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The relationship between medicine and video games is growing tremendously. In the field of medicine, realistic simulation and games have risen in popularity, and in turn, gamification has transformed the game elements into a non-gaming world for human engagement like motivation and performance. It is not surprising that game-based learning has branched out in the realm of the medical world. The person’s psychological state determines the effectiveness of education during training. This study aims to examine how the usage of immersive technology impacts users’ tendency to access immersive resources for learning during an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic. Augmented reality (AR) apps have grown to be a popular tool in education nowadays. The purpose of using AR applications is to impart knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic. An investigation was conducted to test the effectiveness of immersive technology in learning by developing a game-based experimental model and testing it on 100 non-randomly selected users of various ages. This study shows that users are open to new teaching approaches, including AR applications, in response to the challenges presented by the pandemic. AR applications provide a potential solution to the difficulties associated with education by providing an immersive and interesting experience that enhances learning-based results. This demonstrates that while using AR apps, an individual’s viewpoints and sense of control over their learning are more essential in influencing their conduct. By integrating AR apps into learning systems, immersive education may enhance users’ engagement, motivation and overall learning experiences.

Convenience sampling was chosen as the method for data analysis. One hundred users from a leading private university in the northwest part of India participated in this study. This gave a minimum sample size of 79 participants. To analyse the user experience (UX), a UX questionnaire was adopted. In this research paper, the researcher explores the importance of immersive games that emphasise awareness and experience through a series of questionnaires to assess the effective awareness of COVID through immersive technology, because the immersive element plays a major role in the quality and success of awareness through COVID-19 fighter video games as an interactive learning platform.

Results showed that most people do not know how to deal with an infected person in a critical situation; either they feel scared or deal without taking precautions. COVID-19 fighters are empowered with a virtual patient, which players can interact with. Once the user finishes the FPS game, he must find out the source of viruses that will be an AR-based virtual patient. The first step of the instruction will ask the user to give the mask to the infected person; in the second step, it will ask the user to sanitise his body. In the third step, it will ask to hospitalise.

The research offers empirical evidence on the effectiveness of augmented reality-based game approaches to increase reality in basic education to boost the awareness of individuals. The report also gives an example of good cross-cutting education materials that provide the player with a very valuable tool for understanding knowledge of covid awareness by playing the COVID-19 fighter game.

The study aims to develop a theoretical model that highlights the determinants of the adoption of online teaching at the time of the outbreak of COVID-19. This study adopted a time-series analysis to understand the factors leading to the adoption of online teaching.

Empirical data were gathered from 222 university faculty members by using an online survey. In the first phase, data were collected from those faculty members who had no experience of conducting online classes but were supposed to adopt online teaching as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. After two weeks, a slightly modified questionnaire was forwarded to the same group of faculty members, who were conducting online classes to know their perception regarding the adoption and conduct of online teaching.

Both the proposed conceptual frameworks were investigated empirically through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Significant differences were found in the perceptions of faculty members regarding before and after conducting classes through online teaching.

This study contributes to the literature by presenting and validating a theory-driven framework that accentuates the factors influencing online teaching during the outbreak of a pandemic. This research further extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology by introducing and validating three new constructs, namely: facilitative leadership, regulatory support and project team capability. Based on the findings, practical insights are provided to universities to facilitate adoption, acceptance and use of online teaching during a health-care emergency leading to campus lockdowns or the imposition of restrictions on the physical movement of people.

This paper aims at analysing the socio-economic characteristics, mobile phone ownership and banking behaviour as key determinants of digital financial inclusion in India.

This study is based on the Global Findex Survey of the World Bank covering 3,000 adult individuals in India. Simple statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, chi-square test and regression analysis with a marginal effect have been used for the data analysis.

About 35.2% of respondents have reported using digital financial services in the country. There is a significant association between the socio-economic profiles of individuals with the adoption of digital financial services in terms of gender, age, education, occupation and income. The marginal effect indicates that socio-economic factors, mobile phone ownership and banking behaviour of individuals towards borrowings and savings have indicated significant influence on digital financial inclusion. The analysis depicts that male with higher age, education, working status and higher income are more likely to adopt digital financial services. Further, individuals with mobile phone ownership and utilising banking in terms of borrowings and savings are more likely to adopt digital financial services.

As digital banking services have emerged as a preferred channel for financial service delivery, this study provides timely insights on developing user driven-strategies for promoting digital financial services.

Socio-economic characteristics, mobile phone ownership and banking behaviour are critical determinants of financial inclusion, so assessing its implications in the era of digitisation becomes imperative.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2022-0673.

The purpose of this study is to introduce new tools to develop a more precise and focused bibliometric analysis on the field of digitalization in healthcare management. Furthermore, this study aims to provide an overview of the existing resources in healthcare management and education and other developing interdisciplinary fields.

This work uses bibliometric analysis to conduct a comprehensive review to map the use of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) research models in healthcare academic studies. Bibliometric studies are considered an important tool to evaluate research studies and to gain a comprehensive view of the state of the art.

Although UTAUT dates to 2003, our bibliometric analysis reveals that only since 2016 has the model, together with UTAUT2 (2012), had relevant application in the literature. Nonetheless, studies have shown that UTAUT and UTAUT2 are particularly suitable for understanding the reasons that underlie the adoption and non-adoption choices of eHealth services. Further, this study highlights the lack of a multidisciplinary approach in the implementation of eHealth services. Equally significant is the fact that many studies have focused on the acceptance and the adoption of eHealth services by end users, whereas very few have focused on the level of acceptance of healthcare professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to conduct a bibliometric analysis of technology acceptance and adoption by using advanced tools that were conceived specifically for this purpose. In addition, the examination was not limited to a certain era and aimed to give a worldwide overview of eHealth service acceptance and adoption.

The evolution of new technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence and block chain has led to phenomenal growth of the FinTech Industry. The digital-only banking also known as neo, virtual or challenger banks leverage these technologies with the ultimate aim of enhancing the reach of the formal banking sector to the hinterlands of our country which are currently plagued with the problem of inadequate infrastructure. It is evident that convergence of the neo-bank with the traditional banking system would be a path-breaker as it caters to the gamut of services which can be offered to the end customer. Recent trends indicate that regulators are concentrating on consolidating different enactments in the form of codes instead of separate and piecemeal laws to control regulatory cholesterol and promoting digital technologies, thereby nurturing competitiveness in the market. Through this chapter we aim to do a comparative analysis of the technological advancements and its implementation in India with other jurisdictions. We will be relying on secondary data sourced from various governmental websites, surveys and journals. With the FinTech industry gaining traction and decentralization of this sector, it becomes imperative to have proper regulations to curb unwarranted risks, the absence of which might just halt the potential growth and can turn out to be a nightmare for the economy if not dealt with caution. There exists unexploited potential in the digital sector which can also be used across the borders to realize its true worth. However, it should be based on responsible innovation which attends to the interoperability issues while preserving the functioning and stability of the financial system.

Migrants have been posed with less familiarity in their new environment during COVID times, faced with various social, psychological and emotional traumas. Research indicates that they may have been originating from apprehension of being abandoned by their neighbours. Most of them were precarious with little wages, competing for their basic need fulfilment, putting them under more mental stress. Looking forward to the ancient principle, ‘Athithi Devo Bhavah’ (Visitors are Gods), and immediate response, measures were taken to promote community shelters and kitchens, maintaining social distancing and ensuring physical safety. The governments of different countries took proactive initiatives to study and assess their needs. The study here includes the cases being evaluated regarding migrants' need for surveillance and psycho-social support given by the government and non-profit associations during the pandemic at the global level. Remarkably, certain countries proved the working of their sustainable poverty reduction model by evaluating various factors. The study started by introducing who migrants were, diagnosing their problems faced during the pandemic, how Sustainable Development Goals can be implemented and various measures taken at government and institutional levels to protect the migrant workforce.

To reduce the electricity consumption in our homes, a first step is to make the user aware of it. Reading a meter once in a month is not enough, instead, it requires real-time meter reading. Smart electricity meter (SEM) is capable of providing a quick and exact meter reading in real-time at regular time intervals. SEM generates a considerable amount of household electricity consumption data in an incremental manner. However, such data has embedded load patterns and hidden information to extract and learn consumer behavior. The extracted load patterns from data clustering should be updated because consumer behaviors may be changed over time. The purpose of this study is to update the new clustering results based on the old data rather than to re-cluster all of the data from scratch.

This paper proposes an incremental clustering with nearness factor (ICNF) algorithm to update load patterns without overall daily load curve clustering.

Extensive experiments are implemented on real-world SEM data of Irish Social Science Data Archive (Ireland) data set. The results are evaluated by both accuracy measures and clustering validity indices, which indicate that proposed method is useful for using the enormous amount of smart meter data to understand customers’ electricity consumption behaviors.

ICNF can provide an efficient response for electricity consumption patterns analysis to end consumers via SEMs.

The purpose of this paper is to expand the theoretical understanding of social inclusion of vulnerable populations. Employing cross disciplinary literature from marketing and social policy, this paper examines the factors shaping internal migrant workers experience of inclusion and vulnerability in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors conducted a review of social inclusion and consumer vulnerability literature to develop a new and innovative conceptual framework which operationalises social inclusion. This framework was then examined using an illustrative case study of internal migrant worker crisis in India. Data for the case were collected from various national and international media, government and non-government reports published in English on the pandemic related migrant crisis in India.

Access and control over food was fraught with barriers for migrant workers. As the lockdown progressed, access to and control over work opportunities was precarious. Furthermore, the resource-control constraints faced by migrant workers in terms of food, work and transport had a direct impact on their experience of social inclusion. Lastly, the stranded migrant workers found themselves unable to fully participate in economic activities.

To the authors’ knowledge this is the first paper that integrates consumer vulnerability concept, originating in marketing scholarship into the social inclusion framework. This allowed for anchoring the “aspirational goals” of social inclusion into the concrete context of consumers and marketplaces.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the tourists' perception of smart tourism with the application of virtual reality and design a framework of smart tourism with elements of VR for Indian Tourism especially in the periods of the pandemic COVID-19. The ever-evolving and unprecedented COVID 19 situation had posed extreme challenges for the travel and tourism industry. In such conditions, it is becoming increasingly necessary to rely on digital technologies, ICT and smart tourism. ICT has served as a catalyst for innovations in tourism.

This study investigates the impact of smart tourism and virtual reality technology on the perception of tourists towards travelling decisions during and post COVID-19 scenario. The respondents involved in the study were tourists travelling in India, the tourists come from different parts of India. A structured questionnaire has been administered to collect data from 224 travellers across India. The questionnaire consisted 22 constructs. The constructs in this section were measured using a five-point Likert scale ranging. In the first step, the first order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is carried out, by using the software IBM AMOS-20. The initial model is generated ix constructs, and outcomes are used to analyse the model's goodness of fit and construct validity. In the second step, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is carried out to do the path analysis of the proposed model. The effect of relationships amongst the theoretical constructs is also analysed using SEM.

The findings imply that the application of smart tourism along with virtual reality forms a positive perception of tourists and provides a sustainable platform for tourism organizations in Indian tourism. Virtual reality-based tourism has emerged as alternate for the tourism industry during the times of Covid, which in long run can be seen as a substitute to traditional tourism. The increasing use of blue ocean concepts, to delivery high-value experience at low cost has complimented the tourism industry. The researchers have made a modest attempt by proposing a blended model of smart tourism with virtual reality as a blue ocean strategy and which would ultimately facilitate the sustainability of the Industry by creating multi-dimensional values of experience for tourists in India.

The researchers have made a modest attempt by proposing a blended model of smart tourism with virtual reality as a blue ocean strategy, which would ultimately facilitate the industry's sustainability by creating multi-dimensional values of experience for tourists in India.

This qualitative study designs a smart tourism system with the use of the recent advances in ICT and Virtual Reality (VR), as a bridging solution and the saviour of the tourism sector in India during COVID 19. The integration of ICT into the travel experience has resulted in the social phenomena of smart tourism. This has led to a rise in use of smart tourism tools among tourism service providers.