The Limits of Power Concentration and Expert Knowledge in Emergency Management: Spain's Government Response during the First Phase of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Focusing on the central government's response to the Covid-19 crisis during the first wave in Spain, the article analyses the executive's strategy of power concentration, and the factors that shape its implementation. We sketch how the crisis erupted, the main measures and strategies adopted by the national executive, the role of the experts, and the interaction with other political actors and institutions. We also explore the second phase and how the political reaction evolved towards a more consensual approach. Paradoxically, the consequences for the political actors were apparently less harmful than expected, since the governments did not lose political support, and the electorate continued to support the policy measures adopted to mitigate the pandemic.

Evaluating Odisha's COVID-19 response: from quiet confidence to a slippery road.

Odisha is among handful of states that is at the forefront of India's fight against a rapidly growing COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the national lockdown was imposed by the Union government on March 24, Odisha was only state to have imposed partial lockdown in select districts. It was also first state that took proactive steps to ramp up its health care system particularly having a COVID-19 hospital with intensive care units (ICUs) on public-private partnership mode. Importantly, Odisha was among few states to have created a COVID-19 hospital at each district in record time. In addition, the state took many proactive measures including setting up a taskforce to oversee the COVID-19 response, put up a critical information and communication system with daily press briefings among others to stay on the top of pandemic management. But come May when the migrants rush unfolded, the state experienced steady surge in infections as the pandemic started spreading to relatively dense rural hinterlands. The migrant endowed districts like Ganjam became the epicentres of new spread and the state is struggling to rein on the growing pandemic. What led to the state losing its initial gains? How did the state manage it so ably in the initial period and what led to the surge? What are the unique features of Odisha's pandemic response? Is there an Odisha Model as claimed by several observers? (Patnaik et al. in The Wire, 2020) This paper endeavours to chronicle Odisha's response to COVID-19 in relations to policies and programmes initiatives and actors and dynamics shaping these responses? Key aim is to identify strengths and experience of the eastern state which has a long and credible record of fighting natural disasters.

Smart Meter Data Analytics for Building Monitoring System: A Case Study

Decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization are the prominent paths for the energy sector in the future. The rise of smart meters across consumers, and industries led to a massive collection of fine-grained energy and electricity consumption-related data. A data science challenge is to analyze the Smart Meter data for the benefit of both the energy providers and the consumers. In this paper, An attempt has been made to analyze the smart meter collected from the IIT Hyderabad campus and presented the analysis into descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. The data collected from more than 50 meters over a period of one year have been analyzed and results obtained. Interesting trends such as the impact of COVID-19 on campus energy consumption have been examined. The framework for energy data analytics presented in this paper will be useful for any campus in general, and the recommendations presented will save energy expenses. © 2023 IEEE.

Latin American Federalism to the test of the health emergency by Covid-19. The clash between territorial authorities and the central executive before the Federal Constitutional Judge in matters of health protection. The cases of Mexico and Brazil

The health emergency caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated various social and constitutional organization problems already present in Latin American legal systems. The management of the virus containment measures has confirmed the "hyper-presidential" drift of the Latin American democracies, once again relegating parliaments to mere spectators of the emergency regulatory dynamics. On the other hand, if from the point of view of the predominance of the executive (and in some cases of its dangerous personalization) over the ordinary legislative formant, the pandemic has further dug a furrow that is already strongly present, in the context of relations between the central State and local authorities see some interesting news. The federal experiences of Central and South America are peculiar in that they are the fruit of American federal theory but influenced by the particularities of the region and applied to the institutional organization inherited from the colonial past. Mexico (and partly Argentina) and Brazil have set up a system of decentralization which, despite being born with the desire to protect the democratic order from centralist tendencies, is characterized by the total subjection on the part of the local authorities towards the Central state, together with very little communication between different levels of government. The executives of Mexico and Brazil have managed the health emergency in an extremely soft way, while the local authorities have imposed more restrictive measures than those of the federal governments, resulting in: a) a patchy management of the fight against the virus, b) conflicts attribution between the various levels of government in health matters. It was decided to identify one reality in Central and one in South America as they are particularly representative of the central-periphery situation in the context of the protection of constitutionally guaranteed health rights. The contribution, through the examination of the Mexican and Brazilian cases concerning jurisdictional disputes resolved by the federal constitutional judge, intends to analyze how the health emergency from Covid-19 has exacerbated the historical lack of collaboration between the federal government and individual states, characteristic of the "weak" Latin American federalism, and how this has led regional and local governments to assume a decisive position in the protection of health even in opposition to the central executives. © 2023, Societa Editoriale Federalismi s.r.l. All rights reserved.

Retrospection of NDMP and Forecasting its Prophecy with Special Reference to Covid-19

National Disaster Management Authority of India strongly believes the NDMP has to be dynamic and actionable;hence it always keeps an eye over finding the probable grey areas getting into action as the disasters show-up;backed by a continuous improvement and developmental approach. This has been fruitful and well effective in the form of revised NDMP 2019 and the guidelines of it are practiced well in synchronization from Union government, states, and UTs. Although, The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly challenged the existing guidelines and practices as it has been an unprecedented situation the modern world has been into since the evolution of the concept and process of disaster management. This paper is an attempt to investigate which of the already existing guidelines proved to be lethal in tackling the current disaster and to what extent they were flexible and how it can be optimised in future to meet the requirements of disaster management. A brief study of various aspects is carried out such as the earlier time frames referring to the final implementation of NDMP, mainstreaming framework, social inclusion and community involvement, Investigation of Risk characteristics, structural measures, non-structural measures, and capacity building provisions. It also discusses the probable changes and optimisation needed to be done in policies of disaster governance, preparation and response, infrastructure development, technological aid, and most importantly decentralisation and percolation of disaster management practices, at large. © 2023 DMICS.

Use of Blockchain Technology to Protect Privacy in Electronic Health Records- A Review

Patients' medical files are electronically preserved and accessible through a network such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Numerous opportunities exist for EHRs to enhance patient care, clinical practice performance indicators, and potential future clinical research contributions. The techniques used to preserve EHRs have proved incredibly unsafe in the contemporary era of smart homes and urban areas. Data can be easily accessed by hackers and unauthorized third parties. Furthermore, the data is not accessible to patients or healthcare practitioners. These plans cannot balance the accessibility and security of the data. But with blockchain, these issues can be resolved. Any application created utilizing blockchain technology is secure and inaccessible to unauthorized parties thanks to the three critical characteristics of the technology: Security, Decentralization, and Transparency. In a blockchain network, it is nearly difficult to manipulate data. This research work utilizes blockchain technology to deploy EHRs and improve their security and privacy. With its decentralized structure and cryptographic techniques, blockchain technology will maintain control over who gets access to information. Furthermore, it will maintain a balance between accessing data and privacy. The advanced aspects of the EHR system are handled by this research using smart contracts. The comprehensive healthcare management solution across a network can incorporate several sectors, such as billing and transportation. A website program can be combined with it to increase interactivity. By adding pharmacists to the system as a participant, EHRs can help them track medical sales. © 2023 IEEE.

Local governments and community-based rehabilitation for developmental disabilities: leaving no one behind.

SETTING: The BUDS (not an acronym) institutions comprise a community-based rehabilitation initiative for children and families affected by developmental disabilities in Kerala, India. OBJECTIVE: To explore the role of local governments in the establishment and functioning of BUDS institutions. DESIGN: We used qualitative approaches comprising document review and in-depth interviews with trainers, parents of children with developmental disabilities and elected representatives. RESULTS: BUDS was created by Kudumbasree, a decentralised women empowerment and poverty alleviation initiative. Our findings illustrate the role of local governments in facilitating expansion through the establishment of infrastructure, therapy equipment, transportation and financial allocation for these, as well as through the development of human resources, assistance with enrolment for financial assistance and insurance programmes, and coordination with education and health sectors. Programme implementation varied considerably regarding available infrastructure, staffing and services among the institutions studied. The institutions were physically closed during the COVID-19 pandemic but continued to function in alternative ways. CONCLUSION: Despite variable implementation, local governments have supported the expansion of BUDS institutions, thereby creating more spaces for inclusive and integrated education and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities in Kerala. The expansion over the past two decades and measures during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest resilience and sustainability of the model.

CONTEXTE: Les institutions BUDS (ceci n'est pas un acronyme) ont mis en place une initiative communautaire pour la réhabilitation des enfants et familles touchés par des troubles du développement au Kérala, Inde. OBJECTIF: Analyser le rôle des gouvernements locaux dans la fondation et le fonctionnement des institutions BUDS. MÉTHODES: Nous avons utilisé des approches qualitatives fondées sur une analyse documentaire et sur des entretiens approfondis avec des formateurs, des parents d'enfants atteints de troubles du développement et des représentants élus. RÉSULTATS: BUDS a été créé dans le cadre d'une initiative décentralisée de réduction de la pauvreté et d'autonomisation des femmes, dénommée Kudumbasree. Nos résultats illustrent le rôle des gouvernements locaux dans la facilitation de l'expansion par la mise à disposition d'infrastructures, d'équipements thérapeutiques, de transports et l'allocation de fonds pour ceux-ci, ainsi que par le développement des ressources humaines, l'inclusion dans des programmes d'assistance financière et d'assurances, et la coordination avec les secteurs de l'éducation et de la santé. De grandes différences de mise en œuvre du programme ont été observées entre les institutions à l'étude, en matière d'infrastructures disponibles, de personnel et de services. Les institutions ont fermé leurs portes pendant la pandémie de COVID-19, mais elles continuaient de fonctionner de manière alternative. CONCLUSION: En dépit d'une mise en œuvre variable, les gouvernements locaux ont soutenu le développement des institutions BUDS et ainsi élargi l'espace pour une éducation et une réhabilitation inclusives et intégrées des personnes porteuses de handicaps au Kérala. Le développement de ces institutions au cours des 20 dernières années et les mesures instaurées pendant la pandémie de COVID-19 laissent transparaître la résilience et le caractère durable du modèle.

Combatting emerging infectious diseases from Nipah to COVID-19 in Kerala, India.

BACKGROUND: The state of Kerala, India, has experienced several unprecedented events in the past few years. The current study was an attempt to explore perceptions of stakeholders on how the decentralised system helped during the Nipah virus (NiV) outbreaks and COVID-19 pandemic in Kerala. METHODS: This study used a qualitative descriptive approach built on the advocacy paradigm. The stakeholders who were involved in decision-making and the representatives of local self-government who had real-time experience and had handled the challenges were identified using purposive sampling. Seven key informant interviews (KIIs) and nine in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted. RESULTS: Findings indicate that decentralisation had enabled the state to effectively deal with the outbreaks and the pandemic. The survey revealed four major themes: decision-making, engagement level, people-centric action, and difficulties. Two to four categories have emerged for each theme. CONCLUSION: The study results highlight the importance of human resources and service delivery as balancing factors during public health emergencies in any developing nation with limited resources. Given that very few nations have the healthcare infrastructure and resources necessary to cater to the healthcare needs of the whole population, decentralisation should be reinforced.

CONTEXTE: L'État du Kérala, Inde, a connu plusieurs évènements sans précèdent au cours des dernières années. Cette étude a cherché à analyser l'opinion des parties prenantes quant à l'aide apportée par le système décentralisé pendant les épidémies de virus Nipah (NiV) et la pandémie de COVID-19 au Kérala. MÉTHODES: Cette étude a eu recours à une méthode descriptive qualitative construite à partir du paradigme de mobilisation. Les parties prenantes impliquées dans la prise de décisions et les représentants des administrations locales autonomes, forts de leur expérience en temps réel et de leur expérience de gestion des défis, ont été identifiés par échantillonnage dirigé. Sept entretiens avec des informateurs clés (KII) et neuf entretiens approfondis (IDI) ont été réalisés. RÉSULTATS: Les résultats indiquent que la décentralisation a permis à l'État de gérer les épidémies et la pandémie de manière efficace. L'enquête a mis en évidence quatre thèmes majeurs : prise de décisions, niveau d'engagement, action centrée sur les personnes et difficultés. Chaque thème a pu être divisé en deux à quatre catégories. CONCLUSION: Les résultats de l'étude soulignent l'importance des ressources humaines et de la fourniture de services en tant que facteurs d'équilibre en période d'urgence de santé publique dans tous les pays en développement dotés de ressources limitées. Puisque très peu de pays disposent des infrastructures de santé et des ressources nécessaires pour répondre aux besoins sanitaires de l'ensemble de la population, la décentralisation devrait être renforcée.

Micro models of COVID 19 pandemic governance: Reflections on the strategies taken by two states in India

Since the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic, governments across the world including India, a South-Asian country is busy ‘strategizing', ‘managing' ‘containing' the crisis to restrict its spread. But given the vastness and diversity of the Indian territory, one pan Indian model of is not possible and the states have been working in consonance with the centre in a matter of ‘cooperative federalism' and are implementing various micro models of Covid 19 governance. This paper explores the micro models of governance strategies taken by states in India namely, Kerala located in its Southern coast and Odisha in the Eastern coast which have been experiencing disasters be it health or natural calamities. Inspite of the differences in social development indicators between both the states, they have managed to keep the death rates lower in the initial phases of the outbreak in comparison to other states. This is reflected in the strategies they took in controlling the pandemic like "preparedness” "decentralisation”, "community participation”. However, inspite of deploying various governance models, the gradual unlocking led to the explosion of positive cases as a result of which the challenges to deal with the pandemic still looms large. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

THE PRINCIPLES OF SUBSIDIARITY AND DECENTRALISATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON THE POLISH AND FINNISH LEGAL SYSTEMS

The article focuses on the principles of subsidiarity and decentralisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular emphasis on the Polish and Finnish legal sys-tems (both countries in the Baltic Sea Region). How were those constitutional principles concerning self-government "treated” (dealt with) by public authorities? It analyses the principles of subsidiarity and decentralisation, interpretations of the principle of decen-tralisation in both Poland and Finland, relations between the state and local self-govern-ment, cooperation between the government and self-government administration in com-bating the pandemic in selected countries, and Polish and Finnish regulations during the pandemic. Methodologically speaking, many different methods and sources are applied. The methodological approach is analytical (analysis of legal acts, literature, media re-leases and different reports), but also empirical (observation of reality). The thesis is that the principles of subsidiarity and decentralisation during the COVID-19 pandemic were commonly disregarded during the pandemic. © 2022, Nicolaus Copernicus University. All rights reserved.

FINE-GRAINED PARALLELISM FOR POST-PANDEMIC CITIES: 12 DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR RESILIENT URBAN PLANNING

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live in the city. Social distancing will remain as a provisional code of conduct for unforeseeable outbreaks of pandemic diseases in the future. Social distancing is predicated upon reduced density of people in any given space and time. Since urban sprawl has been proved to be unsustainable, spreading out the urban density to suburbs cannot be the right direction to achieve this. Fine-grained parallelism is proposed as a single theoretical framework for an alternative post-pandemic urbanism. It is a way of maintaining simultaneous movement and co-presence, two essential properties of urban living, without the risk of crowding, by reconceptualising the existing spatial setting in a finer resolution. Existing urban spaces that have been underused, ill-used or unused can be reconfigured to achieve fine-grained urbanism for the resilient post-pandemic city. © 2022 Malaysian Institute Of Planners. All rights reserved.

Introduction: 20years of welfare reform in China (2000–2020): Challenges from developmentalism to COVID‐19

China as a welfare system is not yet well understood in social policy circles, despite being a well‐studied case in public administration and political science. Would this party‐state care to commit for its citizens' welfare? For many, associating the idea of a welfare state with China is still something to be frowned upon. Most available literature, especially in the English language, describes social policies in China as residual, unequally distributed, strongly dependent on local finances, prone to social dumping—especially for rural residents and migrant workers—paternalistic, disregarding social needs and so on. Yet, we believe that the social dumping practices of the 1980s and 1990s are now a thing of the past. As the government has taken a decidedly pro‐welfare stance since the 2000s, it could be more reasonable to identify different historical phases through which the welfare system took shape in China. We identify and discuss three stages in particular: the ‘iron rice bowl’ phase of socialist China (1949–1978), the welfare shedding resulting from China's opening up to the market (1979–2002), and the ‘social policy era’ characterised by major welfare expansion (2002–2020).

Intergovernmental dynamics in responding to COVID-19 in English and Australian cities

This comparative study, conducted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, explores how the contrasting governance systems in Australia and England responded to complex and rapidly evolving problems presented by the crisis. Comparing how national and local governments worked together and alongside other forms of subnational governance, the findings highlight the efficacy of multi-scalar governance arrangement in Australia over the fragmented, overly-centralised and inconsistent arrangements in England. As nations plan their recovery paths from the economic and social challenges of the crisis, the findings encourage a reset of spatial policy towards one that values and resources greater decentralisation and place-based recovery.

Exploring the limits of joint control: the case of COVID-19 digital proximity tracing solutions

Referring to the judgment of the CJEU in Fashion-ID, some scholars have anticipated that, “at this rate everyone will be a [joint] controller of personal data”. This contribution follows this arguably provocative, but not entirely implausible, line of thinking. In the first part of the article, we highlight the ambiguities inherent to the concept of “joint control” and confront them with those pertaining to the notion of “identifiability”. In the second part, we investigate the effects of the broad legal test for joint control on the role of the individual user of BLE-based COVID-19 digital proximity tracing solutions. This offers the possibility to examine, at a theoretical level, whether the impact of the broad notion of joint control differs depending on the architecture of the system (i.e. centralized or decentralized). We found out that the strict application of the joint controllership test could lead to unexpected and, most likely, unintended results. First, an app user could, in theory, qualify as a joint controller with a national health authority regardless of the protocol’s architecture. Second, an actor could, again in theory, be considered as a joint controller of data that is not personal from that actor’s perspective. © 2021 Stephanie Rossello and Pierre Dewitte.

Una catastrofe vitale? Le scelte di politica sanitaria per far fronte al Covid-19

In early 2020, the Italian National Health Service (NHS) was affected by four kinds of distortion: cultural, penalising health prevention;functional, giving priority to hospital care;institutional, with a decentralised system lacking inter-regional solidarity;redistributive, tending to a differentiated universalism. These distortions strongly conditioned its ability to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. Selected measures represented mostly simple adjustments adopted in the emergency and determined by path dependency. Although they share the same critical features, reforms included in the 2021 National Recovery and Resilience Plan attempt a more significant action on the distortions, in order to pursue wider and partly structural changes. © 2021 Societa Editrice il Mulino. All rights reserved.

Decentralized Personal Cloud Data Model and its Application in Campus Health Information System

While the digital information age has brought us convenience in recent years. It has also brought many security risks. The centralized data storage poses the risk of data leakage. With the breakout of the Novel Coronavirus, it is common for schools to import the health management tools such as the body temperature monitoring system. If these health data are integrated together, it can facilitate school authorities to track students' health status, but centralized management has the risk of widespread data leakage. We propose a decentralized, personal cloud data model. The history of a student's health data will be stored only in each student's personal online datastore managed by Edu Pod, which is a student health information data management application that provides various services and mechanisms to secure the personal data in the Pod. By decentralizing the data to the students' individual Pods, it prevents the occurrence of large-scale data leaks by centralized management. We apply this model to the Campus Health Information System (CHIS) which we are studying in. The student's temperature data collected by face recognition will eventually be stored only in his or her personal Pod, which is a portable educational information storage unit, and the student can share the data with the university and any third-party health management software. The application of a centralized personal cloud data model can help students' personal data not be limited to a centralized server farm and can control their personal data more freely. It can also avoid information leakage and help to protect personal privacy at the same time. © 2021 IEEE.

Megacities vs. Urban Sprawl;Densifying vs. Social Distancing

Decentralization and the “15-minute city” are ideas that are currently being put forward to tackle urban challenges, but how will these issues be tackled in the design of tall buildings? What is the implication for these ideas in a future, pandemic-aware context? Can future vertical expansion be addressed through new models that take into account the same multiple and complex challenges currently being faced in the horizontal realm? It is time that we stop understanding vertical development in terms of autonomous single-program buildings, and instead approach it as the holistic extension of multiple urban systems along the vertical axis. © 2021, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. All rights reserved.

No man is an island: management of the emergency response to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) outbreak in a large public decentralised service delivery organisation.

BACKGROUND: We wanted to better understand whether and how agility can be achieved in a decentralised service delivery organisation in Sweden. The pandemic outbreak of SARS-Cov-2 (Covid-19) provided an opportunity to assess decentralisation as a strategy to improve the responsiveness of healthcare and at the same time handle an unpredictable and unexpected event. METHODS: Data from in-depth interviews with a crisis management team (n = 23) and free text answers in a weekly survey to subordinated clinical directors, i.e. unit managers, (n = 108) were scrutinised in a directed content analysis. Dynamic capabilities as a prerequisite for dynamic effectiveness, understood as reaching strategic and operative effectiveness simultaneously, were explored by using three frameworks for dynamic effectiveness, dynamic capabilities and delegated authority in a decentralised organisation. RESULTS: Unpredictable events, such as the pandemic Covid-19 outbreak, demand a high grade of ability to be flexible. We find that a high degree of operational effectiveness, which is imperative in an emergency situation, also is a driver of seeking new strategic positions to even better meet new demands. The characteristics of the dynamic capabilities evolving from this process are described and discussed in relation to decentralisation, defined by decision space, organisational and individual capacity as well as accountability. We present arguments supporting that a decentralised management model can facilitate the agility required in an emergency. CONCLUSIONS: This study is, to our knowledge, the first of its kind where a decentralised management model in a service delivery organisation in healthcare is studied in relation to crisis management. Although stemming from one organisation, our findings indicating the value of decentralisation in situations of crisis are corroborated by theory, suggesting that they could be relevant in other organisational settings also.

Democracy and Social Inequalities in the Organization of Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Brazil and Sweden

Challenges that arise during a time of crisis, as the current COVID-19 pandemic, are a basis for recognizing how different governments handle the governance of units such as schools and issues related to democracy and social inequality. By paying attention to similar or contrasting issues in the political welfare states’ characteristics and organization, the crisis's impact on different countries can be identified and can provide learning examples beyond the study's phenomena. Although Brazil and Sweden are historically and culturally diverse countries, they also share similarities in being politicized by global trends such as neoliberalism. The paper examines the two governments’ discourses and how centralization, decentralization, and neoliberalism and the resulting shift to privatized public services can form a basis for understanding declines in democracy and social inequality in education in both countries. The following research question guides the work, how are democracy and social inequality expounded in Brazil’s and Sweden’s way of organizing education during the COVID-19 pandemic? To investigate how democracy and social inequality were expounded in Brazil’s and Sweden’s way of organizing education during the COVID-19 pandemic, we used a quantitative ethnographic approach to analyze the governments’ discourses. With quantitative ethnographic techniques we identified how the states organized discussions and actions to investigate and solve socio-educational issues related to democracy and how access to resources for education related to inequalities. The governmental intensity of keeping the economy functioning was observed to be influenced by the advance of neoliberalism in both countries. In organizing the education during the COVID-19 pandemic, neoliberalism is pertaining to authoritarianism in Brazil and more culturally contingent actions related to the ethos - “openness” - in Sweden. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Novel virus, novel response: Local discretion and responses to COVID-19 in Hebei Province, China.

The Chinese Communist Party is consolidating one party rule under the leadership of Xi Jinping. Beijing seeks to rule by central mandate while limiting local autonomy. The central government response to the COVID-19 public health emergency reinforces this view. In January 2020 Beijing established the Central Epidemic Response Leading Group to mobilise a comprehensive nationwide policy effort to contain the virus. The exceptional nature of the COVID-19 national emergency allows the central government to project power over local authorities and leverage over citizens, but we argue that this is a short-term phenomenon because local disease control initiatives remain important, with local authorities adapting national policies to meet constituent needs. There are degrees of policy discretion and divergence at the subnational level that enable context-specific responses to the virus within China's strict bureaucratic hierarchy. Primary data derives from interviews and observations in Nancun village, Hebei Province, conducted from January to April 2020. Evidence from Nancun explains how local authorities interpret the edicts and mandates of the central government.