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The study examined the penetration of financial inclusion in the agricultural sector, using small-scale farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria, as evidence.

The study utilized survey data generated from 425 questionnaires administered to small-scale farmers in both rural and urban locations in Enugu State. The study applied the adequacy gap, timeliness gap and penetration gap indices to measure the penetration of financial inclusion among the small-scale farmers in Enugu State.

It was found that different lending agencies, except for some cooperative societies, were unable to meet the credit needs of small-scale farmers in Enugu State as shown by the adequacy gap index. The timeliness gap index revealed the existence of time gap in the credit receipt of small-scale farmers given that agriculture is rain-fed in Enugu. The penetration gap index indicated that there is gap in the penetration of agricultural credit grants to small-scale farmers in Enugu State, showing a shallow penetration of financial inclusion in agricultural sector.

The research is limited in scope as a result of data and the desire to study small-scale farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria.

The study recommended among others that government should encourage cooperatives more to meet credit needs of farmers in order to raise the level of financial inclusion penetration.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the only study that examines the penetration of financial inclusion among small-scale farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria. This study contributes to the growing literature on financial inclusion in the agricultural sector as there is dearth of literature in this study area.

The development in information communication and technology (ICT) has led to many changes such as reorganization of economics, globalization and trade. With more innovation processes being organized and adopted across technologies, trade, etc., these are getting more closely related and needs fresh research perspective. This study aims to empirically investigate the interrelationship between ICT penetration, innovation, trade and economic growth in 20 developed and developing nations from 1995 to 2018.

The present paper examines both long-run and short-run relationships between the four variables, namely, innovation, ICT penetration, trade and economic growth, by applying panel estimation techniques of regression and vector error correction model. ICT penetration and innovation indices are constructed using principle component analysis technique.

The findings of the study highlight that for developed nations, growth, trade and innovation are significantly interlinked with no significant role of ICT penetration While for developing nations, significant relationship is present between growth and trade, ICT penetration and innovation. With respect to trade, in case of developed nations, significant relationship is present with ICT penetration. While for developing nations there is no significant result for trade promotion. On further employing the vector error correction model, the presence of short run causality between growth, trade and innovation in case of developed nations is established but no such causality between variables for developing nations is seen.

The present paper adds to the existing strand of literature examining interlinkage between innovation and growth by introducing new variables of ICT penetration and innovation.

The objective of paper is to examine status of financial inclusion in India and study its determinants.

Panel fixed effects and dynamic panel generalized methods of moments (GMM) methodologies have been applied to study determinants of financial inclusion. Additionally, Kendall's index of rank concordance has been derived to test for convergence of states in achieving financial inclusion.

Branch network has unambiguous beneficial impact on financial inclusion. Both proportion of factories and employee base turn out to be significant determinants of penetration indicators. The findings reveal the importance of a region's socio‐economic and environmental setup in shaping banking habit of masses. Using test for convergence it is found that regions tend to maintain their respective level of banking activity, with no support for closing gap.

To the best of the author's knowledge, no panel data study has been performed for India based on data for large number of states and a reasonable time span. This study utilizes 29 major states and union territories encompassing 1995 to 2008, which helps to increase degree of freedom and provide reliable results. The study helps us to ascertain direction and strength of various causal factors in process offer policy makers' strategies, for improving financial inclusion.

This study aims to explore the factors affecting the adoption of mGov apps using the theoretical foundations of service-dominant (SD) logic. The authors specifically explore the impact of resource distribution (infrastructure and knowledge) and environmental variables (health infrastructure) among the Indian states on the adoption of Aarogya Setu (the COVID-19 tracking app) by their citizens.

For the meso-level study, the states of India are the unit of analysis. The authors have used secondary data published by the government and other reliable organizations. The study is based on 29 states of India and Delhi, a union territory and the capital of India. The authors conducted a regression and moderation analysis using SPSS and PROCESS macros on the collected secondary data.

The findings reveal that operand resources (state domestic productivity per capita and internet penetration rate) positively impact the adoption of the mGov app. The operant resource (literacy) and the environmental variable (health index) are, however, negatively affecting the adoption of the mGov app. On the other hand, another operant resource, digital literacy, was found to have no significant effect on the adoption of the mGov app. Further, the moderating variable, health index, is found to be moderating all the relationships except internet penetration and adoption of the mGov app.

The study is novel in two aspects. First, in using the theoretical foundation of SD logic to examine the factors impacting the adoption of mGov app. Second, it is a meso-level study, which is not a widely explored avenue in mGov research.

The aim of this chapter is to develop a strong research base for the academia and the industry to understand the importance of data analytics in International Trade. This chapter focuses on the case of cotton trade from India and explores different methodologies developed by the World Bank and International Trade Center to analyze the Big Data available on export and import. Through Big Data analysis, this chapter attempts to find out the export performance, market demand, export potential, and attractive markets for Indian cotton. This chapter also explores the trade competitiveness of Indian cotton over the years. The data through appropriate analysis can address some simple yet complicated questions in trade like what export potential the commodity holds, if the commodity is competitive or not in international market, what are new markets to look up to, and other similar questions. In other words, this information could make huge difference in decision-making of traders and policymakers directly, and farmers indirectly.

The Indian microfinance industry witnessed one of the fastest growths in the recent times. However, the striking feature of this growth is that the Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are concentrated only in some specific regions of the country. There is a huge geographical skew in the distribution of the MFIs. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explain these geographical skew by using the macro variables of the states. The objective of the study is to identify the causes for this regional disparity in the growth of MFIs.

We try to explain the level of penetration of microfinance in the states by using regression models.

Our analysis suggests that state-level macro factors are significant in explaining the geographical skew. MFIs in India have concentrated in states which are richer, have good rural infrastructure, but lack in adequate banking facility, and have low human capital.

The study provides an insight which would help in framing the necessary regulations to ensure that MFIs operate in all regions of the country.

Summary Chlorinated rubber primers formulated with active pigments, which are claimed to be non‐toxic and non‐polluting, are investigated; they are designed for the protection of ships (above the waterline), port installation, industrial plants, bridges, etc.

Companies spend millions on training their sales representatives. Thousands of textbooks have been published; thousands of training videos have been recorded. Hundreds of good pieces of advice and tips for sales representatives have been presented along with hundreds of sales methods and techniques. Probably the largest number of indicators and measures are applied in sales and distribution. On the one hand, this is a result of the fact that sales provide revenue and profit to a company; on the other hand, the concept of management by objectives turns out to be most effective in regional sales teams with reference to sales representatives and methods of performance evaluation. As a result, a whole array of indices has been created which enable the evaluation of sales representatives’ work and make it possible to manage goods distribution in a better way.

The indices presented in this chapter are rooted in the consumer market and are applied most often to this type of market (particularly in relation to fast-moving consumer goods at the level of retail trade). Nevertheless, many of them can be used on other markets (services, means of production) and at other trade levels (wholesale).

Although the values of many indices presented herein are usually calculated by market research agencies and delivered to companies in the form of synthetic results, we have placed the emphasis on the ability to determine them independently, both in descriptive and exemplifying terms. We consider it important to understand the genesis of indices and build the ability to interpret them on that basis. What is significant is that the indices can be interpreted differently; the same index may provide a different assessment of a product’s, brand or company’s position in the market depending on the parameters taken into account. Therefore, we strive to show a certain way of thinking rather than give ready-made recipes and cite ‘proven’ principles. Sales and distribution are dynamic phenomena, and limiting them within the framework of ‘one proper’ interpretation would be an intellectual abuse.

In order to determine the range of medium temperature zone of road asphalt, it is hoped that the evolution of viscoelastic characteristics of road asphalt under medium temperature state can be deeply explored.

In this paper, the needle penetration test and temperature scanning test were designed for 90# and 70# bitumen as test materials, and the boundary of medium temperature zone of 90# and 70# bitumen was accurately determined by data analysis method. A mathematical model was established based on principal component analysis, and a comprehensive evaluation index was proposed to evaluate the evolution of temperature viscoelastic characteristics of road asphalt by means of standardization and rotational dimensionality reduction.

The test results show that the medium temperature zone of 90# asphalt is [−5 ± 1°C, 38 ± 1°C], and the medium temperature zone of 70# asphalt is [0 ± 1°C, 51 ± 1°C]. According to the viscoelastic response of road asphalt in the medium temperature zone, the medium temperature zone can be divided into three evolution stages: weak viscoelastic stage, viscoelastic equilibrium stage, strong viscoelastic weak stage. Analysis based on the intrinsic viscosity fillip target describing the various intrinsic viscoelastic index represents the viscoelastic properties of bitumen from different angles, and limitations inherent stick fillip for target put forward the integrated the inherent stick fillip mark information, as well as targeted and accurate evaluation of road asphalt temperature comprehensive evaluation indexes in the evolution of the viscoelastic properties of I_M-T. Finally, the temperature data of asphalt pavement in several representative regions of China are compared with the determined medium temperature region, and it is proved that the research on the evolution of viscoelastic characteristics of asphalt pavement under the medium temperature condition has important practical significance.

The boundary of medium temperature zone of 90# and 70# base asphalt was determined, and the viscoelastic characteristic evolution of road asphalt under medium temperature state was studied deeply. Aiming at the limitation of intrinsic viscoelastic index, a comprehensive evaluation index IM-T which not only integrates the information of intrinsic viscoelastic index but also can accurately evaluate the evolution of temperature viscoelastic characteristics in road asphalt is proposed.

This paper contributes to the literature by proposing an analysis of digital inequalities in Russia that focuses on two aspects hitherto under explored: the interregionality (by comparing and contrasting eight federal districts) and the multidimensionality of digital inequalities (by taking into account the three levels of digital divide). Therefore, the aim is to address the phenomenon of digital divide in Russia by discussing the three levels of the digital divide (access / skills / benefits) in a comparative and interregional perspective.

This paper uses secondary data for its analysis, including both national (e.g. the total number of daily Internet users in Russia) and more regionalized data (related to particular federal districts of Russia). The choice of data sources was determined by an attempt to provide a detailed and multifaceted coverage of all three levels of the digital divide in Russia, which is not limited to the access problem only. For this purpose, we are using and re-elaborating various reports about the development of the Internet and ICTs in Russia prepared by national and international organizations to cover the first level of the digital divide. To shed light upon the second and third levels of the digital divide, we discuss digital literacy report (2018), the report on Internet openness index of Russian regions (2017) and the report on the digital life index of the Russian regions (2016). Finally, in the attempt to map out the key directions of the state policy aimed at decreasing digital inequality in Russia, on both federal and regional levels, we analyze the most important regional and national policy measures to foster digitalization such as the digital Russia program, the digital government program and the program of eliminating digital inequality in Russia.

We consider this study to be both a first exploration and a baseline of the three level digital divides in Russia. The paper shows how the level of socioeconomic development of the federal districts, as well as a number of objective factors (distance/isolation, urbanization level, availability of infrastructure and costs for building new infrastructure, etc.) have impact upon digitalization of the regions. As a result, several federal districts of Russia (Central, Northwestern, and, in a number of cases, Ural and Volga federal districts) more often than others take leading positions in rankings, in terms of degree of Internet penetration, audience numbers, use of e-services, etc. This correlation, however, is not universal as we will show, and some regions lacking behind in terms of access can be booming in terms of digital literacy or other factors, like it happened with the Far Eastern Federal district for example. All in all, our research showed that digital inequality in Russia is still on place and will require more time for complete elimination, even though current state and public initiatives are being actively developed.

This paper will bring to light meaningful insights into the three levels of digital divides in Russia. Based on a multilevel (three levels of digital divide) and multi-sectional approach (the interplay of different types of inequalities), this paper contributed to overall better understanding of the digital inequalities phenomenon in Russia. It also allowed for a comparative interregional perspective, which has been missing in most papers on digital inequalities in Russia so far.