South Indian State Of Karnataka Research Articles

Prevalence of Refractive Errors Among Children at a Tertiary Care Center in Karnataka: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Refractive errors (REs) are the major cause of blindness and impaired vision with considerable morbidity. Finding the prevalence with early detection of REs with appropriate corrective measures can bring down eye morbidity in children. The aim of the study was to find the prevalence of REs among children attending Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital in Karnataka State of South India. This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted with a total of 420 study subjects. Examination of the eyes for REs was carried out using a refractometer. The REs were noted in myopia < -0.5 dioptres (D), hypermetropia > + 0.5 D, and astigmatism > 0.5 cylinder D. The data were statistically subjected to a statistics test. Categorical measurement was presented as frequency (percentage). The association between the parameters was done using the chi-square test. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Out of 420 examined, REs were present among 147 (35%) study subjects, and myopia 67 (16%) was the highest prevalent in comparison to hypermetropia 42 (10%) and astigmatism 38 (9%). The male subjects had 77 (34.4%) REs, and the female subjects had 70 (35.7%) REs. In both genders, myopia was the highest prevalent, followed by hypermetropia and astigmatism. The prevalence of REs among children is alarming, and it should be corrected at an early age to prevent further complications in adulthood. Ophthalmologists should generate regional data about the prevalence of REs, create awareness about the prevention of REs among the risk population, and utilize government-sponsored blind eradication programs for comprehensive eye care in the larger interest of the affected population and risk population.

Assessment of microgrid integrated biogas–photovoltaic​ powered Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) for sustainable future

Electric Vehicle (EV) usage across the world has rapidly increased in the recent times and has opened the doors for researchers working in the area of EV charging station (EVCS). The presence of EVs in India is equally growing and creating a charging infrastructure resource is a big challenge. In this paper, biogas–solar powered EVCS is proposed for a typical location in South Indian state of Karnataka. Techno economic assessment and environmental analysis of PV-Grid with Biogas Powered EVCS in a microgrid was comprehensively carried out using Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software. Results obtained demonstrated that the dependency on the grid purchase was significantly reduced with improved environment benefits in terms of lesser CO2 emissions. This study shall be beneficial in renewables based EVCS infrastructure development.

‘If there is right food, there is no need for medicine:’ millets, modernity and meaning in Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT The interconnections between food and medicine have long been a subject of interdisciplinary scholarship. Medical anthropologists, sociologists, and historians hold that an analysis of traditional and non-Western societies’ foodways can offer important insights into the social construction of illness and healing strategies. Yet, scholars also note that these linkages between food and medicine are dynamic, made and remade in the context of national liberation struggles, urbanization, and globalization. This article explores the contemporary promulgation of millets as ayurvedic medicine in the south Indian state of Karnataka. Drawing upon data gathered from key informant interviews and focal follows during six months of fieldwork between 2017–2020, it argues that millets are being prescribed as a pathway to an alternative modernity. Millets have become a site in which conceptualizations of authentic foodways and nutritionism are brought together to help reimagine both the definitions, and messy intersections, of food, medicine, illness and wellbeing.

Social distinctions during the south Indian Neolithic: changing mortuary practices in a late prehistoric cemetery at Maski

Human burials have been recovered from a wide variety of intra- and extramural settlement contexts at Neolithic period sites (3000–1200 BC) in southern India, yet formal cemeteries remain virtually unknown from this period. Research at MARP-79 in the Raichur District of the south Indian state of Karnataka, near the type-site of Maski, documents a large Neolithic cemetery, now with the largest number of radiometrically dated burials of any archaeological site in southern India. The cemetery demonstrates considerable, previously undocumented variation in mortuary ritual, involving new materials, technologies and burial practices, which challenge culture-historical models, pointing instead towards long-term incremental developments that alter how we understand the emergence of Neolithic social differences.

Sentiment Manifestation of Kannada Tweets

In the current world scenario, Internet has become a major platform for online learning, exchanging ideas and sharing opinions. Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram are rapidly gaining popularity as they allow people to share and express their views about topics, have discussion with different communities, or post messages across the world. The main goal of sentiment analysis is to detect and analyse attitude, opinions or sentiments in the text. Sentiment analysis has reached its popularity by extracting knowledge from huge amount data present online. The Process of analysis includes selecting features and opinion which is a challenging task in languages other than English. In this project, we have targeted one of the most promising and widely used social media platform- Twitter where opinions are shared as “Tweets”. We have specifically chosen the tweets made in Kannada and analyse the sentiment of those tweets. Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken majorly in the south Indian state of Karnataka, with minorities in all neighboring states. Emotion analysis is the method of defining and evaluating the emotions conveyed in textual data. Emotion detection and classification are straightforward tasks that can be completed based on the emotions conveyed in the text, such as fear, rage, happiness, sorrow, affection, motivation, or neutral.

Investigation and evidence of high-episodic groundwater recharge events in tropical hard-rock aquifers of southern India

Processes controlling groundwater recharge have been a topic of pursuit in the hydrological research community. The groundwater recharge in hard-rock aquifers is significantly impacted by rainfall patterns, aquifer characteristics, weathering/soil conditions, topography, land use, and land cover. Analysis of the recharge process in tropical semi-arid hard-rock aquifer regions of southern India is crucial due to several factors, including (a) a heavily tailed monsoon system prevailing in the region, which is characterized by very few episodic storm events; (b) heterogeneity of aquifers in terms of fractures; and (c) the presence of several man-made irrigation lakes/tanks along with the drainage network. This study uses a lumped unconfined aquifer model to estimate the groundwater recharge for nine locations in Gundlupet taluk and 150 locations in Berambadi Experimental Watershed (EWS) in the south Indian state of Karnataka. Analysis of estimated recharge factors identifies 30 high-episodic recharge events out of 292 observations (around 10%) in Gundlupet taluk and 80 out of 150 locations in 2017 in Berambadi EWS. Partial information correlation (PIC) analysis is used to select the significant predictors out of potential predictors based on rainfall intensity distribution and climatological indices. PIC analysis reveals that the number of rainfall events with 15–30 mm daily rainfall intensity are most significant for normal recharge events in Gundlupet taluk and Berambadi EWS. The combined information on daily rainfall distribution, daily rainfall events of 20–40 mm, and the number of La Niña months in a particular year can explain the variability of high-episodic recharge events in Gundlupet taluk. These high-intensity rainfall events can be potential sources of alternate recharge pathways resulting in faster indirect recharge, which dominates the diffused recharge and results in high-episodic recharge events. Rainfall intensity distribution and climatological indices contain the potential information required to disaggregate normal and high-episodic recharge factors for future rainfall projections, which is useful for future groundwater level projections.

A study on changes in hormonal disruption in polycystic ovary syndrome with advancing age and body mass index

Introduction and Aim: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a diverse condition that contributes to metabolic problems like insulin resistance and hyperandrogenism which women experience during their reproductive years, and it is closely related to the body mass index. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical, biochemical, and hormonal profiles of PCOS patients and healthy women concerning age and BMI and to correlate insulin with other parameters. Materials and Methods: The present case-control study was conducted from June 2019-April 2021. 180 PCOS women and 170 age-matched healthy women were enrolled from Mangalore, Karnataka. Anthropometric measurements, biochemical, hormonal profile, and the presence of IR were estimated in all patients and were further subdivided based on age and BMI. Results: The mean age of patients with PCOS and controls was 25.9± 5.6 years vs 24.7 ± 6.8 years. BMI and WHR had statistical significance (p&lt;0.01) between the groups. TG &amp; HDL showed statistical significance (p&lt;0.05) in both age groups who were underweight and had normal BMI. A significant difference (p&lt;0.05) was also observed in plasma insulin and HOMA-IR in all groups except in women who were obese. Conclusion: PCOS women were presented with hyperandrogenism and had metabolic risk factors like insulin resistance and low HDL-C levels at budding age and increased BMI. When comparing women with and without PCOS from the south Indian state of Karnataka, our findings revealed that changes in sex hormone levels had no significant impact on age or BMI.

A comparison of behavioural models explaining cervical cancer screening uptake

BackgroundCervical cancer represents a very high burden of disease, especially in Low- and Middle-income economies. Screening is a recommended prevention method in resource-poor settings. Cervical cancer screening (CCS) uptake is influenced by various psycho-social factors, most of which are included in behavioural models. Unlike demographic characteristics, these factors are modifiable. While few studies have compared these models in terms of their capacity to predict health behaviour, this study considers three health behaviour theories to assess and compare the predictors of CCS behaviour and intention.MethodsA survey was conducted among 607 sexually active women in the South Indian state of Karnataka. Data was collected regarding socio-demographic factors, health literacy, knowledge on CCS, and the socio-cognitive factors related to CCS that are represented in the Health Belief Model (HBM), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Theory of Care-Seeking Behaviour (TCSB). Logistic regression analyses tested to what extent each of the theoretical models explained cervical cancer screening (CCS) intention and regular screening behaviour, comparing the variance explained by each of the models.ResultsCCS intention was best explained by the TPB, followed by the HBM. Of the constructs included in these models, positive attitude towards the screening procedure and perceived benefits contributed most significantly to screening intention, followed by fear, anxiety or embarrassment related to the disease or screening procedure, and context specific barriers.ConclusionHealth behavioural models such as the TPB and HBM can help to identify the main socio-cognitive factors explaining the intention of women to participate in CCS. As such, they can inform interventions to target specific determinants of screening intention and behaviour, and enhance their effectiveness by addressing women’s screening attitude, perceived benefits, and emotions as well as reducing context specific barriers to screening.

Would you mind sharing your story? A narrative exploration of incivility experiences in the Information Technology workplace

PurposeUnfortunately, workplace incivility (WI) within the information technology (IT) sector has hardly been covered in extant literature. Therefore, through narratives, this study explored various situational and cultural attributes of WI in the Indian IT sector.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted among the IT professionals (N = 24; Males = 13, Females = 11) aged between 21 and 45 years (Mean = 31.20, SD = 6.56) working in the South Indian state of Karnataka (Bengaluru).FindingsThe narrative thematic analysis yielded the following themes: Experiences of managers' ill-treatment at the workplace, co-workers incivility: dominance in the IT sector and prevalence of gender-based interpersonal discrimination. Furthermore, many sub-themes emerged under each major theme.Research limitations/implicationsContexts and cultural attributes of WI experiences warrant reconsidering and redefining the concept's theoretical underpinnings, especially from multi-cultural contexts, i.e. India, unlike leading studies in the Western culture. Current study narratives would guide further explorations of how IT professionals wish to curtail these behaviours and suggest strategies to minimize these behaviours in the respective sector.Originality/valueThe findings pose an interesting question for further investigation such as: Do individuals who seek favours from co-workers, under certain conditions, invite the experiences of WI for themselves from potential favour-doer? In a first of its kind, the study also offered relevant insights into exploring whether intentional acts as uncivil behaviours are peculiar to multi-cultural contexts, such as in India.

Competing with Traditional Business Model: Zero Budget Natural Farming Against Chemical Farming

Zero Budget Natural Farming or ZBNF is a set of farming methods, and also is a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states of India. Padma shri Subhash Palekar is founder of this technique of faming ZBNF. It has attained wide achievement in south India, especially the south Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved. A research was undertaken to study understand Zero Budget Natural Farming with reference to Pune District, Solapur District, and Ahmednagar District in Maharashtra State. 435 farmers were surveyed. The awareness about ZBNF is quite high with the farmers. No marketing strategy is used by ZBNF producers. However, the farmers are in favor of implementing a sound marketing strategy for the ZBNF products. 4Ps of the classic marketing mix can be identified with the ZBNF products like vegetables and fruits. ZBNF implementation can be a game-changer in the field of agriculture. Few farmers were found using ZBNF technique since last 25 years. It is a highly efficient and effective farming model as compared to be the traditional chemical farming.

Importation, circulation, and emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the South Indian state of Karnataka.

Background: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues, the selection of genomic variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) associated with higher transmission, more severe disease, re-infection, and immune escape are a cause for concern. Such variants have been reported from the UK (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and, Brazil (P.1/B.1.1.28). We performed this study to track the importation, spread, and emergence of variants locally. Methods: We sequenced whole genomes of SARS-CoV-2 from international travellers (n=75) entering Karnataka, South India, between Dec 22, 2020 and Jan 31, 2021, and from positive cases in the city of Bengaluru (n=108), between Nov 22, 2020- Jan 22, 2021, as well as a local outbreak. We present the lineage distribution and analysis of these sequences. Results: Genomes from the study group into 34 lineages. Variant B.1.1.7 was introduced by international travel (24/73, 32.9%). Lineage B.1.36 and B.1 formed a major fraction of both imported (B.1.36: 20/73, 27.4%; B.1: 14/73, 19.2%), and circulating viruses (B.1.36: 45/103; 43.7%,. B.1: 26/103; 25.2%). The lineage B.1.36 was also associated with a local outbreak. We detected nine amino acid changes, previously associated with immune escape, spread across multiple lineages. The N440K change was detected in 45/162 (27.7%) of the sequences, 37 of these were in the B.1.36 lineage (37/65, 56.92%) Conclusions: Our data support the idea that variants of concern spread by travel. Viruses with amino acid replacements associated with immune escape are already circulating. It is critical to check transmission and monitor changes in SARS-CoV-2 locally.

Importation, circulation, and emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the South Indian state of Karnataka

Background: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues, the selection of genomic variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) associated with higher transmission, more severe disease, re-infection, and immune escape are a cause for concern. Such variants have been reported from the UK (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and, Brazil (P.1/B.1.1.28). We performed this study to track the importation, spread, and emergence of variants locally. Methods: We sequenced whole genomes of SARS-CoV-2 from international travellers (n=75) entering Karnataka, South India, between Dec 22, 2020 and Jan 31, 2021, and from positive cases in the city of Bengaluru (n=108), between Nov 22, 2020- Jan 22, 2021, as well as a local outbreak. We present the lineage distribution and analysis of these sequences. Results: Genomes from the study group into 34 lineages. Variant B.1.1.7 was introduced by international travel (24/73, 32.9%). Lineage B.1.36 and B.1 formed a major fraction of both imported (B.1.36: 20/73, 27.4%; B.1: 14/73, 19.2%), and circulating viruses (B.1.36: 45/103; 43.7%,. B.1: 26/103; 25.2%). The lineage B.1.36 was also associated with a local outbreak. We detected nine amino acid changes, previously associated with immune escape, spread across multiple lineages. The N440K change was detected in 45/162 (27.7%) of the sequences, 37 of these were in the B.1.36 lineage (37/65, 56.92%) Conclusions: Our data support the idea that variants of concern spread by travel. Viruses with amino acid replacements associated with immune escape are already circulating. It is critical to check transmission and monitor changes in SARS-CoV-2 locally.

Mediating Effect of Attitude on the Determinants of Financial Misselling of Life Insurance Products in India

This study attempted to empirically validate a comprehensive model that combines individual traits, market competition, and organizational climate affecting the financial misselling by life insurance sales agents from an Indian perspective. The study adopted a cross-sectional design to collect survey data from 825 full-time insurance agents employed in life insurance companies in Karnataka state in South India. We found a positive relationship between misselling and ethical climate, indicating that salespeople’s perceptions might be changed by ethical codes, policies, or training but not their ethical behavior. Moreover, high-self monitors acting opportunistically to corner the sales by adopting dishonest sales practices indicated an instrumental ethical dimension. We also showed that competitive intensity positively influenced agents to exhibit financial misselling. Also, financial misselling increased when insurance companies designed varieties of complex products and exerted too much supervisory pressure on agents to amplify sales. Therefore, the working environment should enforce and promote a code of ethics that fosters an ethical attitude and hampers high self-monitors from pursuing individual interests at customers’ expense. There is a need to manage ethical and competitive climate and supervisors’ actions in reducing ethical conflicts and improving sales performance.

MHEALTH FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF INDIAN RURAL POPULACE; URGENT NEED TO MAINSTREAM MHEALTH WITH THE EMERGENCE OF COVID-19

mHealth now, more than ever, need to be integrated with existing health systems to further contactless healthcare and health delivery solutions. Studies have reported that mHealth can ensure enhanced health outcomes, ample patient care and offer quality support for professional health workers. Several studies have examined the potential of mHealth from various stakeholder perspectives. However, a serious dearth of studies exists that examine the advantages and challenges of using this technology from mHealth users‘ perspective especially in the rural context. This study examines the use of mobile phones for health-related purposes from the perspective of rural people belonging to the South Indian state of Karnataka. The focus is on their use of mobile phone to seek medical assistance, health information and services. The study also seeks to understand the barriers and challenges faced by the rural folk in accessing health related services, information and assistance through mobile phones. A qualitative research approach using in-depth interviews as data collection tool, was applied. Mobile phones are reported as useful by the rural mobile phone users for receiving health-related messages as well as for accessing help during emergency health conditions. However, to enable equity of use of this technology in the rural scenario and also for the government to use this technology for providing responses during public health emergencies such as COVID-19, challenges such as the existing mobile phone infrastructure, digital illiteracy and perceived health concerns of mobile phone use among rural folk need to be addressed.

Harnessing digital technology to improve agricultural productivity?

Can improving access to mobile extension improve agricultural productivity? Recent evidence suggests both significant and insignificant ways in which SMS-based agricultural information could affect farming outcomes. It is unclear if variations in the programs' design or the methodological challenges in evaluating the programs cause wide-ranging impacts. Extension hotline services provide rapid, unambiguous information by agricultural experts over the phone, tailored to time- and crop-specific shocks. Using methods from experimental economics, we randomly distributed the hotline number to generate exogenous variation in the access to farming information. We conducted our study among 300 farmers in the South Indian state of Karnataka. Our results show that eliminating informational inefficiencies increases farmers' average yields for a high-stakes pigeon pea crop that faced adverse aggregate shock. The impact on the yield is through the adoption of cost-effective and improved farming practices. However, we do not observe any effect on the crops that were not affected by the shock. Our findings reveal that advisory recommendations customized to time- and crop-specific shocks are associated with a greater impact on agricultural productivity.

Forensic Genetic Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Hypervariable Region III Sequences in Muslims from South India

The absence of recombination, high rate of mutation, and maternal inheritance of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome makes it a valuable tool in many fields including evolutionary anthropology, genetic genealogy, population history, and forensic science. The mtDNA genome can be separated into two parts: a large coding region and a smaller fragment called the control region or non-coding region that generally referred to as displacement loop (D loop). The mtDNA D-loop region was highly polymorphic and has proven a precious marker in forensic identification. The study aims to examine and suggests polymorphism of the HVRIII region as a power marker along with HVRI and HVRII in forensic investigations. Within the control region of the mtDNA genome, the sequences of hypervariable region III (HVR III) (nucleotide position 438-574) were obtained from 60 unrelated Muslims of Shrirangapattana town, located in Karnataka state of South India. The complete mtDNA control region was amplified and sequenced by the Sanger sequencing method. The study provided the identification of 18 different haplotypes and 17 polymorphic nucleotide positions. The most common haplotype (H.18) was consistent with the Anderson sequence which occurred fourteen times. The distribution of nucleotide substitutions, insertions, and deletions was computed and determined that transitions made up the majority of the variations (58%) in this region. The genetic diversity was estimated at 0.89939 and the random match probability at 0.1155. The power of discrimination was found to be 0.8844 and the rest of the statistical parameters such as the mean of pair-wise differences and nucleotide diversity were established as 2.255932 ± 1.25884 and 0.010071± 0.00623, respectively. Consequently, the discovery of high genetic, haplotype, and nucleotide diversity, and high power of discrimination impart the use of hypervariable region III (HVR III) as an important marker in forensic investigations.

Importation, circulation, and emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the South Indian state of Karnataka.

Background: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues, the selection of genomic variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) associated with higher transmission, more severe disease, re-infection, and immune escape are a cause for concern. Such variants have been reported from the UK (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and, Brazil (P.1/B.1.1.28). We performed this study to track the importation, spread, and emergence of variants locally. Methods: We sequenced whole genomes of SARS-CoV-2 from international travellers (n=75) entering Karnataka, South India, between Dec 22, 2020 and Jan 31, 2021, and from positive cases in the city of Bengaluru (n=108), between Nov 22, 2020- Jan 22, 2021, as well as a local outbreak. We present the lineage distribution and analysis of these sequences. Results: Genomes from the study group into 34 lineages. Variant B.1.1.7 was introduced by international travel (24/73, 32.9%). Lineage B.1.36 and B.1 formed a major fraction of both imported (B.136: 20/73, 27.4%; B.1: 14/73, 19.2%), and circulating viruses (B.1.36: 45/103; 43.7%, B.1: 26/103; 25.2%). The lineage B.1.36 was also associated with a local outbreak. We detected nine amino acid changes, previously associated with immune escape, spread across multiple lineages. The N440K change was detected in 45/162 (27.7%) of the sequences. Conclusions: Our data support the idea that variants of concern spread by travel. Viruses with amino acid replacements associated with immune escape are already circulating. It is critical to check transmission and monitor changes in SARS-CoV-2 locally.

Modelling and cost optimization of a community microgrid

With the increasing energy demand and promotion of usage of renewable energy resources to reduce the environmental effects, hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) has become very feasible and attractive. In this paper grid-connected hybrid power system model consisting of Solar PV and Wind turbine as HRES are considered to carry out the techno-economic feasibility study. The potential of wind and solar energies are estimated by collecting the data from various resources of a community Microgrid located at the geographical location with latitude of 14.135° N, longitude of 76.239° E in Chitradurga District, south Indian state of Karnataka. HOMER Pro software is used for simulation and promising results are obtained.

Do all patients with rheumatic Diseases have a higher risk of COVID 19? Initial results from the Karnataka Rheumatology Association COVID 19 Cohort Study (KRACC)

Background: Patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases (AIRD) may be at an increased risk for COVID-19 infection and poorer outcomes when compared with the general population. We undertook this study to estimate the risk of COVID-19 infection in our AIRD population and determine parameters which contribute to its occurrence. Methods: We prospectively recruited all consecutive AIRD patients on immunosuppressive therapy from 14 specialist rheumatology centers across south Indian state of Karnataka during current COVID-19 pandemic and followed them longitudinally. Results: Among 3807 participants, the majority were women (2.9:1), mean age was 43.8 (+14.3) years, rheumatoid arthritis (52.1%), and systemic lupus erythematosus (14.8%) were the most frequent diagnosis. Twenty-three (0.6%) patients contracted SARS-CoV-2 infection. Age >60 years (P = 0.01), diabetes (P = 0.009), hypertension (P = 0.001), preexisting lung disease (P = 0.0002), current prescription of either angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blockers (P = 0.01), and higher glucocorticoids dosage (P = 0.002) were identified as potential risk factors in our cohort. The past use of cyclophosphamide (P = 0.0001) or mycophenolate mofeti (P = 0.003) or biologics (P = 0.001) also had a significant association with COVID-19 infection. Hydroxychloroquine use did not influence occurrence or outcome. The presence of underlying lung disease (relative risk - 3.08, 95% confidence interval - 1.21, 8.44, P = 0.029) was the only independent risk factor associated with the risk of COVID positivity in the multivariate analysis. Incidence rate of COVID-19 infection was similar to that of the general population (P = 0.22). Conclusions: The incidence of SARS CoV-2 infection in AIRD population is comparable to the general population. Underlying lung disease was the most important risk factor apart from older age, diabetes, hypertension, and a higher glucocorticoid dosage.

Moral frameworks of commercial surrogacy within the US, India and Russia

In this paper, we draw on three ethnographic studies of surrogacy we carried out separately in different contexts: the western US state of California, the south Indian state of Karnataka, and the western Russian metropolis of St Petersburg. In our interviews with surrogate mothers, intended parents, and surrogacy professionals, we traced the meanings and ideologies through which they understood the clinical labour of surrogacy. We found that in the US, interviewed surrogates, intended parents and professionals understood surrogacy as an exchange of both gifts and commodities, where gift-giving, reciprocity, and relatedness between surrogates and intended parents were the major tropes. In India, differing narratives of surrogacy were offered by its different parties: whilst professionals and intended parents framed it as a win-win exchange with an emphasis on the economic side, the interviewed surrogate mothers talked about surrogacy as creative labour of giving life. In Russia, approaches to surrogacy among the interviewed surrogate mothers, professionals and intended parents overlapped in framing it as work and a businesslike commodity exchange. We suggest these three different ways of ethical reasoning about the clinical labour of surrogacy, including justifications of women’s incorporation into this labour, were situated in local moral frameworks. We name them “repro-regional moral frameworks”, inspired by earlier work on moral frameworks as well as on reproductive nationalisms and transnational reproduction. Building on these findings, we argue that any international or global regulation of surrogacy, or indeed any moral stance on it, needs to take these local differences into account.