Sustainable Gig Economy Finance Towards GDP Growth of India Through “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”

In recent years, India has become the world's fastest-growing major economy. Its development has been fuelled mostly by the services sector, which accounts for over 55% of GDP, as contrasting to the industrial sector, which has remained stable at roughly 16%. To facilitate ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat', the government has brought in the product-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to encourage several sectors to increase their local manufacturing and supply chain base, among other things, to help India become self-reliant for high end products. These efforts will aid in the creation of jobs, the alleviation of stressed sectors, the assurance of liquidity, the boost of manufacturing, the energization of the real estate industry, and the assistance of farmers. The chapter aims to evaluate the Balance of Payment of India as structural growth country wise and sector wise growth of FDI in India as well as the ‘Aaatmanirbhar Bharat' status and stimulus packages, which have been announced for sustainable growth of GDP during this pandemic situation.

Role of Technological Innovations in Improving Manufacturing Resilience in the Post-Covid Era

Technological progress is critical for improving manufacturing resilience and achieving self-sufficiency in any nation. The COVID-19 crisis has shown the importance of, as well as the threats associated with, our new industrial processes. Manufacturing's critical position in both industrialized and emerging economies has been shown by shortages of medical supplies and disruptions in basic goods. These delays and market fluctuations have also highlighted the pitfalls of focusing solely on a globalized distribution system characterized by fragmented supply chains, the separation of engineering and manufacturing, and just-in-time production. Although globalisation was the trend before the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries realized the dangers and began to look inward, focusing on developing local manufacturing capacities. In addition, the automotive sector has established itself as a cornerstone of post-COVID-19 recovery strategies.

An Unsupervised Machine Learning-Based Framework for Transferring Local Factories into Supply Chain Networks

Transferring a local manufacturing company to a national-wide supply chain network with wholesalers and retailers is a significant problem in manufacturing systems. In this research, a hybrid PCA-K-means is used to transfer a local chocolate manufacturing firm near Kuala Lumpur into a national-wide supply chain. For this purpose, the appropriate locations of the wholesaler’s center points were found according to the geographical and population features of the markets in Malaysia. To this end, four wholesalers on the left island of Malaysia are recognized, which were located in the north area, right area, middle area, and south area. Similarly, two wholesalers were identified on the right island, which were in Sarawak and WP Labuan. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, its outcomes are compared with other unsupervised-learning methods such as the WARD and CLINK methods. The outcomes indicated that K-means could successfully determine the best locations for the wholesalers in the supply chain network with a higher score (0.812).

Design of a Gasification Reactor for Manufacturing and Operation in West Africa

This paper introduces the design of a biomass gasification reactor with specific constraints for its manufacturing and operation in the West African conditions. The foreseen applications are the valorisation into heat and electricity of agricultural biomass residues. Rice husk is chosen as the reference fuel for the design. Local manufacturing is a key feature and the main focus of the design, as it allows us to reduce the capital costs and facilitate the maintenance. The design methodology is based on the conceptual approach proposed by Cross. This approach leads in several steps to a rational design choice based on the evaluation of different solutions. In this study, nine reactor types have been compared leading to a prototype that best suits the defined objectives such as a local manufacturing, a secure installation and a sufficient gas quality. From this conception approach, the Semi-Batch, Fixed-bed reactor with air Aspiration appears the most suitable. Its specific characteristics for the foreseen application are a power of 44 kW based on the syngas lower heating value, an average fuel consumption of 20.38 kg/h and an average air flow of 28.8 kg/h for optimal gasification. The gasifier resulting from the design methodology has been built. It is presented in the paper.

From Clothing Rations to Fast Fashion: Utilising Regenerated Protein Fibres to Alleviate Pressures on Mass Production

Sustainable methods of practice within the fashion and textile industry (FTI) often strive to employ a circular economy that aims to eliminate waste through the continual use of resources. Complex problems such as waste, consumption, and overproduction are heavily intertwined; the main aim of this paper is to report on research focused on re-examining the potential of food waste streams as a commercially viable and circular source of raw materials for the FTI. Herein, regenerated protein fibres (RPFs) from food production waste streams rich in protein have been chosen as the main topic of focus. RPFs have a rich and relevant history from a local manufacturing perspective during wartime and post-war clothing rationing (1941–1949) in the UK. RPFs were used to meet civilian needs for wool-based textiles as part of a wider series of ‘make do and mend’ strategies designed to manage the consumption of new textile products. However, RPFs demonstrated inferior quality in terms of durability when compared to wool-based textiles, a significant contributing factor to the consequent commercial phasing out of RPFs. In today’s take–make–waste model, the FTI landscape can be defined by speed, from slow (high-quality materials and construction, long-lasting products) to fast (seasonal, disposable, low-quality materials and construction), the latter infamous for dire environmental impacts. A key objective of this research is to review the association of quality and longevity within the context of a local and circular fashion economy in which textile quality and lifecycle analysis are holistically matched to the longevity of the textile, garment, or product to reduce waste across the supply chain.

PRICING STRATEGIES FOR NEW AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

Pricing strategies differ for each stage of the product life cycle. Although each stage of product life has its own peculiarities and challenges, the most difficult and challenging stage is setting prices for new products. Therefore, this was the reason which aroused our curiosity to do a research which is based on the theoretical and practical plane on this issue. Initially, the literature of various authors who have contributed in the field of pricing policy for products and services in general was reviewed. Based on this analysis, a very good foundation has been laid to understand the role and importance of pricing for new products, and the most used pricing strategies for this category of products have described and analyzed. From the theoretical analysis, conclusions have been drawn which have served as a supporting basis of the practical part of the paper. To make this research more thorough, we reviewed a special case study of the local manufacturing company Pestova l.l.c, which managed to launch several new products in the market of Kosovo and the Region. In this case study, the pricing strategies that this company has selected for the products launched in the market were analyzed. Finally, the conclusions that have emerged as a result of the analysis and the literature review and the concrete data obtained from the case study for the company Pestova are provided.

Investment Priorities of France in Russia

One of the main conditions for the Russian economy transition to growth rates above the global average is large-scale investment. The so-called «smart investments» are important for the accelerated economic development of Russia. Only a restricted range of states is a source of «smart investment». France is among them and it is a long-standing economic partner of Russia. French business implements long-term projects in Russia. After the economic sanctions being introduced, not a single company has left Russia; however, new investors do not come from France, and the operating investors evaluate the prospects for continuing work very carefully. As there is the economic sanctions mode, lending agencies in France, being afraid of losing their business in the United States, refuse to finance projects in Russia, even if they are not included into the sanctions list. Local manufacturing content of French companies still does not cover a wide range of areas in Russia, being limited mainly to agriculture. Compared to French, Russia’s investment contribution to France is disproportionately small. The article examines the factors determining the direct investment of France in Russia; the current investment agenda of French business in Russia; identifies the prospects for France’s investment participation in the Russian economy