Executive Summary : | Star formation is a fundamental topic in Astrophysics, influenced by environmental factors. The evolutionary stages of star formation in clusters determine mass, temperature, protoplanetary disk evolution, and planet formation around it. Protoplanetary disks develop when the protostar is embedded in the natal dense gas cloud, aiding in accretion onto it and eventually giving way to the formation of planetary systems. Understanding the environmental conditions that influence early stages of protoplanetary disk evolution is important to understand the preferred environment for planet formation and the nature of star formation conditions. Environmental conditions such as metallicity, stellar feedback, magnetic field, and turbulence play a significant role in star formation. A lack of metals leads to inefficient cooling, lower dust column densities, and altered cloud chemistry. Planetesimal formation within protoplanetary disks is hindered by the lack of metals. In the clustered mode of star formation, disks can be perturbed by processes such as truncations due to close stellar encounters, external photoevaporation due to massive stars, internal photoevaporation, and accretion onto the host star. However, the role of environmental conditions in star formation and disk dispersal has sparse empirical support. This proposal aims to study star formation and protostellar disk properties of young stellar objects associated with star-forming regions of diverse conditions, testing the role of metallicity, UV radiation, and stellar density. The project will use state-of-the-art multi-band photometric and spectroscopic data sets from national and international observing facilities. |