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The purpose of this paper is to explore the most significant determinants of capital structure of manufacturing firms in India and to investigate whether the capital structure models derived from foreign research provide convincing explanations for capital structure decisions of Indian firms by using multiple regression model.

Different conditional theories of capital structure like trade off theory, pecking order theory and agency theory are reviewed to formulate testable propositions concerning determinants of capital structure of manufacturing firms. Multiple regression model and correlation matrix have been used as statistical tools to investigate the most significant determinants of capital structure of manufacturing firms in India with the help of SPSS Software for a sample of top 100 manufacturing firms listed in BSE.

The results suggest that variables like asset composition, business risk and return on assets are positively related to debt ratio whereas firm size and debt service capacity are negatively related to debt ratio. The asset composition, business risk and return on assets appear to be significant determinants of capital structure, while firm size and debt service capacity are insignificant determinants.

The findings of this study are consistent with predictions of trade off, pecking order and agency theory of finance which helps in understanding financing behaviour of firms in India.

This study has laid some ground work to explore the determinants of capital structure of Indian firms upon which a more detailed evaluation could be based. Furthermore, empirical findings should help corporate managers to make optimal capital structure decisions.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that explores the most significant determinants of capital structure of manufacturing firms in India by using the most recent data. Moreover, this study also confirms that same factors affect the capital structure decisions of firms in developing countries as identified for firms in developed economies.

The purpose of this study is to examine the status of corporate environment on the websites and annual reports of selected companies. This paper also attempts to study the relationship between company variables and the level of corporate environment disclosure on the company website and annual reports.

This study is based on the websites and annual reports of top 100 listed companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The companies are selected on the basis of market capitalization as on March 31, 2014. The data are collected on the basis of Global Reporting Initiative-3 Guidelines.

14 and 30 per cent of the companies do not disclose environmental information on the website and annual report, respectively. There is no specific space for the disclosure of information on this vital issue; information was found scattered in the various sections of the website and annual report. Waste treatment, water management and carbon foot is the focus area of 53, 46 and 40 companies on the website, respectively, whereas in annual reports, energy conservation, water management and waste management attracts the attention of 79, 86 and 82 companies, respectively. The environmental disclosure on the website and overall disclosure has association with leverage, company size and systematic risk. Profitability and environmental disclosure were found to be inversely associated.

The government through appropriate guidelines should make the environmental disclosure mandatory for all the companies. Disclosure of environmental information such as penalties imposed and suits faced under environmental laws and notices received from pollution control boards and such other activities which have damaged environmental resources must be made mandatory. The accounting bodies should develop the accounting standard in respect of items and manner of disclosure. While framing environmental disclosure guidelines, special attention should be given to the disclosure of information related to water management, air and land pollution as these are the basic necessities for the existence of life on this planet.

This study is unique as it makes the comparative analysis of disclosure through annual reports and the company website of selected Indian companies.

Reports briefly on the Technical Sessions and other presentations of the 43rd All‐India Conference of the Indian Library Association, and mentions the recommendations made by delegates at the conclusion of the conference.

The case discusses the issues related to Zee Tele Films Limited's claims that the Board of Cricket Control of India was “state” and could act arbitrarily in the award of telecasting rights. The “state” as defined in Article 12 includes “other authorities”, and these are subject to the constitutional limitations. The right to equality requires them to not act arbitrarily. A body which is an instrumentality or agency of the government is “other authority”. The term has been subject to judicial interpretation. The Supreme Court, by a majority judgement, in the Zee Tele Films Case ruled that the Board is not “other authorities” within Article 12 of the Constitution.

This paper aims to: design a comprehensive, review‐based and statistically tested corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) index; measure item‐wise and theme‐wise the social performance of the top 82 companies in India; and investigate item‐wise and theme‐wise the variations in CSRD.

The paper presents an empirical study of CSRD in 2009‐2010, using content analysis, Cronbach's α, the Kolmogorov‐Smirnov and Shapiro‐Wilk tests of normality and a six point scale (0‐5), mean, skewness, kurtosis, and Levene's, Kruskal‐Wallis's and Mood's median tests for analysis and interpretation.

CSRD shows less satisfactory social performance, mainly narrative, and varies significantly among items and themes. Community development, with a mean score of 14.30, is the most disclosed theme, followed by HR, with a score of 11.20. The human element is the center of social performance in India. More than equal focus should be given to the environment and to emissions, which impact the greater interests of the world. Some burning global issues like water usage, alternative sources of energy, product safety and innovation have not received adequate attention.

The study offers ample scope for the further studies as each and every theme and item considered in the model/index requires individual focus to serve the future generations of mankind. Longitudinal/transnational studies in the area of CSR could be carried out to set the scene for further studies.

The paper recommends mandatory CSR norms leading to improved disclosure, the sharing of innovative knowledge, cost reductions and enhanced effectiveness in managing scarce resources.

The paper evaluates social performance in the economic, social, religious environment and highlights the emerging philanthropic attitude. The paper improves an existing model by incorporating an emerging dimension, i.e. “Emissions of carbon and other harmful gases”. The CSEEE index designed here is highly appropriate for developing economies like India. The paper measures CSRD using six‐point scales for the first time.

This paper aims to investigate inter firm intellectual capital (IC) disclosures and its variations in top 20 listed pharmaceutical companies in India, study the category wise and element wise IC disclosures (ICD), find out the impact of ICD on the creation of IC in monetary terms, find out correlation between IC valuation and its disclosure, and test significance of correlation.

This is an exploratory and empirical study of ICD by sample companies in 2009 using content analysis. IC is valued as market value minus book value. Five‐point scale (0‐4), mean disclosure score, range, Chi‐ squares, Karl Pearson's correlation and Student's t‐test are used for analysis and interpretation.

Although top 20 companies of knowledge‐led industry, ICD are low, narrative and varying significantly among companies. ICD score varies in range of 4 to 36 against expected score of 96. External capital with mean score of 18.78 is the most disclosed category. Brands and business collaborations is most disclosed element of IC, followed by employee competence and internal organizational capital respectively. ICD leads to creation of IC in some companies. Markets reflected true valuations of ICD in seven companies, and high degree of inconsistency in 13 companies. Overall correlation between IC valuation and disclosure is negative, weak and insignificant.

Sector‐specific intangible asset monitors should be formulated to capture ICD.

The paper measures ICD using five‐point scaling technique, it uses Chi‐ square test (non‐parametric test) to calculate inter‐firm variations. The paper also correlates ICD and valuation of respective companies with Spearman's correlation for the first time in pharmaceutical companies in India. It proposes inclusion of fourth category i.e. sector‐specific items in existing models of ICD.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the intellectual capital performance of Indian banks and established a relationship between intellectual capital and return on assets (ROA). The paper also compared the intellectual capital performance of public sector and private sector banks.

This study is based on secondary data from the top 20 Indian banks. Ten banks were selected from each of the public and private sectors on the basis of paid-up equity capital. The analysis was made using the value added intellectual coefficient, the coefficient of variation, exponential growth rates, trend analysis, Yule’s coefficient, the coefficient of correlation, the F-test and the t-test.

The study revealed that private sectors have performed relatively better regarding the creation of total information coefficient (IC). However, the ROA was still below the international benchmark of > 1 percent. The major cause of the lower IC and the reduced ROA is disproportionate to the increase in capital employed and escalating non-performing assets in the Indian banking sector.

The study focussed on managers and identified the causes of lower performance. It proposed numerous strategies to improve the aggregate score of IC, which is closely related to bank profitability.

This is the first study to make a comparative analysis of intellectual capital performance in public and private sector banks in India and in addition to the traditional style of measuring sectoral performance. Further, the study employed new statistical tools, such as Yule’s coefficient of association, to establish the association between performance variables.

Munnar is one of the most important Hill Resort of Southern Peninsular India. It is famous for its wide and varied species of flora and fauna. The most important rare species of flora is the Neelakurinji which booms once in 12 years, and fauna is the endangered species of rare Nilgiri Thar, Nilgiri Langur etc. Nilgiri Thar is found only in the Eravikulam National Park. Tourist flow to the sanctuary had adversely affected the lives of the animals especially the Nilgiri Thar in the Eravikulam National Park. After observing the animals, some of the tourists start teasing them and even throws stone and bottles at them. Even certain circumstances had resulted in the injury of the animals. It was observed that the tourists who frequented the sanctuary are the domestic doesn't show any serious interest on the habitats of these rare species. Majority of them depended on the outside economy for their basic needs which also resulted in a diminished flow of income to the local economy. Heavy rush of tourist traffic and vehicular emissions had adversely affected the habitat of the Nilgiri Thar. Various studies had pointed out that, higher the altitude, there will be more than double the impact of pollution in the area. As they are considered as one of the pull factor in the tourism development in the area, sincere effort is needed for further protecting this rare and endangered species of earth.

The existing literature point that the presence of women directors in a firm reduces its risk. However, the relation between boardroom gender diversity and a firm’s return is widely disputed leading to no concrete answer. Some studies mention that women directors have a positive impact on firm performance, whereas, on the other hand, some findings suggest that women directors reduce financial performance. This paper aims to study the relationship of firm risk and return with boardroom gender diversity and the net impact on firm performance in the Indian context. This study uses not only traditional measures of risk and return but also the third measure of risk-adjusted returns to postulate its findings.

Based upon the data of the top 100 of the Bombay Stock Exchange-500 firms for the period FY 2009–2010 to FY 2018–2019, this study applied fixed effect panel regression and random effects Tobit regression to examine the effect of board gender diversity on firm performance.

The study concludes that firms with women directors on board have lower risk and lower returns. It also results in a higher risk-adjusted return, creating a positive impact on a firm’s performance.

The paper contributes to the existing literature on corporate governance by considering return, risk and risk-adjusted returns in single research to have a holistic measure of firm performance. It provides empirical evidence from one of the largest emerging economies, India where the female director and independent female director have been introduced recently.