bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Technology and Economic Growth: Quo Vadis, India?
Authors: Arunachalam V S 
Published: January 2017

While the movement for independence of India was being led by the political leaders and social reformers, there was emerging another community of leaders—scientists and technologists—whose contributions remained unnoticed and unrecognized for a long time. If the politicians laid the foundation for a democratic India, the scientists created a fertile environment for building a science-based society in the country. Amongst them were those visionaries who also comprehended the links between science, technology, and economic growth. Drawing from the economic growth theories, this paper demonstrates how technological innovations worked as the engine propelling economic growth of cities and nations and addresses four specific questions: What is the basis for economic growth? How can this growth be improved and sustained? How can it be spread across the country? What will be the reaction of the developed countries to such challenges? The author closely studies the case of information and communication technology-based growth of Bangalore and explores the possibilities of its extension to other cities. He attributes Bangalore's economic growth to social, cultural, and infrastructural factors unique to the city. A comparison of Bangalore's growth with a few other locations suggests that it is not possible to blindly replicate the success story of Bangalore in other regions of the country. What has worked for Bangalore may not be relevant for those regions. What is required is a strong base and, for that, the country should start building the infrastructure and educating the labour. For diffusion of growth, the author stresses upon the need for identifying local strengths, encouraging local innovation, intensifying educational programmes, and respecting the sociological systems and local culture. Overall, the author draws the following lessons for India: Population—trained and educated—is an asset. Labour will be an asset only if there is adequate infrastructure for the use of the genetic pool. Energy, communications, and transport systems should be ubiquitous, reliable, and affordable. Setting up of profit-seeking R&D centres and R&T institutions should be encouraged. Market size and competition should be increased. Transaction costs will have to be minimized. Ideas, knowledge, and skills should be allowed to come from anywhere. This improved understanding of the forces driving social development and economic growth offers enticing options for India to pursue.
Modal Split between Rail and Road Modes of Transport in India
Authors: Chaudhury Prosenjit Dey 
Published: January 2017

In the 1950s, the rail mode occupied a dominant position in transport within India. Since then, however, the transport sector in the country has been characterized by a secular decline in the share of rail mode. Internalization of the external costs of transport may not be sufficient for the achievement of a socially optimal modal split unless account is taken of the factors behind the current modal split. This paper attempts an investigation of these issues on the basis of data relating to eight representative sections in the country where the two modes are in competition. India became a decidedly road-dominant economy in the beginning of the eighties with the railways losing out in respect of freight traffic in addition to its already declining share in passenger traffic. The dominance of road over rail has since continued unabated till the present and is likely to continue into the future. This paper reviews the trends in transport and modal split in India from the fifties onwards and looks at the factors likely to influence modal choice. In the literature, an individual's choice of mode is divided into two main categories: personal characteristics of the individual (income, tastes, auto ownership, competing family needs for the car) characteristics of transportation alternatives available (relative time, cost, and comfort). Based on time-series including user costs, per capita domestic product, and consumption expenditure, an econometric analysis of inter-modal competition in the eight sections selected for the current study reveals the following: In the case of passenger traffic, increases in the user cost difference and the user cost ratio between road and rail have an upward impact on the relative traffic volume of rail. Income (as represented by per capita gross state domestic product) seems to play a part in determining choice between travel by car on road and first-class/air-conditioned travel on rail. The relationship between modal split and user cost difference/cost ratio in the case of competition between bus on road and second-class/sleeper-class travel on rail appears to be a non-linear one. In the case of freight competition, the modal share of rail does not go up with increase in the user cost difference or cost ratio between road and rail. It is the income variable that appears to influence modal choice in freight transport in the expected manner with shippers patronizing the qualitatively superior road mode when per capita state domestic product goes up. To arrive at a socially optimal modal split, therefore, it is necessary to concentrate on improvements in the quality of service on rail while at the same time devising measures to internalize the external costs of transport.
Comparative Advertising in India: Need to Strengthen Regulations
Authors: Pathak Akhileshwar 
Published: January 2017

With the liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy, firms have been aggressively and vigorously promoting their products and services. In a comparative environment, every representation of a product or service is about what ‘others are not.’ These practices raise questions about truthfulness and fairness of representation of products and services. This paper explores regulations on comparative advertising of products and services in the context of globalization and liberalization in India. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act, 1969, was amended in 1984 to introduce a chapter on unfair trade practices. One of the provisions constitutes any representation which ‘gives false or misleading facts disparaging the goods, services or trade of another person’ to be an unfair trade practice. The MRTP Commission and the Supreme Court have given shape to the provision. Most comparative advertisements refer to rival products as ‘ordinary,’ instead of specifically mentioning names of products. Aggrieved firms have claimed that ‘ordinary’ refers to all products other than the advertised one. The MRTP Commission, however, has maintained that the wording in the law �goods of another person� implies disparagement of an identifiable product of a specific manufacturer. Further, only if the disparagement is based on ‘false and misleading facts’ that the advertisement becomes an unfair trade practice. Establishing facts often requires detailed scientific and technical assessment of the products. Our courts are not equipped to deal with this. As courts can take a long time to settle a dispute, what has become crucial is whether a court would award intermediate injunction or not. This is restraining the party from advertising pending a final decision by the court. In fact, by the time interim injunction is granted, the advertisement may have abready done the damage. The law makes provision for compensating the party for ‘loss of business and profit.’ The courts, however, have found computing losses to be not free from ‘complications and complexities.’ Thus, courts have not been awarding compensation. All these factors together have left the field of comparative advertisement effectively unregulated. The major findings of this study in this context are: The opening up of the economy, on its own, is not going to create and sustain competition. Protection against unfair trade practices has been available under the Consumer Protection Act. Thus, the repeal of the MRTP Act would not be of any significance. Not only the consumers but even the firms need adequate law against unfair trade practices to have some �rules of the game� for competing among themselves. But, within the structure of the Consumer Protection Act, competing firms cannot be �consumers� to approach a consumer forum. The state would need to develop adequate knowledge of the working of businesses in a free economy, enact laws, and create infrastructure and mechanisms for sustaining competition.
Union Budget 2005–06: Promises and Prospects
Authors: Dholakia Bakul H , Patel Mukesh M , Vyas Jay Narayan , Parekh Sunil , Dhruv Amal , Dholakia Ravindra H 
Published: January 2017

The Union Budgets are traditionally surrounded by hype, debate, and controversies. This year's Budget has been no different. Presented in the backdrop of favourable macro-economic conditions, a sound business environment, a booming capital market, and a relatively stable political scenario, it drew a lot of expectations from all quarters. This issue's Colloquium is a post-mortem of the Budget, 2005–06 by an eminent panel of analysts. While highlighting the broad tenets of the Budget, they put across their views on the positives and the negatives and discuss their implications. The objectives of the Budget have been implicitly stated as being the same as the National Common Minimum Programme which broadly advocates the maintenance of growth rate of 7–8 per cent, promotion of investment, generation of employment, introduction of fiscal reform, stimulation of growth in agriculture, manufacturing, and infrastructure, and alleviation of poverty. The following positives emerged from the discussion: An explicit focus on the development of rural areas to reduce the pressure of migration to the urban areas. A clear roadmap for evolving a strategy for agricultural diversification. Incentives provided for strengthening the agriculture marketing infrastructure with a focus on agricultural credit, insurance, and micro finance. Dereservation of SSIs of 108 items and giving them the choice to pay excise duty for the first Rs.100 lakh and claim CENVAT or else remain outside the chain to help in integrating them into the value chain of production. A package of financial sector reforms including the removal of limits of SLR and CRR and facilitating the FII trading in derivatives. Substantial reliefs in the corporate tax and personal income-tax which should promote savings. Taxation of zero coupon bonds at 10 per cent of long-term capital gains. The panelists identify the following problem areas in the Budget: Lack of transparency in the revenue implications of the tax proposals. Injecting fresh equity and providing fresh loans to PSUs as this would mean a reversal of the reforms. Difficulty in achieving effective fiscal consolidation. Fringe benefit tax on service, facility or amenity provided by an employer to his employee. Internal contradictions in the policies related to the housing industry, small scale sector, VAT, and disinvestment. Overall, the panelists consider it a positive Budget in the sense that it would at least not disrupt the buoyancy of the economy. However, considering the opportunities that the overall environment offered, a more aggressive approach would have lifted the Indian economy further to help it emerge as yet another Asian Tiger.
Person-Culture Fit and Employee Commitment in Banks
Authors: Nazir Nazir A 
Published: January 2017

This paper makes an attempt to ascertain the relationship between socialization, person-culture fit, and employee commitment. In other words, it seeks to determine whether the organizations high on socialization scores will experience high value congruency⁄person-culture fit and also whether high value congruency leads to employee commitment. In the recent past, the concept of culture has gained wide acclaim as a subject of study and reflection. However, the parameters of culture are so intricate that they cannot be outlined or defined. While contemporary research fully endorses the view that culture is an internal variable and can be conceptualized in terms of widely shared and strongly held views, the researchers have not empirically investigated the relevance of social learning in permeating these values into the organizational members. This paper seeks to overcome this limitation and also deviates from the earlier research studies undertaken in this field in the Indian context by exploring whether the person-culture fit notion or the integration of organizational values and individual preferences for those values could predict employee commitment. This study was conducted on six banks including two public sector (banks 1 and 2), two private sector (banks 3 and 4), and two foreign banks (banks 5 and 6) located in Delhi. It used three wellestablished scales — organizational culture profile (OCP), organizational commitment scale (OCS), and socialization practices scale (SPS) — to collect data from two separate groups of respondents through convenience sampling procedure. The first group consisted of 135 newly recruited employees who were asked to complete the OCP indicating their individual preferences on the given 54 value items and OCS for ascertaining their commitment. The second group comprised of 69 senior employees of the banks studied. An overall profile of the culture of each bank was developed by averaging the individual responses of this group. These were then used to calculate the person-culture fit scores for the newly hired employees. The main findings of the study are as follows: Moderate to strong person-culture fit score was found in one private and two foreign banks and weak to moderate person-culture fit score was found in rest of the banks studied. Two foreign and one private bank scored high to moderate on socialization practices respectively. The other two public and one private bank scored low on this dimension. Banks high on value congruency and socialization scores showed significant correlation between person-culture fit and normative commitment. Banks low on value congruency and socialization practices exhibited insignificant correlation between person-culture fit and normative and instrumental commitment. On the whole, the study indicates the need for firms, especially public sector, service-oriented firms, to pay attention to socialization practices which would result in strong cultures and employee commitment.
Organizational Downsizing: From Concepts to Practices
Authors: Bhattacharyya Sanghamitra , Chatterjee Leena 
Published: January 2017

Downsizing is currently one of the most popular strategies being used by organizations in an effort to survive and compete in the current business scenario. Existing literature in the area has broadly focused on the following three issues: Why do organizations downsize? What are the consequences of downsizing on the individual and the organization as a whole? What are the strategies that can be adopted for successful downsizing? While imperatives for downsizing have been considered from economic, institutional, strategic, ideological, and arational perspectives, suggestions for successful downsizing strategies have repeatedly reinforced the importance of adopting a planned, long-term, and people-oriented approach to implementation. The bulk of empirical research, however, appears to have focused on the consequences of downsizing both at the individual and organizational level. Given that downsizing today has achieved the status of an institutionalized norm, the relevant question is not so much whether or why organizations should downsize, but rather, how best to implement the process in a way which will enable organizations to accrue benefits and effectively manage the negative consequences of such an exercise. A review of literature reveals that a planned approach to the implementation process would lead to sustained and long-term benefits to the organization. Drawing from change management theories as well as related theories in organizational learning, theory of business, and business model innovations, this paper has attempted to identify issues that need to be addressed at each stage of downsizing in order to ensure effective implementation. At one level, this would imply a need to question the very rationale for downsizing in terms of whether it really is the best alternative under the existing situation. At another level, assuming that downsizing has been accepted to be the most viable option, and given that any successful planned change would need to be handled as a multi-stage activity, this would include : reframing of the existing mental models and assumptions about the business extensive communication with employees at each stage managing the needs and expectations of survivors, victims, and implementers themselves planning for employability initiatives for employees helping employees to renegotiate their existing psychological contract with the organization. This would necessitate bringing about a change in the mindsets and attitudes of the people involved in the exercise. Moreover, a downsizing exercise would also need to be implemented as a part of an overall corporate renewal package rather than as an isolated strategy on its own. Suggestions for future research in this area, especially in the Indian context, have been identified with a view to adding to the existing body of knowledge and also facilitating greater understanding on the part of practitioners in handling a downsizing exercise.
Work-Family Challenges and Their Impact on Career Decisions: A Study of Indian Women Professionals
Authors: Buddhapriya Sanghamitra 
Published: January 2017

A broad review of existing literature on barriers to women's career advancement suggests that one of the most important reasons inhibiting women's rise to the top positions in management is the work-life conflict that women professionals experience because of their strong commitment to family responsibilities. The primary objective of this study is to understand the impact of family responsibilities on the career decisions of women professionals and also to find out the type of work-life support they would require from their employers to balance their work and life in a better manner. The study is conducted with 121 women professionals working in government services, public sector, private sector, and in NGOs across different levels. The perception of women professionals regarding the barriers against their career advancement is studied. The impact of demographic factors like managerial level, marital status, and family structure on all the above-mentioned issues are also analysed. Following are some of the major findings of the study: Apart from other factors, ‘commitment to family responsibility’ and ‘lack of gendersensitive policies by the employer’ are considered as important barriers which affect the career advancement of women professionals to senior positions. Senior and middle level professionals believe more strongly than the junior level women professionals that commitment to family responsibility hinders women professionals' advancement. Family responsibility considerably affects the career decisions of women professionals. It is generally expected that the female spouse should take care of the family responsibility. Women professionals agree that children's responsibility hinders their ability to advance. They think that they are not able to utilize their full potential and at times they have to make career trade-offs because of the family responsibilities. They also believe that putting career ahead of family leads to social disapproval and rejection and at the middle level of their career, the pressure for conforming to the societal norms could be more. The research reveals the expectations of the women professionals in terms of the support that organizations can provide to help them in achieving better work-life balance and advance in their career. A significant percentage of respondents have shown their strong preference for provisions like flexible working hours, childcare facilitates and emergency care for children and elders, support for non-work commitment, wellness, and personal development programmes. Half of the women professionals agree that “flexibility in work location” (working from home⁄telecommuting) can be taken up as an additional support provision. The requirement for all these work-life provisions are felt more at the middle and junior level rather than at the senior level.
Bivariate Analysis of Capital Asset Pricing Model in Indian Capital Market
Authors: Manjunatha T , Mallikarjunappa T 
Published: January 2017

Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) establishes the relationship between risks and returns in the efficient capital markets. A review of studies conducted for various markets in the world reveals that researchers have used a number of methodologies to test the validity of CAPM. While some studies have supported the validity of CAPM, some others have revealed that beta alone is not a suitable determinant of asset pricing and that a number of other factors could explain the cross-section of returns. This paper has attempted to test the validity of the combination effect of the two parameter CAPM to determine the security⁄portfolio returns. The results show that: Intercept is not significantly different from zero. The combination of sizei and ln(BE/ME)i explains the variation in security returns under both percentage and log returns series. The combination of βi and ln(BE/ME)i, βi and (Rm-Rf)i, sizei and (E/P)i, and (E/P)i and (BE/ME)i explains the variation in security returns when log return series is used and the combination of βi and (Rm-Rf)i explains the variation in security returns when percentage return series is used. In case of portfolios, the combination of βp and Rm-Rf explains the variation of portfolio returns when portfolios formed with market value weights under both percentage and log returns and βp and ln(BE/ME)p explain the portfolio percentage returns when market value weights are used. It is observed that while combinations of some of the independent variables, as opposed to the univariate variable considered in Manjunatha and Mallikarjunappa's (2006) paper, explain the variations in security⁄portfolio returns, the other combinations do not explain the variation in the security⁄portfolio returns. Further analysis in this paper has shown that beta, with some of the combinations of the independent variables, explains the variation in security⁄portfolio returns. However, beta alone, when considered individually in the two parameter regressions, does not explain the variation in security⁄ portfolio returns. This casts doubt on the validity of the standard form of CAPM. In the light of these findings, it can be concluded that beta alone is not sufficient to determine the expected returns on the securities⁄portfolios. The empirical findings of this paper would be useful to financial analysts in the Indian capital market. Further research on the combination of market factors, firms' specific factors, and macroeconomic factors is needed to enlarge the understanding of modern finance and to cover fresh ground to unravel the mysteries and ramifications of the CAPM puzzle.