Amidst the sudden and devastating arrival of COVID-19, humanity grappled with darkness and uncertainty. Lives were lost, strict quarantines imposed, and even our trusted medical professionals were caught unprepared. With little time to consult global best practices, we faced fear and uncertainty. Some succumbed to despair, while others bravely fought back. Lockdowns, while later scrutinized, seemed our only option. Our need for companionship shifted as isolation became the norm. Heartbreaking stories dominated our lives, and this book chronicles this global tragedy, with a focus on Kerala. It's a call for action to prevent such catastrophes in the future, exploring the early days of the pandemic, its impact on individuals and communities, and the challenges faced by vulnerable groups. 'The Essential' highlights Kerala's unique approach, showcasing resilience and human spirit in adversity.

World Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM) brings researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the world in the same platform to discuss various challenging issues of disaster risk management, enhance understanding of risks and advance actions for reducing risks and building resilience to disasters. The fifth WCDM deliberates on three critical issues that pose the most serious challenges as well as hold the best possible promise of building resilience to disasters. These are Technology, Finance, and Capacity. WCDM has emerged as the largest global conference on disaster management outside the UN system. The fifth WCDM was attended by more than 2500 scientists, professionals, policy makers, practitioners all around the world despite the prevalence of pandemic.

: Regarding Covid and related issues especially for different sectors

The book provides a global perspective of local government response towards the COVID-19 pandemic through the analysis of a sample of countries in all continents. It examines the responses of local government, as well as the responses local government developed in articulation with other tiers of government and with civil society organizations, and explores the social, economic and policy impacts of the pandemic. The book offers an innovative contribution on the role of local government during the pandemic and discusses lessons for the future. The COVID-19 pandemic had a global impact on public health, in the well-being of citizens, in the economy, on civic life, in the provision of public services, and in the governance of cities and other human settlements, although in an uneven form across countries, cities and local communities. Cities and local governments have been acting decisively to apply the policy measures defined at national level to the specific local conditions. COVID-19 has exposed the inadequacy of the crisis response infrastructures and policies at both national and local levels in these countries as well as in many others across the world. But it also exposed much broader and deeper weaknesses that result from how societies are organized, namely the insecure life a substantial proportion of citizens have, as a result of economic and social policies followed in previous decades, which accentuated the impacts of the lockdown measures on employment, income, housing, among a myriad of other social dimensions. Besides the analysis of how governments, and local government, responded to the public health issues raised by the spread of the virus, the book deals also with the diversity of responses local governments have adopted and implemented in the countries, regions, cities and metropolitan areas. The analysis of these policy responses indicates that previously unthinkable policies can surprisingly be implemented at both national and local levels.

Industry 4.0 is the latest technological innovation in manufacturing with the goal to increase productivity in a flexible and efficient manner. Changing the way in which manufacturers operate, this revolutionary transformation is powered by various technology advances including Big Data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and cloud computing. Big Data analytics has been identified as one of the significant components of Industry 4.0, as it provides valuable insights for smart factory management. Big Data and Industry 4.0 have the potential to reduce resource consumption and optimize processes, thereby playing a key role in achieving sustainable development. Big Data Applications in Industry 4.0 covers the recent advancements that have emerged in the field of Big Data and its applications. The book introduces the concepts and advanced tools and technologies for representing and processing Big Data. It also covers applications of Big Data in such domains as financial services, education, healthcare, biomedical research, logistics, and warehouse management. Researchers, students, scientists, engineers, and statisticians can turn to this book to learn about concepts, technologies, and applications that solve real-world problems. Features An introduction to data science and the types of data analytics methods accessible today An overview of data integration concepts, methodologies, and solutions A general framework of forecasting principles and applications, as well as basic forecasting models including naïve, moving average, and exponential smoothing models A detailed roadmap of the Big Data evolution and its related technological transformation in computing, along with a brief description of related terminologies The application of Industry 4.0 and Big Data in the field of education The features, prospects, and significant role of Big Data in the banking industry, as well as various use cases of Big Data in banking, finance services, and insurance Implementing a Data Lake (DL) in the cloud and the significance of a data lake in decision making

This book provides a novel in-depth study of the early pandemic response policy at the intersection of political economy and law. It explores: (1) whether the responses to COVID-19 were democratically accountable; (2) the ways in which new surveillance and enforcement techniques were adopted; (3) the new monetary and fiscal policies which were implemented; (4) the ways in which employed and unemployed persons were differently impacted by the new policies; and (5) how companies were economically sustained through the pandemic. A compelling look at what happens to societies when disaster strikes, this book will be of interest to legal scholars, political scientists and economists.

This volume brings together academics, activists, social work practitioners, poets, and artists from different parts of the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. It sheds light on how the pandemic has exposed the inequities in society and is shaping social institutions, affecting human relationships, and creating new norms with each passing day. It examines how people from diverse societies and fields of work have come to conceptualise and imagine a new world order based on the principles of social and ecological justice, care, and human dignity. It prioritises the realm of imagination, creativity, and affect in understanding social formations and in shaping societies beyond the positivist approaches. Documenting the myriad experiences and responses to the pandemic, the volume foregrounds varied processes of making meaning; understanding impulses, resistances, and coping mechanisms; and building solidarities. Further, it also acts as a tool of memory for future generations, and articulations- artistic, political, socio-cultural, scientific- of hope and perseverance. This spectrum of expressions intends to value visceral experiences, build solidarities, and find solace in art. Its uniqueness lies in the way it brings together a much-needed interface between science, social sciences, and humanities. A compelling account on our contemporary lives, the volume will be of great interest to scholars of sociology and social anthropology, politics, art and aesthetics, psychology, social work, literature, health, and medical sciences.

This is an open access book. The International Conference on Emerging Trends in Business & Management (ICETBM2023) aims to bring together leading academicians, practitioners, researchers, and students to exchange their views, knowledge, experience and insights on the emerging trends in business and management. The conference theme for year 2023 is “Business Intelligence and Analytics as Drivers for Digital Transformation”. Organizations are adopting a data-driven approach to identify new business opportunities, serve customers better, increase sales, improve the efficiency of operations and more. The amount of data generated, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide is growing rapidly due to increased use of the internet, mobile phone and social media. In today’s modern corporate environment, business intelligence and analytics have emerged as indispensable tools for improving decision-making, facilitating the execution of major initiatives, and guiding the overall company strategies. Business Intelligence and Analytics enables organizations to develop new innovative business models and approaches in the era of digital transformation. The role of analytics in solving business problems has increased manifold in recent years. Researchers, academics, and practitioners are paying more attention because of the increasing benefits achieved using business analytics. The conference will be held in SSN School of Management, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, Kalavakkam, Chennai, India on 24th & 25th February 2023 and will be a hybrid event. This conference will offer invited talks by experts and paper presentations from leading academicians and industry speakers to share new ideas, research insights, recent innovations, trends, and challenges faced in the field of Business and Management.

Volume I.B An outbreak of a respiratory disease first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and the causative agent was discovered in January 2020 to be a novel betacoronovirus of the same subgenus as SARS-CoV and named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly disseminated worldwide, with clinical manifestations ranging from mild respiratory symptoms to severe pneumonia and a fatality rate estimated around 2%. Person to person transmission is occurring both in the community and healthcare settings. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently declared the COVID-19 epidemic a public health emergency of international concern. The ongoing outbreak presents many clinical and public health management challenges due to limited understanding of viral pathogenesis, risk factors for infection, natural history of disease including clinical presentation and outcomes, prognostic factors for severe illness, period of infectivity, modes and extent of virus inter-human transmission, as well as effective preventive measures and public health response and containment interventions. There are no antiviral treatment nor vaccine available but fast track research and development efforts including clinical therapeutic trials are ongoing across the world. Managing this serious epidemic requires the appropriate deployment of limited human resources across all cadres of health care and public health staff, including clinical, laboratory, managerial and epidemiological data analysis and risk assessment experts. It presents challenges around public communication and messaging around risk, with the potential for misinformation and disinformation. Therefore, integrated operational research and intervention, learning from experiences across different fields and settings should contribute towards better understanding and managing COVID-19. This Research Topic aims to highlight interdisciplinary research approaches deployed during the COVID-19 epidemic, addressing knowledge gaps and generating evidence for its improved management and control. It will incorporate critical, theoretically informed and empirically grounded original research contributions using diverse approaches, experimental, observational and intervention studies, conceptual framing, expert opinions and reviews from across the world. The Research Topic proposes a multi-dimensional approach to improving the management of COVID-19 with scientific contributions from all areas of virology, immunology, clinical microbiology, epidemiology, therapeutics, communications as well as infection prevention and public health risk assessment and management studies.