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The apex planning body of India, NITI Aayog launched an Aspirational District Programme (ADP) in January 2018. The programme aimed to the quick and effective transformation of 112 (14%) districts of the country. This programme is considered as world's biggest result-based governance initiative having reached up to 250 million people. It is based on a ranking that is done on monthly basis. This ranking is based on 49 KPIs across six broad socio-economic themes.

The study attempts to inquire and assess the progress made by 112 Aspirational Districts under Financial Inclusion, Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure theme from the inception of the programme to June 2022 (i.e. 54 months). Instead of ranking districts with delta rank or composite scores, the study divorce from NITI Aayog's methodology of monthly delta ranking. The study explores 8 indicators under the basic infrastructure theme and 16 indicators under the financial inclusion and skill development themes. For this purpose, the study explores the availability of individual household latrines, drinking water, electricity and road connectivity. Districts are also tracked for the number of Internet-connected Gram Panchayats, and panchayats with Common Services. Every district is provided with the target as per national development priority, the study makes an effort to grasp the distance of each district from the national target. This allows researchers to develop a scale Very Far, Far, Near, Very Near, Achieved with descriptive statistics techniques. Juxtaposing the scale with timelines results in a pattern of progress made by these 112 districts.

Purpose. This chapter discusses the challenges and different strategies to increase skill development for the future workforce.

Methodology. Multiple sources on the topic were studied and reviewed in this chapter. The idea of skill and its development is discussed in the literature review.

Findings. Different nations’ governments have promoted human capital development by providing up-skilling and retraining programs to balance supply and demand. Skills gaps need to be brought to the attention of stakeholders, such as governments, businesses, and the educational system. Teachers, employers, and other stakeholders need to develop strategies and action plans to ensure that the skills gaps are appropriately identified and adequately addressed. These initiatives must be developed with input from various stakeholders.

Practical Implications. The research results would inform the curriculum, incorporating skill development processes tailored to various scenarios. These findings would aid business organisations in crafting skill development programs that address identified skill gaps. Challenges in skill development would be taken into account during course development, and relevant teaching–learning materials would be created. Key stakeholders, such as accrediting organisations, employers, and students, should exert more influence on academic institutions to prioritise societal demands for economic development.

Originality/Value. The uniqueness and significance of this chapter lie in its concise summary of the strategies to tackle the hurdles in skill development.

This study aims to investigate redundant information in mandatory non-financial reports (NFRs) demanded by regulators, focusing primarily on overlapping disclosures in a new Indian sustainability reporting (SR) framework.

The study sample comprised NIFTY100 listed entities that published SR voluntarily during 2021–2022. The authors used content analysis and cosine similarity techniques to conceptually compare redundancy in SR disclosures with non-financial disclosures.

The findings reveal an information overlap in SR disclosure with other NFRs disclosures. The disclosures of Directors’ Report have higher cosine similarity scores at the firm level with SR, followed by the Management Discussion and Analysis report, Corporate Governance report and Corporate Social Responsibility report. The additional analysis reveals that qualitative disclosures and disclosures comprising governance factors overlap more in SR.

Policymakers should look to establish relevant disclosure guidelines in the SR system, and thereby, shed light on fundamental issues to enhance future SR framework reforms.

The study highlight the need for integration and amendment in the disclosure guidelines of NFRs to improve the overall transparency of the reports.

Previous studies have examined the redundancy in annual reports and SRs from the point of view of overlapping information. To the best author’s knowledge, this is possibly among the first studies to offer insights into the repetition of disclosures required by regulators in statutory NFRs based on environmental, social, and governance factors through the lenses of the institutional theory.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role and impact of state regulation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending on company actions and to examine whether making mandatory CSR encourages businesses to engage in social welfare projects. Additionally, the authors also investigate whether these CSR expenditures can enable India to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

CSR expenditure data from the government repository of 22,531 eligible companies in India were studied from FY2014–2015 to FY2019–2020. CSR spending is further classified according to development areas of Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013, and mapped with the SDGs to see which ones the corporations have prioritized.

CSR spending increased from INR 10,066 crore in 2014–2015 to INR 24,689 crore in 2019–2020. Companies have prioritized CSR expenditure on education, followed by health care and rural development. The number of companies spending more than the mandated expenditure increased by around 75% from 2014–2015 to 2019–2020. However, the “comply or explain” approach of the law has led to a major number of companies spending zero on CSR. Companies have generally concentrated on moving CSR funds to designated funds rather than using them for capacity development to instill social responsibility culture.

This study provides evidence of the impact of mandatory CSR expenditure on welfare activities and SDGs. Unlike previous research, the results of this study are based on CSR expenditures rather than voluntary CSR scores.

Central theme: The present chapter discusses the integration of data science methods in devising economic policies in different countries with special reference to India.

Purpose: It explains how the policy-making process in countries can be transformed from estimate-based policies to evidence-based policies with the help of techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and data analytics. It answers the research question of whether the data science techniques can make the economic policy process efficient or not in developing countries like India.

Research methodology: Data are collected from secondary sources such as government websites, journals, corporate reports, and research databases to conduct this descriptive analysis. Research papers from Scopus/Web of Science (WoS) database are extracted, and exclusion/inclusion criteria are applied for extracting papers relevant to this research.

Findings: The chapter found out various opportunities which India can tap by gaining new insights on critical macroeconomic issues such as unemployment, labour markets, and water crises and would be able to resolve the problems with the help of predictive modelling. The findings exhibit the possibility of building models that could explain how to integrate data science techniques into the policy-making process. It also highlights the challenges that Indian economy is facing in incorporating these techniques in its policy-making process. It states the need to design different evaluation schemes based on information and communication technology (ICT) and data science for different policies, since one methodology does not suit all.

India has been withstanding increasing pressure of enrolment in the higher education system, resulting in the creation of new universities in consonance with the recommendations of the Knowledge Commission (2007). Barring a few institutions of paramount excellence, the mushrooming universities fail to conform to equitability of quality and standards, that is teaching-learning-dissemination and research, except for accommodating higher gross enrolment ratio. It has resulted in an asymmetric and sporadic development of human resources, leaving a large basket of learners out of the pursuit for aspiring higher academic, research and professional enrichment. The country needs to develop an innovative common minimum curriculum and evaluation framework, keeping in view the trinity of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the Indian higher education system to deliver human resources with equitable knowledge, skill and intellectual acumen.

The paper has been developed using secondary information.

The manuscript has developed an innovative teaching-learning framework that would ensure every Indian HEI to follow a common minimum curriculum and partial common national evaluation system so that the learners across the country would enjoy the essence of equivalence.

This research has designed a comprehensive model to integrate the spirit of the “DEI” value proposition in developing curriculum and gearing common evaluation. This would enable the country to reinforce the spirit of social equity and the capacity to utilise resources with equitability and perpetuity.