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Although economic growth, globalization, and ecological footprint are extensively researched altogether, however, the literature on the role of financial inclusion, ecological innovation along with growth and globalization is still limited specifically in the context of MENA region. Thereby, The study aims to scrutinize the dynamic association between the above-stated variables while considering a range of statistical estimations and methods. Data is gathered from 1990 to 2017 for the stated panel economies entitled under the MENA region. It is observed that there exists cross-sectional dependence, having stationarity proprieties, and slope heterogeneity for the variables of interest. Furthermore, the findings through CS-ARDL indicate the significant and direct impact of financial inclusion economic growth, and globalization through GDP in creating more environmental issues like EFP. Whereas ecological innovation is significantly playing its role in reducing ED for the selected economies. Finally, robust checks through "Augmented Mean Group and Common Correlated Effect Mean Group" have also revealed consistent findings when examined through CS-ARDL. Besides, various policy implications are also presented in this research.

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Climate change has become one of the most complicated challenges of the twenty-first century. Water scarcity is a significant threat to food security, and climate change has adversely affected the likelihood of extreme events such as drought. Selenium (Se) has been reported to mitigate abiotic stress effects, such as drought, on various plant species. The purpose of the current study was to observe the effects of foliar-applied Se to minimize the detrimental effects of water-deficient conditions. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the exogenous application of Se at various levels (0, 3, 6 and 9 mg L−1) on the growth, physio-biochemical attributes and antioxidant defense system of lettuce plants growing under an irrigation water deficit from 85 ± 5% (control) to 35 ± 5% (drought stress). The results revealed that increasing water deficit stress linearly reduced plant growth and biomass by reducing relative water content (19.49%) and chlorophyll contents (23.95%) through increased electrolyte leakage (20.67%). However, foliar-applied Se significantly increased fresh and dry biomass under control and water-stressed conditions. Under drought stress, Se supply increased free proline content and the activities of SOD, POD and CAT in leaf tissues. The exogenous application of Se partly alleviated the effects of drought on lettuce by the upregulation of the antioxidant system and leaf soluble sugars and a simultaneous decrease in electrolyte leakage. This study further suggests that the upregulation of antioxidants and osmoprotectants is positively associated with the drought tolerance of lettuce. In conclusion, the exogenous application of Se (6 mg L−1) has more potential to improve lettuce growth, physiological attributes and modulation of enzymatic antioxidant potential, which can be recommended for use to maximize lettuce productivity and quality in a dry environment. This research provides a promising, technically feasible strategy for mitigating drought stress in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of good health and zero hunger.

At present environment, industry, and sustainability both are considered well-complimented combinations in almost all areas. The reason is that sustainability itself is an inclusive term, hence, beneficial for every aspect of business operations. Thereby, it becomes now essential to inculcate sustainability in order to ensure operational excellence.  As the logistic area is being affected due to technological advancement, thereby, it becomes a persistent need of organizations to ensure sustainability by enhancing reliability as well as efficiency at the same time in order to safeguard the environment. By considering the importance of sustainability in the logistics area, the study attempts to explore the effectiveness of sustainability on logistic excellence. The study chose the FMCG industry of emerging markets as sampled data and used the regression method to test the hypothesis. The findings of the study revealed that carbon footprint reduction, solar energy, and asset utilization are significant contributors to connected sustainability with logistic excellence. It implies that a controlling idea only is not sufficient and brands must appear their impact across the board, particularly in the surroundings where they operate.

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