"Constrained medical oxygen supply chain in India during COVID-19: Red-tapism, the elephant in the room?"

BACKGROUND: Recent disruption of medical oxygen during second wave of COVID-19 has caused nationwide panic. This study attempts to objectively analyze the medical oxygen supply chain in India along the principles of value stream mapping (VSM), identify bottlenecks and recommend systemic improvements. METHODOLOGY: Process mapping of the medical oxygen supply chain in India was done. Different licenses & approvals, their conditions, compliances, renewals among others were factored-in. All relevant circulars (Government Notices), official orders, amendments and gazette notifications pertaining to medical oxygen from April 2020-April 2021 were studied and corroborated with information from Petroleum & Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) official website. FINDINGS: Steps of medical oxygen supply chain right from oxygen manufacture to filling, storage and transport up to the end users; have regulatory bottlenecks. Consequently flow of materials is sluggish and very poor information flow has aggravated the inherent inefficiencies of the system. Government of India has been loosening regulatory norms at every stage to alleviate the crisis. CONCLUSION: Regulatory bottlenecks have indirectly fueled the informal sector over the years, which is not under Government's control with difficulty in controlling black-marketing and hoarding. Technology enabled, data-driven regulatory processes with minimum discretionary human interface can make the system more resilient.

Digital Payments on the Agenda: How Supply-side Actors Framed Cash and Digital Payments during the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

Debates about the increase in digital payments during COVID-19 have primarily focused on behavioural change among consumers. Using India as a case study, this article documents how supply-side actors (political, economic, financial and technological) used the pandemic to generate a new public consensus about digital payments. The article argues that these actors framed the agenda to draw public attention on cash and digital payments during the COVID-19 pandemic, that this new consensus extended and deviated from narratives created during the Digital India (2015) and demonetisation (2016) debates, and that trade bodies and businesses unrelated to banking, finance and technology were active in setting this new agenda. Agenda-setting in the pandemic era continues to mould the payments trajectory in both India and elsewhere. In India, we argue, it has challenged aspects of cash that previously elicited trust: its materiality and associated social interaction. Consequently, older agendas have been promoted, and digital (and especially contactless) payments have assumed a new level of importance to economic life in India. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Asian Studies Review is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Atamnirbhar Gaon—An Inhouse Employment Tool for Migrant Workers

India is a country where majority of the population resides in rural areas. For the development of India, it is necessary to focus on the core of India, i.e., the villages. Now, for developing villages, demand needs to be generated and supply chains to be put in place for ensuring fast-paced development. There are a plethora of employment opportunities and a million plus one can be created but villagers generally tend to relocate to metro cities for better facilities, resulting in overburdening of cities as well as slow development of villages. During the pandemic, India witnessed a large-scale migrant crisis. To bridge the gap between employers and employees, primarily focused on villages, we have developed an application—Atamnirbhar Gaon. Using this application, the workers can get equitable employment prospects like entrepreneurship, businesses, and skill set enhancement in their respective hometown. This venture can boost the development of villages and hence the development of the nation. This is a bilingual application—supports both Hindi and English;any illiterate person can also avail the functionality of this application through voice, know about the places near him where a person can learn new technologies or update his skills, weather updates for sowing the crops, latest updates in farming, and lastly can also get the importance of vaccination against Covid-19 and the available slots for vaccination. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Atamnirbhar Gaon—An Inhouse Employment Tool for Migrant Workers

India is a country where majority of the population resides in rural areas. For the development of India, it is necessary to focus on the core of India, i.e., the villages. Now, for developing villages, demand needs to be generated and supply chains to be put in place for ensuring fast-paced development. There are a plethora of employment opportunities and a million plus one can be created but villagers generally tend to relocate to metro cities for better facilities, resulting in overburdening of cities as well as slow development of villages. During the pandemic, India witnessed a large-scale migrant crisis. To bridge the gap between employers and employees, primarily focused on villages, we have developed an application—Atamnirbhar Gaon. Using this application, the workers can get equitable employment prospects like entrepreneurship, businesses, and skill set enhancement in their respective hometown. This venture can boost the development of villages and hence the development of the nation. This is a bilingual application—supports both Hindi and English;any illiterate person can also avail the functionality of this application through voice, know about the places near him where a person can learn new technologies or update his skills, weather updates for sowing the crops, latest updates in farming, and lastly can also get the importance of vaccination against Covid-19 and the available slots for vaccination. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Covid-19 pandemic and Work from home as the new paradigm of human resource management for digital India

Work from Home (WFH) as a concept of Human Resource Management has been relatively new to Indian corporate culture and confined to comparatively few business sectors. In recent times and with the unfortunate backlash of the Covid-19 pandemic, almost all businesses and workplaces were forced to adopt this concept of 'work from home' as the only alternative to keep the employees productive and functional to whatever extent possible. This paper seeks to look at the concept of work from home as a new paradigm and preference under the sub-heads of Employee Efficiency and Perceived Productivity;Environmental Effects;Socio-Demographic Changes and Employer Factors. The methodology will be to obtain feedback from the current workforce about existing perceptions on these specific areas. Each group of individuals' feedbacks will be collated and analysed to see the perceptions between females vs. males;senior management vs. junior management;those with and without commitments at home;their income brackets, etc. The outcome of the study aims to corroborate if the concept of Work from Home can be effectively accepted and utilized to boost valuable human resources and prove beneficial to both employers and employees of a rapidly transforming digital India. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Cardiometry is the property of Cardiometry and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Digital Payments on the Agenda: How Supply-side Actors Framed Cash and Digital Payments during the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

Debates about the increase in digital payments during COVID-19 have primarily focused on behavioural change among consumers. Using India as a case study, this article documents how supply-side actors (political, economic, financial and technological) used the pandemic to generate a new public consensus about digital payments. The article argues that these actors framed the agenda to draw public attention on cash and digital payments during the COVID-19 pandemic, that this new consensus extended and deviated from narratives created during the Digital India (2015) and demonetisation (2016) debates, and that trade bodies and businesses unrelated to banking, finance and technology were active in setting this new agenda. Agenda-setting in the pandemic era continues to mould the payments trajectory in both India and elsewhere. In India, we argue, it has challenged aspects of cash that previously elicited trust: its materiality and associated social interaction. Consequently, older agendas have been promoted, and digital (and especially contactless) payments have assumed a new level of importance to economic life in India. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Asian Studies Review is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)