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From Transactions to Transformations: A Bibliometric Study on Technology Convergence in E-Payments
Get PDFThis study investigates the convergence of blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), nearfield communication (NFC), and mobile technologies in electronic payment (e-payment) systems, proposing an innovative integrative framework to deconstruct the systemic innovations and transformative impacts driven by such technological synergy. Unlike prior research, which often focuses on single-technology adoption, this study uniquely adopts a cross-technology convergence perspective. To our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically map the multi-technology convergence landscape in e-payment using scientometric techniques. By employing bibliometric and thematic network analysis methods, the research maps the intellectual evolution and key research themes of technology convergence in e-payment systems. Findings reveal that while the integration of these technologies holds significant promise, improving transparency, scalability, and responsiveness, it also presents challenges, including interoperability barriers, privacy concerns, and regulatory complexity. Furthermore, this study highlights the potential for convergent technologies to unintentionally deepen the digital divide if not inclusively designed. The novelty of this study is threefold: (1) theoretical contribution—this study expands existing frameworks of technology adoption and digital governance by introducing an integrated perspective on cross-technology adoption and regulatory responsiveness; (2) practical relevance—it offers actionable, stakeholder-specific recommendations for policymakers, financial institutions, developers, and end-users; (3) methodological innovation—it leverages scientometric and topic modeling techniques to capture the macro-level trajectory of technology convergence, complementing traditional qualitative insights. In conclusion, this study advances the theoretical foundations of digital finance and provides forward looking policy and managerial implications, paving the way for a more secure, inclusive, and innovation-driven digital payment ecosystem
Metaverse-enhanced deep neural network approach for detecting and classifying catheters in chest X-rays
No full textCatheters are life support devices implanted in the body for draining fluid or air from an opening in the body (a cavity or a duct). When inserted in the body, catheters administer the smooth flow of medications, gases, or fluids into the body. The process of ensuring proper placement of a catheter in the body involves taking X-ray images to evaluate the catheter's location soon after insertion, as malpositioning may cause several problems. Manual detection and classification require error-free and quick human intervention, which is often not fully possible. Leveraging the immersive capabilities of the metaverse, combined with deep neural network-based approaches, can enhance the detection and classification of catheters in chest X-rays. However, existing techniques are able to analyze only a few numbers of catheters. In this chapter, we perform augmentations and parameter adjustments to address the problem of detection and classification of four different classes of catheters: endotracheal tube (ETTs), nasogastric tube (NGT), central venous catheters (CVCs), and Swan-Ganz into 11 different positions. Using the transfer learning paradigm, the EfficientNet B7 detects abnormal positioning and predicts the proper placement of catheters in real-time within the metaverse environment, with an AUC score of 0.945. Thus the approach can be very useful to aid medical practitioners in the proper placement of catheters, including performing any adjustments in position required, all within a metaverse-based simulation that provides a more intuitive and interactive experience. © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Navigating India’s Draft DPDP Rules 2025: Implementation challenges in protecting children’s personal data
No full textThis paper critically examines India’s draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules 2025, with a particular focus on the protection of children’s personal data. It explores the evolution from earlier legislative frameworks, evaluates the significant changes introduced by the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, and scrutinises the operational, technical and policy-level challenges associated with the implementation of the Draft Rules 2025. Through a comparative approach with global best practices, notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the paper identifies gaps, discusses practical implications for businesses, particularly startups, and proposes clear, actionable recommendations for compliance. The analysis aims to provide meaningful insights for policy makers, industry stakeholders and practitioners navigating the complexities of enhanced data protection regulations. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/
A tropical ‘monster’: formation and transgression of racial and ethnic categories at the Brahmaputra waterscape in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
No full textThe Brahmaputra waterscape was subjected to the colonial desire to tame, enframe and transfigure it into an abode of order and productivity. In this context, the article examines two interconnected socio-historical processes that unfolded at the Brahmaputra waterscape in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First, it examines the colonial representational practices that sought to make the Brahmaputra legible, which eventually led to its socio-natural production. Second, it interrogates the colonial biopolitical regime that produced a hierarchy of geographical and racial subjectivities intertwined with the waterscape. The article argues that these historical constitutions were characterised by the epistemic anxiety of its colonial framers. Building on the academic work that foreground the tensions within imperial representational artefacts, and that view colonial archives as a process and art of affective governance, the article shows that the knowledge claims which were otherwise projected as orderly and stable in colonial discourse, in reality, were fragmented and piecemeal
Opinion | US Nuclear Test Threat Rekindles Global Debate: Legal, Strategic, And Indian Perspectives
Get PDFIn an unprecedented turn of events, the United States has reignited fears of a nuclear weapons race after President Donald Trump announced in late October 2025 that the country was prepared to resume nuclear-weapons testing. The rationale behind the same, as per the US, is to “act on an equal basis" with Russia and China. The announcement poses substantial legal and diplomatic questions about the existing international framework concerning nuclear testing
IP Case Law Development
Get PDFThis Paper identifies and analyses the decisions of the Supreme Court of India (hereinafter, the Supreme Court) relating to intellectual property (IP) reported1 in the year 2024. The paper seeks to answer the following questions: (i) how the Supreme Court interpreted-constructed the text of the IP statutes through her law declaring power under Article 141 of the Constitution of India; (ii) what has been the approach of the Supreme Court in deciding these cases in the year 2024; and (iii) whether or not the Supreme Court has contributed to the development of IP jurisprudence in the year 2024 through these decisions
Unequal taxi geographies: Antagonisms in platform-driven urban restructuring in Delhi, India
No full textThis article considers how the relationship of everyday spatial practices of digital on-demand, ride-hailing taxi drivers and social imaginaries of urban restructuring remain imbricated in class and religious antagonisms. Through an ethnographic investigation of the intimate neighborhood geographies of exclusion that govern platform work in Delhi, this article provides a richer understanding of how platform urbanism is undergirded by heterogeneous assessments of the material and discursive dimensions of a “world-class” city and re-centers the locally specific antagonisms that are key to articulating norms of urban platform citizenship. To do so, it empirically exposes the contexts wherein platform work produces constructs of order, cleanliness and safety that socio-spatially vilifies low-income, Muslim-majority neighborhoods of Delhi. I argue that the grammar of such exclusionary practices draws on a nexus of factors, namely individual devaluation of platform workers, the pervasive atmosphere of anti-Muslim and anti-poor hatred in Delhi, and the dangers encountered by platform labor. By attending to the complex agency of taxi drivers, this article contributes to an understanding of how platform urbanism is co-constituted with antagonisms, and how contestations over urban restructuring unfold as taxi drivers realign platforms as political imaginations
Bacteriological research and ‘puerperal’ fever: female health and childbirth in late colonial India
No full textThis article explores female healthcare at the crossroads of bacteriology and obstetric research. Puerperal fever or childbed fever manifested as an epidemic since the nineteenth century, and in both Europe and America, it charted a distinct course for bacteriological research. With the identification of bacteriological causes, new sets of public health regimes were instituted in both regions. The experience of the colonies, however, differed. This paper focusses on how colonial discourse on obstetric nursing, midwifery, clinical hygiene, and maternal healthcare can be positioned in this global history of female health research. The paper explores why, in India, on one hand, bacteriological research in female health suffered in terms of priority (unlike that of cholera and plague) despite the alarming rate of maternal mortality. On the other hand, medical practitioners trained in Europe worked as the conduit through which the bacteriological research of Europe made its way into India. Contemporary documents reveal how colonial prerogatives were channeled through the race theories linked to Indian cultural practices related to midwifery and obstetric nursing, and how the female health discourse was still marred by the notion of tropicality
The Impact of COVID-19 on Garment Workers in India: Recovery With Women-Empowering Alternative Models and Fair Trade
No full textLong-established structures of inequality are deeply rooted in interdependent global-local economic production systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated the disparities between the Global North and Global South, with succinct explanations of the course and effects of this unbalanced yet intersecting relationship within international trade, where concerns regarding women’s empowerment are of the utmost importance. To reconceptualize a new norm that is more sustainable through fair trade, the chapter calls for transformative research that emphasizes the centrality of women’s empowerment in researching social change in the Indian garment industry. Despite the global prominence of India’s garment industry, women labourers come from the most economically and socially marginalized communities in India. As the pandemic reveals the most vulnerable global arrangements, we analyze how alternative forms of commerce that are socially committed to the cause of women may pave a different path for women during the pandemic and provide timely support
Legal Mechanisms for Integrating Fisheries Governance into Trade Agreements
No full textThe growing convergence between fisheries management and international trade has created pressing discussion on the most optimal approaches to incorporate sustainable fisheries practices into trade agreements. The challenges of overfishing, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and pressures caused by climate not only threaten marine biodiversity, but also the livelihoods of millions of people who rely on fisheries as a source of food and jobs. The trade agreements, especially the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the regional economic communities, are a strategic option that can be used to encourage responsible management of fisheries and, at the same time, provide fair access to the market. This article discusses the legal tools that can be used to incorporate fisheries governance in trade agreements, specifically treaty-based disciplines, trade dispute settlement mechanisms, and trade conditionalities based on sustainability. It critically examines how trade law can be leveraged to become an instrument of ocean stewardship based on the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, the United Nations Convention on the Law ofthe Sea (UNCLOS), and regional trade agreements. It also examines new directions such as the application of environmental provisions, certification programmes, and investor responsibility, which aim to strike a balance between economic and ecological demands. Through the legal analysis of legal tools and practices of the states, the paper advances the thesis that the concept of fisheries governance becoming embedded in trade arrangements is not only legally viable but also normatively crucial in terms of ensuring that global trade is in line with Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water). Finally, the research helps to bridge the gap between international economic law and ocean governance and create a path that could guide more meaningful and enforceable fisheries-trade nexuses