To examine the association between remote working and work-life balance with mediating effect of social support on work-life balance among migrated employees in Hyderabad Metro. The study was carried out by surveying the migrated employees who are working super markets, malls, IT industry and construction industry, and are from different states across India, working in Hyderabad city. The data were collected during May 2021 to May 2022. Method: The survey type of research adopted in this empirical study. The data were gathered using a questionnaire with 24 items for 3 constructs remote working with 12 items, social support 6 items, and work-life balance with 6 items. However, 5 items (2 from remote working, 1 from social support, and 2 from work-life balance) were dropped from the study because the outer loadings of the items were [removed]0.05), The model fit indices demonstrated excellent model fit. There was a statistically insignificant (p>0.05) direct effect between remote working and work-life balance, while social support is fully mediating the work-life balance

In the present study, the researchers reported the results of an empirical study on remote working and occupational stress and their effects on employees’ job satisfaction, motivation, and performance. Remote working has three subscales: self-proficiency, technology, and teamwork. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation subscales were included to assess employee motivation. A simple random sampling method was used to select the subjects who are employees of the IT-enabled industries in Hyderabad Metro. A total of 513 responses were obtained on the remote working subscales—the effect on the independent variables, namely, employee self-proficiency, technology, teamwork, and occupational stress, on the dependent variables, namely, job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and performance. The measured Cronbach’s alpha was in the range of 0.64–0.77, other reliability statistics split-half (odd-even) correlation was in the range of 0.62–0.84, and theSpearman–Brown prophecy was in the range of 0.70–0.91, demonstrating the reliability and internal consistency of the research instrument. The general linear model results indicated that all the independent variables, namely, self-proficiency, teamwork, and Occupational stress, are statistically significant and influence the outcome variables. The general linear model results also indicated statistically significant age differences in the dependent variables; however, there were no statistically significant gender differences. Of the independent variables, self-proficiency influences job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and performance (p < 0.01); teamwork influences employee job satisfaction and extrinsic motivation (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05); and Occupational stress influences performance (p < 0.01), which are statistically significant and thus influence the outcome variables. The model predicted a statistically significant influence of age (p < 0.01) on all the dependent factors, namely, job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and performance. The study revealed that remote working is one of the major factors causing anxiety and employee stress. The main reasons are the absence of interaction with peers, the absence of routine fun during breaks, and work–family conflicts. Another observation is that the absence of peer–employee interaction demotivates the employees as there is no competition among the employees during remote working. The authors recommend that organizations develop an integrated human resource policy and performance management system that addresses the issues of employee stress, remote working concerns, peer–employee interactions, and pandemic-type situations. As there are several factors such as occupational stress, job satisfaction, motivation, peer interactions, and remote working concerns, employee stress-coping strategies affect the performance of an employee. The multiple mediation analysis indicates no statistically significant influence of the mediator variables, i.e., occupational stress and job satisfaction, on performance through remote working. Copyright © 2023 Prasad, Vaidya and Rani.

Background: The high prevalence of hypertension in India necessitates both pharmacological and nonpharmacological measures to control it. Here, we report the findings of a study to investigate the effectiveness of yoga therapy in lowering blood pressure (BP) in prehypertensive and hypertensive individuals. Methods: This was a single center, nonrandomized controlled clinical trial, of 200 hypertensives and 100 prehypertensives patients. The control group received the prescribed antihypertensive and lifestyle modification while the yoga group was additionally taught simple yogic exercise by a trained yoga teacher. This training included intensive supervised phase 2-h training sessions in Ujjayi breathing, Bhastrika Pranayama and chanting of “Om” for 10 lessons, followed by self-performed yogic exercise at home for 1 h till the end of study at 1 year. Results: The systolic BP (SBP) in the hypertensive yoga group was significantly lower (t = 3.04, P < 0.01) than the control group at 6 months, but not so at 1 year (SBP t = 0.53, P > 0.05). In the prehypertensive participants, at 6 months (t = 5.85, P = 0.00), and 1 year (t = 6.385, P < 0.05) a significant difference was observed between SBP of the two groups However, no significant difference was observed between the diastolic BP among hypertensives or prehypertensives at 6 months and 1 year. Conclusion: Our present study indicates that yoga therapy is a viable adjunct to pharmacological intervention to reduce SBP in the management of hypertension and prehypertension and that yoga should be incorporated in the treatment regime of such patients, specifically for individuals who have prehypertension.