This study investigates human resource management (HRM) practices in higher education institutions (HEIs) based on a comparative analysis of India and the US. Although higher education in India has grown over the decades, its quality, in general, has not kept up with global standards. On the other hand, many US universities have performed consistently well in international university rankings. Based on qualitative research collected from principal stakeholders of HEIs in India and the US, HRM practices and policies followed by them are presented and discussed. Data collection for the research study was through web interviews during the period August–October 2020. The study reveals that Indian public HEIs do not have professional HRM teams. Also, they are in a formative stage in autonomous and private institutions. On the other hand, many HEIs in the US have developed mature HRM systems. This difference resonates in attributes such as structure of HRM, recruitment and selection processes, training and development programmes, performance management, career progression and talent retention.

Using the recently released microdata covering input use in Indian agriculture, this study analyzes the relation between value and fertilizer consumption along with four layers of explanation. These layers include factors of production, knowledge capital, social identity, and human capital for both agricultural seasons. Subsequently, the study also examines the propensity to use diverse channels of information. This study uses both regression and machine learning methods for analysis. The main finding of the study is that fertilizer use is directly associated with the value of production. However, the propensity to use fertilizer is the highest for the lowest quantile. Moreover, fertilizer use is a positive covariant of select information sources. Further, similar to tangible resources, the study observes that information plays a crucial role in fertilizer use. Information channels such as extension services have a pivotal role in promoting sustainable farming, especially among marginal farms.

If the proposition of Williamson that "highly standardized transactions are not apt to require a specialized governance structure" (1979, p. 248) is to be accepted, then a discrete transaction market between small business owners and their suppliers can be easily organized in the market. This view essentially nullifies the possibility of there being a relational transaction. In this backdrop, this research attempts to explore the small buyer-supplier relationship in the context of a small city. Keeping embeddedness (Granovetter, Am. J. Sociol., 1985; 91: 481-510) as a theoretical foundation, we explore the social content in an apparently pure economic exchange. Although, earlier attempts (Khoja and Kauffman, J. Small Bus. Manag., 2012; 50: 20-40; Uzzi, Am. Socio. Rev., 1996; 61: 674-698) conformed to embeddedness in transactions between a buyer and a supplier among businesses of various sizes, they largely ignored very small-size buyers and suppliers owing to the miniscule size of business transactions and less frequent interactions between buyers and suppliers. Based on the grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research-Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques, 1990), in this study, we conducted indepth interviews with 57 very small business owners to develop detailed narratives. These narratives were organized under four themes: Contractual relationship, Strategic information sharing, Caste as a proxy, and Trust Factor. The findings clearly indicate that small business owners foster continued relationships with their suppliers, owing to social conditioning factors.

Farming in India faces a sustainability challenge due to its overreliance on chemical inputs. For every US$ 1,000 investment in sustainable farming, a US$ 100,000 subsidy is allocated for chemical fertilizers. Indian farming system is far off the optimal nitrogen efficiency, calling for substantial reforms in policy towards the transition to sustainable inputs. We examine the propensity of Indian farmers to adopt biofertilizers and other sustainable inputs. While small farmers are inclined towards chemical inputs, sustainable inputs are costly. Here we show that less than 5 per cent of the farming population contributes to the 95 per cent usage of the bio-fertilizer in India. However, small and marginal farmers contribute substantially to food security. Shifting from chemical to sustainable inputs calls for autonomous investment by the state to augment the capacity and improve affordability. We illustrate the transition to sustainability through a framework that includes scale, affordability, and sustainable inputs.

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