Rural Entrepreneurship as a Sustainable Livelihood Alternative for the Returnee Migrants: Reviewing the Potentials and Challenges

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the earnings of migrant workers decreased due to joblessness and the lack of new work. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to look at the potential of rural entrepreneurship as a form of financially managing the insecurity and vulnerabilities caused by the pandemic. The literature review shows that although international migration has played a crucial role in economic growth in Bangladesh, remittance has been underutilized and not translated into investment usually. The qualitative research methodology of the paper followed the thematic analysis design method to apprehend and explain the research findings. The findings of the study indicate that despite several challenges, rural entrepreneurship can indeed be a sustainable livelihood alternative that improves the resilience of returnee migrants. The right kinds of skillsets and adequate measures to tackle the infrastructural and socio-political barriers can boost rural entrepreneurship appreciably. Other recently published research works also highlight that entrepreneurship can be an effective tool for the reintegration of returnee migrants. This paper concludes that the sustainability of rural entrepreneurship will require engaging local development organizations, forming incubation and support centers, and organizing peer support groups.

Empathize with Whom? Adopting a Design Thinking Mind-Set to Stimulate Sustainability Initiatives in Chinese SMEs

This paper highlights the growing importance towards supporting Chinese Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in adopting pro-active and collaborative behaviors that stimulate sustainability initiatives. Equating to 90% of enterprises in the country and contributing towards 60% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), China's SMEs are recognized for their willingness to engage in change, raising the potential for exploring and embarking on new ventures. This paper proposes that a design thinking mind-set, rooted in empathic stakeholder dialogue, conceptually supports SMEs to engage with the increasingly complex challenges that envelop China's society, culture, economy, and environment. Discussion emphasizes that proactively including and responding to the various and ambiguous needs of stakeholders leads to increased opportunity for innovation and new ways of thinking, both being vital for sustainable and responsible growth. Equally, the questions of whom to empathize with and how should SMEs empathize are postulated as roadblocks to the adoption of design thinking in SMEs. This paper proposes a model for addressing those challenges.

Seven days in medicine: 23-29 November 2022

Samantha Black, consultant anaesthetist and patient information lead at the Royal College of Anaesthetists, said, “‘Dennis has an anaesthetic’ is a fantastic resource that can be used in preoperative assessment clinics and at home with parents to answer children’s questions and to reassure them.” (See www.rcoa.ac.uk/dennis-has-anaesthetic) Antimicrobial resistance Comments are sought for next five year plan England’s Department of Health and Social Care launched a consultation to inform the next five year plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance and is calling for input from technical experts on human health, animal and plant health, food, and the environment. The consultation closes on 20 January.3 Measles Disease is “imminent threat” worldwide Falling vaccination rates and reduced surveillance during the covid pandemic have created an “imminent threat” of measles spreading in every region of the world, said the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Aida Analysis of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Role of Behavioral Antecedents

The aim of advertising is to encourage consumers to buy or use what the company is offering. AIDA theory of advertising describes the effect of advertising media. According to AIDA model, a potential consumer goes through 4 phases when deciding whether to buy a product and these correlate to the 4 phases of the AIDA model. AIDA theory of advertising describes the effect of advertising media. The acronym AIDA stands for Attention/Awareness, Interest, Desire and action. The effectiveness of any advertising campaign can be easily judged through the four stages of AIDA theory. In the first phase, the attention of consumers is captured. Once the consumer is aware that the product or service exists, the business should work on increasing the potential’s customer’s interest level. In the third phase, an emotional connection is established moving consumer’s mindset from “I like it” to “I want it”. In the last stage, the focus is on achieving ultimate goal which is to drive the receiver of the marketing campaign to initiate action and purchase the product or service. India accounts for about 90% of the population in South Asia and 59% of the 1.3 billion people still defecate in open, making it the single largest contributor to open defecation in the world. India loses atleast 1000 children a day to diarrhoeal deaths due to open defecation and lack of proper sanitation facilities. Due to the increment of awareness of environmental issues, health issues and also economic issues, Swachh Bharat campaign has been established. On launching Swachh Bharat Abhiya, PM Narendra Modi had said “the pursuit of cleanliness can be an economic activity contributing to GDP growth, reduction in health care costs and a source of employment. Mahatma Gandhi wished to see a "Clean India" where people work hand in hand to make the country clean. To work seriously towards this vision of Gandhi Ji, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on October 2, 2014 and asked people from all walks of life to help in successful implementation of this mission. He invited all the Indians to devote 100 hours to clean their surroundings. In order to bring out behaviour change, extensive awareness generation initiatives would need to be undertaken with regards to the negative healthcare issues related to open defecation. The campaign has been described as "beyond politics" and "inspired by patriotism". Post COVID the need for social distancing and personal hygiene is going to bring about several structural changes right from how people stand in a queue or get a haircut to flying or watching movies. The new institutional practices are likely to remain in place for a longer period of time, with some becoming a permanent feature of public life. The present paper seeks to study the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) through the lens of AIDA model. The study investigates the perception of people towards SBA through behavioural antecedents viz. attitude towards SBA, role of social media & subjective norms. This study is carried out to explore consumers’ demographic variables and their significant influence on the 4 variables of AIDA theory. Research Methodology: This quantitative study employed the exploratory research design. Data was collected from 335 respondents from all over India which covered North region, South-East, South-West, East, West, North-East, North-West and central region with the help of a structured questionnaire and focus groups. Percentage analyses, one way ANOVA and multiple regression are the statistical tools adopted for testing the hypotheses using SPSS. Findings and Implications: The statistically significant results revealed that category influences interest, desire & action of individuals. Education also positively impacts desire & action of individuals. Service class people were found to show more interest in SBA. Females were found to show more desire and action towards SBA activities. Single respondents show more desire in SBA. Religion was also found to affect SBA activities. People from Eastern egion are more attentive to SBA activities while people from South West region were found to show interest in SBA activities. North West people have desire to actively participate in SBA while respondents from South East are the most action-oriented people as far as SBA activities are concerned.

ANALYZING THE ROLE OF COLLABORATION AND PARTNERSHIPS IN IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN BANGLADESH

In this globalized world, countries are highly inter-dependent for socio-economic development. It is more important for developing countries like Bangladesh because of the multidimensional nature of development issue that requires support from different corners particularly after being graduated to middle income country. Collaboration and partnerships expedite development process, enhance mutual trust, and build strong relation to explore new areas for assistance. This partnership is necessarily required when countries adopt global agenda. The agenda 2030 is a holistic approach that philosophizes the well-being and prosperity of humankind. In order to realize the benefits of this agenda and implement all 17 goals and its 169 targets, country needs supportfrom various stakeholders. Apart from the public and private sectors from within, global actors including international organizations, different nations must act together to bring the benefit for all. This paper aims at analyzing the necessity of collaboration and partnership among the states and assessing how partnerships can help implement Sustainable Development Goals. This review article is prepared based on the secondary data collectedfrom the various research articles, government publications, UN reading materials. The study finds that Bangladesh needs to strengthen regional and global partnership for all SDGs specially after graduation to middle income country.

Study on Forecasting Model of Port Container Throughput in China

The new corona pneumonia (COVID-19) epidemic is still spreading globally. The critical role of ports in the global economy and logistics system are highlighted. More and more attention is paid to port development trend. Therefore, it is very important to establish a model to forecast the development trend of the port container throughput. This paper quantified the factors affecting container throughput such as economy and foreign trade, and predicted the container throughput of ports in China. In this paper, a multi-factor dynamic model is constructed, which considers macroeconomic growth, foreign trade import and export volume, containerization rate, single container weight, empty and heavy container ratio and other factors. With the data of 2020 as the benchmark, it is comprehensively predicted that by 2025. China's port container throughput will reach 320 million TEU. The container throughput growth will continue to decline. The average annual growth will be 4.0% in the 14th Five-Year Plan period. Further, this model can be used to predict the development trend of port container in 2050. At the same time, the development peak of port container throughput in China can also be analyzed. This conclusion can provide a basis for government departments and enterprises to make decisions. © 2022 SPIE

Research on the Throughput Prediction of Coastal Ports in China

Coastal ports play a pivotal role in ensuring the healthy development of China's national economy and society and the smooth flow of global supply chain. The novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic is impacting the global supply chain system. In this context, China's coastal port throughput prediction has become the focus of attention. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a model to accurately predict the throughput of coastal ports in China. This paper constructs the economy-industry bi-directional prediction model. It also provides a possibility for forecasting the throughput of China's coastal ports during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. On the one hand, build a model to measure the relationship between economic growth and coastal port throughput growth. On the other hand, the model is constructed to measure the correlation between major goods such as coal, iron ore and crude oil. Thus, another result of coastal port throughput is obtained. Given the corresponding weights of the two results, the final prediction results are obtained. It is concluded that on the basis of 2020, China's coastal port throughput will reach 10.7 billion tons by 2025, with an average annual increase of 2.5% during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. China's coastal port throughput growth rate will slow down. The scale of transportation demand should be fully demonstrated in the future port infrastructure construction. © 2021 IEEE.

Analysis on the Trend of Environmental Development of Smart City in China

As the impact of COVID-19 continues, the "New infrastructure" initiative is stepping up, bringing both opportunities and challenges to smart city development. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the construction of smart city in China will be guided by the requirements of modernization of national governance, based on the needs, combined with the characteristics of urban capabilities, conform to the development trend of information technology, deepen digital infrastructure, improve service level, accelerate data governance, and build collaborative mechanism. © 2021 Kriedt Enterprises Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Estimating the Employment and Fiscal Consequences of Thermal Coal Phase-Out in China

China hosts over half of global coal-fired power generation capacity and has the world’s largest coal reserves. Its 2060 carbon neutrality goal will require coal-fired electricity generation to shrink dramatically, with or without carbon capture and storage technology. Two macroeconomic areas in which the socioeconomic impact of this decline is felt are losses in jobs and tax revenues supported by thermal coal mining, transport and power generation. At the national level, under a ‘baseline’ (B) scenario consistent with China’s carbon neutrality goal, labour productivity growth in coal mining implies that significant job losses will occur nationally in the medium term, even if all coal plants continue operating as planned. Jobs supported by the coal power industry would decline from an estimated 2.7 million in 2021, to 1.44 million in 2035 and 94,000 in 2050, with jobs losses from mining alone expected to exceed 1.1 million by 2035. Tax revenues from thermal coal would total approximately CNY 300 billion annually from 2021–2030, peaking in 2023 at CNY 340 billion. This is significantly less than estimated subsidies of at least CNY 480 billion, suggesting coal is likely a net fiscal drain on China’s public finances, even without accounting for the costs of local pollution and the social cost of carbon. As coal plant retirements accelerate, from 2034 onwards, fiscal revenues begin to fall more rapidly, with rates of decline rising from 1% in the 2020s to over 10% a year by the 2040s. More aggressive climate policy and technology scenarios bring job and tax losses forward in time, while a No Transition policy, in which all currently planned coal plants are built, delays but does not ultimately prevent these losses. At the provincial level, China’s major coal-producing provinces will likely face challenges in managing the localised effects of expected job losses and finding productive alternative uses for this labour. Governments of coal-producing provinces like Inner Mongolia, with an industry highly dependent on exports to other provinces, are more exposed than others to declining tax revenues from coal, and more insulated from job losses, given their high current degree of labour efficiency. Although their provincial revenues are likely to remain stable until the early 2030s under the B scenario, the possibility of increasing policy stringency underlines the need for revenue and skill base diversification. At the firm level, China’s ‘Big Five’ state-owned power companies were responsible for over 40% of both jobs and tax revenues in 2021. The number of jobs supported by the activities of each of the largest ten firms, with one exception, will decline by 71–84% by the early 2040s, with the tax contribution of each declining by 43–69% in the same period.

Promoting Inclusive Entrepreneurship for Marginalized Community in Post Pandemic Situation

[...]marginalized communities' buying power is weakened, and access to education is limited, limiting their capacity to take advantage of market possibilities, and leaving them behind in essential skill sets. Since the implementation of the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan in the Sixth Five Year Plan, the Indian government has been working to increase the threshold of equality. [...]a Venture Capital Fund was established in 2014 to address the banking system's reliance on collateral, which operated as a barrier for first-time SC/ST entrepreneurs. [...]the directional goal of Stand-Up India (2016) was to incorporate SC, ST, and women entrepreneurs in each bank branch.