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This paper aims to discuss the changes in the new 2011-12 base year series of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) to determine whether the new series has improved the understanding of the growth in the manufacturing sector.

This paper develops a simple framework to separately estimate the contribution of value- and volume-based commodities in the growth of the manufacturing index. The authors present a case study by analysing the growth performance of IIP drugs and pharmaceuticals sector by comparing it with real net sales of a common sample of firms in this segment.

The authors find that growth in value-based commodities contributes significantly in moving the index in either direction, and that high growth in value-based commodities coincides with periods of low inflation. On comparability, using real net sales as an alternate indicator of industrial output for the pharmaceuticals sector, the authors find that IIP and real net sales show contrasting trends, thereby raising issues of reliability. The authors also find that the IIP shows a disconnect with growth rates from Annual Survey of Industries for several industries.

The divergence between two measures of industrial activity raises crucial questions on the representativeness of the IIP.

The study builds a framework to separately estimate the contribution of value- and volume-based commodities in the growth of the manufacturing index.

This paper aims to present a chronology of Indian business cycles in the post-reform period. In India, earlier, macroeconomic shocks were about droughts and oil prices. Economic reforms have led to an interplay of a market economy, financial globalisation and decisions of private firms to undertake investment and hold inventory. This has changed the working of the business cycle and has raised concerns about business-cycle stabilisation. In the backdrop of these developments, the macroeconomics research agenda requires foundations of measurement about business-cycle phenomena. One element of this is the identification of dates of business-cycle turning points.

This paper uses the growth-cycle approach to present the chronology of business cycles. The paper uses the Christiano–Fitzgerald (CF) filter to extract the cyclical component and shows the robustness of the findings to the contemporary methods of cycle extraction. It then applies the Bry–Boschan algorithm to identify the dates of peaks and troughs.

The paper finds three periods of recession. The first recession was from 1999-Q4 to 2003-Q1; the second recession was from 2007-Q2 to 2009-Q3; and the third recession ran from 2011-Q2 till 2012-Q4. These results are robust to the choice of filter and to the choice of the business-cycle indicator. These dates suggest that, on average, expansions in India are 12 quarters in length and recessions run for 9 quarters. The paper offers evidence of change in the nature of cycles.

Dates of business-cycle turning points are a critical input for academic and policy work in macroeconomics. The paper offers robust estimation of the business-cycle turning points in the post-reform period using contemporary techniques of cycle extraction. This work helps lay the foundations for downstream macroeconomics research by academicians and policymakers.

After discussing this case, the authors expect that the students will have the following learnings: critically analyse the latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) banking proposal, which was proposed by the Internal Working Group (IWG) in November 2020. Understand concepts such as connected lending, crony capitalism and financial crisis. Have a basic idea about the Banking Regulations Act, 1949 and regulatory framework in the Indian banking sector.

This case is an analysis of the recent RBI proposal on banking regulations in India. The authors have referred secondary data in terms of published papers by stalwarts and experts in the banking and economics field. This case analyses the pros and cons of the IWG proposal to RBI governing body. The case also touches upon interesting banking and macroeconomics concepts. What makes this case interesting is that RBI is open to receive comments from all the stakeholders till January 2021.

Applicable to undergraduate and postgraduate students studying banking and finance specialisation in commerce and business management streams.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI), the engineering of brilliant machinery, performs intelligent human intelligence tasks, such as learning and problem-solving. Insurance is a financial protection policy either for individuals or entities to reimburse losses from the insured company. The role of AI in insurance always helps enhance customer services and understand their behaviour.

Purpose: This chapter aims to determine the role of AI in the insurance industry in India. The insurance industry is expanding very fast, and to further increase its horizons, the part of the technology of AI is essential. However, this sector has initiated using AI technology and is expanding its scope to benefit the customers.

Methodology: The authors selected research papers of the last five years to review and determine how the technology changed during the period and how an increase in AI benefits the industry and facilitates delivering the best services, and understanding the customer’s needs and behaviour.

Findings: It has been found that the industry is moving very fast and adopting the AI technology methods to enhance customer services, betterment for growing India, and serve insurance services to the nation efficiently.

Recent developments in the literature on international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) emphasise the role of firm characteristics in shaping firm participation in exports and FDI. The seminal work of Melitz and Helpman-Melitz-Yeaple (HMY) places heterogeneity in firm productivity at the heart of exporting and FDI. While the HMY hypothesis finds support for firms in the industrialised economies, the evidence from developing economies is limited. This paper attempts to contribute empirical insights into the theoretical framework laid out by Melitz, Helpman et al., Head and Ries with evidence from India.

While related literature takes into account several firm-specific and country-specific characteristics to explain outward FDI, the paper unifies the firms ' choice of markets (domestic versus foreign) and mode of serving foreign markets (export versus FDI) in a single framework in the line of the HMY model. The paper uses an ordered probit model that combines domestic market-oriented, exporting and outward FDI-oriented firms in a quality ladder.

The findings are that there are strong differences between the characteristics of domestic firms, exporting firms, and firms that invest abroad. The differences between these firms are consistent with the HMY model. The most productive firms appear to walk up this ladder of quality and graduate to globalisation through exporting and then through FDI.

A key innovation of this paper is an ordered probit model that combines domestic market-oriented, exporting and outward FDI-oriented firms in a quality ladder. The paper also brings empirical insights into the theoretical framework laid out by Melitz, Helpman et al., Head and Ries with evidence from India.

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of organic food buying behaviour in an emerging economy like India, where organic food yet has low market share in spite of its potential. Using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as the underlying basis, it attempts to explain the effect of attitude, subjective norms and the perceived behaviour control (PBC) on buying intention towards organic food among respondents in Delhi-National capital region, India. Additionally, it attempts to discriminate functional and constructive attitudes.

A quantitative questionnaire survey approach was used on 306 respondents and multiple linear regression was used to validate the research model.

Attitudes and PBC have a significant positive impact on the intention to purchase organic food. This paper found subjective norms to be weak and barely significant to intention. The results conclude that health motives, past purchase behaviour, knowledge, affordability and trust in organic certification label are the main facilitators in organic food purchase. Primarily, the respondents see buying organic food regularly as being of value and enjoyable to them. A more favourable appearance vs conventional food was negatively related to behavioural intention.

This research could aid all stakeholders in the organic food sector, particularly emerging economies like India where the organic market is still nascent. It could be an essential driver to improve customer involvement and thus aid them in the decision-making process to choose organic food over conventional food. It also attempts to establish the usability of TPB in assessing functional attitudes based on constructive attitudes for organic food purchase.

This chapter takes the case of contextualizing a solar-powered Information and Communications Technology Center Model to train young women for employment in an informal education setting. One of the sites in which the Model has been actualized is in Mahabubnagar District of Telangana State, India. The Center provides employment-aligned training through computer, communications, business, personal and interpersonal development topics, while supplying steady energy source through solar panels to cover for the needs of sustained computer usage. The learning contents are delivered through a tailored curriculum founded on affective/humanistic education approach, facilitated through a teacher – better described as facilitator – for the personal, interpersonal and skills development of over 450 young women trainees. The objective of this chapter is to add a consideration in the teacher quality literature from the perspective of prioritizing affective education approach, both in the teacher as well as the learner. The chapter illustrates that teachers who can communicate the messaging and delivery of learning contents in a way that allow learners to feel understood and prioritized – with social, emotional, and attitude of learners considered – will be much more effective than an approach where teachers prioritize skills development and academic achievement.

Tourism is considered one of the globe's most prominent sectors, generating considerable forex revenues and employment generation, contributing to world peace and solidarity among many nations. However, it is negatively influenced by different factors like the spread of diseases, terrorist attacks, outbreaks of war, etc. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered unforeseen upheavals, resulting in demand and supply uncertainties in nearly every area of the economy (El-Erian, 2020). Thus, it is relevant to study the impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry. This chapter explains the journey of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic by portraying the status of global tourism, how it impacted the Indian economy and its revival strategies, with special mention to Kerala tourism. The pandemic also resulted in a considerable change in the travel intentions of tourists, their travel preferences and their attitude towards travel. Hence, this chapter also presents the changed travel intentions of tourists that will help the industry players modify their products per the tourist's expectations. Finally, this chapter presents how the tourism industry recovered from the pandemic from both the supplier and demand perspectives, which will be helpful for all tourism stakeholders.

Fishes are important sources of good and high-quality protein in developing countries. Spoilage and keeping quality of fish especially in the tropics is temperature dependence as high temperature and relative humidity accelerate the process of spoilage and fish keeping quality. Fish dehydration removed moisture and extended the shelf life of dried fish. Drying involves removal of moisture from fish as a result of heat and mass transfer done under controlled conditions. This study delves into various drying techniques and drying kinetics of fish.

The review examines fish drying kinetics and the various drying models applicable to fish drying.

This review showed that moisture content and colour of dried fish are affected by time and power level. It was also found that the moisture content of the dried fish varied according to the drying method used. Also, as drying power and drying rate varied inversely with drying time. Eight different thin layer drying models were examined for evaluation of drying data for all the experimental conditions involving fish drying. It was found that the quality of the dried fish decreased with drying. Higher values of effective moisture diffusivity have been found to increase moisture velocity within fish samples which improve removal of moisture to reach equilibrium moisture content at specified relative humidity. However, based on this, effective moisture diffusivity could be a useful parameter to design an effective drying method in terms of time, energy consumption and cost to prolong the storage life of dried fish samples. Drying kinetics and different drying models were considered and explained. The use of these models was considered to be important in choosing appropriate drying conditions for effective drying and to get good quality dried fish samples.

The review considers few available literatures on the subject matter.

The review explores the possibility of creating more awareness for more in-depth research on fish drying kinetics and their usefulness in fish preservation.

This outcome of this study is important to researchers, policymakers and regulatory agencies in developing countries on fish preservation.

Purpose: The main aim is to explore and recognize productive ways to create human-centred designs (HCDs) for employee experience (EX). HCD is a concept that prioritizes the needs, preferences, and behaviours of humans using the product or service. EX refers to all interactions an employee has with their employment lifespan – from recruitment to retirement. By taking the HCD approach to EX design, companies can create a work environment tailored to their employees’ needs and preferences.

Design / Methodology: The explorative research design to apply journey maps. By mapping out the employee journey, designers can identify pain points and areas for improvement.

Findings: The findings highlight that artificial intelligence and robotics are core components of designing HCD and can be applied to EX design. By prioritizing EX, companies can attract and retain top talent, increase employee engagement and productivity, and gain a competitive advantage.

Research Limitations: The study is developing and involves detailed insights from different companies, making it difficult and time-consuming to prepare a comprehensive report.

Practical Implications: The findings of the study will add value to other organizations to follow and develop policies and practices that make the employees cherish their work.

Originality: The chapter’s originality lies in providing a comprehensive understanding of HCD and EX. It emphasizes leveraging the strengths of both humans and bots for enhanced workforce experience and business growth. Exploring future automation and technology integration trends adds depth to the chapter’s contribution.