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Education is one of the most crucial indices of socio-economic development. In India, higher education is of vital importance to build a knowledge based society of the 21st century. It is the quality of higher education that decides the quality of human resources of the country. Higher education is a very important sector for long term economic growth and development of human resources which leads to the social, economic and scientific development of the country. Sikkim is currently at the stage of an increasing number of enrollments in higher education and the population of young people entering the labour force continues to expand. This young and large growing youth should be educated for the betterment of the nation, state and society. The government has given the required thrust to increase higher education in the state by establishing the number of colleges and universities. Around 20 percent of the budget is being spent on education in Sikkim; the highest among the country for the growth and development of the education system and to bring quality education. The present study attempted to analyse the current status and trends in higher education in Sikkim. The study is solely based on secondary data which is collected from different secondary sources. The results were analysed by using various statistical tools including pie charts, bar diagrams, time series analysis etc. The present study found the growth of higher educational institutes and enrollment in Sikkim. Enrolment in higher education produces skillfulness and competitiveness which are necessary for economic growth and development.

JEL Codes: I20, I21, I25, C01, C13

Keywords: Higher education, growth and development, enrollment

Badi making is an important productive activity in Keonjhar district of Odisha for the self-help groups working in the business. It is a specialized activity of women badi workers attached to SHG in the district. Women Badi workers are major players in Keonjhar district of Odisha with respect to their major contribution to economic development in the district as well as in other states. The development of women badi workers is directly related to economic growth as well as revenue generation for the workers and also for the district. With the growing impact of women badi workers, they keep themselves self-employed. In order to reduce poverty and to increase their standard of living and wellbeing of their family, these women badi workers makes a strong contribution in upliftment of the badi making business. To uplift the badi making business, various promotional measures as well as incentives are provided by the district authority from time to time. Today the role of women badi workers do not seem to be confined only as a mother/ homemaker but the role of women badi workers is much more than what it was previously.

Keywords: Badi, Keonjhar, SHG, Economic, Growth

JEL Classification: O

This paper uses three mixed Cournot duopoly games and examines the effects of ambient charges as a policy measure for reducing non-point source pollution. In the first game, the regulator of the government first announces the ambient charge, and after that a profit-maximizing firm and a partially cooperating firm simultaneously and independently choose their own output levels. The partially cooperating firm aims to maximize the sum of its own profit and a certain proportion of the profit of the rival. It is demonstrated that an increase in the ambient charge can lead to less pollution. In the second game, the regulator first announces the ambient charge, and after that a profit-maximizing firm and a socially concerned firm compete with each other. The socially concerned firm

seeks to maximize the sum of its own profit plus a share of consumer surplus. It is also shown that an increase in the ambient charge leads to less pollution. In the third game, the regulator first announces the ambient charge, and after that a partially cooperating firm and a socially concerned firm compete with each other. It is shown that the result of this game is the same as those of the first and second games.

Keywords: Ambient charge, Cournot duopoly games, partially cooperating firm, environmental pollution, socially concerned firm

Empowerment of women is a contemporary issue to bring development in the society. Empowering women is multidimensional in nature. Familial empowerment of women is one of the critical dimensions besides other essential dimensions of women empowerment like economic, personal empowerment, etc. This empirical study was conducted to quantify the level of familial empowerment of women and to identify whether engagement in microfinance activities plays a role towards her empowerment. This study found that engagement in microfinance activities has a positive impact on the achievement of familial empowerment among women. Highly educated husbands are found encouraging their wives to be involved in microfinance activities in the study area. It is also revealed in the study that when women are undertaking entrepreneurial activities, they are getting keen interest in joining microfinance activities. Therefore, the necessary policy measures need to be implemented for promoting self-employment, entrepreneurial activities in the rural economy.

JEL Codes: C3, I38, J16

Keywords: Microfinance, Familial Empowerment, Empowerment Index, Discriminant Analysis

Insights into the intellectual capital (IC) on financial performance is relatively a modern phenomenon, attracts the interest of global researchers. Though famous in the banking and communication sectors, little evidence finds in Real Estate and the Consumer Service Sectors. This study focuses to assess the relationship between IC and financial performance (FP) of 46 Real Estate and Consumer Service PLCs listed in Colombo Stock Exchange, Sri Lanka, during 2015 - 2018. The Value-Added Intellectual Capital (VAIC) model with its three primary components is represented by secondary data from annual reports of companies on IC. The FP was represented by Return on Assets and Return on Equity. The findings indicated that VAIC has a positive relationship with FP of the above 46 PLCs, indicating that CEE and FP have a significant positive effect. Recommends, more investments in IC associated activities, ensuring better performance where moderate and weak relationships exist.1

Keywords: J24 Intellectual Capital, L25 Financial Performance Real Estate, L8 Consumer Service Sector

e-groceries is probably is an effective way to contain the current epidemic to avoid personal contacts and maintain the social distance within the face of the

Covid-19 Pandemic. The purpose of this study is to gain insight on the impact of e-service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction of e-groceries with the role of customer trust as a mediating variable during the Covid-19 pandemic. Research adopted the quantitative approach where the empirical data gathered from 300 e-grocery shoppers in Western province, Sri Lanka, selected by adopting multi-stage sampling method. Data collected through a field survey conducted during the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic in year 2020. As analysis methods, Regression analysis adopted whereas the Barron and Kenny mediator analysis model and the Sobel test adopted for mediation impact. According to the findings, e-service quality dimensions strongly impact on the customer satisfaction of egroceries during the Pandemic. Further, customer trust, partially mediates the eservice quality and customer satisfaction of e-groceries. The research indicates that e-grocery service providers have to distinct on revamp of customer trust parameters and e-service quality dimensions that mentioned throughout to enhance the customer satisfaction, customer trust and attract more customers for e-grocery shopping.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, customer trust, e-groceries, e-service quality

There is no yet clear theoretical and empirical consensus on the relationship between exchange rate uncertainty and domestic investment. The main purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the effect of real effective exchange rate uncertainty on domestic investment for the Ethiopian economy over the sample period 1992Q1- 2016Q1. To address this objective, Jordà’s (2005) local projection method is employed and generalized impulse response functions are generated in this study. The impulse response functions exhibit that one standard deviation shock in exchange rate uncertainty stimulates domestic investment for the Ethiopian economy. In response to one standard deviation shock in exchange rate uncertainty, domestic investment increases to around 4 percent at the second quarter. This may indicate the existence of risk neutral or insensitive domestic investors to exchange rate uncertainty in Ethiopia. As to the effects of other control variables, domestic investment also increases in response to real income and real effective exchange rate shocks. The effect of inflation shock on domestic investment is positive and statistically significant up to the eighth quarter, and negative and significant afterwards.

Keywords: domestic investment, exchange rate uncertainty, Ethiopia, local projection

Central government financial transfers and states’ own tax revenue is interlinked as the transfer policies may encourage or discourage the own tax effort of the states. This paper analyses the effects of central transfers on states’ own own tax revenue, using panel data for l5 major states from 1980-81 to 2019-20 applying panel fixed effects and random effects regression methods. The estimated results show a negative relationship between central transfers and grants and the own tax efforts of the states, indicating revenue substitution by states. More central government assistance means less dependence on own tax revenue dampening the states’ revenue mobilisation efforts. The existence of a strong positive relationship between NSDP per capita and state tax revenue shows the high tax potential of the states. The incentive criterion for tax effort as used both in the finance commissions devolutions and in the Gadgil formula used by the planning commission is not reflected in the federal system of India. The central transfers adversely affect the incentives to states to mobilise their own resources and fail to induce a desired positive revenue generation in states.

Most of the researchers are examining the wage gap between males and females. Most number of researchers is saying that many firms have this kind of issues regarding the gender gap impact into hourly wages. As a third world country, it is very important to examine the impact of gender gap into hourly wages in Sri Lanka. In this study the researcher has used a sample of three thousand employees of private sector companies in Sri Lanka to evaluate the salary difference of males and females. The data has been collected by using a questioner through online method. Working hours, income and other demographic information were collected for the analysis. Different statistical methods were used to evaluate the data. According to this study, the test p-value is higher than the 0.05 significance value. Mean hourly wage of the men and female around 524 and 550 accordingly. According to the test statistic values, the hourly wage of men and female are different, and according to the mean values of the two groups, women earn morethan men.

Keywords: Gender gap, hourly wage, t-test