The Economic and Psychological Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Indian Migrant Workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Happiness index of medical students and related factors in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

BACKGROUND

Happiness is an important factor for everyone's good health and general well-being. Medical students need to manage a lengthy medical curriculum, clinical postings, and the stressful environment of hospital setting, which may have considerable effects on their happiness. No such studies have been conducted in the remotely located Andaman and Nicobar (A and N) islands. Hence, the current study was conducted to determine the level of happiness and associated factors among medical college students of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 315 medical students of the A and N islands. The happiness of students was measured using the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression were used for data analysis.

RESULTS

Among all the students, 42.5% were happy. There was a significant association between happiness and the relationship of students with family and friends, physical exercise, spiritual beliefs, the presence of stress, and traumatic events. The multiple logistic regression revealed that good relationship with friends increased the odds of happiness of students significantly with an adjusted odd ratio (OR) of 3.204 (1.641-6.257), whereas the presence of stress decreased the happiness of students significantly with an adjusted OR of 0.430 (0.254-0.730).

CONCLUSION

Good relations with friends emerged as a positive predictor of happiness, whereas stress emerged as a negative predictor of happiness among the students. Hence, human relationships, stress management, physical exercise or sports, and orientation to spiritual health should be given emphasis in the medical curriculum.

Mental Health Status of Indian Migrant Workers in the United Arab Emirates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Migration has become a de facto phenomenon in the contemporary globalized world and India is not untouched. Indian labourers from the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrated to the UAE in search of better jobs and prospects. They migrated alone and left behind their families. The distance between them and their family can also create mental disorders; therefore, it becomes necessary to analyze the mental health of the migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study is quantitative and based on a sample survey approach. The researchers collected 416 samples through a structured questionnaire and used the snowball sampling technique. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient, chi-square test and logistic regression were utilized to analyze and interpret the results. The outbreak of coronavirus disturbed their livelihood resulting in a cut to their salary or earnings; in total, 83% of migrants were affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in terms of loss of their income, out of which 76% were affected by less than AED 1000. The respondents' mental health was worrisome, but they were hopeful for the future. In total, 73.5% of respondents felt nervous, 62% felt depressed, 77% felt lonely, 63.4% had a hard time sleeping, and 63% had difficulties concentrating. The findings of the study draw attention to the policymakers to carry out necessary provisions to the targeted psychologically affected community. The findings also suggest creating awareness among the people by using social networking sites and diagnosing mental disorders on an urgent basis.

Mental Health of Migrants in the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected the mental health of individuals due to both the process and the restrictions it imposes. Migrants, especially one of the vulnerable groups, have been adversely affected by the pandemic due to both the difficulties brought by the migration itself and the living conditions unsuitable for Covid-19. All these negative situations caused the migrants to experience psychosocial problems and created a threat in terms of mental health. A limited number of studies have been found in the literature on the psychosocial problems and mental health of migrants. The aim of this study is to review the studies on the evaluation of psychosocial problems and mental health of immigrants during the Covid-19 pandemic and to systematically examine the results of these studies. Systematic searches were conducted in “PubMed”, “Web of Science”, “ScienceDirect” and “Scopus” database with using to ‘migrants, migrant workers, Covid-19 pandemic, mental health, psychosocial issues’ keywords and combinations. Seventeen studies were included in the systematic review. The sample size of the studies varies between 10 and 28.853. As a result of the data, it was determined that the most common psychosocial problems of migrants in the Covid-19 pandemic are depression, anxiety, distress, hopelessness, decrease in socioeconomic level, and social isolation. As a result of the study, it was found that many psychosocial problems that migrants experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected their mental health. The evidence determined in this study may guide the psychosocial evaluation of migrants in Covid-19 pandemic.

Financial Development and Environmental Degradation: Promoting Low-Carbon Competitiveness in E7 Economies' Industries

Emerging countries are approaching economic prosperity. However, the development process has enhanced their ecological footprints, thus promoting low-carbon competitiveness among E7 countries' industries. Therefore, it is essential to identify the factors that affect a country's ecological footprint (EF) in order to safeguard the environment. This study explored the effect of financial development, human capital, and institutional quality on the EF of emerging countries. Furthermore, we explored the effect of financial development on the EF of emerging countries through the human capital channel. In addition, we investigated the role of institutional quality in the financial development-EF nexus. Using panel data from 1990 to 2018, we employed the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) technique to conduct a short-term and long-term empirical analysis. The empirical outcomes revealed that financial development degrades ecological quality by raising the EF. The findings further demonstrated that human capital and institutional quality reduce the EF. Moreover, financial development fosters environmental sustainability through the channel of human capital. Additionally, institutional quality reduces the negative ecological impacts of financial development. The causality analysis suggested that any policy related to financial development, human capital, and institutional quality will affect the EF. However, the inverse conclusion was not sustained. Based on these findings, emerging economies should increase their environmental sustainability by promoting human capital and effectively using financial resources.

Performance of E-Banking and the Mediating Effect of Customer Satisfaction: A Structural Equation Model Approach

Online payment is a trend that is gaining momentum globally. As a result of digitisation, the advent of online banking has increasingly made its way into the modern marketplace, serving not only customers but also corporations. The primary data were gathered from 287 participants. Stratified random sampling was used. Structure Equation Modelling (SEM), reliability, convergent, discriminate validity and model fitness were achieved through SmartPLS 3 (Christian M. Ringle, Germany). The findings reveal that efficiency, reliability and service quality have a significant direct effect on customer satisfaction and customer retention. It also shows the significant effect of efficiency, reliability and service quality when using customer satisfaction as a mediator for customer retention. It is possible that the data gathered may be valuable for both banks and enterprises interested in entering the Indian market. This research also specifies four main components of E-banking: efficiency, reliability, service quality and customer satisfaction.

Examining Anxiety, Sleep Quality, and Physical Activity as Predictors of Depression among University Students from Saudi Arabia during the Second Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Conducted during the second wave of the pandemic, this cross-sectional study examined the link between sleep quality, physical activity, exposure, and the impact of COVID-19 as predictors of mental health in Saudi undergraduate students. A convenience sample of 207 participants were recruited, 89% of whom were females and 94% were single. The measures included questionnaires on the level of exposure and the perceived impact of COVID-19, a physical activity measure, GAD-7, PHQ-9, and PSQI. The results indicated that approximately 43% of participants exhibited moderate anxiety, and 50% were at risk of depression. Overall, 63.93% of students exposed to strict quarantine for at least 14 days (n = 39) exhibited a high risk of developing depression (χ2(1) = 6.49, p < 0.05, ϕ = 0.18). A higher risk of depression was also found in students whose loved ones lost their jobs (χ2(1) = 4.24, p < 0.05, ϕ = 0.14). Moreover, there was also a strong association between depression and anxiety (β = 0.33, p < 0.01), sleep quality (β = 0.32, p < 0.01), and the perceived negative impact of COVID-19 on socio-economic status (β = 0.26, p < 0.05), explaining 66.67% of depression variance. Our study highlights the socio-economic impact of this pandemic and the overwhelming prevalence of depression.

Enhancing Employee Creativity in the Banking Sector: A Transformational Leadership Framework

Despite the growing academic interest in transformational leadership and employee creativity, the banking sector has not yet received enough consideration. Mostly, the banking sector was assumed to be an inappropriate setting for employee creativity as it is a tightly supervised and controlled segment of an economy. Nevertheless, some research studies in advanced nations emphasized the significance of employee creativity in a banking context. However, the case of developing countries (e.g., Pakistan) has remained an understudied area. Against this background, the objective of this study was to examine the relationships between transformational leadership (TL), perceived organizational support (POS), and employee creativity (EC) through work engagement (WE). Some private banks were selected, situated in a large metropolitan city, with data collected for the present research by a self-administered questionnaire. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was employed to analyze data. It was observed that TL and POS induce EC, whereas WE mediated these relationships. These findings may help policymakers of the banking industry to improve employee creativity through WE.