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The present paper highlights the increasing importance of remote learning amidst the closure of educational institutions in India in the wake of COVID-19. This paper not only discusses critical issues and challenges that remote learning system in the higher education sector in India has been encountering amidst this pandemic but also sheds light on ways to deal with them.

The paper makes use of secondary sources of data along with descriptive and comparative approaches to examine the issues, challenges and way forward for a transition from face-to-face teaching to remote learning in the case of India.

The paper suggests that greater use of this alternative mode of learning can be made for checking “human capital deficit,” preventing loss of future earnings (because of loss of education) and also for preparing a future-ready digital workforce to surf the Industry 4.0 wave. Besides, this can help to achieve the goal of “Education for all” and Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Among others, concerted policies for bridging skill gaps, forging partnerships and following equity-oriented policies for ensuring learning outcomes seem to be the way forward for a resilient education system.

As per our knowledge, no such study on the use of remote learning covering the higher education sector in India amidst COVID-19 has been done so far.

India emerged as one of the fastest growing economies of the world during the 1990s because of the spectacular dynamism shown by the services sector. India’s services sector has been burgeoning fast and one of the major driver’s of the growth of services sector is Information Technology (IT) and Information Technol ogy Enabled Services (ITES). It is well documented in literature that IT impacts growth by different channels. In this study we try to empirically verify the question: Can IT and ITES be an engine of growth? Using micro‐level data of 100 households of 20 IT and ITES firms along with secondary data we tried to estimate the extent of indirect employment generation at macro‐level and the share of IT and ITES in total employment and total value added. According to our study, one job for skilled professional employed in IT and ITES spins off jobs for 0.48 semi‐skilled, low skills or unskilled workers. As per our estimates, the 16 lakh workers who are expected to be directly employed in IT sector in the FY 2008 would generate secondary em ployment for 7,68,000 people which would constitute 0.16 per cent of total employment. However, the share of consumption expenditure of 16 lakh professionals would be 20 per cent of total value added. Assuming the consumption expenditure of the IT and ITES workers and total value added to be the same/constant when we tried to assess the contribution of consumption expenditure of 2.3 million workers (who are projected to be directly absorbed by IT sector by 2010, NASSCOM, 2005) to total value added it comes out to be 29 per cent of total value added. The study says that the proportion of IT‐ITES in total employment may be small but its contribution to total value added is still very high. Indeed IT and ITES can be an engine of growth in India’s economy by way of generating demand impulses in the economy as has been hypothesised and shown through the present study. Keeping in view the contributions of this sector and its huge untapped potential as evident from the present study and various other studies, there is a need for introduction and implementation of policy initiatives to address the challenges faced by this sector and to sustain the growth driven by the services sector.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role of universities in the service sector innovation system of India.

Use was made of secondary sources of data such as various reports, books and journals, to gather information on what constitutes the national innovation system (NIS) of a country. An attempt was made to assess the performance of India ' s innovation system, which comprises investment, infrastructure, knowledge and skill generation, and relations and linkages. The author made broad use of this conceptual framework to make an assessment of the performance of the changing service sector innovation system in India. To examine the performance of India ' s NIS, three elements were focused on: R & D, FDI in services, and status of higher education sector.

The paper concludes that India has a well-functioning service sector innovation system yet much needs to be done if India wants to keep alive her ambition of becoming a knowledge powerhouse or innovation superpower. Moreover, the private sector can play an important role in the improvement of quality of education, as has been revealed by the example of NASSCOM.

While there is some research on the NIS of India, not much has been written about the service sector innovation system of India. The paper fills this gap in the current literature to some extent.

The growing importance of knowledge and innovation in the present era motivated the author to study knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in general and the case of India in particular. The purpose of this paper is to track in brief the strength of India’s economy lying in growth of knowledge-intensive services (KIS), which if harnessed properly can lead to its transition to a knowledge economy. More specifically, the paper tries to address two important questions: first, what constitutes KIS and KIBS? And second, how has KIBS been performing in India?

The paper makes use of secondary sources of data including various reports, books, journals and statistical tools. An attempt has been made in this paper to review those studies which try to define KIS and KIBS. The data analysis of KIBS in the case of India has been done for the period 2004-2005 to 2011-2012 for which information was available from National Accounts Statistics published by Central Statistical Organization.

The paper concludes that no unanimously accepted definition of KIBS has been given so far. In the Indian context it is defined as; “business services include services like computer-related services, R&D, accounting services and legal services and renting of machinery in order of importance (shares) as per India’s National Accounts”. An analysis of performance of KIBS in India shows that among KIBS there are two T-KIBs (with a technology base), namely IT and ITeS, and that R&D services occupy the first and second position in India’s gross domestic product (GDP), originating from business services (KIBS). R&D services registered the highest average annual growth rate followed by computer-related services, renting of machinery, legal services and accounting and auditing services during the seven-year period from 2004-2005 to 2011-2012. However, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was highest in the case of R&D services followed by renting of machinery, computer-related services, legal and accountancy and auditing services. KIBS registered a CAGR of 13.04 per cent, which was higher compared to overall GDP growth rate (at 7.36 per cent), and also compared to the CAGR of the real estate and ownership of dwellings and business services segment as a whole (7.62 per cent). Therefore, there is a need to tap the potential of all these KIBS, i.e. knowledge-intense high-tech services (KIHTS) and knowledge-intense marketing services taken in the study through policy initiatives. There is also a need to deal with emerging issues and challenges in KIBS, especially in KIHTS.

Although there is empirical research on the KIS and KIBS of European Economies, KIBS in India has not received enough research attention. This paper will therefore mainly focus on the performance of KIBS in India.

Several empirical studies have shown that the “servicization” of India ' s economy has taken place in terms of structural changes in GDP. But the structural changes in terms of employment have been slow, as agriculture is still the mainstay of more than 50 per cent of the total workforce. Though agriculture is still the predominant sector of the economy in terms of employment and livelihood, it is losing its dynamism. The country has been striving to achieve target of 4 per cent growth in agriculture since the 8th Five Year Plan so essential for achieving the objective of “inclusive growth”. However, the country is nowhere near the goal even in the penultimate year of 11th Five year Plan. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the need for application of science and technology in India ' s agriculture to ensure sustainable development of agriculture with food security and also for tapping the “demographic dividend”. The agricultural crisis in India motivated the author to take up this study.

The present study mainly used secondary sources of data. The analysis of secondary data available in various documents, reports etc. revealed that agriculture in India is indeed passing through crisis. The review of literature revealed that science and technology can play a crucial role in rejuvenation of India ' s agriculture.

The paper shows that an integrated application of science and technology with social wisdom can help in checking the most serious form of brain-drain (i.e. migration of youth from rural to urban areas), mitigate the adverse impact of climate change and rejuvenate/revive India ' s agriculture so very essential for sustainability of India ' s growth, as has been stressed by Swaminathan.

The paper emphasizes the need for application of science and technology in India ' s agriculture to ensure sustainable development of agriculture with food security.

It has been observed in various studies that the “servicization” of the structures of production and employment has taken place in India. However, a problem peculiar to this sector or several types of services is that the output of some components of this sector is difficult to measure as well as to value it in monetary terms. The purpose of this paper is to identify the problems encountered in the measurement of service sector output.

The paper makes use of secondary sources of data including various reports, books and journals, etc. An attempt has been made in this paper to review those studies which deal with measurement problems in services sector output.

In the Indian context, it has been found that the data base on the service sector is highly disorganized. It has been recognized in studies that the limitation of the existing system is marred by the absence of a well-organized mechanism for maintaining a regular and proper database for this sector. A large number of the unorganized units are located in the service sector and the composition of units in the domain undergoes changes at a rapid pace because new units or newer service areas come into existence and others disappear with alarming frequency. Therefore, the need for “devising a proper classification of services” by identifying all new services and adopting a suitable methodology so as to maintain international comparability of data has been highlighted in various studies.

Although there are studies which try to point out measurability problems of services in developed European economies, however, studies related to service sector statistics problems in India are far less in number. This paper will therefore mainly focus on the service sector statistics problems in India and point out the way forward.

The support structures of sacrificial material are built in deposition-based additive manufacturing (AM), which are later removed either by breaking or dissolving. Such a sacrificial material is not feasible in metal AM. The purpose of this study is to find a suitable method for eliminating the need of support mechanism. In this work, the authors use the tilting of the substrate to alleviate the need for the support mechanism altogether.

As in the traditional AM, the object is grown in horizontal layers. However, wherever undercuts are encountered, the substrate is tilted appropriately to capture the droplets. Such a tilt involves two rotary axes invariably. To conform to the slice geometry, these two tilts are accompanied by the three linear movements. Thus, the object with undercuts is grown in planar layers using five-axis deposition without any support structure. Each pair of the corresponding top and bottom contours of any slice defines a ruled surface. The axis of the deposition head will be aligned with the rules of this surface.

The need for the support mechanism was eliminated using five-axis deposition. This was experimentally demonstrated by building an aluminum impeller using a metal inert gas cladding head.

In the proposed methodology, the objects with an abrupt change in the geometry are not possible to realize.

This manuscript proposed a novel method of eliminating the support mechanism through continuous five-axis deposition.

Electron beam-based additive manufacturing (EBAM) is an emerging technology to produce metal parts layer-by-layer. The purpose of this paper is to systematically address the research and development carried out for this technology, up till now.

This paper identifies several aspects of research and development in EBAM.

Electron beam has several unique advantages such as high scanning speed, energy efficiency, versatility for several materials and better part integrity because of a vacuum working environment.

This paper provides information on different aspects of EBAM with the current status and future scope.

The paper explores the managerial perceptions in Indian apparel manufacturing firms related to production performance, challenges faced, causes of low efficiency and the government support needed.

A structured survey of Indian apparel manufacturing firms was undertaken in person and through the online mode; the questionnaire was designed to collect data on demographic profile of a firm using categorical questions and perceptions of its top managers using a five-point Likert scale.

The survey findings reveal that most apparel manufacturing firms believe that exporting promotes efficiency and adopt output orientation to production, which may not be suitable in a competitive and uncertain environment. Machines are not used much for value-addition and labour related issues are most pressing challenges. Government support is expected for several aspects such as power supply and skill development.

The paper is limited by the nature of the sampling method and sample size; perceptions should be explored without bias and with good judgement.

The survey findings suggest that government policy should have a firm-specific approach to support improved production performance along with generic policies to build infrastructure and logistical facilities.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, there has been no such exercise to study managerial perceptions related to production performance in Indian apparel manufacturing in the past decade.