The United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 the “International Year of Millets” in order to promote millet cultivation, consumption, and conservation. Millets play an important role in food security, livelihoods, and biodiversity. Despite its numerous benefits, millet cultivation and consumption in Uttarakhand have declined due to a variety of constraints. This paper examines the effects of regiocentrism and materialism on intention towards Uttarakhand’s regional food products (millets). It employs PLS-SEM to investigate relationships between latent variables and generate results on a sample of 460 participants. This study elucidates the intricate interplay between materialism, regiocentrism, and intention towards regional food products in the Himalayan region, enriching the theory of planned behavior (TPB) with a nuanced understanding of personal values and regional identity. It reveals materialism’s positive association with attitudes towards regional food products, suggesting materialistic individuals may view these products as status symbols, thus affecting behavioral intentions. Additionally, the research highlights regiocentrism’s dual influence—enhancing attitudes yet deterring purchase intentions—underscoring the complexity of regional pride in consumer decision-making. These findings advance TPB by integrating broader value systems and cultural context, offering significant theoretical and practical insights for promoting sustainable consumption patterns.

Recently, the government of Ethiopia has been engaged in modernizing the trans-regional Ethio-Djibouti railway infrastructure using the Belt and Road Initiative. This railway corridor has been serving as the main get way for the landlocked Ethiopia to the port. This article creates an insight about the implications of the Ethio-Djibouti railway corridor by exploring the question: what kinds of urban form and morphological changes evolved due to the railway corridor? To examine the impact of this railway corridor, the article employed stratified sampling and multiple criteria intermediate cities selection method. Accordingly, four (Bishoftu, Mojo, Adama, and Dire Dawa) intermediate cities were selected as case study. The article points out that the railway corridor conceived different kinds of linear urban centers around stations. The identified four intermediate cities attract industries and logistic centers. Those industries, logistic centers, and new railway stations often established at the periphery of intermediate cities resulted labour influx from rural and nearby small urban centers and urban expansion that caused a rural-urban continuum of ribbon settlement and strengthen trade gate way for the landlocked Ethiopia that caused trans-regional integration.

In the contemporary landscape characterized by technological advancements and a progressive economic environment, the utilization of currency has undergone a paradigm shift. Despite the growing prevalence of digital currency, its adoption among the Vietnamese population faces several challenges, including limited financial literacy, concerns over security, and resistance to change from traditional cash-based transactions. This research aims to identify these challenges and propose solutions to encourage the widespread use of digital currency in Vietnam. This research adopts a quantitative approach, utilizing Likert scale questionnaires, with a dataset of 330 records. The interrelationships among variables are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The analysis results substantiate the viability of the research model, confirming the hypotheses. The findings demonstrate a positive relationship and the significance impact of factors such as perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived trust (PT), social influence (SI), openness to innovation (OI), and financial knowledge (FK) to intention to use digital currency (IUDC). Thereby aiming to inform policymakers, industry stakeholders, and the wider community, fostering a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and providing solutions to enhance the adoption of digital currency in the evolving landscape of digital finance.

The trilateral defense and security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States has strong impact to the security dynamics in the Indo-Pacific area. This agreement entails a strengthened alliance between Australia and enhanced military collaboration with the United States and the United Kingdom resulting in regional volatility. This paper aims to examine the AUKUS (Australia–United Kingdom–United States Partnership) agreement and the resulting ensuing instability in the Indo-Pacific region, specifically from Indonesia’s perspective. The focus of the research is on the interplay between Indonesia’s diplomacy capability and the military functions of the Indonesian Navy as security policy. This study employs a qualitative approach to delve into in-depth insights into the evolution of AUKUS in the Indo-Pacific region, which triggered a series of responses from many countries subsequent to the announcement of the establishment of the AUKUS Defense Pact. The AUKUS establishment simply reinforces the notion that geopolitical tensions are pulling the area apart. The influence of the AUKUS-China war can jeopardize regional stability since the US and China continuously demonstrate the supremacy of their armaments in order to dissuade one another. The AUKUS-China contest has had a highly adverse impact on Indonesia. This article argues that the Indonesian Navy’s diplomatic prowess is crucial because it has the potential to play a big influence in the Indo-Pacific region’s international political dynamics concerning the South China Sea. Furthermore, the Indonesian Navy must proactively prepare for potential armed conflicts in Indonesian territorial seas by developing a comprehensive maritime policy during times of peace, leveraging its geographical advantages.

Amidst an upsurge in the quantity of delinquent loans, the financial industry is experiencing a fundamental transformation in the approaches utilised for debt recovery. The debt collection process is presently undergoing automation and improvement through the utilisation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), an emergent technology that holds the potential to revolutionise this sector. By leveraging machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics, automated debt recovery systems analyse vast quantities of data, generate forecasts regarding the likelihood of recovery, and streamline operational processes. Debt collection systems powered by AI are anticipated to be compliant, precise, and effective. On the other hand, conventional approaches are linked to increasing expenditures and inefficiencies in operations. These solutions facilitate efficient resource allocation, customised communication, and rapid data analysis, all while minimising the need for human intervention. Significant progress has been made in data analytics, predictive modelling, and decision-making through the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in debt recovery; this has the potential to revolutionize the financial sector’s approach to debt management. The findings of the research underscore the criticality of artificial intelligence (AI) in attaining efficacy and precision, in addition to the imperative of a data-centric framework to fundamentally reshape approaches to debt collection. In conclusion, artificial intelligence possesses the capacity to profoundly transform the existing approaches utilized in debt management, thereby guaranteeing financial institutions’ sustained profitability and efficacy. The application of machine learning methodologies, including predictive modelling and logistic regression, signifies the potential of the system.

This study analyzes the studies on project finance (PF) and renewable energy (RE) arena, employing a comprehensive scientometric analysis to illuminate the current research landscape, identify prominent scholars, and uncover emerging trends. Encompassing several analyses, we have charted the evolution of this domain from 1993 to March 2024 and showed the way for further research. We analyzed 80 studies selected from several databases by means scientometric tools. Despite decent citation rates, research in this relatively young field is surprisingly scarce. While geographically diverse, research leadership stems from the UK, USA, Australia, and Germany. Interestingly, a significant portion of the studies originates from broad energy and sustainability areas, highlighting a potential knowledge gap in finance and economics areas. Additionally, the prevalence of case studies points to a strong connection between theory and practice. The research also revealed prominent topics like the interplay between PF and RE, various renewable resources, infrastructure development, financial considerations, risk management, among others. While many themes exist, areas like technological advancements, diverse cost approaches, valuation methodologies, and policy considerations remain underexplored. Other results unveiled an unexpected finding: limited evidence of large-scale collaborations, with individual or small-group research efforts currently dominating the field. However, existing collaborative networks promise future advancements through the emergence of more formalized research groups, which can perform future research endeavors with a wide spectrum of unexplored topics.

This study evaluates the aquafeed self-sufficiency sector in Indonesia, aiming to provide policy recommendations for optimizing freshwater aquaculture production. The study engaged 1005 participants, including 204 self-sufficient aquafeed producers and 801 fish farmers, covering 88% of the regions where the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries promotes aquafeed self-sufficiency, conducted in 30 Indonesian provinces. The majority of on-farm and small-scale feed manufacturers continue to operate successfully (91%), with a minor portion discontinuing (9%). Aquafeed products incorporating local ingredients prove cost-effective and receive high acceptance among fish farmers. The sustainability of the aquafeed self-sufficiency sector is closely linked to local ingredient availability, operational aquafeed manufacturing plants, product quality, human resource capabilities, and government policies. The study presents policy recommendations to address these issues, encompassing measures such as ensuring ingredient supply sustainability, providing a mobile laboratory for ingredient and feed analysis, enhancing human resource quality through training, facilitating easier access to financial support, and strengthening central-local government coordination to optimize the aquafeed self-sufficiency program. The rise of the national fish production target from freshwater aquaculture has attracted great attention in the improvement of the aquafeed sector since the sustainability of aquafeed supply is the main driver for the success of aquaculture production.

A method for studying the resilience of energy and socio-ecological systems is considered; it integrates approaches developed at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis and the Melentyev Institute of Energy Systems (MESI) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article discusses in detail the methods of using intelligent information technologies, in particular semantic technologies and knowledge engineering (cognitive probabilistic modeling), which the authors propose to use in assessing the risks of natural and man-made threats to the resilience of the energy sector and social and ecological systems. More attention is paid to the study and adaptation of the integral indicator of quality of life, which makes it possible to combine these interdisciplinary studies.