Purpose Human resource (HR) disclosures are voluntary in nature in most countries including India. The voluntary nature of HR disclosures results in discrepancy in the HR disclosure practices across companies and industries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of HR disclosures in annual reports of Indian listed companies and to identify their determinants in a three stage analysis. Design/methodology/approach In the first stage a 16 item human resource disclosure index (HRDI) has been constructed for the set of CNX 200 companies listed on National Stock Exchange. Thereafter the effect of various independent variables on HRDI is analysed descriptively. Finally in the third stage HRDI has been regressed against the independent variables using regression analysis technique to identify key determinants of HRDI. Findings The research reveals that there is high variation among sample companies as regard HRDI. The results of descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and multivariate regression analysis establish that government’s participation in ownership and market capitalisation has positive significant effect on HRDI at 1 per cent, presence of separate HR directors committee, presence of more independent directors on board at 5 per cent and cross-list America and profit after tax at 10 per cent level. Implicitly HRDI is positively affected by size of company as measured by market capitalisation. Though contrary to expectations, other variables leverage, number of employees, assets, ownership concentration, type of auditor, age, complexity of business structure, employee expense to total operating expense ratio, industry affiliation, foreign investment and proportion of non-executive directors on board are found to have moderate though insignificant influence on HRDI. Research limitations/implications Cross-sectional design, dependence on annual reports as a primary document for disclosure and subjectivity in HRDI construction are the main limitations of the research. A longitudinal study may be carried to study the pattern of HR disclosures in future. Weighted ranking of different items of disclosures may be studied to improve the understanding of extent of disclosures. Practical implications The HRDI as constructed in the research may be used as a benchmark by companies to improve their HR disclosures. It can also be used by accounting bodies and company regulators while deciding about standards regarding HR disclosures. Investors can also use HR disclosures made by a company as a basis to understand its financial standing and future potentials. Originality/value The study adds to the existing literature by developing 16 item HRDI to measure the extent of disclosures by listed companies in India and thereafter by including some new propositions in the determinants of HRDI have never been tested in the existing studies. These propositions are government’s participation in ownership, separate HR committee of directors, board composition and foreign activity. These propositions have been empirically validated in this research except for foreign activity.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate an Inclusive Digital Literacy Framework for vulnerable populations in rural areas under the Digital India program. Key challenges include addressing multiple literacies such as health literacy, financial literacy and eSafety for low-literate learners in low-resource settings with low internet bandwidth, lack of ICT facilities and intermittent electricity. Design/methodology/approach This research implemented an educational model based on the proposed framework to train over 1,000 indigenous people using an integrated curriculum for digital literacies at remote settlements. The model uses mobile technology adapted for remote areas, context enabled curriculum, along with flexible learning schedules. Findings The education model exemplifies a viable strategy to overcome persistent challenges by taking tablet-based digital literacies directly to communities. It engages different actors such as existing civil societies, schools and government organizations to provide digital literacy and awareness thereby improving both digital and life skills. It demonstrates the potential value of a comprehensive Digital Literacy framework as a powerful lever for Digital Inclusion. Practical Implications Policy makers can use this transformational model to extend the reach and effectiveness of Digital Inclusion through the last mile enhancing existing training and service centers that offer the traditional model of Digital Literacy Education. Originality/value This innovative mobile learning model based on the proposed Digital Framework for Inclusion instilled motivation, interest and confidence while providing effective digital training and conducting exams directly in the tribal settlements for low-literate learners in remote settings. Through incorporating multiple literacies, this model serves to empower learners, enhance potential, improve well-being and reduce the risk of exploitation.

COVID-19 global pandemic pushed a large number of higher educational institutions to use Online Proctored Exams (OPE) because of government-imposed lockdowns. Treating OPE as an educational technology innovation, we apply the diffusion of innovation theory in predicting factors affecting its adoption by university students which we believe is the first of its kind research study. The study presented here reviews OPE, its types, architecture, challenges, and prospects and then focuses on the student adoption experience at a large, multi-campus higher educational institution. We have used the fine-grained Aspect Level Sentiment Analysis to check the university students’ attitudes towards the Online Proctored Exams. We then used linguistic features to extract the aspect terms present in the feedback comments which showed that 55% of university students having a positive attitude towards OPE. Results of our study show that innovation characteristics such as relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, trialability, and observability were found to be positively related to acceptance of OPE.

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Rural India lacks easy access to health practitioners and medical centers, depending instead on community health workers. In these areas, common ailments that are easy to manage with medicines, often lead to medical escalations and even fatalities due to lack of awareness and delayed diagnosis. The introduction of wearable health devices has made it easier to monitor health conditions and to connect doctors and patients in urban areas. However, existing initiatives have not succeeded in providing adequate health monitoring to rural and low-literate patients, as current methods are expensive, require consistent connectivity and expect literate users. Our design considerations address these concerns by providing low-cost medical devices connected to a low-cost health platform, along with personalized guidance based on patient physiological parameters in local languages, and alerts to medical practitioners in case of emergencies. This patient-centric integrated healthcare system is designed to manage the overall health of villagers with real-time health monitoring of patients, to offer guidance on preventive care, and to increase health awareness and self-monitoring at an affordable price. This personalized health monitoring system addresses the health-related needs in remote and rural areas by (1) empowering health workers in monitoring of basic health conditions for rural patients in order to prevent escalations, (2) personalized feedback regarding nutrition, exercise, diet, preventive Ayurveda care and yoga postures based on vital parameters and (3) reporting of patient data to the patient's health center with emergency alerts to doctor and patient. The system supports community health workers in the diagnostic procedure, management, and reporting of rural patients, and functions well even with only intermittent access to Internet.