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The purpose of the current study is to examine the implications of the implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) on the revenue efficiency of the sub-national governments in India. Furthermore, the study aims to compare the revenue efficiency of the Indian states for the pre-GST and post-GST periods in India.

The study has used the annual revenue of value-added tax (VAT)/GST of the Indian states for the period ranging from 2012–2013 to 2020–2021 for the pre- and post-GST periods. The empirical results are based on the panel regression model for examining the implications of GST adoption on the Indian states.

The analysis shows that the implementation of GST in India has negatively impacted the revenue efficiency of the Indian states. Moreover, the results affirm that the contribution of the service sector to the state's Net State Domestic Product (NSDP), credit-deposit ratio (CDR) and outstanding net bank credit (ONBC) ratio of schedule commercial banks (SCBs) positively and states' dependency on central transfers (DCT) negatively impact the tax revenue efforts of the state governments. Furthermore, the GST adoption has a greater impact on the revenue efficiency of the minor states in comparison to major states which may widen the inter-state disparity gap as GST revenue constitutes a major share in the Own Tax Revenue (OTR) of the Indian states in aggregate.

The current study will act as a guide for government, policymakers and for the sitting of the fifteenth finance commission in India for future policy formulation on GST and compensation to the Indian states. Similarly, this study can be used as a base for conducting future studies on the implications of GST at the national, sub-national, and international levels.

Previous studies on the implications of GST are theoretical and conceptual. There is hardly any study at the national or sub-national level that has focused on the implications of GST on the revenue efficiency of the Indian states.

There is vast disparity in public expenditure on science, technology and environment (STE) across various Indian states. Public expenditure on STE is crucial in maintaining symmetric growth, social cohesion and sustainable development. Literature on this topic is scarce, which prompted the investigation of club convergence of STE public expenditure. In particular, the purpose of this paper to study the club convergence of STE public expenditure in the case of 20 Indian states during the period from 1987–1988 to 2019–2020.

This study applies the clustering algorithm to identify club convergence, advanced by the Phillips and Sul test, which enables identification of multiple steady states or club convergence, unlike beta and sigma convergences.

The findings of this paper show that all Indian states do not converge towards single steady states. This suggests a disparity in STE public expenditure across Indian states. Moreover, the findings favour three clubs that have their own unique transition paths. The results of this study are supported by the robustness check.

The findings suggest that the allocation of public expenditure on STE can be made based on club convergence to achieve social cohesion, sustainable development and millennium development goals across states.

Although several previous studies have investigated the convergence of public expenditure by considering either aggregate public expenditure or health/education expenditure, literature on the convergence hypothesis of STE public expenditure, particularly across Indian states, is scarce. Moreover, this paper is unique, as it examines multiple steady states or club convergence. Finally, this paper contributes to policymaking by suggesting which states should be given a push to achieve social cohesion and sustainable development.

Intellectual capital (IC) is beneficial to the improved performance of businesses, irrespective of their industry. The present study proposes to check if the use of IC can also help in improving the asset quality of banks. Thus, this study aims to examine the impact of IC and its components on non-performing assets (NPAs).

The study has been conducted with a sample of 30 Indian commercial banks and analysed over a time frame of 15 years (2004–2005 to 2018–2019). The modified value-added intellectual coefficient model has been used to measure the independent variables, IC, and its components. The dependent variable, NPA, has been represented by the net NPA ratio. Two-step system generalized methods of moments (SGMMs) have been applied for the regression analysis. Along with the short-term estimates provided by the SGMM approach, the long-term impact of explanatory variables on the dependent variables has also been seen.

The results of the study show that IC and its components are indeed helpful for the management of NPA, as they impact the problem loans negatively. Furthermore, the long-term benefits of IC in enhancing bank credit quality are more substantial.

The results from the present study can be used by bank management. The bank managers can draw inferences that the efficient application of IC can help them reduce their loan losses. Developing skills and knowledge of employees, maintaining close relations with stakeholders, significantly the customers, and putting more sophisticated processes and infrastructure to use can help banks to control their loan losses.

A major proportion of studies examining the role of intangible assets in various aspects of the banking sector focuses on the association between IC and the financial performance of banking entities. However, for banking institutions, apart from financial performance, improving credit quality is also imperative for staying afloat. Thus, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is one of the first to examine the relationship between knowledge-based assets (i.e. IC) and bank credit quality.

Crafts embody the history and heritage of their country of origin and can play an essential role in the country's socioeconomic development by providing significant job opportunities for the rural population. This article investigates the significant challenges that artisan entrepreneurs face when creating, communicating and selling handcrafted goods to potential customers in emerging economies. This study attempted to rate the impediments based on their severity using the voices of artisan entrepreneurs.

A mixed-method approach combining qualitative and quantitative data analysis was followed to identify the leading causes of the artisans' pain points. In the first phase, empirical observations were gathered through focus group discussions with artisan entrepreneurs, and the identified factors were quantitatively ranked using the analytic hierarchy process in the second phase.

The mixed-method research assisted in identifying the primary constraints affecting the efficient and effective operation of the artisan-driven small handicraft business. This study identified six factors that were ranked based on the voices of artisan entrepreneurs during the survey, as barriers to effective handicraft marketing.

Few studies on the handcraft industry have sought to explore the issues faced by artisan businesses holistically. The voices of artisan entrepreneurs were gathered for this study to identify and rate the present obstacles influencing the functioning of small handicraft firms in emerging nations. Handicraft marketing will become more effective and efficient if these barriers are removed.

Many studies conducted on cause-related marketing (CaRM) are concentrated in advanced economies. However, there is very little work reported pertaining to CaRM in emerging economies like India. Hence, the aim of this study is to analyze the effect of CaRM on the customers' purchase intention (PI) in the Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) sector, which is the fourth largest sector in the Indian economy. Further, this study tests the mediating effect of attitude and the moderating effect of cause involvement.

This paper employs a quantitative methodology. Primary data were collected from 1220 respondents from North India. PLS-SEM is employed to examine the data.

The findings reveal that CaRM strongly impacts FMCG customers' purchasing intentions. Further, a positive attitude toward cause-related marketing triggers the customer purchase intention. Third, the results show that cause involvement moderates purchase intentions, so those who feel passionately dedicated to the cause are more inclined to buy while being involved in the cause-related marketing program.

The results would aid marketers in developing effective CaRM campaigns for their FMCG brands by understanding the different combinations of factors influencing CaRM.

FMCG is one of the major pillars of the Indian economy. This research proposes a comprehensive conceptual framework for the current study that is supported by literature. This study provides evidence of the increasingly important role of CaRM in establishing a win-win association with customers, aiming to solve specific societal causes and creating a favorable image of the brand in the FMCG sector.

Women are being victimized sexually everywhere today, whether it is at home or office. Women are targeted for molestation, eve-teasing, and rape and sometimes they are murdered after rape. The objective of the present study is to understand the trend of sexual abuse in the socio-cultural context of India. The study aims to examine the relationship between the victim woman and the perpetrator and the impact of sexual abuse on the well-being of women.

The study applies the content analysis method for collecting data and conducting research. The data for this study were collected from June 2020 to November 2020. The sample cases for the current study were gathered manually by reading each and every news section that was published on sexual abuse in the various newspapers and magazines that were referenced in the introduction.

The study has found that women are mostly targeted for sexual abuse by known persons. The study has also found that girls between 6 and 15 years of age have suffered most from sexual abuse. Moreover, the study has pointed out that sexual abuse has a negative impact on women such as sometimes women commit suicide after sexual abuse, face psychological problems and sometimes they are, and their family members are threatened. Incidents of sexual abuse are affecting the mental happiness of women and an environment of fear is being created for women in society.

This is an original work of the author. The research work is based on content analysis that examines the nature and impact of sexual abuse among women in society by using socio-cultural perspective.

The institutional conditions of primary care provision remain understudied in low- and middle-income countries. This study analyzes how primary care doctors cope with medical uncertainty in municipal clinics in urban India. As street-level bureaucrats, the municipal doctors occupy two roles simultaneously: medical professional and state agent. They operate under conditions that characterize health systems in low-resource contexts globally: inadequate state investment, weak regulation and low societal trust. The study investigates how, in these conditions, the doctors respond to clinical risk, specifically related to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

The analysis draws on year-long ethnographic fieldwork in Pune (2013–14), a city of three million, including 30 semi-structured interviews with municipal doctors.

Interpreting their municipal mandate to exclude NCDs and reasoning their medical expertise as insufficient to treat NCDs, the doctors routinely referred NCD cases. They expressed concerns about violence from patients, negative media attention and unsupportive municipal authorities should anything go wrong clinically.

The study contextualizes street-level service-delivery in weak institutional conditions. Whereas street-level workers may commonly standardize practices to reduce workload, here the doctors routinized NCD care to avoid the sociopolitical consequences of clinical uncertainty. Modalities of the welfare state and medical care in India – manifest in weak municipal capacity and healthcare regulation – appear to compel restraint in service-delivery. The analysis highlights how norms and social relations may shape primary care provision and quality.

This conversation presents reflections on heatwaves, vulnerability and adaptation in South Asia.

This is based on the Nordic Asia Podcast on Temperatures on the Rise: Adapting to Heat Extremes in South Asia.

Main themes discussed in this conversation include vulnerability and adaptation, livelihoods and cascading disasters.

This conversations adds value to the ongoing discussions on climate justice, loss and damage.

This study aims to investigate the factors that drive housing loan default in India based on unique micro-level data drawn from a public sector bank's credit files with a national presence in India. The authors address endogeneity in the loan to value ratio (LTV) while deciphering the drivers of default.

The study uses a probit regression approach to analyze the relationship between the probability of default and the explanatory variables. The authors introduce two instrumental variables to address the issue of endogeneity. The authors also add state-level demographic and several other control variables, including an indicator variable that captures the recent regulatory change. The authors’ analysis is based on 102,327 housing loans originated by the bank between January 2001 and December 2017.

The authors find that addressing the endogeneity issue is essential to specify default drivers, especially LTV, correctly. The nature of employment, gender, socio-religious category and age have a distinct bearing on housing loan defaults. Apart from the LTV ratio, the other key determinants of default are the interest rate, frequency of repayment, prepayment options and the loan period. The findings suggest that the population classification of branch location plays a significant role in loan default. The authors find that an increase in per capita income and an increase in the number of employed people in the state, which reflects borrowers' ability to pay by borrowers, reduce the probability of default. The change in the regulatory classification of loan assets by the Reserve Bank of India did not bear the main results.

The non-availability of the house price index in analyzing the default dynamics in the Indian housing finance market for the period covered under the study has constrained our analysis. The applicability of the equity theory of default, strategic default, borrowers' characteristics and personality traits are potential research areas in the Indian housing finance market.

The study's findings are expected to provide valuable inputs to the banks and the housing finance companies to explore and formulate appropriate strategic options in lending to this sector. It has highlighted various vistas of tailor-making housing loan product offerings by the commercial banks to ensure and steady and healthy growth of their loan portfolio. It has also highlighted the regulatory and policy underpinnings to ensure the healthy growth of the Indian housing finance market.

The study provides a fresh perspective on the default drivers in the Indian housing finance market based on micro-level data. In our analysis, the authors find clear evidence of endogeneity in LTV and argue that any attempts to decipher the default drivers of housing loans without addressing the issue of endogeneity may lead to faulty interpretation. Therefore, this study is unique in recognizing endogeneity and has gone deeper in identifying the default drivers in the Indian housing market not addressed by earlier papers on the Indian housing market. The authors also control for the regulatory changes in the Indian housing finance market and include state-level control variables like per capita GDP and the number of workers per thousand to capture the borrowers' ability to pay characteristics.

The objective of this study is threefold–first, to develop a Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI) for measuring competitiveness of sub-national regions for India; second, to test this index for its ability to explain regional growth, which validates usage and applicability of this index; and third, to further investigate if the competitiveness of states is in turn caused by economic growth, i.e. it is tested if there is a bidirectional causality between competitiveness and regional growth.

The data of indicators used in the index are from sources available freely in public domain. The competitiveness index is constructed using equal weightage supported by principal component analysis (PCA) technique. The causal relationship analysis is done using panel data of 10 years from 2008 to 2017 for 32 Indian states/union territories. The generalized method of moments (GMMs) is used for this dynamic regression estimation.

Based on RCI score, states have been ranked and through rank analysis, the authors observe the performance status of these sub-national regions and are able to categorize them as improving, no change or deteriorating in regional competitiveness. Using the GMM estimation, the association between RCI and economic growth is found to be significant at 10% level. This shows that regional competitiveness as captured through the RCI score is able to explain regional economic growth and economic disparity among the sub-national units. Further, that RCI score is found to Granger-cause growth, while growth does not lead to better RCI scores. This establishes the usefulness of RCI as an important policy variable to compare states and provide direction for sectoral reforms.

The limitations of the study include (1) broad assumption that these sub-national regions belong to a uniform macro-economic and technology environment, and (2) data constraints as it is a longitudinal study. The study implies that the composite index could capture differences in regional competitiveness explaining regional economic disparity and that competitiveness causes higher economic growth and not vice versa.

The RCI score can prove to be a useful indicator of economic performance of different states and can be used by national and state policymakers to compare and assess regional disparity among different states. The pillar-wise scores will be useful for in-depth study of weakness and strength of the sub-national territories.

Construction of an RCI for sub-national territories and analysis of panel data for longitudinal study of ten years is unique in the regional competitiveness literature.