This paper evaluates the different digital libraries (DLs) in India developed in the past two decades. These DLs help advance scholarship and facilitate the reading habits of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper evaluates the different digital libraries (DLs) in India developed in the past two decades. These DLs help advance scholarship and facilitate the reading habits of their users. Many of these DLs have a rich collection of vernacular literature depicting India’s diverse cultural heritages and traditions. DLs in India also help in outreaching global researchers and knowledge seekers. Many diaspora communities use these DLs frequently and other stakeholders such as the international scholars interested in Indic civilization. This paper finally suggests a way forward to make operational DL initiatives discoverable to humans and machines with the adaptation of FAIR principles that make e-resources findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable for their discovery beyond respective DL portals.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a desk survey of DL initiatives in India. Their salient features are obtained from their respective Web portals and social media profiles.
Findings
This study identified twelve operational DL initiatives in India. Out of them, the newest five DL initiatives are described in this paper.
Originality/value
This study reflects original findings on the newest five DL initiatives of India. These findings were not earlier reported in a journal article.
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Suman Das, Anup Kumar Das, Shipra Awasthi and Manorama Tripathi
The purpose of this paper is to compare ten Open Science Portals in India. The comparison is made using the three primary parameters of accessibility, search engine optimization…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare ten Open Science Portals in India. The comparison is made using the three primary parameters of accessibility, search engine optimization (SEO) and performance. This study aims to investigate whether the ten selected web portals efficiently meet the web accessibility requirements of the large population at an acceptable rate.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was performed by using the Siteimprove web tool to collect information about Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The online accessibility tools provided by Siteimprove make it simple to comply with and follow the global WCAG at all compliance levels. This study selected ten web portals taking into account the open accessibility and the web portals offered by the Indian Government to promote research and innovation.
Findings
The findings of this research will be beneficial for the government website designers, managers and administrators to assess their website’s level of compliance with accepted accessibility standards so they can make tactical choices to increase accessibility.
Originality/value
This study highlights the portals’ robust characteristic features and downsides, where improvement may be required. It also focused on how these portals help in promoting citizen science and public understanding of science nationwide.
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Anup Kumar Das, Chaitali Dutta and B.K. Sen
The purpose of this paper is to assess the present situation in the development of indigenous digital libraries in India. The study aims to evaluate different retrieval features…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the present situation in the development of indigenous digital libraries in India. The study aims to evaluate different retrieval features of Indian digital libraries, especially those provide access to multilingual and multimedia documents.
Design/methodology/approach
For this study, eight digital libraries originated in India, which are available in 24×7 timeframe and accessible worldwide through the internet, have been identified and selected. The retrieval features and other information on these digital libraries have been collected mostly from their respective websites and from other published literature, annual reports, etc.
Findings
The paper finds that Indian digital libraries provide universal access to informative and culturally rich digital content related to South Asian region. The digitisation efforts in Indian institutions make these digital libraries operational.
Research limitations/implications
The institutional repositories and open access archives of Indian institutions that give access to the current research literature are not included in this study, because their retrieval features are mostly similar to each other as they use either DSpace or GNU EPrints open source software.
Practical implications
Indigenous digital libraries in India provide universal access to information and knowledge related to culture and heritage of people of South Asian counties. This study gives an insight on how diverse contents are integrated and disseminated to the end‐users in a user‐friendly manner. This study also indicates research initiatives on different aspects of multilingual contents in this region.
Originality/value
No such evaluation on Indian digital libraries has been done from the perspective of information retrieval features. This study will generate new knowledge in area of indigenous digital libraries in a developing country like India. This study is also an attempt to popularise Indian indigenous digital libraries among the world community.
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The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the evolution of open educational resources OER initiatives in India – how OER movement emerges from the open access movement in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the evolution of open educational resources OER initiatives in India – how OER movement emerges from the open access movement in the backdrop of an emerging knowledge‐based economy. This paper also illustrates how OER help in democratizing lifelong learning spaces that eventually help in skills development.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper primarily uses baseline surveys and recommendations of different working groups of Indian National Knowledge Commission. Relevant policy instruments of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, UNESCO, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and other national and international bodies are also critically examined to understand India's stand on OER in comparison with other promising developing countries. This paper analyses impact of OER on Indian systems of education, ranging from lifelong learning, technical and vocational education and training to higher education systems. This paper also illustrates various models of innovations which are shaping up multi‐dimensional lifelong learning pathways to cater to career aspirations of young Indians.
Findings
This paper finds out that Indian OER initiatives make use of textual platforms as well as audio‐visual platforms embracing YouTube, Metacafe and other web‐based streaming video channels. This paper also illustrates the collaboration patterns in OER initiatives in order to attain sustainability, optimum usage and integration with formal curriculum of skills development programmes.
Research limitations/implications
Although this paper identifies external as well as internal factors that are shaping up OER movement in this emerging knowledge economy, this paper mainly focuses on country‐level initiatives. The challenges faced at the institutional level as well as users level can be traced through advanced research studies.
Practical implications
This paper suggests some sustainable models for OER deployment, lessons learned and challenges faced by practitioners and users communities.
Social implications
OER development has become a social movement. Proper deployment and utilization of OER resources will lead to social empowerment of young adults. This paper helps in understanding how Indian society embraces OER in order to attain social justice and empowerment through sustainable educational development.
Originality/value
This paper is a unique attempt to produce a state‐of‐the‐art report on the emergence of the OER movement in a transitional emerging economy.
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Rabishankar Giri and Anup Kumar Das
With a sustainable knowledge economy in the backdrop, India has seen an exponential growth of academic and sponsored research programmes across all major disciplines. There has…
Abstract
Purpose
With a sustainable knowledge economy in the backdrop, India has seen an exponential growth of academic and sponsored research programmes across all major disciplines. There has been an exponential proliferation of Indian research journals to disseminate results of research carried out in India, by Indian researchers, from collaborative global research programmes. This paper aims to briefly describe a new initiative, the Indian Citation Index (ICI), which is a web‐based citation database of India‐based or India‐focused research journals.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper gives a glimpse of the new ICI initiative. It briefly describes its promises and coverage. This paper is based on data available in the ICI portal and its information brochure.
Findings
The ICI has made an attempt to create a web‐based citation database covering a whole range of disciplines, i.e. sciences, technologies, social sciences and humanities. This paper also identifies similar initiatives in the past, which failed due to the absence of web technologies and web‐based business models.
Research limitations/implications
This paper informs the availability of a web‐based ICI to a worldwide audience. Many in‐depth studies can now be undertaken to measure productivity of Indian research journals vis‐à‐vis Indian researchers using datasets of this citation database. Some studies can also be made to measure popularity of Indian journals amongst foreign researchers and foreign research collaborators.
Social implications
If this initiative is successful, other countries will be inspired to have their own country‐specific citation database to measure performance of home‐grown research periodicals.
Originality/value
This is an informative news article to keep abreast of latest development of a country‐specific citation database.
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Mohammad Shahid Zaman and Anup Kumar Bhandari
This paper examines the technical efficiency (TE) of Indian commercial banks during 1998–2015.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the technical efficiency (TE) of Indian commercial banks during 1998–2015.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses mathematical programming-based data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology to measure technical efficiency of Indian banks. Further, Simar and Wilson (2007) double bootstrap procedure is applied to examine the determinants of efficiency of the Indian banks, by examining the effects of various bank specific and other contextual variables.
Findings
The results indicate substantial upward bias in the conventional efficiency estimates of the Indian commercial banks. Needless to note, such upward bias is consistent with the theoretical postulates. The bootstrapped regression results show that increasing capital adequacy ratio is positively associated with bank efficiency. The popular belief that non-performing assets have a dampening effect on performance of banks is validated. Among others, ownership category is observed to be an important determining factor of bank efficiency. Specifically, state-owned banks (SOBs) are relatively lagging behind the foreign banks. Moreover, larger banks are observed to have a significantly higher level of efficiency, therefore, recent official policy initiatives toward consolidation of SOBs are validated.
Originality/value
As this study uses Simar and Wilson (2007) bootstrap approach, it enables the authors to have an estimate of the extent of bias in the traditional DEA TE scores. It also helps us drawing consistent inferences by rectifying the problem of serial correlation in the conventional second stage regression in this regard.
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Gargi Sanati and Anup Kumar Bhandari
In the backdrop of an increase in market-based banking activities, this paper aims to study operational efficiency of Indian banking sector during 2009–2010 through 2017–2018…
Abstract
Purpose
In the backdrop of an increase in market-based banking activities, this paper aims to study operational efficiency of Indian banking sector during 2009–2010 through 2017–2018 considering Capital Gain and Gain from Forex Market (as desirable outputs) and Slippage (as undesirable byproducts) simultaneously, along with Advances – a desirable output considered in the traditional banking performance assessment literature. This enables to have an assessment of performance (as captured by the measured efficiency scores) of Indian Banks following an alternative viewpoint about the banking activities. The authors also explain such efficiency scores in terms of bank-specific factors, banking industry competition scenario and interest rate channel.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, the authors estimate six alternatives but interlinked operational efficiency scores (TES) of the Indian domestic commercial banks. In the second stage, they explain such TES in terms of bank-specific factors, banking industry competition scenario and interest rate channel.
Findings
The authors observe that the private sector banks as a group outperform those under public ownership. Moreover, although the private sector banks could maintain somewhat consistency in their operational efficiency performance over the sample period, public sector banks clearly show a declining tendency. The second stage econometric estimation results show that the priority sector lending has a negative effect on efficiency. Interestingly, the authors get varying results for the relationship between maturity and efficiency score depending on banks’ strategies on stressed assets management. Furthermore, the analyses result that banks are not so efficient in managing relatively larger-volume loans. It is also observed that banks’ efficiency positively depends on the Credit-to-Deposit (CD) ratio. It is found that the overall operational efficiency of the banks to manage their credit risk portfolio improves with a reduction in the lending rate (LR). However, the interaction of lending activities and capital market shows that with the increase in LR, corporate borrowers may switch to capital market to explore for desired funds, which may induce the banking sector to investment in capital markets and create a positive market sentiment.
Originality/value
Literature, although scanty, is there dealing stressed assets of a bank as some undesirable byproducts of its operational and business activities. However, such literature mostly done within the traditional framework of banking business activities and modern market-based business activities are almost absent in the literature. The authors have done it in the present study.