The students-related factors are cited as the most important determinants of students’ academic achievement. Among these factors, “study habits” was researched by several researchers keen to investigate how it influences students’ academic achievement. The objective of this paper is to highlight which aspects or components of study habits that were mostly associated to students’ academic performance. A systematic literature review was conducted throughout a comprehensive search of papers published between 2020 and 2025 on different online databases. The results of the thematic analysis revealed that time management, followed by taking exam and then note taking along with reading are the top components of the students’ study habits that influence positively the students’ academic performance. After those habits, other habits, such as motivation, followed by memorization, space, setting goals, and concentration were identified as students’ study habits also positively correlated to the students’ academic performance in the order they are grouped. Accordingly, it is recommended that teachers do everything possible to not only teach the subject to students but also to teach them how to learn with increased support on different study habits highlighted by this study. Parents are also encouraged to help their children to adopt good study habits.

For several centuries, Indian languages have been grouped into the Aryan and Dravidian families. This system impacted linguistic studies for many years. Despite this binary categorization, it often overlooks significant historical contacts, structural resemblances, and cultural exchanges among these languages. The study presents the idea of Bhartiya Bhasha Pariwar as a linguistic framework that focuses on connectivity instead of isolation. The research illustrates the evolution of Aryan and Dravidian languages throughout time, influenced by phonetic patterns, lexical borrowings, syntactic links, and associated literary and cultural activities. The study continues by criticizing colonial language paradigms and supporting an indigenous perspective that recognizes the potential for unity among the many languages in India. The proposed framework enhances comprehension of Indian languages collectively and contributes to contemporary linguistic discourse by presenting a culturally Indian language categorization and analytical approach that encompasses all languages.

Kenya's transition from the 8-4-4 education system to the competency based Education (CBE) in 2017 represented a major shift towards a learner focused approach that emphasizes hands- on skills, analytical thinking and ongoing evaluation. This research examines how the Competency Based Education evaluation framework functions within junior secondary schools located in Hamisi Sub County - a setting representative of Kenya's varied socio economic and educational landscape. It explores the extent to which CBE promotes essential skills across cognitive, psychomotor and emotional learning areas, while also highlighting obstacles such as inadequate teacher preparation, scarcity of teaching resources and underachievement in foundational subjects like English and mathematics. Information was gathered using structured questionnaires alongside comprehensive interviews with 21 strategically chosen participants including educators, school leaders and curriculum experts from six different institutions. To ensure the credibility and consistency of research tools, validation and reliability assessments were conducted based on established protocols outlined by Borg. The numerical data underwent analysis using SPSS software and were visually summarized through charts, tables and frequency distributions. Meanwhile, the qualitative responses were explored through thematic coding technique inspired by Creswell, enabling the identification of central themes and linking the results to relevant academic studies. The findings indicate that Competency Based Education holds promise for enriching education through learner focused and skill driven methodologies. However, immediate enhancements are necessary in areas such as teacher training, institutional resources and assessment frameworks. The research strictly adhered to ethical protocols, with informed consent and confidentiality maintained throughout. By providing context specific perspectives, this study adds valuable contributions to the wider discourse on CBE and offers practical guidance for shaping policies and improving implementation strategies.

Communication is a crucial aspect of human interaction and generally relies on a mutual language either verbally or non-verbally to construct that communication. However, in the context of society, there are many deaf and hard of hearing people who are not able to communicate using these common methods. This prevents them from gaining equal access to society by limiting their access to opportunities and ostracizing them. Here we propose a real-time system that recognizes US Sign Language – one of many sign languages from across the world – using a number of machine learning based image processing techniques. This system makes use of Python using multiple external libraries and architectures- Media Pipe for real-time hand tracking, OpenCV for deep image processing, Tensorflow for state-of-the-art deep learning, and scikit-learn to refine the computer vision. A Random Forest Classifier is used to classify hand landmarks coming from MediaPipe for the static representation of the sign language. In our system we build the foundational processing, feature extraction, and classification steps required to recognize a set of US Sign Language gestures with strong performance and generalization. The system can work in low-light and awkward lighting situations with occasional gesture misclassification and remain robust to occlusion, multiple gesture forms, and other encountered phenomena. This has the potential to improve all aspects of life for persons who utilize sign language for communication as well as continue the progress in human-computer interaction and inclusive access for all humans. Future work will involve deep learning architectures, sample and preprocessing optimization, and increased dataset collection to create a classifier capable of recognizing complex sign language structures. This is just the beginning of future work at the intersection of sign language and computer vision.

Jean Patrick Modiano ( Nobel Laureate for literature in 2014 is a contemporary voice of post war France since the second half of the 20th century whose literary imaginings can best be studied within the gamut of French and Francophone studies. Modiano raises the concerns of the Jews (a racial group) and the other immigrant communities in his fictions. The predicament of the uprooted individuals due to war and persecution who are in search of home and security primarily draws Modiano’s literary attention. The endless struggle of those people makes him engage with identity problems. Those people have no past and if they have any, it heads them towards an unpleasant one. The article is an investigation to locate Modiano as a diasporic writer by a close reading of his fictions: La Place de l'Étoile , Missing Person and In Café of Lost Youth.

Abstract Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has emerged globally as a preventive public health intervention with the potential to strengthen resilience, mental health, and life outcomes among students. Despite its promise, the enactment of SEL in schools often suffers from systemic and pedagogical inconsistencies. This paper examines SEL through the dual lens of educational psychology and public health, situating classroom practice within broader ecological and institutional contexts. Drawing upon meta-analyses, international program evaluations, and policy frameworks, the study highlights SEL’s positive effects on academic achievement, emotional regulation, pro-social behaviour, and long-term adult wellbeing. At the same time, it identifies a persistent belief–practice gap shaped by teachers’ limited training, institutional constraints, and uneven policy translation. By synthesizing evidence from large-scale interventions, randomized controlled trials, and case studies across diverse contexts, the article clarifies how SEL can act as both a protective factor against dropout and risk behaviors and a promoter of resilience and equity. The scope of analysis extends beyond programmatic implementation to the structural factors—teacher competence, resource allocation, and institutional support—that determine success. The findings affirm that SEL must be framed not merely as a classroom innovation but as a systemic public health measure embedded in school culture and supported by policy mandates. This integrative perspective contributes to ongoing scholarly debates by reframing SEL as a critical tool for preventive education, highlighting its transformative potential when consistently implemented across educational and social systems.

This article examines how cultural practices shape and control the female body by analysing two monthly rituals of Asia: Chhaupadi in Nepal and Tuloni Biya in Assam, India. Nepal represents an institutionalized form of menstrual exclusion, where Chhaupadi has drawn legal and humanitarian attention for its severe health and human rights implications. Women and girls are banished to sheds during menstruation, symbolically and physically separated from social and domestic spaces, reinforcing patriarchal norms of pollution and impurity. Assam, on the other hand, presents a celebratory form through Tuloni Biya, a ritual performed upon a girl’s first menstruation, which operates not through exclusion but through ritual affirmation that reinforces notions of purityand gendered expectations tied to womanhood.By applying a post-structuralistand Foucauldian framework, the paper examines how both practices, despite appearing culturally distinct, are reinforced by similar technologies of power that control and normalise the female body. The analysis further explores how these rituals institutionalize gender hierarchies: Chhaupadi through overt exclusion and bodily confinementand Tuloni Biya through symbolic celebration that covers the internalization of patriarchal values. In both cases, the menstruating body is rendered a site of cultural inscription, where biological difference is translated into social inequality. By putting together these two practices, the paper analyses the subtle varietyof ritual violence and ritual affirmation, demonstrating that the disciplining of the female body operates not only through coercion but also through consent, cultural pride and ritualized celebration.

Foreign policy is a dynamic process and a combined offshoot of internal as well as external exigencies of a nation. This dynamism has to cope-up with constantly changing developments. Only a clear visionary can lead such foreign policy imperatives. Narendra Modi’s arrival in the helm of foreign affairs in 2014 marked the beginning of a proactive foreign policy replacing its reactive character. His robust approach is a clear departure from orthodox foreign policy traditions and seeks to fill in the hiatus unaddressed so far. In reverse of non-alignment, he has introduced punctuated incremental foreign policy along with multilevel alignment instead of mere multi- alignment. The Indian Diaspora is one of those levels of alignment. Basically, Modi’s foreign policy has a three-fold objective- (a) reconstructing neighbourhood, (b) involving India in multilevel alignments, (c) promoting ‘Brand India’. Indian Diasporic community is a crucial platform to materialize the third objective. By means of connecting the Diaspora, Modi has invested a cogent and palatable effort to extract the maximum gain from it and to bridge between the natives and the relatives, thus to build a national image of solidarity. The main reason behind Modi’s several addresses to the Diaspora being to facilitate their contribution to India’s economic growth. Well, soft power diplomacy is nothing new. But this time it seems unique as it has moved on to cultural diplomacy. India’s great cultural heritage can be an asset in its image building where the Diaspora would be the agent to promote it. The annual income of the Indian Diaspora was approximated to be 135.46 billion US dollar in the financial year 2024-2025. Being such a great source of resource with more than 35.42 million members of the Diaspora community till January 2024, would it be Modi’s tale ender? The paper seeks to penetrate into Modi’s official encounter with the Diaspora on several occasions and explicate its role in Modi’s foreign policy making.

This research paper investigates how Dhruv Bhatt’s novel Pilgrims of Darkness (Timirpanthi) represents the cultural identity of Gujarat through its portrayal of marginalized nomadic communities. The narrative follows a group historically branded as “criminal tribes,” whose livelihood and mobility place them outside mainstream society. Rather than presenting them as objects of moral judgment, Bhatt reveals how their way of life is structured by collective memory, survival ethics, and deep ties to the land. Using a combined framework of cultural studies and ecocriticism, this paper analyzes selected episodes from the novel to demonstrate how environment, tradition, and community practices progressively shape identity. Special attention is given to the tension between inherited cultural patterns and emerging possibilities for transformation, particularly visible in the community’s engagement with education and social reform. The paper argues that Pilgrims of Darkness constructs Gujarati identity not as fixed or romanticized, but as a negotiated process rooted in responsibility toward both people and place. By foregrounding nomadic life as a meaningful cultural system rather than a deviant one, Bhatt challenges dominant stereotypes of Gujarat and invites a broader understanding of regional literature as a site where identity, ethics, and environment converge. The study contributes to ongoing literary debates about representation and regional identity in contemporary Indian fiction.

This research paper explores the significant contributions of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the consolidation of a unified and modern India. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, known as the “Iron man of India” played pivotal role in unifying the post-independent India. He helped to shape India as we see tod-united, strong and proud in world stage. As one of the principal architects of India's independence, Patel actively worked to foster unity among its diverse population during a time of great political and social upheaval. His vision extended beyond domestic concerns; he sought to position India favourably within the global arena. This paper gives insight into Patel's diplomatic efforts and strategic initiatives aimed at promoting national integrity while also enhancing India's international standing. By analysing Patel's policies and actions, this study aims to highlight the enduring impact of his leadership on the country's evolution and his role in shaping a cohesive national identity in the post-colonial context.