This is a proposal for leading the proposed Center on Digital Circular Economy for Sustainable Development Goals (DCE-SDG) (focussing on Business, Society and Nature). This proposed developmental project is based on preliminary understanding of the center’s mission, vision and objectives considering following five key pillars (P1-P5). Further details have been presented in the subsequent pages.
Pillar1: Establishing collaboration and engagement with internal colleagues in the view of building on and extending their current research activities by creating thematic working groups, to create a collegial environment of opportunities and knowledge exchange for colleagues and early-career researchers.
Pillarc2: Developing trans-national collaboration and sustainable partnerships with developed and developing nations (institutions) to enhance the visibility of the activities, creating research impact and grant applications.
Pillar3: Establishing leadership by championing nascent yet emerging research themes, remaining flexible and responsive to evolving global needs (funding bodies and policy makers such as UGC, DST, United Nations Grand Challenges, Indian Commission, International funding authorities, and World Economic Forum)
Pillar4: Creating pathway to impact by disseminating research outcomes for students, Small and Medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and academic practitioners (through P1, P2 and P3)
Pillar 5: Making a positive impact in terms of the university world rankings through strategic management of academic and public dissemination, teaching excellence and community engagement from P4.
The Circular economy [CE] concept is restorative and regenerative through advocating reduce-reuse-recycle of materials, compared to the traditional linear ‘take, make, dispose’ model, which uses vast quantities of non-renewable resources. India is one of south-east Asia’s fastest-growing economy, and its sustainable growth is curtailed by environmental degradation, plastic waste, depletion of natural resources, and high carbon emissions. CE may present a sustainable solution to part of these challenges resulting from current linear economic model in India and whole world.
CE philosophy often has social barriers limiting scalability and adoption among businesses, in any economy. One such barrier identified is lack of awareness, skills and experience among the workforce, which is also echoed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports, resulting in lack of strategy and actions to adopt CE.
Therefore, the overarching goal of this interdisciplinary and transnational partnership is to create a CE knowledge hub facilitating CE adoption in India through training businesses (95% of them being SMEs), policy makers, higher education institutions, researchers, conducting research to strengthen cooperation between all beneficiaries, and to build skilled workforce.
Developing capabilities to implement CE will create new skilled jobs and increase employability which is linked to UN Sustainable Development Goal [SDG8], facilitating economic growth. CE will also alleviate environmental issues caused due to carbon emissions, by reducing the use of virgin materials, and eliminating waste in production, by converting them into renewable energy synchronized to SDG 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, and 13. Though, CE has a huge implications on UN SDGs, we are seeking to contribute to all 17 SDGs through our expertise and cross-cutting research in this domain.
The aim is to create the first CE knowledge hub in India that will strengthen regional, national and transnational partnerships between industries and academia through the following objectives.
What do we do?
Industry members will gain
Academic members will gain
Early career members will gain
International members will gain
In the initial times, we need some support from JGU. Though, we are also seeking to generate sufficient funds from self-sustaining business model. In this sense, the deliverables for this research centre would be measured in two phases; whose details are given as below –
Phase 1: Short term plans:
Phase 2: Long term plans:
[1] Role of Socioeconomic and Technological Factors in Adoption of Industry 4.0 Technologies in Indian Agri-fresh Supply Chains (AFSC), 2022
Prof. Sachin Kumar Mangla (in collaboration with MNIT Jaipur, India).
Budget: INR 8 Lakhs
[2] Developing socially sustainable Indian dairy supply chain from multi-stakeholders’ perspective: A bi-state firm level analysis, 2022
Prof. Sachin Kumar Mangla (in collaboration with IIM Vishakhapatnam, India).
Budget: INR 7.5 Lakhs
Funding: Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Govt. of India.
[3] Awarded by The Office of Research & Sponsored Programs – project entitled ”Leveraging IT and Business spanning capabilities in unlocking and designing of efficiency-centered business model in the UAE manufacturing sector”, AED 100,000, Abu Dhabi University. UAE.
Prof. Sachin Kumar Mangla – Co-PI
This section will outline preliminary research themes which are novel and will extend the work that colleagues have already undertaken. The reason for proposing these themes are: (1) the center needs to start working on nascent and emerging research themes which are identified as critical by UN and national policy makers; (2) center will need to differentiate itself in the country because the topical area of sustainability is very saturated; (3) this will help the center and OPJ colleagues to champion these themes in the global arena, further building on and extending their current research activities; (4) building on and extending the work of academics in JGU (therefore lines of research will be democratically finalized). A few of the important research themes are given as below:
DCE – SDG has connections with diverse stakeholders in developing and developed economies around the world.
Academic Community: The impact will be generated through
research publications in ranked 3 and 4 journals, successful research grants
and most importantly delivering workshops in top conference venues, societal,
national, and International levels. It is envisaged that there will be several
publications within the three-year period with colleagues, and excluding my
manuscripts currently under review. As already outlined in this proposal, I
will create multiple opportunities for colleagues to contribute in the ongoing
grant proposals, and at the same time will be supportive to their own
initiatives (not limited to peer review by International consortium, creating
advisory board for proposals demonstrating a strong team), making them aware
of International grants and introducing them to consortium members relevant to
the call. The research publications, successful grant applications and
workshops will put the Center and School initiatives in the forefront of
global audience, which will add to the reputation, establish leadership, and
university rankings (especially QS). The work will enhance and further extend
collaborations with different stakeholders, which is critical to show the
impact produced by the research for building sustainable communities. During
the three-period, I will actively engage with the consortium members and
create opportunities for colleagues to develop special issue proposals in
ranked 3 and 4 journals, which will further help to champion these areas.
Students: Our students will benefit from real-life and
novel business cases (industry-view, and institutional-view) disseminated by
academics who have worked on them, that will be key to developing capabilities
for future and prepare for new jobs in the area (or across disciplines). The
interaction with consortium members, institutions and students across the
globe will enhance their personal learning experience and sharpen their
ability to understand and reflect from myriad cultural perspectives opening
job opportunities not just limited to a single region. The proposed themes
will lead to introduction of new teaching topics programmes (Green Education)
and cases (Sustainability audit) within the curriculum. This will enhance the
popularity, dynamism, and demand for our courses (which is also key to global
University rankings). Our students will have the opportunity to contribute to
these themes (as a part of their dissertation/research papers), and also find
internship opportunities within the center (where they can be paired with an
organisation in the region or globally, depending on the individual needs and
qualities of the student). Subject to successful funding applications, a
proportion of the research grants will be used to provide paid competitive
internship opportunities for the students, so that students could immerse
themselves working with both academic and business practitioners, in addition
to training opportunities.
Practitioners: For the business practitioners, I/We will
engage with SMEs and policy makers, throughout the projects’ life cycle
to design, validate and deliver the project outcomes, which will repurpose and
transform organisational strategies that will help businesses to practice
sustainability in a more effective manner. This engagement will be realised
through focus groups and informal meetings, where possible (both in India and
Internationally). To this end, I envisage, the center will create a business
advisory board which will be a forum for selected SMEs across the globe to
interact (barring language barriers) and having oversight of the project
outcomes/deliverables. Finally, training programmes developed in our project
will encourage the SMEs (not just in India, but worldwide), to recruit more
human workforce in green job roles, reducing gender inequality and enhancing
inclusivity within the organisations. Our training programme can be a part of
the employee onboarding process, which will strengthen partnership of
our institution with these institutions, clearly demonstrating the impact our
center is making regionally, nationally and globally through its continuous
initiatives, and championing the significant area (sustainable practices and
innovation).
** We anticipate these research themes and impact pathways will evolve,
after discussion and suggestions of colleagues/ center academic team, to
facilitate their engagement and cooperation.
Dr Sachin Kumar Mangla,
Professor and Associate Dean,
Operations Management and Business Decision Making,
Jindal Global Business School,
O P Jindal Global University, Sonepat, Haryana, India
Email: Smangla@jgu.edu.in
Prof. Ashish Dwivedi
Professor,
Operations Management & Supply Chain,
Jindal
Global Business School,
O.P. Jindal Global University
adwivedi@jgu.edu.in
Prof. Rajendra Baraiya
Lecturer,
Operations Management & Supply Chain,
Jindal
Global Business School,
O.P. Jindal Global University
rajendra.baraiya@jgu.edu.in
Prof. Asit Tripathy
Assistant Professor,
Operations Management & Supply Chain,
Jindal
Global Business School,
O.P. Jindal Global University
asit.tripathy@jgu.edu.in