eChapters

Introduction

After working for more than 10 years in set of private companies, Mr. A K Aggarwal joined a very large government organisation, ITN Ltd (ITNL) (refer to Exhibit 1). He, along with other two freshly recruited MBA graduates, was posted to a project location in the remote district of India after a brief stint at ITNL's corporate office. The top management posted them with a lot of expectation to implement one of the most critical projects of the company. In the first few weeks only, he observed a tussle between the field team and project manager Mr. Amaresh Sharma. This tussle was impeding the project progress. Being new in the organisation, Mr Aggarwal was hesitant to approach any body and was clueless about how to handle the situation. This was also a new situation for Mr. Sharma in his 20 years of ITNL career and he was facing difficulty in breaking this logjam.

What is Case Analysis?

Case analysis is basically a real life problem-based learning method. It requires the readers to become active participant in the process and apply their analytical skills including critical skills, reflections, ability to inter-relate multiple aspects of the situations and issues, apply divergent and convergent perspectives in order to identify most feasible solution under constraints and limitations.

How to go about Analysing Case?

Every case and anecdotes have certain core and peripheral issues. Identifying critical incidence is very important to clearly understand the context and problem. Therefore, the participants need to be very active and involved when reading and analysing the cases and anecdotes. The goal is to follow a structured and logically organized format for analyzing every aspect of the case.

In simple words, Organisational Behaviour is the study of Individuals and Group behaviour within an organisation and indicates how these interactions affect an organization's performance toward its goals. It also examines the impact of various factors on behaviour within an organization and help in understanding and predicting organisational life.

Organizational Behaviour is a 'Specialised Stream' drawing inputs from multiple academic domains such as psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, science, economics, and technology to name a few.

Types of Biomedical Waste

1. Infectious waste: waste contaminated with blood and other bodily fluids (e.g. from discarded diagnostic samples), cultures and stocks of infectious agents from laboratory work (e.g. waste from autopsies and infected animals from laboratories), or waste from patients with infections (e.g. swabs, bandages and disposable medical devices)

2. Pathological waste: human tissues, organs or fluids, body parts and contaminated animal dead bodies

What is A Smart Energy Home?

Smart homes use internet - connected devices to enable remote monitoring and management of appliances and systems, such as temperature, lighting, and security cameras. Smart energy homes take a step beyond the gadget-filled smart home to focus on bringing smart functionality to major household energy-using systems like HVAC, water heating, and plug loads (including appliances and electronics).

Climate change impacts

• Climate change is a crucial factor behind cyclone Tauktae

• Global ocean has absorbed 90% of the excess heat generated by greenhouse gas emissions since 1970

• Led to anomalous ocean warming in Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, which in turn makes cyclones intensify rapidly

• India will see more frequent cyclones every year due to global warming

Nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities by the year 2050, and cities currently pump out 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings alone contribute nearly 40% of emissions. This is also true for Indian cities, which are responsible for 40% of the energy use, 30% of raw material use, and 20% of land use. The residential and commercial buildings account for 31 % of the electricity consumption and are rising at 10-12 % annually. As per estimates, approximately 75% of the building stock that India will see in the year 2047 is yet to be built. For all these issues, renewable energy is the major solution.

Introduction

Developing means of farming and agriculture is the reason humans can live in the world today. It is a necessary means of survival, without which there would be famines all over the world. For thousands of years, agriculture was a natural process that did not harm the land it was done on. In fact, farmers were able to pass down their land for many generations, and it would still be fertile as ever.

However, modern agricultural practices have started the process of agricultural pollution. This process causes the degradation of the ecosystem, land, and environment due to the modern-day by-products of agriculture.

Introduction

India has vast livestock resources. Livestock sector includes animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries sector. Livestock provides livelihood to two-third of rural community and employment to about 8.8 % of the population in India. Livestock sector contributes 4.11% GDP and 25.6% of total Agriculture GDP. It provides milk and milk products, meat and meat products, and also constitutes a major supplier of food and food articles, raw materials, and finished products.

Commercial Building

Commercial buildings consist of government buildings, banks, hospitals, schools, malls, retail, restaurants, and office spaces. Among these, office and retail occupy the major percentage of energy consumption. 

More than 40% of the total final energy consumption and about 30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are in connection with the civil and residential sector.

Maximum energy consumption in commercial buildings by HVAC system (51% followed by appliances and food service equipment (20%), lighting(12%), electronics and information technology(9%) and water (8%).

Introduction: Indoor Air Pollution

People think that while they are indoors, they are breathing clean air. After all, pollution is found outside, and indoor air is filtered through the HVAC system.

Indoor air can have significantly higher concentrations of pollution than air found outside. Plenty of evidences exists. Global Burden of Disease Risk lists indoor air pollution as the ninth biggest health risk.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a complicated concept. The most often cited definition comes from the U.N. World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED): “Sustainable development is the development that fulfills the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their requirements.” Hence, sustainability has been defined as meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Introduction

Eco-friendly interior design is an important consideration for anyone who wants to create a healthy, sustainable, and beautiful space.

Environmental impact: The materials used in interior design can have a significant impact on the environment. Eco-friendly materials are made from renewable resources, reduce waste, and often have a lower carbon footprint than traditional materials.

Introduction

India’s textile sector is one of the oldest industries in the Indian economy, dating back several centuries. The industry is highly varied, with hand-spun and hand woven textiles sectors at one end of the spectrum and the capital-intensive sophisticated mill sector at the other. The fundamental strength of the textile industry in India is its strong production base of a wide range of fiber/yarns, from natural fibers like cotton, jute, silk, and wool, to synthetic/man-made fibers like polyester, viscose, nylon, and acrylic.

Introduction

Energy conservation is the practice of using less energy to lower costs and reduce environmental impact.

A majority percentage of energy used in buildings is still from non - renewable and fossil fuel resources. Lighting and Appliances are affecting energy demand in domestic sector.

Reasons for increased energy demand

• Increase in electrical appliance ownership

• Increasing income level and reliable access

• Rise of Lighting and appliance loads

Introduction

We have now started to feel the impacts of climate change, as a threat to our health, directly as heat stress on our bodies, and indirectly as it damages crops, and causes storms, floods and wildfires (IPCC, 2022). People working in fields or factories, or in the open, suffer the most. Buildings are our first defense as we learn to adapt to these changes. Resilient buildings that provide passive cooling can protect us better from heat waves, buildings designed to withstand storms and f loods can provide better shelter, and net-zero buildings that produce and store their own energy can enable critical operations when the electric grid is down.

Project management in recent years has proliferated, reaching new heights of sophistication. It has emerged as a distinct area of management practices to meet the challenges of new economic environment, globalization process, rapid technological advancement, and quality concerns of the stakeholders. Project in general refers to a new endeavour with specific objective and varies so widely that it is very difficult to precisely define it or Project is a unique process, consist of a set of coordinated and controlled activities with start and finish dates, undertaken to achieve an objective confirming to specific requirements, including the constraints of time cost and resource.

Writing funded project proposals involves crafting detailed documents tailored to specific purposes, such as consulting project proposals or sponsored research projects. For instance, a consulting project proposal emphasizes understanding a client's needs, offering solutions, and outlining services to address those needs effectively. On the other hand, sponsored research proposals focus on academic or scientific exploration, detailing methodologies, expected outcomes, and potential impacts within a scholarly context.

Bibliometric Analysis

1. What is?

Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative research method used to examine and analyze the bibliographic data present in scientific publications.

2. It involves?

The systematic evaluation of publication patterns, citation relationships, and other bibliographic characteristics to gain insights into the scholarly landscape.

3. How?

By applying various metrics and indicators, bibliometric analysis helps researchers and institutions assess research impact, identify emerging trends, map collaborations, and make informed decisions.

Project Planning Matrix

• Generally, a project represents a single, focused effort. Programs are collections of projects together that constitute a complete package of work. The program's overall objectives are achieved through the complementarily of the various projects.
• The PPM is a matrix of four columns and four rows providing sixteen squares for a comprehensive description of a project.
• PPM shows both the project's logical structure (the links between the inputs/activities and the objectives to be achieved under certain Assumptions), and its major quantitative data.