Political Scenario Research Articles

GMR: grounded at the Maldives international airport

Learning outcomes The learning outcome of this paper is to understand the geopolitical aspects of international business. Assessing the political risk inherent in international investment projects. Maintaining a favorable corporate image in the host country despite apparent hostilities. Analyzing the risks associated with doing business in an emerging market. Case overview/synopsis In February 2019, local newspapers in the Maldives published unconfirmed reports that the Indian company GMR was reinvesting in the Maldives. GMR had secured a contract in 2010 for renovation/expansion of The Maldives International Airport. However, the contract created political turmoil, with opposition parties objecting to some clauses. People considered GMR closer to the incumbent President, Mohammed Nasheed. The unstable political scenario forced President Nasheed to resign amidst allegations of corruption. The new President showed hostility toward India and GMR while making overtures to China. He canceled the airport contract and awarded it to a Chinese company. GMR went to the international Tribunal in Singapore. The tribunal upheld the Maldivian government’s right to terminate the agreement but awarded GMR a compensation of US$270m. In 2019, a new government came to power in the Maldives, with Mohammed Nasheed enjoying a commanding position. The government pledged to accept the judgment of the Singapore International Tribunal. The local media discussed the possibility of the return of GMR to the Maldives after seeing some senior GMR officials in the Maldives. However, it was not clear whether it would be a good idea for GMR. Complexity academic level Master's level program. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CCS 11: Strategy.

The Beatles in Spain: The Contribution of Beat Music and Ye-yés to the (Subtle) Musical, Cultural and Political Openness of General Franco’s Regime in the 1960s

From the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, the impact of American twist and rock’n’roll and British beat music, the Eurovision Song Contest, the considerable growth of the national record industry, the number of radio stations and the (still timid) deployment of nationwide TV gave rise in Spain to the development of the ye-yé fashion amongst the young Spanish population. This was accompanied by the development of a mild feeling of rebellion and critical spirit against the traditional conservative/Catholic status quo and the conventional mores of the previous generation. Indeed, from 1964-65 onwards dozens of Beatle-like bands imitated the Beatles’ rhythms, language, image, poses, fashion and song lyrics. The two live performances of the Beatles in Madrid and Barcelona in 1965 disseminated their popularity even further in Franco’s Spain. English became the lingua franca of modernity, of international tourism and of the new musical genres. In this Anglophile context, Beatlemania was to exert a relatively gentle influence on the social and political Spanish scenario of the decade and contributed to preparing the path to the country’s democratization in the late 1970s.

Pertinent Internal and External Issues in Industrialised Building System (IBS) Construction Business in Malaysia

Industrialised Building System (IBS) construction business has emerged as one of the potential business ventures as the Malaysian construction industry is in a constant need to shift from conventional method of construction to IBS adoption aligning to Construction 4.0 Strategic Plan 2021-2025 and The National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030 (NEP 2030). In line with boosting the IBS implementation, a brief exploratory study has been conducted to validate several IBS construction business issues among IBS contractors in Malaysia, internally and externally. From selected online databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science, 397 articles were extracted from the “Industrialised Building System (IBS) Issues in Malaysia” keywords. A set of semi-structured questionnaires was developed and pre-tested before flowing it to 25 respondents from different backgrounds in construction business related to IBS. Internally, it is discovered that the easy access to cheap labours, substantial start-up capital and ineffective IBS knowledge transfer among construction players are internal challenges that IBS contractors must endure. Concurrently discovered, IBS contractors are externally challenged by heavy Chinese-led and big boys construction project monopoly, government’s weak push for IBS technology, securing smooth payment delivery, and the unstable political climate in the Malaysian political scenarios. This paper aims to validate and outreach the challenges IBS contractors face internally and externally to strategize the business plan systematically.
 Keywords: Industrialized Building System (IBS), Issues in IBS Construction Business, Construction Business Issues, IBS Issues, Exploratory Study

Cave-dwelling gastropods (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of Brazil: state of the art and conservation

An up-to-date list of exclusively cave-dwelling gastropod species recorded in Brazil is presented including updated taxonomy, detailed geographic information, and illustration of types. The list includes 18 cave-exclusive (troglobitic) gastropods encompassing 15 land and three freshwater species, with the status of further species pending additional studies. Their unusual morphology and diversity are discussed, as well as their conservation status and prospects in the current Brazilian environmental and political scenario.

Tempos difíceis: os Estados Unidos e o México na “renegociação” do NAFTA

Abstract After a tense process of renegotiating the terms of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada established a new regional agreement, the USMCA (United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement), whose purpose is to overcome problems that emerged since the NAFTA came into force in 1994. The ratification of this document by the national congresses of the referred countries has generated new tensions and instabilities in their political scenario, especially due to the existing structural asymmetries between them. This work aims to analyse the impact of that imbalance in the NAFTA renegotiation process, considering the behaviour of the United States in relation to its partners, especially Mexico.

Left, Right, and Gender: Exploring Interaction Traces to Mitigate Human Biases.

Human biases impact the way people analyze data and make decisions. Recent work has shown that some visualization designs can better support cognitive processes and mitigate cognitive biases (i.e., errors that occur due to the use of mental "shortcuts"). In this work, we explore how visualizing a user's interaction history (i.e., which data points and attributes a user has interacted with) can be used to mitigate potential biases that drive decision making by promoting conscious reflection of one's analysis process. Given an interactive scatterplot-based visualization tool, we showed interaction history in real-time while exploring data (by coloring points in the scatterplot that the user has interacted with), and in a summative format after a decision has been made (by comparing the distribution of user interactions to the underlying distribution of the data). We conducted a series of in-lab experiments and a crowd-sourced experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of interaction history interventions toward mitigating bias. We contextualized this work in a political scenario in which participants were instructed to choose a committee of 10 fictitious politicians to review a recent bill passed in the U.S. state of Georgia banning abortion after 6 weeks, where things like gender bias or political party bias may drive one's analysis process. We demonstrate the generalizability of this approach by evaluating a second decision making scenario related to movies. Our results are inconclusive for the effectiveness of interaction history (henceforth referred to as interaction traces) toward mitigating biased decision making. However, we find some mixed support that interaction traces, particularly in a summative format, can increase awareness of potential unconscious biases.

Military involvement in political disputes as a factor of institutional instability in Brazil

This paper looks at how recent military involvement in political disputes raises instability in Brazil. Ahead of the presidential election in October 2022, this research sheds light on how President Bolsonaro abuses the Armed Forces` prestige and power as an instrument of intimidation and political pressure. This includes encouraging followers to call for military intervention against Congress and the Supreme Court. To analyse the political instability scenario initiated in 2013, this study identifies declarations made by senior military officers and the reactions of the other two Branches to Bolsonaro’s political moves. Despite no evidence that the Armed Forces support any threat to democracy, there should be constant efforts to keep them as nonpartisan institutions. Shielding military commanders from domestic political disputes is part of this effort, which shall be considered in this study for the protection of the constitutional order.

Noções de engajamento cívico e liderança em adolescentes Civismo, Liderança e Adolescência ,

Abstract This research aims to discuss civic engagement among teenagers based on their own conceptions about politics and leadership. The theoretical perspective is at the intersection of Education and Moral Psychology, bringing studies on the education of values, as well as concepts of political philosophy. We evaluate the responses of 219 teenage students from Baixada Santista-SP, of both genders, aged 10 to 13 years, from two questionnaires produced for the investigation. One questionnaire on the perceptions of the political scenario, and the other on anti-hero characters from cinema and TV, the answers to the questionnaires were inter-related. The results show that civic engagement emphasizes the important role that teenagers can and should play as participants and agents of change in the construction of qualities that promote the common good and citizenship.

The “First climate change famine” from 2017–2022?- An analysis of the economics and geography of great SUD drought of Madagascar (1901–2021)

Islands of the world are facing unprecedented impacts of climate change. Rising temperatures and consequent increasing sea levels have questioned the very existence of these islands and forward a severe threat to their resources. In this regard, the island of Madagascar is not an exception. Southern Madagascar or Great Sud is facing an unprecedented drought which has exacerbated in the last four years, becoming pronounced in 2021 and 2022. It has landed the part of the country into emergency now and has converted the region into a dust bowl. The situation is turning to what has been described as the “first climate change famine ” by the UN and the year 2022 is observing a similarity of conditions. The current examination attempts to examine the question whether the catastrophe is human or climate induced or both? This has been attempted through a detailed examination of rainfall patterns and trends and an inspection of economic and political scenario of the country. Our analysis indicates that rainfall does exhibit a fluctuating trend in the region, but there definitely exist other factors than geography in creating this precarious situation for the country.

Political Awareness Among Rural Women of Punjab: A Case Study of Sangrur District

India is a democratic nation. It is considered as the world’s largest democracy. Participation of people in working of government is the basic necessity for the success of democracy. It is significant that the extent of participation of individual and various groups in politics depends upon the level of their ‘awareness’. Thus the awareness about politics is the prerequisite of participation. Political awareness broadly defined as a knowledge and information that a person possesses about the nature, structures, functions, activities and problems of the political system in which an individual lives. In spite of constitutional provisions of gender equality and other political rights, only a small number of women have been able to make room for themselves in decision making process due to the lack of political consciousness. Many steps have been taken for the women empowerment as so far. There are many constitutional provisions about equal political participation of women. The 73^rd and 74^th amendment of the Indian constitution ensured the reservation of one third of Panchayats seats for women. These amendments brought about significant changes in the political scenario of the country with regard to women's participation in politics. But over the years, many researchers reveal that these amendments have had little effect on women's lives at the grassroots level. While political indicators reflects an increasing number of women contesting elections and holding offices in villages, study suggests that in most of the cases women's political participation gets reduced to tokenism and rubber stamp. Women empowerment is incomplete without the political awareness and their participation in the social, economic and political institutions. The aim of this paper is to analyze the pattern of political awareness among women with special reference to their knowledge about the political institutions of the country as well as their participation in the local self government and other decisions making structures. This paper also examines the role of political awareness in strengthening the political participation in politics and empowerment of rural women. It also analyzes the impact of social institutions like marriage, family etc. on the level of political awareness among rural women. This study is specifically confined to the four villages of Sangrur District of Punjab.

Transformando territórios periurbanos por redes de pagamento por serviços ambientais no Sul do Brasil

Abstract The importance of institutional arrangements for nature conservation, like Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is recognized in the literature but needs more empirical exploration in peri-urban contexts where power imbalances play out more strongly due to urbanization drivers. We documented the actor configurations in the peri-urban environment of a watershed PES in Curitiba and conducted a Social Network Analysis (SNA) to enhance our analysis with a power layer. The analysis points to access advantages of powerful urban stakeholders to promote the commoditization of nature through PES, lacking stakeholder engagement which amplifies inequalities in peri-urban territories. In Brazil’s current political scenario the neglect of environmental institutions shows increasing effects on conservation. We point out potential for participation of more diverse actors and the integration of institutions to benefit the PES arrangement in terms of ecosystem flows and social equity.

Dilemmas in the Decentralized Governance in Mozambique

This article comes about with the objective of analyzing the dilemmas that come out in the current configuration of power in Mozambique particularly in the decentralized governance. The main argument that guides this article is that in the Mozambican political scenario, there is a paradox in decentralized entities, because of geographical coincidence between the municipality and the district, and the spaces of governmental protection of each power are intertwined. However, this overlapping of powers at the local level, that is, the existence of local authorities, the provincial governor, the secretary of state in the province, in the places where there is a geographical coincidence between the municipality and the district forms a dilemma for the effective decentralized governance. The question that guides this research is: “What are the dilemmas arising from the decentralized governance package in Mozambique?” This article was developed from a qualitative approach, which privilege to the legal-multidisciplinary perspective, centered on the political history of Mozambique, observing the procedure of critical reflection from a political perspective of documents related to the process of decentralization in Mozambique. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that with the creation of the decentralized governance package in Mozambique, the central government intends to continue to control as it always did, the decentralized areas, by instituting the figure of the Secretary of State. This constitutes an adulteration or interference with the autonomy that decentralized areas enjoy by law.

Indo-Russia Relations: A Political Analysis

Global Political scenario has always been influenced by relations between the states, which in turn affects the global order. The Indo-Russia relations cannot be explained merely as a Bi-lateral relationship. The seven-decade friendship between these two Asian giants should be analysed in the spheres they collaborated in the context of the impressive magnitude of their engagements. The historic relationship had withstood the turbulence of cold war, aftermath of the collapse of USSR and the challenges posed by a unipolar world order. Russia’s resurrection after the Soviet collapse and India’s fast paced development gave these nations new arenas for cooperation and engagement. The purpose of this paper is to study this enigmatic relationship between these two nations using a theoretical approach, drawing from primary and secondary published data. By exploring Indo-Russian relations in the historical and current international scenario, this paper attempts to chart out the scope for furthering constructive engagement in the evolving Indo-Pacific scenario.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO ALLAMA MUHAMMAD IQBAL’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

In Iqbal’s political philosophy and practice, parliamentary spiritual democratic system is universalistic and particularistic in its range. Global in nature, it is anchored in the religion of Islam that gives it a universal look. In 1926, when he entered politics to realize this ideal in practice, his ideas started to reflect the political scenario of the subcontinent. Besides Islam, Iqbal had made use of a good deal of western political concepts of nationalism, democracy, secularism, sovereignty, ethics of politics and communism. But he neither fully appreciates nor discards out rightly all these concepts. On the other hand, he has expounded his own political ideals of Tauhid, Khudi, Marde Momin, Islamic democracy, Millat, etc. Through these patterns of thought, Iqbal try to train an individual, a society and a global Islamic order. This universal order as it is construed from the concept of ummah will strive for the promotion of pan-humanism, i.e., freedom, brotherhood, and equality of humanity. In this paper Iqbal’s political philosophy, his concept of Khudi, how he perceives an ideal society will be analyzed. It will also be highlight that how his political philosophy changed from one stage to another. Keywords: Allama Iqbal, Political Philosophy, Muslim Society in India, Islam, Nation-State

AFGHAN ETHNICITIES AND INTERNET SURFING CORRELATE WITH DIGITAL BULLYING AND VICTIMIZATION

Ethnicity is the first identification topic in Afghanistan. However, the last five decades brought changes in the social and political scenario of Afghanistan. Due to these reasons diagnosing the demerits of ethnicity is the first step for a solution. On the other hand, this study showed that the Afghan ethnicities such as Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, and other minorities do not have significant differences among one another based on Digital Bullying and Digital Victimization of the sample. This research data took from public and private universities of Kabul province through the standardized Revised Cyberbullying inventory II (RCBI-II) which was developed by Topcua & Erdur-Bakerb (Topcua and Erdur-Bakerb). There was 750 sample size who participated voluntarily through random sampling technique. Moreover, the sample consists of four groups of Ethnicities such as Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, and other minorities (224, 267, 221, 38) respectively. A relationship was tested through Spearman's rho because data were not normally distributed. Besides that for finding differences among Afghan Ethnicities based on Digital Bullying and Digital Victimization one way ANOVA has been applied. All data were analyzed with the SPSS version 24. Furthermore, the result showed the relationship of internet surfing with digital bullying and digital victimization was positively significant with one another. On the other hand, the differences among Afghan Ethnicities were not significantly different from one another.

A Tale of a Traumatized Mother in “Liwang 2006”

Nepal has been known a land of peace. But, due to various factors, this country has witnessed many facets of violence in different parts. A decade long conflict between the rebel and national security force that devastated the country’s economic, political, social and cultural discourse has become an integral part for creation of new genres for readers and writers. This mnemonic past along with other historical details, as an integrative focal point has induced creative mind to generate the lifelike situation i.e. disappearance of Purnaman, characters i.e. Dilsara, Bainsamali, Chitra Bahadur Punmagaretc along with their creative artifacts. Rajkumar Dikpal, a prolific storyteller in Nepali literature edifies these characters in his story “Liwang 2006”in th the background of ten years long Maoist insurgency. It unfolds an old mother who has lost her only son who used to dream of her only happiness. And the trauma of these commoners is a means to represent the political scenario of the nation.

Disease X: Exploring the Unexplored, Knowable Unknown

The glaring uncertainty regarding the identity of certain pathogenic bio-agents having potential for a severe global public health security threat has spurned the international health agencies to classify it as Disease X, which has been added to the “blueprint priority diseases” as a placeholder name for a “knowable unknown” pathogen by the WHO. The zoonotic diseases of viral origin and the synthetic viruses are acknowledged as the most likely agents of Disease X causing public health emergencies of international concern in times to come. The challenges in the rapid containment of Disease X pandemics could be the inability for early detection of the infectious agents, presence of a large immunologically naïve population, lack of knowledge of clinical spectrum, no pathogen-specific effective drugs and/ or vaccines and sudden surge of patients requiring hospitalisation which collectively compromise the public health system especially in resource stricken countries and leads to its eventual collapse. Well-equipped field laboratories, sentinel surveillance centres for viruses and other microbial pathogens are needed in strategically important and sensitive areas of concern for monitoring for early detection of possible bio-agents of Disease X, if any. In a changing geo-socio political scenario, use of the synthetic viruses as a potential bio-weapon for mass destruction and/ or for the economic breakdown of a targeted country should not be ruled out. Thus, capacity building, global technical collaboration and stringent international regulations to prevent the development of bio-weapons are also obligatory to prevent any possible future pandemics of Disease X.

Covid-19 and polarization in Brazil: The dynamics of state-level policies related to the pandemic

The political scenario in Brazil has been increasingly polarized over the past three presidencies. In this context, the dispute over narratives about the pandemic of COVID-19 and the negationism of the president Jair Bolsonaro have hampered attempts to overcome the health crisis. The paper verifies how political preferences have affected state-level policies to face COVID-19 and finds that the variables related to partisanship (governor’s alignment with the president and Bolsonaro’s approval rate and share of votes in the 2018 election) have no significant effect on those policies. The actions of subnational units have been determined by local dynamics, specifically the death toll in the state and the possibility of governor’s reelection.

The fake news effect: what does it mean for consumer behavioral intentions towards brands?

PurposeThis study aims to understand how fake news can cause an impact on consumer behavioral intentions in today’s era when fake news is prevalent and common. Brands have not only faced reputational losses but also got a dip in their share prices and sales, which affected their financial standing. Hence, it is significant for brands to understand the impact of fake news on behavioral intentions and to strategize to manage the impact.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses several branding and marketing concepts such as brand experience, brand trust, brand credibility, consumer behavioral intentions along with variables suggested by Elaboration Likelihood Model and Heuristic Systematic Model such as personal relevance/involvement. For fake news, news truthfulness, news credibility and source credibility are used.FindingsThe results of this study shows that positive brand experience, brand trust, brand credibility help in creating positive behavioral intentions for brands. This study shows that brands focusing on providing positive brand experience have a stronger brand trust and credibility and are affected less by fake news than those brands which do not emphasize on these factors.Practical implicationsThis paper can assist brand managers in understanding the impact fake news can have on behavioral intentions of consumers. The managers can strategize such that the fake news affects their brands the least.Originality/valueThe authors in this paper attempt to fill in the gap in literature, which is to study how the fake news impacts the brands considering the credibility, trust and experience they establish with their customers. The existing literature discusses the generation and dissemination of fake news on social media and its impact on political scenarios and personalities. Also, studies explain the impact of fake news on the financial position of brands, but marketing facets are not tested empirically.

Farmers’ Movement in Punjab: Consciousness and Politics

The paper argues that the leaders in the ongoing farmers’ movement in India are playing a decisive role in raising consciousness among farmers and agricultural labourers, including influencing them to assert their rights in the political scenario at the level of state as well as the centre. The rising consciousness and fear of land1 seizure are prompting the farmers' collective fight against privatization in the agricultural sector and anti-farmers policies of the central government. Although a pre-existing consciousness has played a vital role in initiating the movement, the movement itself has heightened much consciousness among farmers and farm workers. Their raised consciousness and mobilization for the movement has also forced agriculture related issues on the agendas of various political parties at all levels of politics. Thus, the paper discusses the various ways in which the farmers’ organizations have raised farmers and farm labourers’ consciousness that has motivated them to participate in formal politics which has far-reaching consequences for Indian democracy. Because the movement is ongoing, the analysis, thus far, is preliminary and consequently, exploratory in nature.