University of Delhi

This chapter reflects on sustainability in higher education as an issue of governance and strategy influenced by the means of international competition, ranking, and internationalization than an issue of epistemology. It states that sustainability initiatives are getting more institutionalized with performance measurement, benchmarking and visibility regimes that operationalize standardization, efficiency and reputational positioning. Based on the phenomenological, Indigenous, and post-humanist viewpoints, the chapter relies on ontology as a tool to examine the reasons why the relational, ethical, and normative aspects of sustainability are peripheral in competitive higher education systems. Sustainability proves to be a strategically useful yet institutionally limited policy field, which is not transformative but an international evaluative framework. It redefines sustainability by foregrounding competition and global governance as a disclosing instance by which the dynamics and constraints of performance-based higher education can be critically interpreted.

Manufacturing operations that emphasize environmental responsibility, product quality and end-of-life (EOL) management are increasingly adopted by firms. These steps are necessary due to increasing environmental legislation and a growing consumer demand for sustainable products. An advantageous approach to effectively addressing returned items within this framework is remanufacturing. The findings of this research explore the dynamic processes involved in the remanufacturing stages, namely the collection, sorting, and testing phase, as well as the development phase, which remanufactures the product, and how they affect the entire supply chain (SC) performance. The current research offers a unified strategy to thoroughly evaluate model responses across a wide range of variables by analysing the impact of key variables within these phases and employing various distribution functions to model their behaviour. A two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), an efficient analytical method in Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), is employed to evaluate the efficiency of the developed models. Research findings indicate that the initial phases of collection, sorting and testing are more efficient than the development phase. Furthermore, the findings show that the cooperative method yields more efficient outcomes than the leader-follower approach in the non-cooperative setting.

From early childhood through their lives, individuals need to emphasise the development of competence and achievement. The various types of competencies are applied by individuals in their personal and professional lives. As a consequence, they will make an important contribution to achieving the desired goals and objectives. The individuals need to be well-informed about various factors that facilitate the enhancement of competencies. The different types of factors are: implementing effective communication processes with family and community members generating information on various job duties and methodologies conducting research by utilising various sources and experience. Furthermore, the inculcation of traits of efficiency and adeptness facilitates the use of various competencies in a well-ordered, regimented manner. As a consequence, individuals will contribute to achieving desired goals and objectives in their personal lives, in educational programs at all levels, and across all types of employment settings. Hence, it is well understood that enhancing competence prepares individuals to achieve their desired goals and objectives in their personal and professional lives. Therefore, competence and achievement are essential to individuals personal and professional lives. The main concepts considered in this research paper are: understanding the meaning and significance of competence and achievement measures to enhance them and the advantages of implementing such measures.

Climate change poses a significant challenge to human civilisation, and human activities continue in accelerate it. Yet, the traditionalist view of security is not ready to reformulate its military and state-centric approaches, which are confined mainly to the sovereignty, integrity, and cohesion of the nation. However, climate change can lead to multi-dimensional security threats ranging from mass migration, poverty, sectarian conflicts, xenophobia and collateral damage across nations and boundaries. This issue can affect a nation’s welfare and ecology, and even its existence. It is high time for researchers and policymakers to examine a deeper, more comprehensive theory that can comprehend contemporary security challenges beyond the traditional security outlook in International Relations. So, the study seeks to apply the Non-Traditional Security framework to critically analyse the extent to which Bangladeshi migrants and their impacts on climate change and security concerns in India, particularly in the state of Assam.

Abstract Despite the expansion of research on South Asian courtesans, there has been no attempt at a critical historiography on courtesans alone. Within this larger gap, the specific connections between travel, mobility, and female performers in South Asia have not been adequately theorised. By making a critical intervention into the historiography of courtesans, we hope to aid in the establishment of what could be termed ‘South Asian courtesan studies’ as a recognised field of scholarship. Foregrounding the historical method for research into courtesans, the articles here show that beyond conventional ethnographic sources, there is a rich textual, visual, and material archive, largely unexplored until recently. They reveal both the transnational and local, and the spectacular and quotidian circuits of female performers’ travels. These include religious sites and participation in rites of passage like weddings but also extend beyond South Asia into the theatre spectacles and exhibitions of Europe. In the context of empire, this volume maps how female performers travelled in local, regional, and transnational contexts, and whether they were able to transcend the hypersexualised colonial trope of the ‘ nautch girl’. This special issue offers a sample of the new developments in this growing field to catalyse its further expansion.