External commercial borrowings by the corporate sector in India

The growing levels of external commercial borrowings (ECBs) among the emerging and developing economies have raised the fears that ECBs would lead to widespread crisis and threaten financial stability in India. Against this backdrop, the current study seeks to examine the trends and critically evaluate the policy pertaining to ECBs. In order to immune the economy from potential exchange rate shocks, we suggest to having specific policy focus on the domestic bond market, hedging mechanisms, and appropriate decisions on the cap and level of ECBs by the regulator.     

Practice-based insights in developing and implementing a sport-based programme for girls

Parivartan Plus is a structured sports mentoring programme for girls, implemented in a Mumbai slum where social expectations around gender-appropriate behaviour and good parenting restricts girls’ mobility and visibility in public spaces. This article presents practice-based learning from developing and implementing programme theory to empower girls in achieving changes in their everyday social interactions at home and beyond. Gender and social norms theory were combined with local practical wisdom to turn main implementation challenges into opportunities. The article reflects on the strategies that gave visibility to, and achieved community endorsement for, the erosion of restrictive gender norms while ensuring community safety.     

Analyzing the impact of terrorism on tourism in Sri Lanka

While terrorism brings fear and chaos, tourism is the epitome of peace and happiness. Sri Lanka has always attracted international tourists due to tropical climate and beautiful tourist destinations. However, terrorism and the recent debt crisis have led to chaos and economic failure; in this study, the impact of terrorism, external debt, and military expenditure on international tourism in Sri Lanka have been empirically studied to unravel the dynamics. Dynamic ARDL simulation and cumulative fourier frequency causality results highlight the presence of an inverted N-shaped association between terrorism and tourism, as well as external debt and tourism. The phenomenal results from this analysis provide essential policy suggestions for Sri Lanka for economic recovery through the promotion of international tourism.     

Mediation Verses Arrest Approaches to Domestic Assault: Policy Implications for Addressing Domestic Abuse Among Under-Educated and Jobless Offenders

Mediation as a response to domestic abuse would seem a promising direction in curbing domestic battering among offenders with a low stake in conformity. This study compares the effects of mediation verses arrest on two general types of domestic abusers; one category with a high school education or above and is presently employed, while the other category comprising individuals with less than a high school education and are currently unemployed. Pooled data from three of the original group of six Minneapolis Domestic Violence Project cities are used in this study. The findings show unemployed Blacks with less than a high school education who were mediated were significantly less likely to have re-offended within six months than unemployed non-Blacks similarly mediated with less than a high school education. Also, unemployed Blacks with less than a high school education not mediated were significantly more likely to re-offend than unemployed non-Blacks with less than a high school education and not mediated. Finally, among those in the sample unemployed with less than a high school education and mediated were significantly less likely to re-offend compared to those not mediated. The findings are consistent with seeing mediation as a viable police strategy in curbing domestic abuse among jobless and undereducated offenders.     

Euthanasia: why it doesn't matter (much) what the doctor thinks and why there is no suggestion that doctors should have a duty to kill

A major reason that The Netherlands has taken a different approach to the rest of the world on such a fundamental moral issue is that the courts and legislature in that country have accorded the interests of doctors a cardinal role in the euthanasia debate. This article argues that the interests of doctors are of only incidental and peripheral relevance in relation to the moral status of euthanasia. The moral status of euthanasia has little to do with the preparedness of doctors to administer the lethal injection or their general attitude towards the practice. Euthanasia is principally about the interests of the patient and the impact that the practice may have on the community in general, not preserving the conscience or improving the working life of doctors.     

STR data for the Amp FlSTR Profiler Plus loci among 27 populations of different social hierarchy from southern part of Andhra Pradesh, India

Allele frequency for the 9 STR loci (D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820) were estimated from a total of 1096 individuals belonging to 27 endogamous populations from the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, covering the entire gamut of socio-economic variation of the linguistic region. These loci are found to be highly polymorphic within the populations with high levels of average heterozygosity (>0.80). However, the allele frequency distributions are fairly uniform across the populations in case of these loci suggesting relatively greater homogeneity among the populations. Regrouping populations into five broad socio-economic categories further reiterated the homogenous pattern of genetic diversity.     

Index and ring finger ratio--a new sex determinant in south Indian population

Identification of human remains is an imperative element of any medicolegal investigation, and a challenging task for forensic experts and physical anthropologists worldwide. Three hundred adult hands (150 males and 150 females) belonging to south Indian population were studied to investigate sexual dimorphism of the index and ring finger ratio. The index and ring finger ratio is derived by dividing the index finger length by ring finger length. The index and ring finger ratio is found to be higher in females. Index and ring finger ratio < or =0.9700 identified 80% of males for both hands, and ratio >0.9700 identified 74% females for the right hand and 78% for the left hand accurately. This study may prove useful to determine the sex of an isolated hand when it is subjected for medicolegal examination.     

Price dispersion across Indian states: A club convergence analysis

This study examines the price convergence across 28 Indian states and 7 union territories at an aggregate and subgroups level over the period 2011–12 to 2017–18. We employ a novel approach of Phillips and Sul panel convergence technique, which accounts for transitional dynamics and heterogeneity in the panel. The results suggest price divergence and evidence of clubs across Indian states at both aggregate and subgroup level. The outcomes of this study help policymakers in addressing the price dispersion across states, which in turn improves the market integration, allocation of resources, and standard of living.     

A situational theory of pork-barrel politics: The shifting logic of discretionary allocations in India

ABSTRACT

Despite the extensive literature on distributive politics, there is still is a lack of a theory of how political and fiscal institutions interact to shape the pork barreling ability of national leaders in a federal parliamentary democracy. This article examines how the party system types (dominant party versus coalition system) and particular attributes of discretionary grants (providing credit claiming opportunity or facilitating side payments) influence opportunities for pork-barrel politics. This article proposes a situational theory of distributive politics that states that incentives for exclusive targeting of affiliated states in one-party dominant systems drive national ruling parties toward particularism while the shrinking opportunity to indulge in such a policy in multiparty coalition systems creates a universalization effect. The disaggregated analysis of discretionary grants using Indian data for 14 states for the one-party dominant period (1972–89) and the coalition era (1996–2012) confirms the theoretical expectations. Additionally, the exercise brings to the fore the fact that the shift from particularism to universalism occurs for schematic grants that provide credit claiming opportunity. The ad hoc grants that are like side payments remain subject to particularism.