Search results

The purpose of this research was to reflect on the enablers, challenges and ethical considerations in conducting qualitative research with young children using online methods. The aim was to suggest recommended practices to be put in place for researchers conducting online focus groups and interviews with young children.

This research article explores the use of Zoom video conferencing as a tool to collect qualitative data with young children in Singapore, as an alternative to face-to-face interviews. Taking a child-centred participatory approach, children shared their perspectives of their experiences of child agency in school and at home through their drawings, pictures and dialogue in online group interviews. Schon's model of reflective practice was used to guide the researchers' process of reflections during the research project.

Screen sharing and real-time nature of interactions of Zoom video conferencing enabled building of rapport and children's narratives to be developed while group size and the effect of parental influence provided challenges and ethical issues that needed to be addressed in the research process. Researcher withitness emerged as an essential quality in successful engagement of children in an online focus group discussion.

Online video conferencing platforms like Zoom provide a powerful alternative tool for participatory research with children. It challenges researchers to share control of the interactions and data collection process with children. However, parental interference and effect on data may present itself as a research limitation if not navigated well.

Group size of the focus group has an impact on children's engagement levels and wait time for their turn to speak during group interviews. While parents' presence during the online interview ensured child safety and a comforting presence for the child, parents should also understand their role in the study to avoid interfering with the data collection process.

The Zoom platform resembled onsite interviews' spontaneity of exchanges which allowed the researchers to build rapport with children through small-talk and icebreaker activities. Establishing personal connections and building of trust were essential elements in ensuring children were comfortable participating in the interviews. Observing real-time behaviour and body language of children also allowed for indication of withdrawal of consent and participation by the children.

This research adds new insights to the emerging discussions on collecting data from children via online video platforms with suggestions of new strategies and recommendations to overcome challenges, as well as future implications and potential of using Zoom as an alternative tool for participatory research with children. This research conducted in Singapore provides an Asian context and is different from current literature on this topic, largely focused on western countries' reports.

This paper aims to analyze the status of infrastructure, workforce and basic amenities at public health-care facilities in rural India and draw a comparison with its urban counterparts.

Rural Health Statistics data and National Sample Survey Office Report for the period 2019–10 were used to analyze lower-level public health facilities, namely, subcenters, primary health centers and community health centers (CHCs). Selected tracer indicators under World Health Organization’s (WHO) Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) mechanism such as health center density, core health workforce density and basic amenities were used to carry out the analysis. The extent of facility coverage was measured using the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) guidelines and the proportion of facilities satisfying the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) was measured to assess the service provision quality in rural public health-care facilities.

Results indicated that the density of public health centers is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Almost all public health-care facilities lack basic amenities in rural areas. Working positions for health specialists in CHCs barely meet the total requirement. Almost all of the public health facilities functioning in rural areas do not meet the IPHS norms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present paper is the first initiative to assess the status of rural public health-care facilities on the national level using WHO’s SARA indicators as well as NRHM and IPHS guidelines. The study is significant in terms of policy input for achieving universal health coverage in India.

Urban heritage management is motivated by the alarming rise in destruction of historic buildings; the implementation of pointless urbanization plans and uncontrolled commercial development threatening to overwhelm our historic built heritage. Hence, there is an immediate need for urban heritage planning in historic towns, especially in India where urban growth is rampant. The purpose of this paper is to examine how development in the historic temple town of Kumbakonam can be managed by using a holistic approach that preserves the town’s historic flavor, sacred traditions and built heritage.

The historic center of Kumbakonam has been surveyed and is the focus of this study. Utilizing a case study methodology, the authors made multiple field visits to document the special heritage character of the town, conducted interviews with people living in the study area and evaluated the existing policies and guidelines for development of Tamil Nadu in view of the holistic approach.

The study reinforced the belief that the historic temple town of Kumbakonam has significant urban heritage worthy of preservation. However, due to chaotic and ill-planned urban development, changing land use, intrusion of contemporary architectural styles, commercialization and the lack of strong policy guidelines for holistic management, the special heritage character of the town is threatened with continued destruction.

This research on Kumbakonam can help urban planners to develop viable heritage management programs for other historic temple towns of Tamil Nadu. The authors describe and evaluate some guidelines for retaining the social and cultural flavor as well as the built heritage of towns like Kumbakonam by taking a holistic approach.

Up to now, there has been no attempt to come up with comprehensive management guidelines for integrating the unique urban heritage characteristics of the historic temple towns of Tamil Nadu in plans for urbanization.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the socio-economic factors related to household solid waste generation and its type based on field surveys in South Delhi Municipal Corporation area in Delhi, India.

This paper develops a framework to systematically identify the socio-economic factors related to household waste generation and its type. The framework uses both primary and secondary data. The primary data are collected through the instruments of questionnaire and interviews, and the secondary data are collected from the literature available in public domain. Multinomial logistic models are developed. The models are analyzed using the SPSS software version 22.0.

The study reports that socio-economic parameters like monthly income of the family, number of family members, occupation, education are statistically significant predictors. Further, detailed disaggregated models reveal more insights that are not apparent otherwise, such as the number of females can also be a significant factor for a targeted socio-economic group.

The results can help in forecasting the resource requirement for waste collection, establishment of processing facilities and other policy planning measures for effective waste management, as summarized in the discussion.

A systematic process to determine resource requirement according to socio-economic (and consequently spatial) group constitute an important component of the novelty of this study. Further, it provides new insights on the role of various socio-economic factors in determining the quantity and composition of household waste, e.g. quantity and type of waste can also be affected by male and female qualification within a socio-economic category.

The chapter explores the challenges in the financial education of the new generation under the influence of digital transformation, building awareness, and compliance with the new model of society. The rapid development of technology significantly influences our daily lives, thus making us look at the progress of various processes differently, thus facilitating the social and professional performance of subjects. The need for a comprehensive, fast, and logical personality is growing in a society that can analyse a set of different interconnections, draw logical conclusions, and assess risks. The impact of technology is particularly felt in educating future financiers, as accounting, financial analysis, and financial management decision-making have long been unthinkable without the skills to use various computer programmes, big data processing, and visualisation of financial information using the latest information technology tools. The survey was organised to collect data from student questionnaires. The questionnaire analysis allows for assessing students’ digital competences, advantages and drawbacks of the digitalisation process, and university challenges in the digital transformation process as well as detecting the areas that require additional attention to make digital transformation effective. Digital transformation significantly changes the ecosystem, and the level of students’ abilities and skills is also a variable. Therefore, it is important to identify the readiness of the participants in the higher education system for new challenges and to use the limited resources as efficiently as possible to prepare the financial specialists necessary for the development of society.

In early 2013, Mr. Deepak Kumar, Chairman and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip1 (MMT), summoned a meeting to discuss about redesigning the MMT Homepage2. It was a three-hour meeting at the Hindustan Conference Room at the company's head office in Gurgaon, India. Theis meeting was attended by key members of the homepage website redesign team comprising the CBO, Analytics head, User Experience (UX) head, Product head and the Tech head (CTO). As a pre-read for the meeting, Ajay Singh, Product Head, shared his findings3 that could help in defining the issues faced by visitors to the homepage of MMT.

Adult learning has been significantly impacted by the massive open online courses (MOOCs). All the preceding literature have mentioned about MOOCs. The current study, however, aims to look into how the MOOC has affected higher education. This study looks into how MOOCs have affected higher education in Gwalior and the nearby areas. Its primary goal is to investigate the crucial elements of creating the teaching and learning processes employed in Gwalior and the surrounding areas by utilizing open-source courses (MOOCs) in higher education. An analytical and descriptive technique was used in this study. The required information was gathered using a quantitative survey. All academics and students in Gwalior and the surrounding areas made up the study population. The findings of the analyses show that MOOCs have a significant direct impact on higher education by enhancing educational achievements (p = 0.001), which is consistent with H1. Additionally, a 65% boost in educational results was attributed to MOOCs. The results demonstrate that MOOCs have a beneficial impact on higher education.

This paper aims to study the implications of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee engagement in selected Indian business giants to which CSR spending is mandatory as per the Companies Act 2013. Researcher also has an intention of preparing working model for increasing employee engagement through CSR.

Researcher has collected the primary data from HR officials, CSR officials and employees of 23 organisations belonging to 10 main industrial sectors of India. The organisations selected for the data collection belong to India’s top 100 organisations as per Bombay Stock Exchange fulfilling a particular criterion. The effect of employee participation in CSR on employee engagement is been studied by identifying four parameters of employee engagement on which the employee participation in CSR may have some effect. The data are analysed with the help of Z test for proportion.

The major findings of the paper of the study includes that employee participation in CSR positively effects the employee engagement, as it helps in increasing four specifically identified parameters of employee engagement.

The study is limited to the specific area of the effect of employee participation in CSR on employee engagement that too with respect to selected Indian business giants.

On the basis of this study, a theoretical model of CSR and employee engagement is proposed at the end of this paper. The model is expected to work as a guideline to the organisations, which want to improve employee engagement through CSR.

This research is one of its kinds that study the effect of employee participation in CSR on employee engagement. Moreover this research study considers the selected large-scale businesses of India which is the only country having 2% mandatory CSR spending to the organisation fulfilling the specific criteria.