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There is an ongoing debate about the role of exchange rates in facilitating external adjustment. This paper explores how certain aspects of international trade, namely dominant currency pricing and international integration through global value chains,shape the working of exchange rates to induce external adjustment. The analysis suggests that the widespread use of the US dollar in trade pricing alters the short-term response of trade flows to exchange rate movements, with export volumes responding timidly to an exchange rate depreciation, while most of the adjustment takes place through import volumes. A more balanced adjustment process, through both export and import volumes,reemerges over the medium term. Meanwhile, greater integration into global value chains reduces the exchange rate elasticity of gross trade volumes, both in the short and medium term, but the associated increase in gross trade flows largely offsets this effect in most cases. Overall, the results suggest that while these features of international trade affect the composition and timing of the external adjustment process, for most countries, there remain benefits of exchange rate flexibility, especially in the medium term. With more muted effects of exchange rates on trade flows in the short term, complementary policies may be needed in some cases to support exchange rate flexibility and facilitate external rebalancing. This paper tries to study the recent external trends in Indian external sector giving a detailed information of the dynamics of external adjustment with respective to the global scenario.

Key Words: External Sector, External Adjustment, Currency of Trade Invoicing, Global Value Chains.

JEL: F30, F31, F32

COVID-19  has resulted  in  a  widespread  lockdown  of several  economic activities, including the education sector. Universities across the country are shut due to the  pandemic. In  this paper,  we conduct  a primary  survey to  gain insights  into teachers’ sentiments and examination controllers in the Maharashtra state. We aim to look at the constraints faced by the stakeholders concerning the conduct of examinations during the pandemic. Results show that statistical significance exists between the ability to  conduct  online  examinations  and  prior  training  and  experimentation  using online modes.  We observe  the  importance  of capacity  building  and infrastructure through this. However, the overall sentiments towards learning during a pandemic are affected by issues  relating to social and psychological factors  that stakeholders cannot ignore.

Despite  that  land  is  an  important  factor  of  production  and  an  asset  to both firms and households, its contribution to poverty reduction in LDCs is still controversial.One  factor  that  significantly  influence  the  value  of  land  is  marketability  and  land  use alternatives which is still limited in developing countries like Tanzania. This study aim sat  empirically  analyzing  how  land  is  important for  poverty  reduction  by  investigating the  effect  of  land  entitlement and  access  to  the  household  consumption.  Specifically,  the study employs Tobit regression model to examine the relationship between land ownership and  household  consumption.  Moreover,  the  study  employs  logit  model  to  analyze  the probability  of  the  household  being  non-poor  given  land  ownership  and/or  access  status.In this case households are grouped as poor if their per capital weekly food consumption islower than a given  threshold value according to the national official level of consumption that is required to meet a given level  of calories per adult. The  study used national  panel survey  data  wave  4  (2014/2015)  which  is  nationally  representative  to  examine  the relationship  between  land  ownership  and  poverty  reduction  in  Tanzania.  The  results show  that  owning  land does  not  necessarily  improves  household  level  of  consumption since  the size of land owned  by the household  does not significantly affect the level of per capital  household  consumption.  Specifically,  compared  to  households  with  no  land,households  with  land  had  lower  per  capital  consumption.  On  contrary  having  a  land entitlement certificate significantly improves household per capital consumption. The study found that among those households owning land, household with land ownership certificate have significantly higher per capital consumption compared to those with no land certificate.The  findings  imply  that  land  tenure  policy  in developing  countries  and  particularly Tanzania  should  therefore  focus  on  improving  legal  land  ownership  among  households for  welfare  and economic  improvement.

Key words: Household  Consumption; Household  Welfare; Land Tenure, Poverty, Tobit Regression.

JEL Classification: I31,  I32,  P46, Q15, R14.

Indian  economy has  been driven  by  agriculture since  time immemorial. It currently employs more than 50% of its total workforce in agriculture while contributing around 17-18% in the country’s gross domestic product. Even though the trend percentage of workforce is declining at present, agriculture will undoubtedly remain the economy backbone for a long time to come. As such, it becomes necessary to support and strengthen the backbone, and evade contingencies of climate change and land-use change, so that an increased  horticultural  productivity  is  sustained  with  no  excess  pressure on  the environment. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) was introduced to propagate  the idea of sustainable  agricultural practices in traditional farming. In this context, North-East India has immense potential but has been sitting on the back burner for a number of causes. The present paper envisages to  discuss the status of NMSA interns of its implementation with respect to its objectives of horticultural insurance and credit support vis-a-vis the eight North-Eastern states. Observations indicate a number of shortfalls in insurance coverage for farmers and lack of credit support, which if addressed could absolutely bring a radical change in the region’s agricultural scenario.

Keywords: Horticulture, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, Crop Insurance,Credit.

The study  pertains  to  the  marketing  of  jaggery in  Sitapur district.  The mainobjective of the study  is to  analyze, socio-economic characteristics of sample respondents to  study  the  disposal  pattern,  marketing  cost,  margin,  and  price  spread of  jaggery  perquintal in different  channels of  marketing  and constraints in  production and  marketing of jaggery.  The  results reveal  that  the socio-economic status  of the respondents  found  to be moderate  with  primary education,  a well  economic background, and greater  access  to all the assets. Economics of jaggery marketing is more profitable in large farms as compared to medium-size farms and small size farms.  The maximum producers share in consumer price  in  channel-I  was  92.33  percent.  The  average  producer  sale  price  to the  consumer was  Rs.3000.00/qtl  and  the  price  spread  was  Rs.230.00/qtl.  The  sample  average  for marketing efficiency  in channels  was 13.04,  percent respectively.

The  study  indicated  that  there  is  scope  to  increase  the  producer’s  share in  consumers rupee  by  making  the market  more  effective so  that  the  number  of  intermediaries  is to  be restricted  and marketing  costs  and marketing  margins  to  be  reduced. Major  constraint sin production were found that high cost of labour and less awareness about new technologies among  different  farms  size  group  followed  by  a  huge  price  fluctuation was  the  major marketing  constraint  in jaggery.

Keywords: Cost,  Return,  Marketing  Channels,  Constraints.

Finally, within the value chain analysis, a topic that cannot be avoided is how much value is created, and how it is distributed. This is a more accounting point of view,and we called it a price assessment approach. Particularly for the context of agribusiness chains, the question of how much value every actor creates, and what sort of it receives is on the regular discussion.Since the main characteristic of agri-food chains is the different farm and at farm gate market structures, where primary stages show aspects of competition while industry  and distribution  tend to show degrees  of market power, this conducts frequent conflicts between actors. Being able to develop indicators in this regard, helps to better understand and tackle those conflicts. Where development organizations have been playing a central role enriching  the body  of point  of view. Mainly with intervention objectives and with the aim of giving their  technicians a tool to work with value chain actors, there  has been  a  proliferation  of  manuals  and guidelines.  This is  important particularly to the agri-food  sector, as developing countries enter into food global value chains as primary producers, in most cases with scarce or none value-added, and showing poor conditions for the actors involved.Having obtained these tools, approaches, and point of views that operate as methodological frameworks for the analysis of agribusiness value chains, and with a better understanding of the multidimensional aspects of the concept,further analysis should be oriented to develop mathematical framework models and objective indicators to measure competitiveness and performance in agribusiness value chains. Where the  aim of  this  research  is  to  compare  three  methods  to  trace competitiveness  and performance in agribusiness value chains: Agribusiness value chains assessment (AVCA),environmental agribusiness  value chains assessment (EAVCA),  and  environmentally extended input-output  agribusiness analysis (EE-IOAA).

Keywords: Agribusiness value chains assessment (AVCA), environmental agribusiness value  chains  assessment  (EAVCA)  and  environmentally extended  input–output agribusiness analysis  (EE-IOAA).

The Corona Virus (COVID-19) outbreak has already brought human suffering and major economic disturbance. While the world economy was predicted to grow by3.3% in 2020, after having experienced a 2.9% growing in 2019, the irruption of theCOVID-19 has distressed the world and imposed an epoch-making shock on the fragile condition of the world economy. In order to better understand expected economic outcomes,this paper investigate different Macroeconomic scenarios of how Corona Virus might evolve in the coming year using a molding technique formulated by McKibbin and Lee(2003) and prolonged by Sidorenko and McKibbin (2006). It analyze the impacts of various scenarios on macroeconomic outcomes and financial markets in a worldwide hybrid DSGE/CGE general equilibrium theory. The study concludes the possible costs that can be prevent through global cooperative investment on public health in improving the quality of life and as a operator of economic growth.

Keywords: COVID-19, Macroeconomics, DSGE, Global Economy.

JEL Codes: E02, E6, D5, F62.

The  paper  estimates  sources  output  and  productivity  growth  of  the  2-digit manufacturing industries as well as total manufacturing industry in Gujarat during the period  from  1981-82  to 2010-11.  The  sources of  output  growth  are  input  growth  effect and  total  factor  productivity  growth  (TFPG)  and  again  TFPG  is  composed  of  adjusted scale effect (ASC), technological progress (TP) and technical  efficiency change (TEC). Astochastic frontier model with a trans log production function is used to estimate the growth attributes of output and productivity of the 2-digit manufacturing industries  as well  as total manufacturing industry in Gujarat during the entire study period (1981-82 to 2010-11), pre-and post-reform period  (1981-82 to 1990-91  and 1991-92 to 2010-11) and also during two decades of the post-reform period (1991-92 to 2000-01 and 2001-02 to 2110-11).  The  empirical  finding  clears  that  input  growth  effect  is  the  major contributor  to output  growth  in  Gujarat manufacturing  and  total  factor  productivity  growth  (TFPG)has  also  a  positive  and  significant  contribution  on  output  growth  of  the same.  Further,technological progress (TP) is found to be as the major contributor to TFPG but it fails to offset  the  strong  negative  scale  effects  (ASC) and  as  a  result  TFPG in  the  2-digit manufacturing industries of the state declined during the post-reform period. The impact of  technical  inefficiency effect,  however,  remain absent  as  statistical  test  suggests.  The relevant policy implication for the development of the organized manufacturing industries in Gujarat is the need to improve scale components of the 2-digit manufacturing industries of the state during  the forth-coming  years.

Key Words:  Organized  Manufacturing  Industries  in  Gujarat,  Stochastic  Frontier Production Function, Total Factor Productivity Growth, Technological Progress, Technical Efficiency change and Adjusted Scale  Effect.

JEL CODES: C23, D24, L6, O47

The objective of the study is to identify the role of various firm specific variable son the innovation of SMEs operating in India. Indian Small and Medium-scale Enterprises(SMEs) are considered as the backbone our nation due to their multifaceted contribution towards  the industrial growth, GDP,  economic growth  and employment generation.Though  SMEs have  vital role,  such firms are facing severe completion from the larger firms both nationally and internationally. Innovation has become one of the best ways to solve  the major challenges facing  SMEs. This  paper aims  to find  the various  factors determining the types of innovation of the manufacturing SMEs operating in India. The result found that firm characteristics variables coincide with different types of institutionalisation  in  Indian  manufacturing  SMEs.  The  knowledge  and  skills acquired  by entrepreneurs and  workers through  education and  training  programs  help them  to introduce various  innovative outputs.  The study also found  that Medium-sized  firms tend more towards innovation than Small-sized firms and the incubator SMEs are more involved in innovation-oriented activities than the established SMEs.

Keywords: firm  specific  variables,  Small  and  Medium  scale  Enterprises,  product innovation, Process innovation, Marketing innovation and Organizational innovation.