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The defective coin problem involves the identification of a defective coin, if any, and ascertaining the nature of the defect (heavier/lighter) from a set of coins containing at the most one defective coin, using an equal‐arm‐pan‐balance. An algorithmic analysis of the problem is considered. The solution strategy to minimise the number of weighings required to detect the defective coin is based on a problem reduction approach involving successive decomposition of the problem into subproblems until it is trivially solved. The algorithm is capable of generating all possible optimal solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model to explore the economic consequences of an exogenous skill‐biased technological change.

The paper develops a theoretical model based on assumptions and conditions that replicate those of a government‐sponsored poverty reduction programme in India.

The paper finds that, under certain stated conditions, wage inequality between artisans with improved toolkits and those without is likely to increase, while, under a different set of conditions, this is likely to decrease.

Actual wage inequality implications of specific exogenous skill‐biased technological changes need to be studied to take the theoretical model further.

One major implication is that, when government help is provided by way of an exogenous skill‐biased technological change to a fraction of workers, it may have the unintended consequence of increasing wage inequality between the beneficiary and the non‐beneficiary workers. In extreme cases, it may even lower the equilibrium wages of the non‐beneficiary workers.

The paper brings out the critical role of efficiency units of workers with skill‐biased technology (artisans with improved toolkits) and those without these in determining the wage inequality between these categories of workers (artisans) based on a theoretical model of the trajectory along which the rural economy moves.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the contemporaneous movement of the stock market indices of the five most COVID-infected countries, namely, the USA, Brazil, Russia, India and UK after the first wave along with market indices of the three least affected countries, namely, Hong Kong, South Korea and New Zealand during the first wave.

Data have been collected from the website of Yahoo finance on daily closing values of five indices. Augmented Dickey–Fuller test with its three forms has been applied to check the stationarity of the select five indices at the level and at the first difference before the pandemic, during the pandemic and post-first wave of the pandemic. Johansen cointegration test is applied to find out that there is no cointegration among the select five indices.

The five countries do neither fall in the same economic and political zone nor do they have the same economic status. But during the period of pandemic and the new-normal period, the cointegration is very distinct. The developing and developed nations thus stood at an indifferentiable stage of the economic crisis which is well reflected in their stock markets. However, the least three COVID-affected countries do not show any cointegration during the pandemic time.

The comovement even seen during the normal time in the other studies is not compared to a similar period in earlier years. But, in this study to look into the exclusive effect of COVID pandemic, the period most affected with it is compared with the period after it and that in the immediate past year had no effect.

This paper aims to analyze outbound investments from China at the time of economic crisis caused due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and how target valuation and the host country’s inbound investment policies influence the acquisition intents. As firms witness low valuations during an economic downturn, they become attractive targets for opportunistic buyers, who may be driven by motives beyond business and influenced by the home country’s political agenda. Such attempts are countered with the adoption of restrictive investment policies in host countries.

The study uses secondary data on cross-border acquisitions from China over the past year and compares the characteristics of these acquisitions with cross-border acquisitions of acquirers from other large developed and developing economies.

Statistical analyzes show that there are significant differences in the way acquirers from China pursue strategic asset seeking, creeping and control seeking acquisitions during the pandemic and the pre-pandemic period. This paper also observes that reduced valuation of the target, due to economic downturn or otherwise, result in greater propensity in strategic asset seeking acquisitions by Chinese acquirers. At the same time, adverse policies at host nations negatively influence the strategic asset seeking propensity of these acquirers. In addition, the premium in the valuation of target assets during the pandemic does not drop significantly when compared with that of the pre-pandemic period.

With the outbreak of COVID-19 and its concomitant economic impact across the globe, the study brings forwards insights on predatory foreign direct investment (FDI) and explores how policy responses in host countries can be comprehensive rather than disembedded and unilateral.

Different pollutants emission due to the conventional energy consumption process is of major concern owed to its significant effect on human health vis-à-vis regional climate. The purpose of this paper is to develop mitigation strategies to reduce the pollutant concentrations in the rural households conducted in a pristine rural village of Indian Sunderban area.

During winter, 2014, 20 households which were using traditional biomass cookstove for cooking and kerosene-lamp for lighting (KIT-TRD) were randomly selected. Specific type of improved forced draft biomass cookstove and solar lantern were used in ten of the selected households (KIT-IMP). Real time concentrations of particulate matter (PM) (PM_2.5, PM₁₀) and carbon monoxide (CO) during day and evening time cooking period were measured in KIT-IMP and KIT-TRD. A simulation model was established to evaluate most potential factor to control the level of pollutants inside the kitchen.

Conventional processes of energy consumption in the households, along with the outdoor concentration of pollutants influence the indoor concentration of measured pollutants. The concentration of PM and CO was significantly lower in the KIT-IMP than the other. In the KIT-TRD households, the daytime concentration of PM and CO was significantly higher compared to the evening. The simulated output overestimated the concentration of PM10 and CO in the KIT-TRD.

The concentration of PM_2.5, PM₁₀ and CO significantly reduces in the indoor environment with the introduction of improved cookstove and solar lantern; however, further research is required to develop optimum sizes of window and door in the rural households to reduce the concentrations of different pollutants inside the kitchen.

The paper aims to relocate discussions on police stops and police interactions from the Anglophone world to the particularistic context of the post-colonial state of India. The paper further frames the everyday policing practices in a theoretical dialog between questions of legitimacy, accountability and tolerated illegalities. For that purpose, the author contextualizes the discussion in the post-colonial state of India, in the jurisdictions of two police stations (PSs), in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the State of Kerala.

The author conducted ethnographic studies in one station each in Kerala and Delhi, India, from February to July 2019 and July 2019 to January 2020, respectively. The study mapped everyday power relations as the relations manifested within the site and jurisdiction of the PSs.

Through the research, the author found that to fully understand everyday practices of policing, especially police interactions and police stops, one must contextualize the police force within the administrative power-sharing relations, police force's accountability structures, legal procedures and class dynamics, which mark the terrain in which personnel function. In that terrain, the author found that the dialog between particularistic legitimacy, accountability and tolerated illegalities offered an important framework to interpret the everyday policing practices.

Through the paper, the author seeks to expand the analysis of ethnographic descriptions of policing by contextualizing them in the political economy of the state. In doing so, the author aims to provide a framework through which police interactions in post-colonial India could be understood