Bankura University

Emergencies are increasing and becoming common in educational institutions. Higher education institutions (HEIs) must adapt innovations to address issues of institutional closure and make swift judgments, with the well-being of all stakeholders as the sacrosanct objective. Individual safety and socio-emotional stability are non-negotiable, which form the ethical foundation. Here, the study examined leadership trends to explore what is effective in the unique context, what could have been done better, and how we may prepare for Indian catastrophes. The study design included a qualitative enquiry in which data were purposively collected from the highest-level academic leaders through teleconference. Using inductive coding, the transcripts were analysed. The study revealed that early comprehension and indigenous critical analysis were lacking in academic institutions. Academic leaders managed human resources and eradicated dysfunction through effective actions and transparent communication. Indian HEI leaders prioritised operational decisions immediately, though reactive leadership, lack of strategic preparedness, and substantial delays in technology adoption emerged as major challenges in emergency education. The study recommends institutional and methodological improvements to ensure the future resilience of higher education, including institutionalising an anticipatory, initiative-driven leadership paradigm, a decentralised yet coordinated decision-making mechanism, and proactive digital transformation strategies to address large-scale crises. While severe health emergencies, climate catastrophes, and war-like situations are becoming the new normal, leading to emergencies for HEIs, the research proposed a contextualised leadership assessment and development framework and autonomy-guided governance, which could serve as adaptable models beyond India’s borders, contributing to the global discourse on academic crisis preparedness for policy-making.

This study examines socio-economic and institutional factors shaping tribal women’s participation in decentralized governance in rural West Bengal. It identifies challenges, assesses empowerment impacts, and evaluates policies, providing recommendations to strengthen leadership, promote inclusivity, and drive sustainable political and social change. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative surveys and qualitative insights to analyze tribal women’s participation in decentralized governance. A descriptive and analytical research design ensures statistical rigor and contextual depth. A stratified random sampling of 250 respondents, SPSS-based data analysis, and ethical considerations ensure reliability and participant confidentiality. The study confirms that governance participation significantly enhances political empowerment (R² = 0.734), while digital literacy strongly influences governance involvement (R² = 0.692). Institutional support mechanisms (R² = 0.787) play a crucial role in leadership capacity. Socio-cultural norms, economic constraints, and bureaucratic inefficiencies hinder participation, requiring gender-sensitive policies and institutional reforms for sustainable empowerment. This study highlights the socio-economic and institutional factors shaping tribal women’s participation in decentralized governance in rural West Bengal. While digital literacy and institutional support enhance empowerment, barriers like education and socio-cultural constraints persist. Targeted policies, digital programs, and inclusive governance can strengthen their leadership and drive equitable rural development. This study offers original insights into the socio-economic and institutional determinants of tribal women’s participation in decentralized governance. It highlights the critical role of digital literacy, institutional support, and policy interventions, providing a framework for inclusive governance and sustainable political empowerment in rural West Bengal.

The present paper introduce the notions of generalized weakly phi-symmetric and generalized weakly Ricci phi-symmetric (LCS)(n) manifold. We further investigate some applications of generalized weakly phi-symmetric (CS)(4)-space time.

Understanding how interacting ecological processes influence prey-predator dynamics is crucial for predicting population persistence, anticipating multistability, identifying critical transitions, predicting tipping points, and guiding conservation strategies under environmental fluctuations. We examine a prey-predator model that integrates the Allee effect in the predator population and habitat complexity, which may operate simultaneously. To incorporate the environmental stochasticity, we extend the deterministic framework by introducing multiplicative white noise into the growth rate of the prey and the death rate of the predator. The deterministic model exhibits rich dynamics, including bistability, tristability, and both local and global bifurcations, such as saddle-node, Hopf, Bogdanov-Takens, homoclinic, generalised Hopf, and saddle-node bifurcations of limit cycles. Varying the strengths of the Allee effect and habitat complexity partition the parameter space into six subregions, each with distinct stability properties, including the extinction risk of the predator population. Most importantly, we critically examine how environmental stochasticity drives tipping between two alternative stable states in the system. By analysing the relationships among noise intensity, tipping probability, and tipping time, we also quantify predator extinction risk and assign extinction warning levels for different initial population sizes. For three cases of multistability, the probability of tipping to predator extinction from coexistence generally becomes more likely and faster with increasing noise, while the tipping probability from predator extinction to the coexistence state peaks at intermediate noise levels. Prey noise dominates tipping towards coexistence, whereas predator noise delays the transition. Warning levels vary most near the basin boundary with low noise intensities, although strong prey-dominated noise can alter risks even far from the basin boundary. Extensive numerical simulations further elucidate the influence of the Allee effect strength, habitat complexity, and noise intensity on system dynamics. These results highlight the critical roles of the Allee effect and habitat complexity in guiding conservation strategies to maintain biodiversity and prevent undesirable noise-induced critical transitions in stochastic ecological systems.

The widespread accumulation of macro- and microplastics in terrestrial and marine environments has emerged as a pressing global challenge due to their persistence, ecotoxicological effects, and disruption of biogeochemical processes. Conventional plastic waste management strategies remain inadequate, thereby driving interest in biodegradation as a sustainable alternative. This review critically evaluates microbial, enzymatic, and physicochemical mechanisms involved in the degradation of commonly used polymers, including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polystyrene (PS). Microorganisms such as Pseudomonas, Ideonella, and Aspergillus spp. have demonstrated promising degradation potential, mediated by enzymes such as PETase, cutinase, and laccase. The ecological implications of plastic fragmentation and its degradation byproducts on marine ecosystems, biodiversity, food webs, and human health are also highlighted, with particular attention to major plastic-emitting regions such as the Philippines, India, and China. Finally, the review discusses current limitations and future directions, including genetic engineering of plastic degraders, integration of biodegradation with circular bioeconomy frameworks, and the design of inherently biodegradable polymers. Addressing plastic pollution effectively will require an interdisciplinary strategy that integrates microbiology, materials science, and environmental policy.