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The purpose of the study is to provide insights into the process of decision making. Indian Railways as an organization has to use the available resources based on thorough analysis and proper application of available evaluation methodologies.

This study uses an integrated group discussion – analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritize capital-intensive Indian Railways projects.

Through an email-based survey, six important criteria for ranking upcoming domestic freight corridors were selected, and weights for these criteria were calculated through AHP. The sensitivity analysis of the decision model suggests that the results of this study are significant, reliable and robust.

This study lays a foundation for the decision-makers of Indian Railways to consider a scientific approach while finalizing the big investment projects. This paper provides essential insights on prioritizing capital-intensive transport projects and is readily applicable to any case study.

Indian railways (IR) is one of the largest railway networks in the world. As a part of its strategic development initiative, demand forecasting can be one of the indispensable activities, as it may provide basic inputs for planning and control of various activities such as coach production, planning new trains, coach augmentation and quota redistribution. The purpose of this study is to suggest an approach to demand forecasting for IR management.

A case study is carried out, wherein several models i.e. automated autoregressive integrated moving average (auto-ARIMA), trigonometric regressors (TBATS), Holt–Winters additive model, Holt–Winters multiplicative model, simple exponential smoothing and simple moving average methods have been tested. As per requirements of IR management, the adopted research methodology is predominantly discursive, and the passenger reservation patterns over a five-year period covering a most representative train service for the past five years have been employed. The relative error matrix and the Akaike information criterion have been used to compare the performance of various models. The Diebold–Mariano test was conducted to examine the accuracy of models.

The coach production strategy has been proposed on the most suitable auto-ARIMA model. Around 6,000 railway coaches per year have been produced in the past 3 years by IR. As per the coach production plan for the year 2023–2024, a tentative 6551 coaches of various types have been planned for production. The insights gained from this paper may facilitate need-based coach manufacturing and optimum utilization of the inventory.

This study contributes to the literature on rail ticket demand forecasting and adds value to the process of rolling stock management. The proposed model can be a comprehensive decision-making tool to plan for new train services and assess the rolling stock production requirement on any railway system. The analysis may help in making demand predictions for the busy season, and the management can make important decisions about the pricing of services.

Waste generated from electrical and electronic equipment, collectively known as E-waste, remains a persistent environmental, economic and social problem. Sustainable E-waste management (EWM) has numerous benefits, such as preventing electronic waste from entering landfills, reducing the need for virgin materials by recovering valuable materials from recycling and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Circular economy (CE) practices are considered the initial steps toward sustainable EWM, but some hurdles have been reported in the adoption of these practices. Therefore, the current study aims to identify the common CE practices, sustainability of the EWM process and the challenges in EWM, and to develop a conceptual framework for effective EWM.

Very few studies have proposed frameworks that acknowledge the challenges and CE practices of EWM. To fill this gap, a systematic literature review (SLR) was performed, and 169 research articles were explored.

A total of seven challenges in the adoption of effective EWM were identified: rules and policy, infrastructure, consumer behaviour, informal sectors, community culture, technology and economy. Eight common CE practices were also found for effective EWM: reuse, recycle, remanufacturing, refurbishment, repair, reduce, recover and repurpose.

A conceptual framework guiding sustainable EWM was proposed, which includes solutions for the identified challenges, and CE practices with sustainable benefits.

E-commerce companies use different types of dark patterns to manipulate choices and earn higher revenues. This study aims to evaluate and prioritize dark patterns used by e-commerce companies to determine which dark patterns are the most profitable and risky.

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) prioritizes the observed categories of dark patterns based on the literature. Several corporate and academic specialists were consulted to create a comparison matrix to assess the elements of the detected dark pattern types.

Economic indicators are the most significant aspect of every business. Consequently, many companies use manipulative methods such as dark patterns to boost their revenue. The study revealed that the revenue generated by the types of dark patterns varies greatly. It was found that exigency, social proof, forced action and sneaking generate the highest revenues, whereas obstruction and misdirection create only marginal revenues for an e-commerce company.

The limitation of the AHP study is that the rating scale used in the analysis is conceptual. Consequentially, pairwise comparisons may induce bias in the results.

This paper suggests methodical and operational techniques to choose the priority of dark patterns to drive profits with minimum tradeoffs. The dark pattern ranking technique might be carried out by companies once a year to understand the implications of any new dark patterns used.

The advantages of understanding the trade-offs of implementing dark patterns are massive. E-commerce companies can optimize their spent time and resources by implementing the most beneficial dark patterns and avoiding the ones that drive marginal profits and annoy consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises in India.

The study is based on a primary survey of 321 informal enterprises. The data has been collected through a structured questionnaire. A chi-square test has been used to examine the significant association between the characteristics of informal enterprises and their owners and financial inclusion. A logistic regression model has been developed to analyse the determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises.

A significant and negative association has been found between business duration and entrepreneurs’ experiences with financial inclusion. In addition, the chi-square test shows a significant association between resource capability, use of ICT by enterprises and financial inclusion. Further, logistics regression shows that duration of business, entrepreneurial experience, resource capability in terms of machinery and equipment use, and ICT are significant determinants of financial inclusion among women-owned informal enterprises.

There are several practical implications for national policymakers and other stakeholders, such as banks and international bodies working on financial inclusion. It is suggested that while designing the policy for financial inclusion among woman-owned informal enterprises, it should ensure that experience and older woman entrepreneurs are included in financial inclusion schemes.

There has been very few research on financial inclusion in woman-owned businesses. However, no research has been conducted on the financial inclusion of women-owned informal businesses. This study fills a gap by investigating the factors that influence financial inclusion in women-owned informal businesses.

Ample literature is available on the impact of socio-cultural and political conditions on corporate social responsibility (CSR), but the reverse has not been adequately studied. COVID-19 pandemic disrupted humankind and business, but CSR was resilient. COVID-19, an unprecedented crisis, developed into a disaster but had some positives too. In fact, it championed the businesses' role and relationships between businesses and regulators, society, stakeholders, environment at large. Some available literature analyses how CSR metamorphosised itself and disrupted and converged into all similar and associated phenomenon like philanthropy, charity, governance, sustainability, and as a regular business activity. The present research uses mixed methods to analyse the CSR data published by the government of India during COVID-19 years and refer to the firms' disclosures in the CSR reports. Findings offer a nuanced input to the understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on CSR by studying it in a regulated environment where firms emerged as responsible corporate citizens attending to the needs of all the stakeholders. Firms acts of responsibility transcended law and contributed in form of funds (PM relief funds) and other necessary health equipment like PPE kits, oxygen cylinders, masks, sanitizers, vaccines, etc. Interestingly, the government amended the law to include contributions to COVID-19 mitigation as a part of CSR. While the current study is based on a data from a limited time, it lays a ground for future studies analysing the nature of shift (short term or long term) and how changes have impacted the policies (public and organisational policies).

This paper investigates the magnitude of financial inclusion in terms of ownership and usage of financial products across gender in Saudi Arabia based on the World Bank's Global Financial Inclusion (GFI) survey data.

This study derives the data from the GFI survey, covering 1,009 respondents from Saudi Arabia. The data on ownership and usage of financial products along with demographic characteristics of the surveyed respondents have been extracted for the analysis. The data have been analyzed with the help of statistical techniques, such as the chi-square test, and marginal effects for identifying the factors affecting financial inclusion across gender.

There is a significant association between financial inclusion and gender in terms of ownership and usage. About 82% of males have reported having a bank account with financial institutions, whereas only 60% females have reported ownership of a bank account in Saudi Arabia. The ownership and usage of financial products are comparatively more among males than females. The analysis of the marginal effect of gender shows a significant and positive impact on financial inclusion, implying that males are 10 and 13% more likely to own and use financial products, respectively, as compared to females. Further, marginal effect estimates for ownership and usage for males and females indicate that a set of independent variables related to age, level of education, occupation and income level of the respondents have a significant impact on financial inclusion.

Financial inclusion across gender is the first step of creating an inclusive society and empowering both males and females equally. Findings indicated an inclination of financial inclusion towards males. The research findings provide key policy insights for achieving the Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia by strengthening gender inclusion in its growth story and ensuring the participation of females at workplaces.

Most of the studies have included bank account ownership in a financial institution as an indicator of financial inclusion. The authors have included ownership and usage of a variety of financial products for assessing the determinants of financial inclusion across gender, which provides empirical evidence on the magnitude of financial inclusion.

Women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has emerged as a key component at national and international policy-making agendas. The purpose of this paper is to examine and validate the antecedents of WEE for urban working women.

This study used a descriptive and exploratory research design. A total of 286 responses from women working in the formal sector of Delhi-NCR were collected through self-administered questionnaires on a five-point Likert scale using non-probability quota sampling technique. The sample was controlled for the employment sector, that is, healthcare, education and information technology. Exploratory factor analysis has been performed in the first step to test the data’s dimensionality with the goal of producing a set of items that reflect the meaning of the relative construct. Thereafter, confirmatory factor analysis has been used for data analysis.

Digital banking usage (DBU) has been identified as the most significant contributor to WEE.

Besides digital banking, government support has also emerged as a key indicator of WEE, necessitating a government policy review to improve WEE. Research findings indicate that, if WEE initiatives are to reach their full potential, they must individually address the extracted factors. This study offers a new framework for understanding and enhancing WEE for urban working women in India.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to use factor analysis to explore the multi-dimensionality of WEE using the novel dimensions of DBU, women’s agency and government support, in addition to the established variables of financial literacy, social norms and workplace human resource policies.

Women empowerment becomes an important policy discussion in development economics and modernization theory. The empowerment of women can lead to an increase in the quality viz-a-viz the capacity of human resources accessible for economic development. The purpose of this study is to evidence the impact of social and economic dimensions on women empowerment through financial inclusion in rural India.

To reveal the research objective, the study has utilized a primary survey of women respondents from the Gujarat state of India by a simple random sampling method and applied a logistic regression approach to identify the relationship between the need of a bank account (determinant of financial inclusion) as a dependent variable and social and economic dimensions of women empowerment such as earning status, participation in financial decision-making, recipient of social welfare schemes and perception towards the safety of saving as independent variables.

The results of this study show that earning status, participation in financial decision-making at household level and recipient of social welfare schemes by women have a significant impact on women empowerment through financial inclusion; however, safety of their savings is observed as an insignificant variable, yet the odd value is very high (2.437) in the present study.

The present study is the first of its kind to examine the social and economic status of women and its impact on their requirement of a formal bank account for the overall empowerment of women in rural India.

Guar Gum (GG) is used in Shale oil exploration. Excessive price increase in the Guar futures market had a spillover impact on Guar spot prices and affected Guar export from India as Shale oil producers started exploring alternate sources. In this paper, the role of excessive speculation in the futures market, and its adverse impact on the guar-based agri-business ecosystem have been empirically explored.

Volatility spillover dynamics between WTI crude oil and Guar futures have been explored using bivariate-Granger Causality, BEKK–GARCH models with Wavelet multi-resolution analysis. The wavelet-based models capture the multi-scale features of mean and volatility spillover to identify the effect of heterogenous investment behavior in the time and frequency domain.

The results provide evidence that excessive speculation in futures markets increases spot market volatility. The results also suggest that the excess presence of short-term investors can destabilize the futures market.

The purpose of the commodity futures market is to support price discovery and risk management. However, speculative practices can destabilize these purposes leading to the failure of the business ecosystem.

The novelty of this paper is twofold. First, it explores the economic linkages between the spot and futures market and tests whether the presence of heterogeneous traders affects the economic linkages. Second, it models the impact of short-term speculative investment on the destabilization of the spot market.