Banana and Mango Value Chains

Fruit crops are high-value agricultural crops and are mostly managed by individual farmers in India unlike in the West where large private corporations are involved in production and exports of fruit crops. India’s fruits production increased significantly from 28.6 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 1991–92 to 96.8 MMT in 2018–19. Among fruits, mango and bananas are the most important crops with 50% share in fruits acreage as well as value dominated by mango.

Information retrieval against the human right to privacy

In the era of digital transformation, the main human right to be protected on the Internet appears to be the right to privacy. Human rights are breached not only by the governments and military forces, but also by the international private corporations. The rapid development of the Information Retrieval methods with the Machine Learning techniques and unrestrained access to personal data gives global potentates access to automatic processing of personal Big Data. In the article there are discussed the vital problems of the privacy of the humanity, the need for international regulations for this human right enforcement and the reflections over uninhibited, technical expansion without ethical boundaries.

State-Owned Entities and Human Rights

The monograph focuses on the human rights challenges that are associated with the involvement of States in economic activities and on the role that international law has to play in addressing and understanding some of those challenges. State-owned entities are looked at through the lens of several topics of international law that have been found to hold particular relevance in this context, such as the concept of legal personality in international law, the process of normativity in international law, State immunity and State responsibility. The monograph shows how SOEs have had a significant role in shaping the evolution of international law and how, in turn, international law is currently shaping the evolution of State-owned entities. By focusing on State-owned or State-controlled business entities, rather than private corporations, the monograph aims to offer an alternative perspective on the challenges associated with corporations and human rights.

Digital platforms for connecting actors in the agtech space: insights on platform development from participatory action research on KisanMitr

Purpose This paper aims to explore the development of digital platforms in agtech space as a mechanism to mitigate the disconnects among the various actors in the innovation, business and entrepreneurship and extension ecosystems that impede the journey of technology from labs to farms. It does so by tracing the birth and evolution of KisanMitr, an agriculture digital platform created in India. Design/methodology/approach The research follows a participatory action research approach. Findings Digital platforms can be useful for integrating varied actor groups, in particular by facilitating the open flow of information among actors, and thus bringing to light the ways in which they can collaborate. Practical implications The paper demonstrates that digital platforms can become the backbone of integrated agricultural innovation systems, just as in the high-tech industries. Greater information flow enabled by such platforms allows the actors to collaborate more effectively. However, it is necessary to maintain farmer-focus, undertake off-platform activities to facilitate mutual engagement among actors and watch for potential governance issues if these platforms were to make a true impact for farmers. Social implications KisanMitr was initiated with the motive of helping the Indian farmers, especially the reverse migrants during the COViD-19 pandemic, specifically for increasing the range of technology options available to them to make agriculture a viable livelihood option. Originality/value KisanMitr platform is one the first of its kind in India and in the agricultural sector. Unlike the digital platforms developed by private corporations, it was created by a government agency.

CVSS: Ubiquitous and Broken

The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is at the core of vulnerability management for systems of private corporations to highly classified government networks, allowing organizations to prioritize remediation in descending order of risk. With a lack of justification for its underlying formula, inconsistencies in its specification document, and no correlation to exploited vulnerabilities in the wild, it is unable to provide a meaningful metric for describing a vulnerability's severity, let alone risk. As it stands, this standard compromises the security of America?s most sensitive information systems.

Land Cover Classification Based on UAV Photogrammetry and Deep Learning for Supporting Mine Reclamation: A Case Study of Mae Moh Mine in Lampang Province, Thailand

Detailed, accurate, and frequent mapping of land cover are the prerequisite regarding areas of reclaimed mines and the development of sustainable project-level for goals. Mine reclamation is essential as the extractive organizations are bounded by-laws that have been established by stakeholders to ensure that the mined areas are properly restored. As databases at the mines area become outdated, an automated process of upgrading is needed. Currently, there are only few studies regarding mine reclamation which has less potential of land cover classification using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry with Deep learning (DL). This paper aims to employ the classification of land cover for monitoring mine reclamation using DL from the UAV photogrammetric results. The land cover was classified into five classes, comprising: 1) trees, 2) shadow, 3) grassland, 4) barren land, and 5) others (as undefined). To perform the classification using DL, the UAV photogrammetric results, orthophoto and Digital Surface Model (DSM) were used. The effectiveness of both results was examined to verify the potential of land cover classification. The experimental findings showed that effective results for land cover classification over test area were obtained by DL through the combination of orthophoto and DSM with an Overall Accuracy of 0.904, Average Accuracy of 0.681, and Kappa index of 0.937. Our experiments showed that land cover classification from combination orthophoto with DSM was more precise than using orthophoto only. This research provides framework for conducting an analytical process, a UAV approach with DL based evaluation of mine reclamation with safety, also providing a time series information for future efforts to evaluate reclamation. The procedure resulting from this research constitutes approach that is intended to be adopted by government organizations and private corporations so that it will provide accurate evaluation of reclamation in timely manner with reasonable budget.

Quality of YouTube Videos on Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy for Patient Education

Background. Surgical patients frequently seek information from digital sources, particularly before common operations such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). YouTube provides a large amount of free educational content; however, it lacks regulation or peer review. To inform patient education, we evaluated the quality of YouTube videos on LC. Methods. We searched YouTube with the phrase “laparoscopic cholecystectomy.” Two authors independently rated quality of the first 50 videos retrieved using the JAMA, Health on the Net (HON), and DISCERN scoring systems. Data collected for each video included total views, time since upload, video length, total comments, and percentage positivity (proportion of likes relative to total likes plus dislikes). Interobserver reliability was assessed using an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Association between quality and video characteristics was tested. Results. Mean video quality scores were poor, scoring 1.9/4 for JAMA, 2.0/5.0 for DISCERN, and 4.9/8.0 for HON. There was good interobserver reliability with an ICC of 0.78, 0.81, and 0.74, respectively. Median number of views was 21,789 (IQR 3000–61,690). Videos were mostly published by private corporations. No video characteristic demonstrated significant association with video quality. Conclusion. YouTube videos for LC are of low quality and insufficient for patient education. Treating surgeons should advise of the website’s limitations and direct patients to trusted sources of information.

THE QUANTUM STATE OF INFRASTRUCTURE RECONFIGURATION IN 5G

Transnational information networks are a proxy for power that embody visions of futures and possibilities (Mosco 2005; DeNardis 2020). This paper looks at the topological reconfiguration of networks that comes with the development and deployment of 5G technologies. The paper argues that 5G networks exist in an apparent paradox of quantum superposition: the networks are controlled both by states and private corporations, and the intelligence is located both in the end-points as well as in the network. But just like in the thought experiment of Schrödinger's cat, if one would observe the networks in case of an incident, the control over the network resides inside the network and with the state. However, this would merely describe the topographic qualities of the network, not its topological configuration. I use the concept of a quantum state that originates in physics, but is readily used in quantum social science (ie Barad 2007; Der Derian and Wendt 2020), to explain how, in the development of the topology of 5G networks, several ‘states’ that seem exclusionary occur simultaneously. This approach helps to explore how the creation of material possibilities in transnational information networks is entangled with transnational institutions, markets, and nation-states. Through this contribution, I seek to build a bridge between constructivist and realist traditions in international relations by using approaches from quantum social science and science and technology studies to increase understanding of the role of communication networks in tussles for power.

Citizens go digital: A discursive examination of digital payments in Singapore’s Smart Nation project

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation efforts in many countries as they try to contain the virus. With the physical handling of cash posing as a potential virus transmission risk, digital payments have become important in the urgent transition to a cashless society and a key feature of smart city projects. Critical analyses have typically framed smart cities as neoliberalist developmental projects that see the partnering of the state with private corporations. However, it is unclear how the smart city emerges under the technocratic inclinations of the developmental state. Focusing on the digital payments project under Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, this paper unpacks the discursive practices employed in mobilising citizen support for electronic payments through a critical analysis of publicly available government materials and recent initiatives. The discourse surrounding digital payments is bound up in narratives surrounding economic competitiveness, technological progress and public health and safety, and strongly rooted in a technocratic governance ethos that limits genuine citizen participation in shaping smart payments technologies. This paper argues that such discursive framings represent a missed opportunity to build a smart city that is truly citizen-centric. This reorientation requires more bottom-up and grassroots-based modes of governance that reformulate smart citizenship into one that pays greater attention to the affective and social contexts behind digital technologies.

Has sustainability science turned left?

As the urgent need for societies to steer towards sustainability is becoming increasingly apparent, sustainability science as a research community is facing difficult challenges successfully navigating the intensifying and often harsh political debates. An important line of conflict is (still) between the political left and right, although other conflicts are gaining increasing attention. As private corporations are stepping up their conservation agendas and non-governmental organizations are increasingly embracing market mechanisms to achieve healthier ecosystems, the scholarly community of sustainability science appears to be turning more to the political left. To navigate these entangled scientific and political landscapes, accomplishing constructive debates emphasizing the value of nurturing a broad spectra of viewpoints should be given higher priority in all forums where issues of sustainability are discussed.