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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether increased labour productivity could reduce the impact of output growth on the unemployment rate in India over the period 1991–2019 through Okun’s law and its expanded form.

The study uses Okun’s law and its expanded form, with the inclusion of labour productivity in the actual model. Further, the relationship between output growth, unemployment rate, and labour productivity is analysed by using the gap model, the difference model, the dynamic model, the error correction model (ECM), and the vector autoregressive (VAR) approach.

The empirical results from the applied models do not confirm an inverse relationship between output growth and the unemployment rate with an unexpected positive sign of Okun’s coefficient. The evidence of preference for more capital-intensive techniques in the Indian economy is also strongly supported by the results of the expanded form of Okun’s law with a statistically significant positive coefficient of GDP and labour productivity.

The study examined the proposed relationship using Okun’s law and its expanded form, which had not been employed in earlier studies in the context of India. The authors also show that a high economic growth rate is a necessary but not sufficient condition to solve the chronic and structural unemployment problem in India.

This study aims to re-examine the relationship between financial accessibility and performance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries using a large database.

This study uses cross-sectional firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprises Survey database collected under Wave II from 2006 to 2019. Controlled for firm level and country level factors, OLS and instrumental variable regressions have been used for analysis. Firm performance has been measured in terms of labour productivity.

The study observes a positive association between access to finance and MSME performance measured in terms of sales and value-added per worker. Along with firm characteristics (like size, age and managerial experience), country’s development level, institutional quality (i.e. corruption and regulations) and economic openness also impact MSMEs’ productivity.

Strengthening the financial system to allow the financial sector to meet the requirements of MSME finance is very important. Better access to external finance will enable MSMEs to invest in upgrading technology and expanding operations, thus improves their labour productivity. As the MSME sector is vulnerable to economic shocks, policies facilitating their access to formal credit during crises could strengthen resilience.

Credit constraint to MSMEs is a multi-stakeholder problem. It requires a coordinated approach from MSME owners, financial institutions and policymakers to address it and enhance the credit flow to the MSME sector. Timely research inputs from academia, research institutions and think tanks may help assess MSMEs promotion policies and their revision if needed.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the effect of access to finance on the labour productivity of MSMEs in developing countries. Given the mixed results in the recent past between access to finance and firm performance, it highlights the critical role of financial accessibility in improving their labour productivity and thus enabling MSMEs to realise their full potential in developing countries.

This study proposes strategies for vaccine center allocation for coronavirus disease (COVID) vaccine by determining the number of vaccination stations required for the vaccination drive, location of vaccination station, assignment of demand group to vaccination station, allocation of the scarce medical professional teams to station and number of optimal days a vaccination station to be functional in a week.

The authors propose a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model. However, to handle nonlinearity, the authors devise a heuristic and then propose a two-stage mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation to optimize the allocation of vaccination centers or stations to demand groups in the first stage and the allocation of vaccination centers to cold storage links in the second stage. The first stage optimizes the cost and average distance traveled by people to reach the vaccination center, whereas the second stage optimizes the vaccine’s holding and storage and transportation cost by efficiently allocating cold storage links to the centers.

The model is studied for the real-world case of Chandigarh, India. The results obtained validate that the proposed approach can immensely help government agencies and policymaking body for a successful vaccination drive. The model tries to find a tradeoff between loss due to underutilized medical teams and the distance traveled by a demand group to get the vaccination.

To the best of our knowledge, there are hardly any studies on a vaccination program at such a scale due to sudden outbreaks such as Covid-19.

Smartphone demand has been driving people towards refurbished electronic products. However, a lack of transparency in refurbished product pricing makes purchases time-consuming and reduces customer trust. Thus, our research aims to help practitioners and researchers understand how product life and usage characteristics, technical attributes and crowdsourced product reviews and sentiments affect exchange prices for refurbished/remanufactured smartphones.

Our five-stage exchange price predictive framework begins with data gathering and predictor variable identification. Thereafter, customer review data were scraped to populate both customer ratings and textual content, enabling sentiment analysis for the various smartphone configurations. Stepwise regression was used to find statistically significant factors and validate the predictive model. Testing for nonlinear effects, normality, outliers and homoskedasticity warrants power transformation of the target variable. The analysis used data from GSMArena.com and Amazon.com.

Our study validates extant findings and provides several novel insights for functional yet hedonistic products like smartphones. Unlike other pure hedonistic products, refurbished phone buyers care more about usage duration than life. Besides having a strong affinity for the sleekness of the phone, such customers are strongly dissuaded by the presence of negative textual content in the customer reviews.

Our study augments the current understanding of exchange price modelling by bringing in perspectives from life cycle characteristics, technical attributes and product reviews.

The fused filament fabrication (FFF) process is an additive manufacturing technique used in engineering design. The mechanical properties of parts manufactured by FFF are influenced by the printing parameters. The mechanical properties of rigid thermoplastics for FFF are well defined, while thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) are uncommonly investigated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of extruder temperature, bed temperature and printing speed on the mechanical properties of a thermoplastic elastomer.

Regression models predicting mechanical properties as a function of extruder temperature, bed temperature and printing speed were developed. Tensile specimens were tested according to ASTM D638. A 3×3 full factorial analysis, consisting of 81 experiments and 27 printing conditions was performed, and models were developed in Minitab. Tensile tests verifying the models were conducted at two selected printing conditions to assess predictive capability.

Each mechanical property was significantly affected by at least two of the investigated FFF parameters, where printing speed and extruder temperature terms influenced all mechanical properties (p < 0.05). Notably, tensile modulus could be increased by 21%, from 200 to 244 MPa. Verification prints exhibited properties within 10% of the predictions. Not all properties could be maximized together, emphasizing the importance of understanding FFF parameter effects on mechanical properties when making design decisions.

This work developed a model to assess FFF parameter influence on mechanical properties of a previously unstudied thermoplastic elastomer and made property predictions within 10% accuracy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of integrating “Licorice powder” into curd balls on their storage stability under refrigeration conditions. Through this examination, this study aims to evaluate the potential effects of licorice powder on extending the shelf life, maintaining quality attributes and preserving the overall stability of curd balls when stored at refrigeration temperatures.

Licorice powder, in varying quantities (1%, 2% and 3%), was incorporated into curd balls alongside a control group lacking licorice (0%). These batches were subsequently stored for 25 days under refrigeration at a temperature of 4 ± 1ºC, using aerobic packaging conditions. During this storage period, the samples were regularly monitored and analyzed for various parameters to assess changes in their properties and qualities.

The findings indicated that in the treatment groups, pH and titratable acidity were notably lower than those in the control group (p = 0.05). Curd balls enriched with licorice powder exhibited significantly higher levels of 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, 2-2-azinobis-3ethylbenthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid and total phenolic contents compared to the control (p = 0.05). Furthermore, curd balls containing licorice powder displayed notably lower levels of peroxide, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and free fatty acids in comparison to the control (p = 0.05). Among all samples, T3 (3%) demonstrated significantly less microbial growth (p = 0.05) than the other groups. Conversely, the sensory panel rated T2 significantly higher than T3 (p = 0.05).

The investigation highlights that curd balls enriched with 2.0% licorice powder demonstrated significant efficacy in preventing the deterioration of physicochemical attributes, enhancing antioxidant capacity, restraining lipid oxidation, curbing microbial growth and ultimately exhibiting the most favorable organoleptic properties among the tested variations. This finding underscores the potential of incorporating 2.0% licorice powder as an effective agent for bolstering the storage stability and overall quality of curd balls during refrigerated storage.

The purpose of this study is to develop a chicken product that could supply calcium, vitamin E and vitamin C together with high sensory acceptability. The present study was envisaged to develop low-fat chicken patties fortified with calcium, vitamin E and vitamin C without any adverse effects on sensory attributes.

Three different levels of calcium lactate as a source of calcium viz. 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 per cent, α-tocopherol acetate for vitamin E at 0.019, 0.023 and 0.029 per cent and ascorbic acid for vitamin C at 0.09, 0.12 and 0.15 per cent in low-fat chicken meat patties were tried and the optimum level was standardized based on physico-chemical, proximate and sensory parameters.

The calcium lactate at 1.75 per cent, α-tocopherol acetate at 0.029 per cent and ascorbic acid at 0.15 per cent were found to be optimum on the basis of proximate, physico-chemical and sensory parameters. The textural attributes of the standardized product was comparable to that of the control. The a*, b* and Chroma values for the low-fat chicken patties fortified with calcium, α-tocopherol and ascorbic acid were significantly higher (p < 0.01) than that of the control. The calcium and ascorbic acid concentration of the standardized product was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than that of the control.

The levels in the fortified product were found to be suitable to achieve a 20 per cent RDA of calcium and almost a complete RDA for vitamin C. The research findings demonstrated the development of a single-designer chicken product rich in calcium, vitamin C and vitamin E.

The purpose of this study was to explore the possibilities of utilization of chicken meat in the preparation of chicken meat noodles and subsequent storage at ambient temperature.

Chicken meat was incorporated at the levels, viz., 0 and 40 per cent, replacing refined wheat flour in the formulation. Proximate composition, pH, water activity (a_w), free fatty acid (FFA), thio-barbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS), water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), textural profile analysis (TPA), microbial quality and sensory evaluation were assessed at 10-day interval up to 30 days.

Moisture, a_w, TBARS, FFA, WAI, crispiness, total plate count (TPC) and yeast and mould values increased significantly (p < 0.05), whereas, fibre, ash, pH, WSI, hardness, work of shearing and sensory attributes showed significant (p < 0.05) decrease. However, all these parameter, viz., microbial quality, TBRS, FFA and sensory attributes, were within the acceptable limit during the entire storage study.

Quality of the products may be improved by the incorporation of some natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agent in chicken meat noodles.

Consumption and demand of the noodles is increasing due to its easy preparation and taste; however, it is poor in nutritive quality. Incorporation of the chicken meat in the noodles improves the nutritive values and sensory attributes, which is important for the marketability of the meat products. The keeping quality of chicken meat noodles was comparable to the control noodles at ambient temperature up to 30 days. Noodles industry provides an alternate sector for the utilization of meat and enhancing its overall quality attributes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the quantum of research papers and the citations these papers received for the plant Jatropha curcas Linn.

Articles published on Jatropha curcas Linn during 1987–2016 were downloaded from Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) by using the keyword Jatropha* on October 18, 2017. The search resulted in 4,276 records in all. The authors analyzed only 4,111 documents which were published as review articles, research articles and proceeding papers using the complete count methodology. The data were analyzed to examine the pattern of growth of output, most prolific countries, institutions and authors. It also identified highly cited authors and journals used for communicating research results.

The study indicates that India, China and Brazil are the main contributors to the field and the pattern of growth indicates a steep rise in publication output especially in the last block of 2015–2016. Most of the prolific institutions and authors were also located in these countries. However, the impact of output was different from the pattern of output. The publication output is scattered in more than 1,000 journals published from different parts of the globe.

The plant of Jatropha curcas Linn is a highly useful plant as a source of biofuel energy. This is the second study in English language on this plant and has used a large set of publication data as compared to the first. The findings of the study may be useful for policy makers as well as for researchers working in the field of biofuel energy.