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Despite the susceptibility of cotton crops to pest attacks in the Malwa Region of Indian Punjab, no crop insurance policy has been implemented there– not even the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), which is a central scheme. Therefore, this paper attempts to gauge the likely impact of the PMFBY on Punjab cotton farmers and assess the changes needed for greater uptake and effectiveness of PMFBY.

The authors have conducted a primary survey to conduct this study. Initially, the authors compared the costs of cotton production with the returns in two scenarios (with and without insurance). Additionally, the authors have applied a logistic regression framework to examine the determinants of the willingness of farmers to participate in the crop insurance market.

The study finds that net returns of cotton crops are conventionally small and insufficient to cope with damages from crop failure. Yet, PMFBY will require some modifications in the premium rate and the level of indemnity for its greater uptake among Punjab cotton farmers. Additionally, using the logistic regression framework, the authors find that an increase in awareness about crop insurance and farmers' perceptions about their crop failure in the near future reduces the willingness of the farmers to participate in the crop insurance markets.

The present study looks for the viability of PMFBY in Indian Punjab for the cotton crop, which can also be extended to other crops.

Punjab could also use crop insurance to encourage diversification in agriculture. There is a need for special packages for diversified crops under any crop insurance policy. Crops susceptible to volatility due to climate-related factors should be identified and provided with a special insurance package.

There exist very scant studies that have discussed the viability of a central crop insurance scheme in the agricultural-rich state of India, i.e. Punjab. Moreover, they do not also focus on crop losses accruing due to pest and insect attacks.

The Green Revolution transformed agriculture in the Indian State of Punjab, with positive spillovers to the rest of India, but recently the state’s economy has fallen dramatically in rankings of per capita state output. Understanding the trajectory of Punjab’s economy has important lessons for all of India. Economic development is typically associated with changes in economic structure, but Punjab has remained relatively reliant on agriculture rather than shifting economic activity to manufacturing and services, where productivity growth might be greater.

The authors empirically examine structural change in the Punjab economy in the context of structural change and economic growth across the States of India. The authors calculate structural change indices and map their pattern over time. The authors estimate panel regressions and time-varying parameter regressions, as well as performing productivity change decompositions into within-sector and structural changes.

Panel regressions and time-varying-coefficient regressions suggest a significant positive influence of structural change on state-level growth. In addition, growth positively affected structural change across India’s states. The relative lack of structural change in Punjab’s economy is implicated in its relatively poor recent growth performance. Comparisons with a handful of other states reinforce this conclusion: Punjab’s lack of economic diversification is a plausible explanation for its lagging economic performance.

This paper performs a novel empirical analysis of structural change and growth, simultaneously using three different approaches: panel regressions, time-varying parameter regressions and productivity decompositions. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the only paper we are aware of that combines these three approaches.

The study seeks to examine the extent and the causes of multidimensional poverty as opposed to the traditional unidimensional headcount poverty measures to understand the true face of economic deprivation in Punjab, Pakistan.

Poverty is measured through the Alkire–Foster index at the geographically disaggregated levels of divisions and districts, and the causes of pervasive poverty are analyzed through a logit model using the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) comprising of 95,238 households in 9 geographical divisions and their 36 districts.

It was found that poverty in Punjab is associated with larger household size, inadequate wealth, and low levels of educational attainment, and that both matric as well as post-matric education reduced the chances of poverty of household heads by approximately 19 percent. In addition to rural poverty, the study finds evidence of urban poverty across the geographical districts of Punjab. Contrary to common belief that chances of poverty are higher in females, it was found to be more likely in males. However, the statistical significance of gender as a determinant of poverty was not observed in the majority of divisions.

Practical implications were for focused policy interventions in poverty alleviation.

The analysis of determinants of multidimensional poverty at the geographically disaggregated level of divisions is an original contribution.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2019-0037

The role of Technology Transfer Units, examined in this study, was found to be vital to expedite the process of disseminating new varieties and their production technology.

A total of 1,000 households were surveyed in the sampled states. A probit model was used to analyse.

Age, education, land holding, tractor use and number of working family members in agriculture were found to significantly affecting adoption of the new seed varieties. Technology transfer through licensing has impacted the adoption of new seed varieties positively by highlighting Punjab possessing the highest adoption and western Uttar Pradesh was majorly adopting the old variety.

The authors believed in farmers’ memory to recall the varietal information of wheat.

The study recommended various incentives to attract the seed industry in UP to minimize the economic loss potentially suffered by them.

Quality seeds are germane to increase the productivity of crops, and it is paramount to disburse the seed varieties to the end users in an efficient way to achieve the overall objective of productivity enhancement.

In this context, a study was conducted in three states of India, namely, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (UP) to find out the adoption rate of newly developed varieties of wheat, HD 3086 after three years (2014–2015) of its commercialization by IARI as well as HD 2967, which was released in 2011.

This paper aims to explore the emerging trends of e-government in Pakistan with an empirical investigation of the e-government websites and the services they provide to the citizens of Pakistan. It also investigates the level of development of these e-government websites in the Punjab Web portal. The governments in Asian countries, including Pakistan, have been struggling to switch their services from traditional on-spot services to online services. Focal points of the study are development level of e-government websites, available e-services and quality.

The e-government Web portal of Punjab province with 38 websites is center of attention in present study. Website’s content analysis method is used to study e-government websites (N = 38) from the Punjab Web portal. It used the “Four-Stage Development Model” for the four stages, namely, “publishing”, “interacting”, “transacting” and “transforming”, to study the phenomena.

The findings showed that most of the websites on the Web portal were at the first (publishing) and second (interacting) stage of development. For the provision of effective online services, websites need to be on the third (transacting) and fourth (transforming) stage. Only a few websites in the Punjab Web portal were the on transacting and transforming stages providing a mature level of services. In total, 40 different types of services are identified in 38 websites of Punjab e-government Web portal.

E-government, Web portals are developed to give citizens a single, easy access point to several departments’ websites and their services. This baseline study recommends to update e-government websites periodically and put more focus on technological and contextual features to enhance the accessibility and usability of the websites.

This is first empirical study of e-government websites to explore their services and examine existing level of website development in this region.

This study aims to investigate the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on student’s learning primarily concentrating on the following factors: including availability, accessibility and user-ability of using ICT resources. This investigation will highlight the role of ICT in the pedagogical activities of students, especially in their learning.

A questionnaire was designed to comprehend the questions related to the objectives and a sample of 275 students through convenience sampling technique was selected that was enrolled in various degree programs of the University of the Punjab, Pakistan. Primarily the descriptive analysis was made and data were presented in tabulated form. However, for inferential analysis, the Pearson correlation test was applied to determine the relationship among the dependent and independent variables including (availability, accessibility user-ability and student’s learning) and to test the hypotheses of the study.

The findings disclose that students at the University of the Punjab have access to various kinds of ICT applications and resources. Moreover, they have an adequate number of ICT equipment available for their use and they are familiar with various kinds of ICT applications and resources which they use in various educational tasks during their studies. A strong positive linear correlation exists between availability, accessibility and user-ability of using ICT resources and the student’s educational learning. This confirms that ICT plays a significant role in the student’s educational accomplishments. It helps students in searching, retrieving and consulting various types of information sources. It also helps them in completing their educational tasks in a quick manner. Students at all levels also see it as a matter of great importance to acquire ICT-related skills as this can help them to be more productive in their educational accomplishments.

This study concludes that availability, accessibility, adequacy and user ability to use the ICT resources positively impact students learning. Therefore, it is highly recommended for students to learn ICT-related skills and to make the best use of the different communication technologies in their pedagogical activities. Moreover, if academic institutions in Pakistan give more emphasis on developing ICT-based infrastructure and ICT skilled manpower then this can also bring fruitful results in the learning process of student’s educational endeavors.

The study focuses on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) perceptions about using Fintech instruments to meet their financial requirements.

Methodology: The research utilises a quantitative method, which entails collecting primary data from 400 participants using an organised questionnaire. Chi-square tests, principal component analysis and multiple linear regression are some of the statistical tools utilised to analyse the findings.

Findings: The study’s findings indicate that only a small percentage of business owners know that Fintech instruments can be a source of financing for their companies. In addition, the items utilised in the research led to the generation of three different aspects: banking, MSME and Fintech.

Originality: The previous study indicates that several scholars have focused on various facets of the application and utilisation of Fintech. In the category of digital payments, the total transaction value is anticipated to reach $8.49 trillion in 2022. By 2027, it is expected that the entire transaction value will have increased by 12.31 per cent each year (CAGR 2022–2027), totaling US$15.17 trillion. Digital commerce is expected to have a total transaction value of US$5.49 trillion in 2022, making it the market’s largest segment. On the other hand, there isn’t much research that concentrates on developing countries, and the standards those studies need to meet are relatively stringent. In the context of MSMEs, this is an innovative approach taken towards the State of Punjab.

Need: Fintech services have an important role in bringing about significant change by providing innovative financial services, addressing credit gaps and reshaping how financial services are delivered. Fintech instruments are gaining very high popularity in terms of functions and novelty and can be predicted as the future of operations in the financial sector. Moreover, Fintech instruments can be seen to have a close connection to the MSME-guided programmes. Thus, it would be pretty interesting to note if there lies a need for the optimum implications of Fintech in MSMEs and upcoming start-ups.

The purpose of the study is to understand the perception held by Micro Steel Enterprises in Punjab, India, towards the role played by FinTech in it. The quantitative study uses a structured questionnaire to collect primary responses. A total of 400 Micro Steel Enterprises have been approached from Punjab. Here, statistical analyses are used, including chi-square tests, Principal Component Analysis, Multiple Linear Regression and One-way ANOVA. The satisfaction levels across the three factors revealed a significant relationship with the financial aspect only. This clarifies the situation and reveals that using the FinTech services among the Micro Steel Enterprises is only a modification caused by the financial constraints that generate satisfactory levels in the respondents. However, based on the operational conditions of these enterprises is not the factor causing the satisfaction levels, neither are the banking processes. The advances in the course must be solely made based on the financial aspects of Micro Steel Enterprises. The two variables of the owner of these firms are the owner’s age and the firm’s ownership type. The banking aspect and the Micro Steel Enterprise are also found to have associations with them. To motivate the use of FinTech in the process, the owners can be motivated differently towards its usage. The study is a novel attempt to understand the Micro Steel Enterprises in Punjab and its perception towards the use of FinTech. Punjab is the hub of the Steel Industry in India.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of effectiveness in public colleges of Punjab (India) from the students’ perspective and the impact of these determinants on the satisfaction level of students. The study further explores the difference in the overall satisfaction of students’ toward college effectiveness on the basis of demographic variables.

The study uses a survey approach. The sample comprises of 369 students from 19 public/government general degree colleges of Punjab (India). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) has been used to explore the determinants of public colleges and structural equation modeling (SEM) has been used to analyze the impact of these determinants on the satisfaction of students. t-Test and ANOVA have been used to examine the difference in students’ satisfaction on the basis of their demographic variables.

The research instrument has been tested for both reliability and validity. The findings showed that the eight determinants of the satisfaction of students toward public colleges, namely academic environment, college administration, students support services, learning material, infrastructure facilities, placement services, extracurricular activities and financial administration. These, eight independent variables have been entered into SEM. The SEM model shows that infrastructure facilities, academic environment, learning material, college administration, extracurricular activities and financial administration have a positive and significant impact on the students’ satisfaction. On the basis of demographic variables, significant differences in overall satisfaction have been found for gender and level of education.

Public higher education sector in Punjab suffers from many limitations. Students are the internal customers of educational institutions and their satisfaction toward higher educational institutions will make every learner’s mind and policymakers in the field of education think seriously about bringing reforms in the higher education sector in Punjab.

Punjab, a well-known state of northern India is a leader in providing higher education. But, it is a fact that public higher education sector in Punjab has been facing many challenges. Student satisfaction is the central goal of any institution and this research helps to develop new insight in the quality of public higher education.