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This paper aims to make a modest attempt to classify the Asia-Pacific countries in terms of the access to information and communication technology (ICT) to unearth the prevalence of digital divide (if any) in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition to that, this paper also examines the role played by the digital skill in bridging the digital divide in the context of Asia–Pacific countries.

Secondary data on 43 Asia-Pacific countries for the period from 2012 to 2017 was collected from International Telecommunication Union (ITU) database and World Development Indicators, World Bank. K-means clustering technique was applied to explore the natural grouping of the Asia-Pacific countries based on ICT access. The role of digital/ICT skill in narrowing the access-based digital divide was investigated using panel data regression technique.

Clustering of countries suggested a significant difference amongst the Asia-Pacific countries in terms of ICT access, signifying the prevalence of access based digital divide. Digital skill played pivotal role in promoting ICT access and thereby reducing the digital divide during the period of the study. Per capita income level, level of education, openness of the economy and urbanisation were observed to be the determining factors in reducing the digital divide during the period of study in the Asia-Pacific region.

The study makes an unique attempt to explore the role of digital/ICT skill in tapering the access-based digital divide in the context of Asia-Pacific region.

The article makes a modest attempt to explore the level of financial literacy (FL) amongst the farmers in India. An effort was also made to unearth the factors affecting such FL.

The study used secondary data on 11,030 farmers across various regions of India from the Financial Inclusion Insight Survey, 2017. Standard and Poor Global FL questions were used to measure the level of FL amongst the respondents. In addition to the appropriate statistical tools and techniques, the censored tobit regression model and generalized structural equation model were applied to explore the determinants of FL of the Indian farmers.

The outcome of the study indicated that the majority of Indian farmers are financially illiterate. The average FL score obtained by the sample farmers was found to be only 33%. The results of the study signaled significant regional variation in FL amongst the farmers across India. Apart from the regional variation in FL, farmer type, state-specific agricultural productivity, gender, marital status, age, educational attainment and financial inclusion were found to be the major determinants of the FL amongst the farmers.

Evaluation of FL amongst farmers is scanty in the literature in developed nations and especially in the context of emerging economies, like India. The authors tried to fill this gap by exploring FL and its determinants amongst Indian farmers. In addition to this, the study for the first time used a comprehensive and rich dataset of 11,030 Indian farmers while exploring the level of FL and its determinants.

The study aims to explore the savings behaviour of Indian farmers. An attempt is also made to inspect the effect of financial literacy (FL) and financial confidence (FC) on the savings behaviour of the farmers in India.

This study used secondary data on 10,263 Indian farmers from Financial Inclusion Insights, 2017 database. Relevant statistical techniques and ordered probit regression were used to unfold the effect of FL and FC on the savings behaviour of farmers.

The outcome of the study revealed that the majority of the Indian farmers exhibited poor levels of FL and FC. Of the total, 42.99% were found to save regularly. FL and FC were observed to play instrumental roles in steering the savings behaviour of the Indian farmers. Household size, financial shocks, gender, farm ownership, income, household financial decision-making process, religion and educational attainment have emerged to be significant predictors of the savings behaviour of Indian farmers.

The present study makes an original contribution to the extant literature by unfolding the savings behaviour of Indian farmers and the effect of FL and FC on such behaviour using a rich sample of 10,263 farmers for the first time.