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Transparent and fair price discovery is essential to commodity market participants in the trade value chain for competitive benefit. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the price discovery of Indian cardamom at e-auction, spot and futures markets in addition to the existence of the day of the week effect at e-auction apart from exploring a novel price risk management framework.

This study used Johansen co-integration, vector error correction model, Granger causality and regression with dummy variables to understand a day of the week effect in high-value agri-commodity of cardamom e-auction prices. These price data were based on authenticated sources of Spices Board India and Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd.

The statistical results indicate price discovery exists in the e-auction market and it leads to spot and futures prices. cardamom e-auction prices are negatively related to cardamom futures and positively related to spot prices. It also finds the non-existence of the day of the week effect in the high-value cardamom e-auction system in India. The study revealed that a cardamom e-auction is more active in price discovery than a cardamom futures contract.

These results shall facilitate policymakers to explore intervention of online forward market mechanism at the national level to ensure price discovery and market efficiency. However, the study did not explore reasons for the non-equilibrium of a cardamom futures contract with spot and e-auction market.

The results of this study are useful in understanding the price discovery of cardamom e-auction and its role in the spot and futures market. Cardamom price discovery depends upon the e-auction system; any change of auction policy shall be binding on Indian cardamom prices. The introduction of an online forward market mechanism as described in the paper shall facilitate price risk management apart from improving the efficiency of price discovery.

This is the first study considering cardamom e-auction, spot and futures prices in the price discovery process in India. Statistical results of a day of the week effect clearly show no significant volatility of cardamom prices during the week. Besides, this study did not find the role of cardamom futures contracts intended to serve the economic function of price discovery and price risk management. Hence, suggests policy intervention for implementing an online Forward Market mechanism for Indian cardamom to ensure market efficiency and manage price risk.

Sustainable retrofitting of aged buildings plays a significant role in reducing energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions. This study aims to assess the performance and effectiveness of energy retrofit measures (ERMs) for an archetype of aged multi-storey residential buildings.

The methodology consists of three parts, namely, a desktop study including the selection of a case-study building and identification of ERM options for the building; development of a computer model to simulate the building’s energy use in the baseline scenario and different scenarios of ERMs; and evaluation of the ERMs based on energy-saving rate.

Among the 13 ERMs tested, lighting-related ERMs were found to be optimal measures while window fin is the least suitable option in terms of energy saving. Based on the research findings, a two-level retrofitting framework was developed for aged multi-storey buildings.

Future studies may take a similar approach of this study to develop retrofitting frameworks for other types of buildings, and further research paper can be extended to study retrofitting for buildings in a district or a region.

The findings of this study can serve as a reference for building owners to select effective ERMs for aged multi-storey buildings, which invariably exist in developed cities.

This study presents a pioneering work where an energy model and a building archetype were used to analyze the energy savings of a variety of ERMs that are applicable to aged multi-storey buildings.