Prelims

Half Title Page

COVID-19 AND PUBLIC POLICY

Series Page

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONFLICT MANAGEMENT, PEACE ECONOMICS AND DEVELOPMENT

Series Editor: Manas Chatterji

Books in the Series

• Military Missions and Their Implications Reconsidered: The Aftermath of September 11th, edited by G. Caforio and G. Kümmel

• Managing Conflict in Economic Convergence of Regions in Greater Europe, by F. Carluer

• Cultural Differences Between the Military and Parent Society in Democratic Countries, edited by G. Caforio

• Conflict and Peace in South Asia, edited by M. Chatterji and B. M. Jain

• War, Peace, and Security, edited by J. Fontanel and M. Chatterji

• Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution, edited by G. Caforio, G. Kümmel and B. Purkayastha

• Regional Development and Conflict Management: A Case for Brazil, by R. Bar-El

• Crisis, Complexity and Conflict, edited by I. J. Azis

• Putting Teeth in the Tiger: Improving the Effectiveness of Arms Embargoes, edited by M. Brzoska and G. A. Lopez

• Peace Science: Theory and Cases, by P. Gangopadhyay and M. Chatterji

• Advances in Military Sociology: Essays in Honor of Charles C. Moskos (Two Volume Set), edited by Giuseppe Caforio

• Arms and Conflict in the Middle East, by Riad A. Attar

• Economics of War and Peace: Economic, Legal, and Political Perspectives, edited by Benjamin E. Goldsmith and Jurgen Brauer

• Conflict, Complexity and Mathematical Social Science, by Gordon Burt

• Frontiers of Peace Economics and Peace Science, edited by Manas Chatterji, Chen Bo and Rameshwar Misra

• Ethnic Conflict, Civil War and Cost of Conflict, edited by Raul Caruso

• Governance, Development and Conflict, edited by M. Chatterji, Darvesh Gopal and Savita Singh

• New Wars, New Militaries, New Soldiers? Conflicts, the Armed Forces and the Soldierly Subject, edited by Gerhard Kümmel and Joseph Soeters

• Cooperation for a Peaceful and Sustainable World, Part 1, edited by Chen Bo, Manas Chatterji and Hao Chaoyan

• Cooperation for a Peaceful and Sustainable World, Part 2, edited by Li Junsheng, Chen Bo and Hou Na

• Nuclear Disarmament: Regional Perspectives on Progress, edited by P. M. Kamath

• Understanding Terrorism: A Socio-Economic Perspective, edited by Raul Caruso and Andrea Locatelli

• The Evolving Boundaries of Defence: An Assessment of Recent Shifts in Defence Activities, edited by Renaud Bellais

• Business, Ethics and Peace, edited by Luk Bouckaert and Manas Chatterji

• Emotions, Decision-Making, Conflict and Cooperation, edited by Urs Luterbacher

• Integral Ecology and Sustainable Business, edited by O. Jakobsen and L. Zsolnai

• Disarmament, Peace and Development, edited by Reiner Braun, Colin Archer, Ingeborg Breines, Manas Chatterji and Amela Skiljan

• How Do Leaders Make Decisions?: Evidence from the East and West, Part A, edited by Alex Mintz and Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky

• How Do Leaders Make Decisions?: Evidence from the East and West, Part B, edited by Alex Mintz and Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky

• New Frontiers in Conflict Management and Peace Economics: With a Focus on Human Security, edited by Madhumita Chatterji and Partha Gangopadhyay

• Technology, Society, and Conflict, edited by Elena G. Popkova and Manas Chatterji

• Globalisation and COVID-19, edited by Manas Chatterji, Urs Luterbaher, Valérie Fert and Bo Chen

• International Migration, COVID-19, and Environmental Sustainability, edited by Manas Chatterji, Urs Luterbaher, Valerie Fert and Bo Chen

Title Page

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONFLICT MANAGEMENT, PEACE ECONOMICS AND DEVELOPMENT - VOLUME 33

COVID-19 AND PUBLIC POLICY

EDITED BY

MANAS CHATTERJI

Binghamton University, USA

RABINDRA CHANDRA BHATTACHARYA

Globsyn Group, India

and

SHAMBHU PRASAD CHAKRABARTY

University of Engineering and Management, India

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL.

First edition 2025

Editorial Matter and Selection © 2025 Manas Chatterji, Rabindra Chandra Bhattacharya and Shambhu Prasad Chakrabarty.

Individual chapters © 2025 The authors.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: www.copyright.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83549-917-7 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-916-0 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-918-4 (Epub)

ISSN: 1572-8323 (Series)

Contents

About the Editors

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Manas Chatterji is Professor of Management and Adjunct Professor in Economics and the Asian and Asian-American Studies Programme at Binghamton University, State University of New York, Guest Professor, Peking University, Visiting Professor, Central University of Finance and Economics, and Distinguished Professor in Poznan University, Poland. He also served as Richard P. Nathan Fellow in Public Policy at Rockefeller Institute of Government, SUNY. He is distinguished Fellow in the Programme in Political Psychology and Decision Making (POP-DM) at Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Israel. He was also Honorary Distinguished Professor at Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, India and George Mason University, USA. He is an elected member of Polish Academy of Science – Committee on Regional Planning. He is currently a Fellow of the international organisation Economists for Peace and Security. He previously taught at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and has held visiting appointments at Cornell University, Erasmus University, University of Karlsruhe, University of Munster and many other universities in the USA, Europe, Asia and South Africa. He established the Mahatma Gandhi International Research Centre on Conflict Prevention and Management in Bangalore, India.

He organised several events in the past. He has organised international meetings on Peace Science, Disaster Management, Health Care, Technology Management, Disaster Management, etc. in many countries including Japan, China and Russia. During his career, he has edited three journals and served on editorial boards of many others. Presently, he is Co-editor of International Studies of Peace Economics and Peace Science published by Cambridge Scholars, UK. He is also General Editor of a book series on Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development published by Emerald Publishing Company, UK. Twenty-seven volumes in this series have been published and two more are forthcoming. He has authored/edited more than 30 books and published about 80 scholarly articles in the areas of peace science, military spending, disarmament, economic conversion, conflict management, regional science, technology management, health care management, energy, environmental and urban management. He got his B.A. (with honours in Statistics) at Calcutta University, M.A. (Statistics) at Calcutta University, and Ph.D. at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

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Rabindra Chandra Bhattacharya is Alumnus of the Cranfield Business School, UK; Wharton Business School, USA; and North Staffordshire, UK. With over 55 years of experience, he has served as Head of Marketing, Indian Oxygen Ltd. (now BOC India Ltd.), as well as the Senior Vice President–Marketing with one of the Aditya Birla Group Companies. He has been teaching industrial marketing, marketing of services, strategic marketing and other topics on marketing for many years and offers first-hand experience in strategic alliances and brand building in industrial markets, corporate marketing, relationship marketing, loyalty building, etc. in his programmes.

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Shambhu Prasad Chakrabarty is Dean of the Department of Law, University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata. He was Head of CRSGPP, West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS) prior to his current assignment. He received his LL.B. & LL.M. from Calcutta University and Ph.D. from University of North Bengal. He has taught and researched for over 20 years at Calcutta University, Amity University Kolkata and WBNUJS. He has worked extensively in the areas of climate change, intellectual property rights, traditional knowledge and technology law. Three Doctoral scholars have been successfully co-supervised by him with four more being supervised currently. He has authored and edited seven books from Springer Nature and Thomson Reuters and wrote over 50 articles and book chapters in journals like Liverpool Law Review and Environmental Management. He acted as the Chief Editor of NUJS Journal of Regulatory Studies from August 2019–2022.

He has presented research papers in more than 60 national and international conferences and was invited as a resource person in more than 90 national and international events including by the Government of India; Government of West Bengal; Government of Western Australia; the Law and Society Association, Washington DC; Binghamton State University, New York; Australian National University; Notre Dame University, Sydney; Pattimura University, Indonesia; Daffodil International University, Bangladesh; Tribhuvan University, Nepal; University of Wroclaw, Poland; Foreign Trade University, Vietnam; and Nanyang Business School, Singapore.

He has been WIPO Fellow to Malaysia in 2019. He was awarded the Gold Medal for winning the Youth Parliament Competition organised by the Government of West Bengal. He topped his school at plus two level and college in his LL.B. degree. He is a member of the prestigious Law and Society Association, USA; the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, UK; and IPIRA.

About the Contributors

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Touria Abdelkader-Benmesaud-Conde is Industrial Engineer at the Spanish National University for Distance Learning (UNED). Her career final project related to the use of renewable energy and climatisation was rated with the highest rating and subsequently awarded by the Official Association of Industrial Engineers of Madrid in 2010. She is Tutor Professor of UNED, in different matters related to Engineering and Economics. She has held courses and seminars to specialise in Management and Public Sector in 2007 and Government Restructuring: Government and Markets at Harvard University in 2008, International Conference on Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Peace Science, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi, among others. She is the author of several articles and books in the field of conflicts and energy. She has a Membership of the Regional Science Association International.

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Bidisha Bandyopadhyay works as Assistant Lecturer of Law at O.P. Jindal Global University, having earned her LL.M. degree from the University of Liverpool with Merit. She has contributed significantly, earning national recognition for her publications in reputable journals and books, including those by Scopus, Thomson Reuters, and Taylor & Francis. She has actively interned in various legal settings, such as the University Research Centre, District Courts and High Court, displaying a keen interest in addressing issues faced by marginalised communities. Her dedication extends to representing the University of Liverpool as Women’s Representative at the National Conference and Liberation Conference organised by the National Union of Students in the UK. Since she has thrust for knowledge and quest to unravel mysteries of law, she has completed 30 short-term/certificate programmes, seminars and conferences and webinars from highly reputed Indian and foreign universities/organisations like Oxford University and Harvard University.

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Rathin Bandyopadhyay is current Vice Chancellor (Actg.) of Alipurduar University, former Vice Chancellor (Actg.) of the University of North Bengal, Professor and former Head at the Department of Law, and DEAN, Faculty of Arts, Commerce and Law, University of North Bengal. India. He has over 25 years of teaching experience and holds a Ph.D. from Burdwan University. He, a recipient of the SIKSHA RATNA in 2020 for distinguished service in education, has authored 17 books, published 36 research papers and completed 11 sponsored research projects. As Chief Editor of the Indian Journal of Law and Justice, he is actively engaged in various national and international professional and academic bodies, contributing significantly to areas such as human rights, refugee and immigration law and corporate laws. With a robust administrative background, he has organised numerous conferences and seminars and served in leadership roles at both home and other universities.

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Fernando Barreiro-Pereira has a Ph.D. in Economics and Business Administration and M.Phil.–M.A. in Econometrics and Economic Theory from the Complutense University of Madrid. He is currently Professor of Macroeconomics and Spatial Economics and member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED University) in Madrid, Spain. His Doctoral dissertation won two special awards: The Extraordinary Doctorate Award (2004) and the first award in Regional Science for the Community of Madrid (2005). He has completed specialisation courses in Spatial Econometrics at Cornell University (1999), in Public Economy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2000) and Harvard University (Real Complutense College in 2007 and 2008), Transportation Economics at MIT (2000 and 2008) and some appointments on Conflict Management and Peace Economics at the Indira Gandhi University of Delhi and in the Central University of Finance and Economics of Beijing (2010). He has participated in 11 research projects, is co-author of 10 books on Economic Theory, has more than 60 presentations at international conferences and has published more than 35 research articles on Economics, Transportation and Conflict Management. He is currently a member of the Regional Science International and the Eastern Economic Associations.

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Abhisikta Basu is presently serving as Assistant Professor at the University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata. She completed her B.A.LL.B. from the Department of Law, University of Calcutta in the year 2014. She completed Postgraduation Diploma in Business Law from West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in the year 2015. She completed her LL.M. in the year 2016 from the Department of Law, University of Calcutta. Presently she is registered as a Ph.D. scholar at the University of Calcutta. She has research interests in the fields of medical law, energy law and constitutional law.

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Onsel Gurel Bayrali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Political Science Department at Binghamton University. His research centres on political economy and public policy, with a particular emphasis on decentralised systems. In his latest project, he highlights the significance of party systems in facilitating inter-governmental collaboration for crisis management at the state level within federal nations. ORCID: 0000-0002-1936-7035.

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Lina Begdache, Ph.D., RDN, CNS-S, CDN FAND, is Associate Professor in the Health and Wellness Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton. She holds a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology with a concentration in Neurosciences. She is Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Certified Nutritionist Specialist-Scholar, Certified Dietitian Nutritionist in the State of New York and is Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She has published numerous articles in high-impact journals like Nutritional Neurosciences, PLoS and Nature on the impact of diet and lifestyle on mental health and neurobehaviour. She has developed and validated the Food-Mood Questionnaire which has been translated into several languages. Her research made headlines in several countries outside the USA such as England, Australia, France, Italy and India among others.

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Ripon Bhattacharjee is a skilled and dedicated educator who holds a strong educational background. Having completed his legal studies at the University of North Bengal, Darjeeling, he now serves as Assistant Professor of Law at National Law University, Tripura. With proven expertise in classroom management and student engagement, he has earned a Doctorate degree specialising in Environmental Law. His journey began with a Master’s degree in Law, after which he gained valuable teaching experience at esteemed institutions including Government Law College, Tripura, Alliance University, Bangalore, Indian Institution of Legal Studies, Siliguri, AURO University, Gujarat, Adamas University and University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata. He has also taken on significant administrative roles, including heading departments and contributing to university administration. Through his involvement in projects focussed on pedagogical development, such as the Erasmus + Tuning India initiative, and his extensive research endeavours, he has accumulated profound insights into the realm of law. His proactive approach has led him to organise national moot competitions, faculty development programmes and seminars. His contributions extend to the publication of relevant books, articles and reports in both national and international journals. Additionally, he has showcased his research findings through presentations at both national and international platforms. His commitment to academia and his wide-ranging accomplishments underscore his dedication to the field of law and education. His passion for teaching, research and leadership shines through his numerous contributions, making him an asset to the academic community.

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Éric Brunat holds position at Faculty of Law, IREGE laboratory (Institute for Research in Management and Economics) at Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB), France; accredited to supervise research in economics, specialist in development economics, transition economics, regional and territorial economics, geopolitics and geo-economics; Director of the ‘European and International Business Law’ Master’s programme (run in conjunction with universities in Italy and Lithuania); Professor at ILERI Paris (Institute of International Relations and Political Science – Paris); and Doctor Honoris Causa of the Universities of Sochi (2010) and Irkutsk (2012), Russia. Currently, the author is ‘Territorial Governance’ referent at the USMB; Vice President of the Savoie Free Time University and Vice President of the Second Chance School of Savoie; and elected full member of the Savoie Academy of Sciences, Arts & Humanities. The author is also former Vice President of the USMB; Executive and Scientific Director of the European-Russian Centre for Economic Policy in Moscow; and senior ‘Economist-Advisor’ at the United Nations–UNDP in Russia, Belarus and Moldova. The author consults for several international organisations and bodies (United Nations, European Union, etc.) and is author or co-author of more than 150 articles and several books.

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Shrabana Chattopadhyay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Law at the University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata. She received her B.A.LL.B. from Calcutta University, LL.M. from Jamia Milia Islamia, and is pursuing a Ph.D. from Sharda University, Greater Noida. She has taught for over eight years at West Bengal State University and University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata. She has worked extensively in the area of women prisoners, their children, senior citizens and their human rights. She has authored over 10 articles and 3 book chapters. She is Editor of a book titled Futuristic Trends in Social Sciences with id IIP_V2_2022 BS_02_16. She has presented research papers in more than 30 national and international conferences and webinars. She was awarded with Memento from the then Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal, H.E. Mayankote Kelath Narayanan for being Gold medallist in Law in B.A.LL.B. from Calcutta University (2009). She topped her school at plus two level and college in her B.A.LL.B. degree. She also stood third in her LL.M. from Jamia Milia Islamia. She also received the Award for ‘Best Faculty of Law’ in the Department of Law by University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata in May 2021. She has also been awarded with the title, ‘Young Researcher Award, 2021’ by Institute of Scholars in September 2021 and ‘Young Professor of the Year 2021’ in Education Icon Awards 2021 in October 2021. She is currently Reviewer of the journal titled International Journal of Management & Social Studies which is published by Institute of Scholars (InSc) and also a member of the Professional Member of InSc. Additionally, she is a member of the Internal Complaints Committee and Public Information Officer of the University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata.

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Anseh Danesharasteh is Graduate Research Assistant of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering at State University of New York at Binghamton. Her research focusses on predictive modelling, data analytics, forecasting, machine learning and time-series analysis. She holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Science (Software Engineering) and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

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Zeynep Ertem, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering Department of State University of New York at Binghamton. Her expertise is in data analytics in healthcare systems, epidemic disease modelling, network optimisation, discrete optimisation, social networks and health systems optimisation. She is a systems scientist with expertise in public health forecasting, contact network modelling and data science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has built decision-support tools and provided time-sensitive for public health and government agencies including Defense Threat Reduction Agency. She mainly focusses on modelling complex phenomena in biological and social systems covering a wide range of communicable and non-communicable diseases. She is PI of DatArt Lab and has been serving on various professional and institutional committees, such as Guest Editor on a special issue on Viruses Journal. Her research has been published in high-impact journals like Clinical Infectious Diseases, DSS, PLoS and Nature.

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Jacques Fontanel is Professor at ILERI Paris (Institute of International Relations and Political Science–Paris) and CESICE (Centre for International Security and European Cooperation Studies) researcher at the University Grenoble–Alpes (France), former Dean of Economic Faculty, Vice President and Director of Espace Europe, at the University Pierre Mendès-France Grenoble and Doctor Honoris Causa of the University Economics and Finance of Saint-Petersburg (Russia). He was Consultant at United Nations organisation for the definition of military expenditures and UNIDIR on the disarmament for development. He is a specialist of national defence economics and political economy. He edited a book in this collection, Fontanel, J., & Chatterji, M. (2008), War, Peace and Security, and some articles such as ‘Economists’ controversies about the causality between war and economic cycles’. Manas Chatterji, & Chen Bo (Eds.) or Fontanel, J., Corvaisier-Drouart, B., ‘For a General Concept of Economic and Human Security’. Bellais, R. 2014 (Ed.). His last article on global warming and the economic globalisation crisis is scheduled for publication in 2024.

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Abdinasir Jimale holds a double major in Political Science and International Relations, as well as International Trade and Management from Istanbul Sehir University. Furthering his academic pursuits, he earned an interdisciplinary Master’s degree in International Relations from Bilgi University and a disciplinary Master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Binghamton State University of New York. His interests are rebel governance, civil wars, federalism and political violence. ORCID: 0009-0002-0199-5639.

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Shivali Kharoliwal presently is Assistant Professor (Guest Faculty) in the Department of Botany at the University of Kota, Rajasthan, India and also taking classes in Lzebra College, Kota. She finished her Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India in 2004 and has qualified CSIR NET exam in 2002. She is a pioneer plant biotechnologist. She has published more than 16 papers in local and international journals. She has postgraduate teaching experience of 15 years and undergraduate teaching experience of 20 years. She is Ph.D. Supervisor at Carrier Point University and one student has successfully submitted her Ph.D. thesis under her supervision. Her areas of research interest include plant biotechnology, molecular biology and classical botany.

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Sheldon G. Levy, Wayne State University, USA, received a Ph.D. from The University of Michigan in Mathematical Psychology, after receiving an M.A. in Pure Mathematics and an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan. He received a B.A. in Chemistry from the College of Wooster. He has recently published four full-length articles in The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace & Conflict (‘Conformity and obedience’, ‘Cooperation, competition, and conflict’, ‘Mass conflict: Participants’ attitudes’, and ‘Psycho-logic and destructive social relations’). He is Past President of the Peace Science Society (International) and Fellow in six divisions of the American Psychological Association. He was appointed as Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading, Reading, UK. He was recently appointed as emeritus Fellow of the Psychonomic Society.

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Christopher Ryan Maboloc is Associate Professor at Ateneo de Davao University and Visiting Professor at Silliman University. He finished his Doctorate in Philosophy, maxima cum laude, at the University of San Carlos. It is the highest academic distinction and the first-ever given by the school. He obtained an Erasmus Mundus Master of Arts in Applied Ethics from Linkoping University in Sweden and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. He has published more than 90 papers in local and international journals. He was awarded the Public Intellectual Prize by the Philosophical Association of the Philippines in 2020.

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Nasreen Mallick is a diligent and accomplished Master of Laws student at the University of Liverpool, UK. Having completed her Bachelor of Law degree from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, she developed a robust academic foundation and a fervent passion for the legal field. Through internships at various District Courts and High Courts, she has expanded her knowledge and honed her skills in analysing and solving practical legal problems. She has actively participated in numerous seminars and webinars at esteemed national and international institutions, enriching her understanding of contemporary legal issues. She has also unveiled her advocacy skills through participation in different national and international moot court competitions, including the National Moot Court Competition by University of North Bengal, Nuremberg Moot Court Competition, 2023, and reached as a Quarter Finalist in the National Moot Court Competition held by the University of North Bengal in 2020.

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David McBride, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and History at Pennsylvania State University (USA). He has authored several books and numerous articles on medical history and urban studies of African Americans and US minorities. These include From TB to AIDS: Epidemics Among Urban Blacks Since 1900 (SUNY Press); Missions for Science: U.S. Technology and Medicine in America’s African World (Rutgers University Press); and Integrating the City of Medicine: Blacks in Philadelphia Health Care, 1910–1965 (Temple University Press). His most recent book is Caring for Equality: A History of African American Health and Healthcare (Rowman & Littlefield). Other research publications include ‘Urban power and community development in the ‘World risk society’: Post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans (USA)’, Perspectives on Global Development and Technology (2016), 15(1), 128–142; and ‘Disasters, public policy, and urban black communities: Urban planning and recovery during Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina’, National Political Science Review (2015), 17(1), 37–55.

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Abhijit Mitra, Associate Professor and former Head, Department of Marine Science, University of Calcutta (India), has been active in the sphere of Oceanography since 1985. He obtained his Ph.D. as NET qualified scholar in 1994. Since then, he joined Calcutta Port Trust and WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature-India), in various capacities to carry out research programmes on environmental science, biodiversity conservation, climate change and carbon sequestration. Presently, he is serving as Director, Research of Techno India University, West Bengal (Hony). He has to his credit about 685 scientific publications in various national and international journals, and 60 books of postgraduate standards. He is presently a member of several committees like PACON International, IUCN, SIOS, Mangrove Society of India, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, etc., and has successfully completed about 17 projects and 19 consultancies on biodiversity loss in the fishery sector, coastal pollution, aquaculture, alternative livelihood, climate change and carbon sequestration. He also visited as a faculty member and was invited as a speaker at several universities in Singapore, Kenya, Oman and the USA. In 2008, he was invited as Visiting Fellow at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, USA, to deliver a series of lectures on climate change. He has also successfully guided 54 Ph.D. students. Presently, his research areas include environmental science, mangrove ecology, sustainable aquaculture, alternative livelihood, climate science, carbon sequestration and blue economy.

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Ankita Mitra is currently a Ph.D. scholar in Quantitative Forest Ecology at Purdue University, with a focus on forest modelling using machine learning models. In addition to her research, she actively supports the Science-i platform. She has accrued over six years of research experience in forest ecology, conducting studies in the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute of Panama and in the coastal mangrove forests of the Indian Sundarbans. She earned her Bachelors in Environmental Sciences from the University of Calcutta in India and received a silver medal for her academic achievements. She pursued her Masters from Pondicherry Central University in India and received a Gold Medal from the Governor in 2016 for her outstanding performance. Post-Masters, she enhanced her expertise in several industrial-based EIA-research projects at the Indian Institute of Technology in West Bengal and the CSIR Institute in Gujarat. Throughout her career, prestigious fellowships such as the US–Israel Binational Science Foundation Fellowship and the DST INSPIRE Fellowship have recognised her contributions. She has published several scientific papers in national and international journals, including a book chapter, covering diverse areas in ecological science and climate change, particularly focussing on carbon sequestration potential. She actively participates in national and international climate change conferences and earned the Young Scientist Award in 2016 in Delhi as the best speaker. She is also passionate about community-based participatory research and worked with local farmers in the Indian Sundarbans to understand their environmental challenges and has organised local awareness programmes on climate change.

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Victor Nayak completed his graduation (B.A.LL.B. [Hons.]) from Haldia Law College, Vidyasagar University in 2010 and his Masters in Law from the Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur, C.G. in 2012. During his undergraduate days, he held many important portfolios in his institute such as Student Convenor for the Debating and Mooting Society and also Student Coordinator for the Institute Newsletter. He has experience of teaching for more than 10 years at Institute of Law, Nirma University, Disha Law College Raipur, C.G., School of Law, Galgotias University, Greater Noida, Delhi NCR and School of Law and Justice, Adamas University, Kolkata. He has researched and published articles in reputed journals of national and international repute in areas related to corporate and business law, cyber law, constitutional law and intellectual property rights. During the course of his academic career, he has not only participated in many conferences and seminars at the national and international levels but also organised and delivered expert lectures and Faculty Development Programme in the area of corporate and allied laws. He has been invited as a resource person in many international conferences, moot court activities and expert lecture series to disseminate and highlight the issues related to corporate and business laws.

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Nicholas Piaquadio received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 2019, and the M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2020. He is pursuing the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Binghamton University. His research interests include power system control and reliability. He currently works as Planning Engineer for the New York Independent System Operator.

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Qiu Qin is a principal member of technical staff with Oracle. He received a B.S.E.E. degree in 2007 from Guangdong University of Technology, China and an M.S.E.E. degree in 2010 from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. In 2015, he received Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from State University of New York at Binghamton. His work is focussing on Data Science and AI with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

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Manuel Lozano Rodríguez is a notable Barcelona-born author and academic. Despite severe impairments, he has excelled in bioethics and sustainability, holding a Ph.D. in Bioethics, Sustainability, and Global Public Health, and a Master of Science in Sustainability, Peace, and Development from the American University of Sovereign Nations, along with a postgraduate course in Organisational Sustainability at Harvard. His self-taught, curiosity-driven academic journey led to significant research on socio-economic inequalities, digital ethnography and the effects of COVID-19 on marginalised populations. This work earned him Chair at the Eubios Ethics Institute.

His writings, infused with humour and honesty, challenge traditional norms and delve into ethical issues in modern society. His notable work, ‘Bioethics of displacement’, showcases his expertise and unique perspective on the ethics of displacement, advocating for transformative change. His career is marked by an innovative approach and a deep commitment to ethical inquiry, establishing him as a visionary thinker in his field.

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Arpita Saha is Research Fellow at the Department of Oceanography, Techno India University, West Bengal, India. She has authored three books and multiple research papers.

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Morteza Sarailoo is Senior Power System Planning Consultant with Siemens PTI. He received a B.S.E.E. degree in 2009 from University of Mazandaran, Iran, and an M.S.E.E. degree in 2012 from Babol University of Technology, Iran. He has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from State University of New York at Binghamton, specialised in power systems stability analysis and control. His research interests include power system and renewable energy, control theory, optimisation, stability analysis and dynamic state estimation.

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Olga Shvetsova is Professor of Political Science and Economics and Scientific Director of the COVID-19 Policy Response Lab at Binghamton University, USA. Her areas of research are constitutional political economy, federalism, party systems and politics of health. She is the Author of Designing Federalism (2004, with Filippov and Ordeshook, Cambridge University Press), Formal Modeling in Social Science (2019, with Mershon, University of Michigan Press), and Editor of Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic (2023, Palgrave Springer).

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Katherine Theiss is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Fordham University, specialising in development economics and applied microeconomics with a focus on health and gender. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with honours and distinction from Connecticut College and has expertise in causal inference research methods, programme evaluation and data analytics. Additionally, she has professional experience as a research and data analysis consultant for various organisations focussed on international development, including IMPAQ International, the United Nations and the World Bank. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., she worked for four years in a data-driven role within the insurance industry.

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H. D. Vinod is Professor of Economics at Fordham University, New York, USA. He won the IBM fellowship at Harvard University, earning his Ph.D. in Economics. Among many awards, he is Fellow of the Journal of Econometrics. He has published over 230 research papers in refereed top economics and statistics journals. He has co-edited with the great statistician Dr C. R. Rao three volumes 11, 41 and 42 of the Handbook of Statistics. His book titles include Recent Advances in Regression Methods, Advances in Social Science Research Using R, and Preparing for the Worst: Incorporating Downside Risk in Stock Market Investments. He was the first to solve the optimal clustering problems with integer programming and use inventory theoretic demand analysis. Additionally, he has pioneered a maximum entropy bootstrap method for statistical inference for time series and new nonparametric tools for causality assessment. His R packages have been downloaded over 162,000 times, and his papers have been cited, according to Google Scholar, over 18,877 times by other researchers. His early work on ridge regression for solving collinearity problems in econometrics was recognised in 2020 in the Significance Magazine, published by The American Statistical Association and the Royal Statistical Society of the UK. It mentions how his canonical ridge has become crucial for the so-called regularisation in modern data science.

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N. Eva Wu is Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at State University of New York at Binghamton. She received a B.S.E.E. degree in 1982 from the Northwestern Telecommunications Engineering Institute, Xian, China, an M.S.E.E. degree in 1983 and a Ph.D. degree in 1987, both from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include fault tolerant control and reliability of large-scale dynamic systems.

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Sufia Zaman, presently serving as Head, Department of Oceanography in Techno India University, West Bengal started her career in the field of Marine Science in 2001. She worked in the rigorous mangrove ecosystem of Indian Sundarbans and has a wide range of experience in exploring the floral and faunal diversities of Sundarbans. She has published 7 books on carbon sequestration, 315 scientific papers and contributed chapters in several books on biodiversity, environmental science, aquaculture and livelihood development. She is presently a member of the Fisheries Society of India. She is also running projects on carbon sequestration by mangroves of Indian Sundarbans. She is the recipient of DST Women Scientist and Jawaharlal Memorial Doctoral fellowship awards. Her areas of research include aquaculture, fish nutrition, phytoplankton diversity, climate change, mangrove ecology and alternative livelihood. She is also the first researcher in the maritime state of West Bengal (India), who initiated trial experiments on iron fertilisation and subsequent enhancement of primary (phytoplankton) and secondary (fish) productions in the brackish water ponds of Indian Sundarbans with the financial assistance of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. She is also providing consultancies on green technology and emission control to several industries, NGOs and corporate sectors.

Foreword

Some of the chapters in this volume were selected from an international meeting I organised in January 2023, named Disaster Management: Global Pandemic and Its Impact in the State University of New York at Binghamton, NY, USA.

The subject matter of the conference was COVID-19 and public policy. The chapters in this volume are of good quality and highly relevant. The presenters were international scholars from different countries. The pandemic of COVID-19 was the deadliest of the disasters of all time. It was not confined to a specific location but spread worldwide. Millions of people died.

The impact of COVID-19 was on international, national, regional, and local levels. Unfortunately, some consider COVID-19 to be an infodemic. The economies of many countries were devastated, and healthcare systems collapsed multiple times when they were overwhelmed and under-resourced. Voluminous work was published regarding the impact of this disaster. The previous volume Globalisation and COVID-19 published in this book series gave more details about the impact of the pandemic. International tension brewed, caused by the confusion over the origin of the disease. Another volume is International Migration, COVID-19, and Environmental Sustainability, published under the same series.

Potential epidemics induced by international migration also lead to conflicts between different countries. This volume contains articles on public policy mitigating the negative impacts of COVID-19 on local, regional, national, and international levels. The primary instrument of that is the development of vaccines among other beneficial measures.

Many other policies have also been proposed which could help reduce the impact of COVID-19. A lockdown policy (Janata Curfew) was imposed in India for 1.3 billion people for 68 days. Similar policies were instituted in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and other developing countries. Some chapters in this volume presented extensive discussions regarding the effectiveness of using vaccines. Extensive mathematical and quantitative methods have been applied in environmental health literature, concerning selecting appropriate policies for reducing the impact of COVID-19.

Manas Chatterji

Emeritus Professor, Binghamton University, USA; formerly Guest Professor, Peking University, China; & formerly Honorary Distinguished Professor, Poznan University, Poland

Acknowledgements

I thank my co-editors, Dr. Rabindra Chandra Bhattacharya and Dr. Shambhu Prasad Chakrabarty, for helping me prepare this volume’s materials. Liyang Dong, my research assistant, is pivotal. I also want to thank Sanya Singh and Jessica Femiani for their help during the International Conference on “Disaster Management: Global Pandemic and Its Impact.” Dr Kavita Shastri, Ms Pallabi Sengupta, and Dr Ana Penteado have also contributed significantly to editing and reviewing the chapters. Several other colleagues and employees from different organisations helped me prepare the book. The local media and other institutions helped me promote the Conference from which some papers emerged.

I am grateful to all the presenters for their cooperation and patience during the lengthy process. After months of planning, operating, and executing this academic endeavour amidst financial challenges, I am relieved to finish this book project.

Manas Chatterji

Emeritus Professor, Binghamton University, USA; formerly Guest Professor, Peking University, China; & formerly Honorary Distinguished Professor, Poznan University, Poland