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An entrepreneur is often driven by a quest for innovation and creativity in a market, thus creating competition. The competition will create wealth, leading to improved living standards for individuals and the economy at large. Moreover, innovation and creation result in new and superior products that enable modern markets to be developed. However, the enthusiasm to become an entrepreneur is not the sole driving factor. One must know the importance of financial literacy. Besides, the negative stigma due to the COVID-19 pandemic ruined many lives and impacted businesses with less money due to the reduction of clientele;also, it had impacted budding entrepreneurs (at early start-up stages, and hardly have had experience between 1-3 years) with fewer opportunities to make money. That reduced the willingness of entrepreneurs to invest capital in the business due to raging losses. The current article presents the importance of financial literacy for budding entrepreneurs. To find and measure the financial literacy among budding entrepreneurs, the data were distributed to 223 entrepreneurs;however, 179 were finally used for analysis due to several reasons mentioned in the research methodology. The data was collected from five districts of the South region of India (Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu) and the snowball technique is used in the analysis. The study revealed that most budding entrepreneurs lack proper financial literacy. The study found that Financial Skills, Financial Knowledge, Financial Attitude, Social Interactions & Past Experiences, Financial Support & Guidance directly influenced Financial Literacy levels among entrepreneurs. The study also suggests that aspiring entrepreneurs should be given practical financial training sessions;it should be made mandatory. © Universal Journal of Accounting and Finance 2021.

Starting from the 3rd millennium BC, Indian maritime trade has augmented the life of a common man and businesses alike. This study, finds that India can leverage on the 7,500 long coast line and derive holistic development in terms of interconnected ports with hinterland connectivity and realize lower expenditure coupled with reduced carbon emission. This research analyzed a decade of cargo data from origination to destination and found that around 82.95 per cent (953 MMTPA in 2017–18) of road based consignments in India comprised of Fertilizers, Hydrocarbons, Coal, Lubricants and Oil. Essentially, a quantum of this i.e. 78.39 per cent of MMTPA cargo consignments (State Owned Hydrocarbons) traverses on Indian roads. The study drew parameters of this transportation paradigm and modeled the same using Artificial Intelligence to depict a monumental opportunity to rationalize costs, improve efficiency and reduce carbon emission to strengthen the argument for the employment of Multimodal Logistics in the Maritime Sector. Subsequent to model derivation the same set of parameters are plotted as an efficient transit map of Interstate transit lines connecting 16 major hubs which now handle bulk cargo shipped by all modes of transport. For the pollution segment a collaborative game theoretic approach i.e., Shapley value is proposed for improved decision making. This study presents data driven and compelling research evidence to portray the benefits of collaboration between firms in terms of time and cost. The study also proposes the need and method to improve hinterland connectivity using a scalable greedy algorithm which is tested with real time data of Coal and Bulk Cargo. As a scientific value addition, this study presents a mathematical model that can be implemented across geographies seamlessly using Information Communication Technology.

India’s demonetisation of November 2016 has become a major trigger for the country to move towards digitization and become a cash-free country. Though in their nascent stages, newer and potentially disruptive innovations such as Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain have the potential to replace paper money with digital currency providing a de-centralized and secured environment. Blockchain features such as distributed computing, confidentiality, authenticity, non-repudiation, data integrity, and data availability can help a populous country like India to turn into a cash-free economy. Blockchain make tremendous impact on the financial sector, particularly in speeding up and simplifying cross-border payments, in share trading, by way of smart contracts, improving online identity management and in loyalty and rewards (Deloitte; 2018). This paper is an attempt to check out some of the blockchain implementations in India done so far in regard to embracing the technology, both within and outside the financials domain.