Increasing collaboration between China and India in the environmental sciences to foster global sustainability

Lack of detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife from Kerala, India in 2020-21

Spillover of SARS-CoV-2 into a variety of wild and domestic animals has been an ongoing feature of the human pandemic. The establishment of a new reservoir in white-tailed deer in North America and increasing divergence of the viruses circulating in them from those circulating in the human population has highlighted the ongoing risk this poses for global health. Some parts of the world have seen more intensive monitoring of wildlife species for SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses but there are still very large gaps in geographical and species-specific information. This paper reports negative results for SARS-CoV-2 PCR based testing using a pan coronavirus end point RDRP PCR and a Sarbecovirus specific E gene qPCR on lung and or gut tissue from wildlife from the Indian State of Kerala. These animals included: 121 Rhinolophus rouxii (Rufous Horsehoe Bat), six Rhinolophus bedommei (Lesser Woolly Horseshoe Bat), 15 Rossettus leschenaultii (Fulvous Fruit Bat), 47 Macaca radiata (Bonnet macaques), 35 Paradoxurus hermaphroditus (Common Palm Civet), five Viverricula indica (Small Indian Civet), four Herpestes edwardsii (Common Mongoose), ten Panthera tigris (Bengal Tiger), eight Panthera pardus fusca (Indian Leopard), four Prionailurus bengalensis (Leopard cats), two Felis chaus (Jungle cats), two Cuon alpinus (Wild dogs) and one Melursus ursinus (sloth bear).

New frontiers of soil fungal microbiome and its application for biotechnology in agriculture

The fungi-based technology provided encouraging scenarios in the transition from a conventionally based economic system to the potential security of sources closely associated with the agricultural sphere such as the agriculture. In recent years, the intensification of fungi-based processes has generated significant gains, additionally to the production of materials with significant benefits and strong environmental importance. Furthermore, the growing concern for human health, especially in the agriculture scenario, has fostered the investigation of organisms with high biological and beneficial potential for use in agricultural systems. Accordingly, this study offered a comprehensive review of the diversity of the soil fungal microbiome and its main applications in a biotechnological approach aimed at agriculture and food chain-related areas. Moreover, the spectrum of opportunities and the extensive optimization platform for obtaining fungi compounds and metabolites are discussed. Finally, future perspectives regarding the insurgency of innovations and challenges on the broad rise of visionary solutions applied to the biotechnology context are provided.

Hydropower: A low-hanging sour-sweet energy option for India

India is the world's second largest populous nation, fifth largest economy with seventh largest geographical area but experiences high energy poverty. With the lowest per capita energy consumption among world's top ten economies, India ranks at 137 out of 218 nations. Hydropower has the potential to alleviate India's energy asymmetry as well as realize its sustainable growth aspiration of a low-carbon regime. However, hydropower in India has been plagued by debates on human displacement, loss of biodiversity, increased risk of natural disasters, and socio-economic conflicts making it an unpopular energy alternative. Here, we review and address various concerns related to India's hydropower sector, examine scientific evidence, analyze energy policy imperatives, geopolitical considerations, and future directions for a sustainable hydropower policy in India in the context of ongoing climate change. Evidence indicates that besides electricity generation, hydropower infrastructure helps: (i) avert floods, (ii) mitigate the impacts of global warming, and (iii) ensure redistribution of water to arid regions and improve water security. As a part of sustainable hydropower policy, we propose that most of the ecological and social problems associated with hydropower development can be avoided to a great extent through careful planning, proper project design, responsible ownership, and public participation. As short-term measures, we propose: (i) entrepreneurs and planners follow credible and transparent pre-project investigations, (ii) mandatory implementation of environmental management plans, and (iii) better accountability and transparency of statutory bodies as well as hydropower developers. For long-term measures, we suggest: (i) create a 'National Institute of Energy & Environmental Sustainability' to oversee post-project hydropower developmental activities, (ii) streamline various bureaucratic and institutional procedures, and (ii) establish a trans-boundary water management system for seamless and coordinated implementation of hydropower development programs across upstream-downstream nations.

Climate change and marketing: a bibliometric analysis of research from 1992 to 2022

Climate change with adverse impacts on the environment, economy, and society requires marketing to change current attitudes and behaviors towards sustainable production and consumption, and thus climate change is interrelated to marketing. However, no body of literature has comprehensively investigated the connections and relationships between climate change and marketing. This study examined such connections and relationships from a bibliometric approach using Web of Science and Scopus databases from 1992 to 2022. The search strategy utilized topic and title/abstract/keyword search. The search query retrieved 1723 documents. VOSviewer and Biblioshiny were utilized to analyze data on authors, keywords, institutions, countries, sources, citations, and co-citations. The findings showed an upward trend in the annual number of publications with the top three most productive countries being the USA, the UK, and Australia and the most productive institutions in the USA, New Zealand, and the UK. The top three author keywords were climate change, sustainability, and marketing. The Sustainability journal ranked first in terms of productivity while Energy Policy in terms of citations. International collaborations were mostly between developed countries also known as Global North Countries, and collaborations between these countries and developing and developed countries should be encouraged. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of documents increased, and research themes altered. Research on energy, innovation, insect farming, and carbon management is a top priority. The results proved that most studies were conducted outside the field of marketing.