessing and using ICT in developing countries. The literature review covered in this chapter is grounded in theoretical frameworks derived from varied disciplines, including the field of library and information science.

Growing e-commerce and technology-led initiatives are the catalysts for digitization in the financial industry. Green (2020) states that there has been an increase in global funding in this sector from $111 billion in 2018 up to $135 billion in 2020. This surge in digital payments requires a payment technology company that understands the market needs of developing countries, has an agile approach and strong organizational practices. TPS is an agile company that has aligned itself to capture the untapped markets in developing countries through its best practices, perseverance, and continuous innovation by identifying and filling market gaps. The company is highly customer-centric and people-oriented. This case study explores the key practices and drivers of success for this company by outlining the main features of organizational strategy, competitive advantage, external and internal marketing practices. Looking ahead, the case asks whether agile practices, organic mindset, highly flexible customer orientation, and talent building practices influence the productivity and proficiency of the company or not.

Despite overwhelming research on market orientation, during the last 30 years, the need for consolidation is addressed. This research investigates the role of market orientation capability in the marketing–performance outcome chain. Three fundamental capabilities are conceptualized – market exploration, market orientation exploration, and market orientation tacitness – and included as antecedents of the market orientation capability. The hypothesized model includes operational and organizational performance variables and combines key-informant data and accounting-based data for five years. The model is tested with a single industry of 297 companies that provide support for the expected direct and indirect effects of market orientation capability. The inclusion of the three fundamental capabilities as antecedents of market orientation explains 74% of its variance and have a significant indirect impact on sales growth and profitability. The chapter suggests that there remain numerous important unanswered questions in conceptualizing and empirically studying market orientation capabilities.

The aim of this study is to examine how knowledge-intensive born global firms operating in international markets develop and maintain long-term relationships with their customers that insure their continued growth beyond the initial stage of internationalization. The study adopts a case study approach, focusing on two Indian born global firms operating with the knowledge-based services sector. The study shows that getting to know the customer intimately helps firms to retain customers over long periods of time. Customer-relationship management strategy is in line with the entrepreneurial orientation of the firms under consideration.

Nowadays, social and environmental reporting is approached in different ways, paths and fields by either large-, small-, or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, as demonstrated by previous scholars, SMEs have been critically discussed because they provide lack of proper sustainability disclosure. The fact that the predominant approach of SMEs toward social responsibility is often “sunken” and not “explicit” can drive the lack of disclosure. Furthermore, unstructured communication practices create difficulties in measuring and reporting the sustainability reporting phenomenon in SMEs. The aim of our study is to shed light on the activity of SMEs’ sustainability reporting and disclosure, specifically, by addressing the variables that influence the choice of the guidelines used to prepare sustainability reports.

The research has been carried out by using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The empirical evidence is based on all the Italian companies, mostly SMEs, that were certified in 2011 as having adopted both environmental (i.e., ISO14001 or EMAS) and social (i.e., SA8000) management systems. A multivariate linear regression model has been developed to address the influence of several variables (i.e., financial performance, size, time after achievement of the certifications, group/conglomerate control, etc.) on the guidelines’ choice for preparing sustainability reports.

Our findings demonstrate that SMEs prefer to use simple guidelines such as those guidelines that are mandatory under management system certifications. However, the sustainability disclosure driven by the adoption of international guidelines may be more complex if the SME is controlled within a group of companies or if a significant amount of time has passed since the certification date. As such, we developed a taxonomy of their different behavioral drivers according to a legitimacy theory approach.

At this stage, our study didn’t focus on the contents’ quality of the disclosure and reporting practices adopted by SMEs, which is obviously a worthwhile and important area for further research. Furthermore, the analysis took into account the impact of a number of easily accessible variables; therefore, it can be extended to investigate the effect on disclosure of other relevant variables (i.e., nature of the board of directors, age, and industrial sector in which the company operates) as well as contexts prevailing in other countries.

The study represents an important contribution for understanding how and why managers might use externally focused disclosure on social and environmental issues to benefit the company’s legitimacy.

Our study provides interesting insights for policy makers who require social or environmental certification when calling for tenders or specific EU contracts, in order to put aside the “brand” or “symbol” and really focus on the disclosed practices.

Previous studies have provided only a few evidence about reporting practices and related influencing features of SMEs’ sustainability actions. As such, the study wishes to make a significant contribution to the existing literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by providing relevant insights about the factors which influence the guidelines used by SMEs in preparing their sustainability reports.