eChapters

1. Introduction

Sustainability embodies an ecological vision aimed at fostering enduring human coexistence on Earth. Over time, its definition has evolved in literature and context, generating ongoing debate. Generally, experts frame sustainability around three pillars: social, economic, and environmental. While environmental concerns often dominate discussions, sustainability encompasses broader challenges like pollution, land degradation, biodiversity loss, climate change, and ecosystem service decline. This concept influences decision-making globally, politically, and personally.

Sustainable development, often used interchangeably with sustainability, is distinguished by UNESCO as a long-term objective versus the diverse processes and pathways to achieve it. Within the economic dimension, the tension between welfare and environmental preservation is explored through concepts like “weak and strong sustainability,” acknowledging the necessity of trade-offs. Ideal policies would aim to decouple environmental degradation from economic growth.

Introduction

A revolution is coming to the more than a century-old automobile industry. Electric vehicles (EVs) are viewed as a solution to a variety of problems, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fostering sustainable economic growth, improving air quality, and reducing the importation of fossil fuels. The demand for electric automobiles in India is rising. Incentives and programs have been launched by the federal and state governments to promote the usage of electric vehicles, and there are also regulations and standards in place. A consumer is a person or group that plans to purchase something, actually does so, or utilizes it for primarily social, family, domestic, or other non business or entrepreneurial activity-related objectives.

An asset that is an important criterion for evaluating the status of the consumer economy can be used to estimate consumer savings.

The concept of electric cars has been around for a while, but in the past ten years, it has gained a lot of attention due to the expanding carbon footprint and other environmental implications of fuel-powered cars. In contrast to an internal combustion engine, which generates power by burning a mixture of fuel and gases, an electric vehicle (EV) is propelled by an electric motor. When electricity was one of the favored sources of motor vehicle power in the late 19th century, electric vehicles (EVs) first made their appearance, providing a degree of comfort and usability that gasoline cars of the day were unable to equal.

Abstract

Agricultural development in India provides support to a large section of farmers who operate on small holdings and have very limited risk bearing capacity. Farmers are often exposed to natural vagaries, which adversely affect their agricultural production and farm income. Moreover, there is huge financial exclusion in rural sector of the nation. If there is a crop failure, farmers are crushed under the burden of debt. Farmers seek to avoid risk in terms of various managerial and institutional mechanisms. But it is widely believed that ‘Crop Insurance’ is the only institutional mechanism available against production risk in farming. Unfortunately, penetration of crop insurance schemes in India has been low in terms of the area of land insured and the number of farmers covered. There are the problems of low risk awareness and lack of insurance culture among the farmers. In this backdrop, the paper documents the findings of a survey of 140 farmers, which was taken up in some selected villages of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The study shows that likelihood of this awareness increases with increase in landholding size, education level, borrowing history and social participation of the farmers, whereas it decreases with the non-farm income and livestock of the farmers. The author proposes measures to promote and spread awareness of crop insurance among the farmers as a risk mitigation tool in farming, which will increase farm production and stabilize the fluctuation in farm income. The study provides valuable policy measures to the government in better designing of their crop insurance products and will also help the private agro-insurance business, which is recently taking off in the country.

Introduction

In the modern corporate landscape, the Glass Ceiling remains an enduring challenge, obstructing the path to leadership positions for qualified individuals based on gender. This study embarks on a comprehensive analysis of the persistent gender discrimination inherent in leadership roles within corporations.

With a primary focus on measurement, analysis, and assessment, the study seeks to quantify the current prevalence of the Glass Ceiling, elucidate the strategies adopted by large corporations in addressing bias, and evaluate the influence of personal factors in accelerating this phenomenon.

Grounded in empirical data and a commitment to factual precision, this research aims to contribute substantially to the ongoing discourse on gender equality in leadership. By revisiting the Glass Ceiling, this paper endeavours to not only shed light on the existing disparities but also provide nuanced insights that can inform corporate policies and societal endeavours to dismantle barriers obstructing the equitable progression of individuals within the professional realm.

Abstract

Our country is a place where people not only love the celebrities, but they worship celebrities, whether it is a Bollywood sensation like Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amitabh Bahchan, Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif or a sportsperson like Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Sania Mirza. In today’s scenario all the companies are coming up with celebrity endorsements to make their product different from the competitor’s product and also people can associate the brand/ product with specific celebrity and an easy way of remembering a particular product and creating demand. Different people have different perception about the advertisements they see and like this celebrity have created a good  reputation to the brands like many people perceive that the brands endorsed by celebrity are of good quality. whether the demographic variables play any role in forming the opinion of consumers so to take the view of people researcher have taken a sample of 1000 people consist of  different age groups, marital status, gender and different occupation to know  their opinion about celebrity with respect to FMCG sector. So, it is very important to know what impact it leaves on the consumer. For this purpose data has been collected through primary and secondary sources. The results of the report revealed that age is not significant in celebrity endorsement while other three parameters gender, marital status and occupation are significant.

Introduction

Virtual supply chain management is the digital representation of inventory data that the managers manage from anywhere in the world. In the 1980s, when the proliferation of computers gave more importance to the human resource, f inance, and manufacturing units communicating with each other for better quality work, that led to enterprise resource planning, and slowly each task of supply chain management started virtualizing in its full length.

A virtual supply chain has advantages such as better inventory control, shorter lead times, quicker order fulfilment, increased supply chain visibility, more accurate demand forecasts, and higher customer satisfaction. It gives businesses the ability to make the most use of their resources, cut expenses and lessen waste throughout the supply chain.

However, putting in place a virtual supply chain calls for thorough planning technology integration, and network-wide process alignment. Overcoming obstacles like data security, interoperability, and change management are all part of it. To fully reap the rewards of a virtual supply chain, businesses must also invest in technical infrastructure, training courses, and partnerships.

1. Introduction

Sustainability embodies an ecological vision aimed at fostering enduring human coexistence on Earth. Over time, its definition has evolved in literature and context, generating ongoing debate. Generally, experts frame sustainability around three pillars: social, economic, and environmental. While environmental concerns often dominate discussions, sustainability encompasses broader challenges like pollution, land degradation, biodiversity loss, climate change, and ecosystem service decline. This concept influences decision-making globally, politically, and personally.

Sustainable development, often used interchangeably with sustainability, is distinguished by UNESCO as a long-term objective versus the diverse processes and pathways to achieve it. Within the economic dimension, the tension between welfare and environmental preservation is explored through concepts like “weak and strong sustainability,” acknowledging the necessity of trade-offs. Ideal policies would aim to decouple environmental degradation from economic growth.

Environmental sustainability is pursued through various means such as ecosystem preservation, collaborative resource management, reducing food waste, advocating plant-based diets, managing fertility rates to curb population growth, and transitioning away from fossil fuels towards clean energy and innovative green technologies.

Introduction

The phrase “sustainable” has been used so much in recent years-and frequently so imprecisely—that for many people, it has become meaningless or confused, more of a rhetorical chant than a source of useful advice. Lester Brown, the founder of the World Watch Institute, defined a sustainable society as one that can meet its requirements without compromising the opportunities for future generations. This definition is the one that we come across most frequently. Brown wrote this description in the early 1980s. The Brundtland Report, a 1987 United Nations report, addressed this issue and defined sustainable development as development that satisfies present demands without jeopardising the ability of future generations to satiate their own. Despite their obvious limitations speaking simply of human wants, for example, without reference to the natural world-these are significant moral exhortations. They do serve as a helpful reminder that it is our duty to provide our kids and grandkids with an equally abundant planet as we did, but they offer no guidance on how to truly create a sustainable society. When air, water, and minerals interact with living things to fill a specific region, it is referred to as an ecosystem (Tansley, 1935). This word was first used in 1935. Before then, the main goals of land management had been to provide a single item, like food or lumber, or to conserve a single, iconic species.

Definition-Purpose of abstract-Types of abstract-Abstract Styles-Steps for Writing Effective Abstracts- Some Do’s Don’ts in preparing abstracts.

Definitions

The word abstract comes from the Latin word abstractum, which means a condensed form of a longer piece of writing. Abstracts are important parts of reports and research papers and sometimes academic assignments. The abstract is often the last item that you write, but the first thing people read when they want to have a quick overview of the whole paper. We suggest you leave writing the abstract to the end, because you will have a clearer picture of all your findings and conclusions.

An abstract is a paragraph that provides an overview of a paper. Abstracts should be between 100 and 200 words long and usually contain a list of keywords at the end to help readers identify the main points of the paper. While abstract requirements differ across academic disciplines, there are two main types of abstracts: humanities abstracts and scientific abstracts.

Purpose of abstracts?

Abstracts typically serve five main goals:

“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.”

- Albert Einstein

Motivation– An inner state of need or desire that activates an individual to do something that will satisfy that need or desire.

The processes that are responsible for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.

Key Elements

1. Intensity: how hard a person tries
2. Direction: toward the beneficial goal
3. Persistence: how long a person tries

The success of a TTO relies on a systematic approach encircling factors like assessment, valuation, marketing, negotiation, and post-transfer management (fi gure 8). This chapter covers the activities that are essential for the effective functioning of a TTO. Other activies Technology Assessement /Valuation Financial Managemnt Major Activities of technology transfer office Commercialization IP Management Fostering Innovation
Fig 8: Various activities of TTOs.
3.1 Technology assessment - A pillar of innovation commercialization
The process of transitioning an innovative technology to commercial reality requires a stringent and formal process known as technology assessment. This early stage is crucial as it determines the viability of an invention by analysing practicability of the invention as well as its uniqueness and the likelihood of it being adopted in the target markets. In the absence of this preliminary examination, the chance of technology’s potential being mismatched to the market can arise.
a) Scientific merit and technical feasibility
A key benchmark in assessing technologies involves the identification of
scientific validity and technical performance. An innovation’s viability depends on the fact that it complies with good scientific practice or the innovative application of a new paradigm that has empirically confirmable validity. It is important to determine whether the invention’s underlying mechanism can be reliably proven through established scientific practice. A working prototype allows for empirical testing in different conditions and serves as proof of practical application. In addition to that, scalability has to be tested critically. It often happens that innovations perform well in a controlled laboratory setting but lose efficiency or cost-effectiveness in the case of mass production. The viability of the implementation on a grand scale becomes a core concern in this phase of the evaluation.

Global agricultural research, an essential field in ensuring food security and sustainable development, is heavily influenced by the academic and publishing ecosystems in Europe and North America. This chapter examines the challenges faced by researchers from developing regions, focusing on limited representation in editorial boards, barriers to accessing high-impact journals, and the overarching dominance of Western institutions (Fig. 9.1).
These issues underscore the need for greater inclusivity and recognition of regional expertise to foster a more equitable global research landscape.
9.1. Dominance of Europe and North America in Agricultural Research
Publishing
The dominance of Europe and North America in agricultural research publishing is evident from the distribution of international journals in agriculture and allied disciplines. Approximately 75% of these journals originate from these regions. Breaking this down further:
• Europe accounts for 43.6% of international journals, with leading contributors including the United Kingdom (14.1%), the Netherlands (8.5%), Germany (6.2%), France (4.3%), Italy (3.5%), and other European countries (7.0%).
• North America contributes 31.4%, with the United States alone publishing 28.5% and Canada accounting for 2.9%.

14.1 Introduction

In this chapter, we have to present the review matters related to the theory of the “Classical Linear Regression Model (C.L.R.M.) and Testing of Significance of Statistical Hypothesis”. Here, I have to provide the references about the topics and the names of the books from where the readers can refer about the availability of the subject matters (preliminaries, procedures and interpretations) of numerical results obtained through the statistical analysis carried out for the empirical studies considered there in.

Biomedical signals provide valuable information about physiological conditions and support continuous health monitoring. This chapter introduces ECG, EEG, EMG, PPG, respiratory and blood-pressure signals and examines the challenges associated with their acquisition and interpretation. It discusses noise removal, filtering, normalization, resampling and artifact correction before presenting time-domain, frequency-domain, time–frequency, wavelet and nonlinear feature-extraction methods. Feature selection and dimensionality reduction are considered in relation to model accuracy and clinical interpretability. The chapter also explores machine learning, deep learning and hybrid approaches through applications involving arrhythmia detection, seizure prediction and wearable cardiovascular monitoring, highlighting their importance in intelligent and personalized healthcare.

Abstract
This chapter explores the current landscape and future potential of agricultural exports from Bihar, a state with significant agrarian strengths yet modest global trade participation. Despite contributing robustly to India’s production of fruits, vegetables, rice, and livestock, Bihar’s share in national exports remains below 1%. The chapter presents a comprehensive analysis of Bihar’s agricultural export trends, identifying key commodities such as Shahi Litchi, Katarni Rice, Jardalu mangoes, and millets and highlights emerging opportunities through Geographical Indication (GI) tags and high-value crops. A SWOT analysis underscores Bihar’s strategic advantages, such as fertile soil and agro-climatic diversity, alongside weaknesses like infrastructure deficits, low market integration and poor access to export logistics. The chapter further outlines key threats such as flood prone regions, poor irrigation infrastructure, and limited cold storage capacity, while also examining growth potential through investment in multimodal transport, agriprocessing zones, and farmer training. Policy suggestions include the development of export policies financial incentives and SEZs to boost Bihar’s export readiness. Overall, the chapter emphasizes the importance of targeted strategies to transform Bihar into a competitive agri-export hub benefiting smallholder farmers and enhancing rural livelihoods.
Keywords: Bihar Economy, Geographical Indications, Export Infrastructure, Agri-Export Policy and SWOT Analysis

Abstract
The village Kakching Khunou of Thoubal District, Manipur is found highly suitable for Watermelon cultivation. Mr. Thokchom Nganthoi Singh a young
farmer who is a novice in agri-business proved to be successful agri-business of watermelon in Kakching Khunou. The study noted that prominent extension approach was of farmer-to-farmer extension while venturing the enterprise. The total cost for cultivation of watermelon was around `50000-60000/- per Ha with a profit of ` 1,50,000/- per Ha. In three years (2016-18) the farmer mark as success in cultivation of watermelon and also started cultivating cucumber and other vegetable crops in his small farm successfully.
Keywords: Watermelon, Agri-business, Farmer, Kakching Khunou
Introduction
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), family Cucurbitaceae originated from West- Africa augurs well as a very promising scrambler and trailer fruit plant.

Agribusiness: A Dynamic Concept
Agribusiness, an ever-evolving concept since its introduction in the 1950s, encompasses a broad spectrum of business and management activities linked to agriculture. Downey and Erickson defined agribusiness as encompassing all activities undertaken by firms that supply inputs to the farming sector, produce agricultural products, and process, transport, finance, or market these products. Chait extended the definition to include agriculturally related businesses such as warehouses, wholesalers, processors, and retailers.
In developed countries, agribusiness is broadly defined as the total output from farm production and processing at both pre- and post-farm gate stages. In contrast, in developing nations like India, agribusiness is categorized into four distinct sub-sectors:
1. Agricultural inputs
2. Agricultural production
3. Agro-processing
4. Marketing and trade
These sub-sectors contribute to adding value and utility to agricultural goods. Agribusiness has emerged as a specialized field within management sciences, focusing on activities and linkages, both backward and forward, related to production, processing, marketing, trade, and distribution of food, feed, and fiber, along with the supply of inputs and services.
Examples of Agribusiness Ventures
• Vermicompost
• Poultry Farming
• Mushroom Cultivation
• Beekeeping
• Livestock Feed Production

1.    The concept of agribusiness was born in Harvard University in the year____________.

(a) 1947

(b) 1956

(c) 1967

(d) 2006

2.    In agriculture education system, the concept of “Agribusiness” was first time used by

(a) John Davis

(b) P F Drucker

(c) Henery Foyal

(d) F.W. Taylor

Public Finance

Public finance is a branch of economics which deals with the income and expenditure of public authorities such as Central Government, State Government, Corporations, Municipalities etc. Public finance, according to Adam Smith, is the study of the nature and guiding principles of government spending and revenue.

Micro Finance vs. Macro Finance

Microfinance and macro finance represent two types of funding-related activities. The difference lies in their scope. Microfinance is an individual-focused, community-based approach to provide money and/or fnancial services to money to poor individuals or small businesses who lack access to mainstream or conventional resources. 

Abstract

This chapter explains the cooperation which create social relations that help individuals achieve goals that they could not achieve alone. They also help farmers benefit from economies of scale and reduce risks, and empower their members economically and socially by involving them in decision-making processes.