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India is embracing ‘smart tourism’ by leveraging technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, mobile apps and augmented reality (AR) to provide personalized experiences for visitors. This technology revolution is transforming India’s tourism industry, but challenges such as cyber security and cultural authenticity remain. An empirical study reveals significant connections between positive perceptions of AI, AR and technology’s role in ecofriendly initiatives and sustainability within smart tourism. This study looks at future where technology seamlessly blends with India’s unique tourism offerings, creating unforgettable experiences, while ensuring responsible and sustainable development. The analysis reveals significant correlations between respondents’ opinions regarding various aspects of smart tourism such as AI integration, AR usage, technology in ecofriendly initiatives and sustainability. These technologies improve crowd management, resource optimization and visitor experience, transforming tourism perception and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Program (ESDP) was launched by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to build the capacities and skills of Indian entrepreneurs, both current and future ones. One of the many initiatives offered by the Ministry of MSME, it aims to increase the capacity of young people to take on challenges and create successful businesses across the nation. There are various activities under the plan that are coordinated in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Polytechnics, and other specialized institutions/business colleges where there is talent available to influence teenagers toward self-employment. One of the essential elements for the development of any area is having an adequate supply of skilled human resources. Today, the problem is fundamentally linked to the employability problem rather than the lack of employment opportunities. This is a major problem in many developing countries where young children are taught, but they need skills that will help them become prepared for the workforce. Hence, the current study has been done with a view to give an analytical outline of the importance of ESDP for the sustainable growth of MSMEs in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study traces the development of watersheds in India based on the governing guidelines of the watershed programmes. We explore the changes and modifications in the watershed guidelines and categorize the developmental changes into six distinct yet interlinked phases. We observed that the watershed guidelines were fine-tuned with emerging challenges of land degradation, livelihood security, gender and social equity, climate change mitigation and adaptations. Recently, the focus of watersheds has shifted from production centric to income-centric by promoting enabling institutional settings. The experiences and learnings from India’s watershed programmes provide insights for other developing countries implementing such programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agriculture sector is undergoing a revolution, owing to several initiatives by Government of India aimed at increasing farmers' income by 2022-23. These efforts should not be implemented in a traditional manner, but rather with farmers as partners in the process. Farmer producer Companies (FPCs) could serve as a ground-level implementation entity. As a result, FPCs may be at the lead of the economic opportunities that these reforms will generate. The financial viability or health of a Farmer Producer Companies is an important factor because many small and marginal farmers depend on it. Therefore, this study evaluated the financial performance of Farmer Producer Companies of the Western agro-climatic zone of Tamil Nadu utilizing Altman Z' score model and sustainable growth rate for the period 2015 to 2020. This analysis utilized secondary data gathered from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India. According to the results, it is concluded that the majority of the sample Farmer Producer Companies are in distress zone and if the present circumstance proceeded, these organizations will be bankrupt, within next two years and all of the companies have negative sustainable growth rate, indicating that they would be unable to operate without external funding. As a result, there is an urgent need to concentrate on these companies in order to ensure their sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In quest of exploring the issues, challenges and opportunities prevailing in the tea tourism industry, this study aims to present a comprehensive morphological analysis (MA). More specifically, it identifies critical dimensions that bear significance for the sustainable growth of tea tourism. Design/methodology/approach: The present study adopted a triangulation method of research involving an ethnographic study (ES) followed by a series of focus group sessions carried out from the prominent tea-producing districts in India. This study accords equal importance to both the demand and supply perspectives of tea tourism and its stakeholders. Findings: Critical dimensions such as improper planning and marketing efforts, limited collaboration among stakeholders, the involvement of local people, socio-economic inequality and consumer's attitude towards tea tourism were identified as major issues and challenges. Research limitations/implications: The present research limits its scope to the geographical boundary within India keeping cross-boundary research for future study. This study will aid future researchers and scholars in expanding the domain of tea tourism. Practical implications: The present study bears significance to the policymakers, governing bodies, marketers, tour operators in embracing a socio-economic perspective while undertaking a suitable strategy towards marketing of tea tourism and ensuring its sustainable development. Originality/value: This study makes a novel attempt in blending the ES, focus group sessions and MA, together in a single research initiative, making it a single point reference in tea tourism literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel resource in India, and the country's industrial and economic heritage has been built upon indigenous coal. India is the world's 3rd largest energy consumer after China and USA. However, as the country goes through profound economic and societal transformations, such as economic and population growth, urbanization and industrialization, energy demand is expected to increase substantially. Looking into the significance of coal not only in the energy-mix but also in the economic development of India, the paper is aimed at an assessment of coal sector in India which shall also help contextualize the place of coal in India's contemporary energy, industrial and social sectors amidst a range of developments - both national and international - related to coal sector. The authors looked into various aspects of Indian coal sector from a policy perspective and suggested subsequent course of action so the same can be used by Indian coal mining stakeholders towards the larger goal of sustainable growth of coal sector including coal mining. The analysis produced important policy recommendations for coal industry stakeholders including the Indian Government, who is the sovereign owner of coal mine acreage in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banking sector plays most significant role in the economic development of any nation. Without a sound and effective banking system, no country can think about a healthy economy. To prevent the pessimistic shocks, preserve financial solidity and sustainable growth, it is important to point out the determinants influencing the profitability of the banks. This study aims at identifying the determinants responsible in driving the profitability of the public sector banks. Furthermore, an effort is made to inspect the impact of these identified variables on the profitability of the public sector banks in India. The study covers the entire public sector banks excluding Bharatiya Mahila Bank operating in India for the period from 2013-2014 to 2016-2017. The study considers return on assets as proxy for the measurement of public sector banks' profitability. Multiple regression analysis has been applied to analyze the data. Results reveal that among all the determinants, advances to total assets (TA) ratio, non-performing asset ratio, profit per employee, spread ratio, and TA have significant impact on the profitability of governmental banks in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Approximately 95% Industrial units in India are under SMEs category. • Analysed ICT based key factors using Grey-DEMATEL. • This work assist SMEs in reducing food losses and achieving sustainable growth. • 'Government initiatives and policies', and 'Public-private partnership', are influential drivers. Indian food sector is facing severe problem of wastage of about 30% of farm products due to inefficiency in operations of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs in Indian food sector are facing different challenges, such as financial issues, lack of technical skills and investment in the business etc. In this sense, several key factors can help food SMEs in reducing wastage of farm products and lowering energy consumption for sustainable growth. Thus, this paper tries to identify and analyse key factors for Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications for a sustainable growth of SMEs in Indian food sector. Grey based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique was applied for analysis of factors. From findings, 'Government initiatives and policies', 'Public-private partnership', and 'Encouragement to ICT service provider' are topmost influential cause group factors. While, 'ICT integrated effective food supply chain', 'Coordination between different departments', and 'Collaboration and strategic alliances across supply chain' are highest influenced factors. Results suggests that 'Government policies and initiatives' are at the core of the efforts to upgrade food supply chain. As, Indian government is the largest customer of SMEs and controls various policy-making aspects in food sector. Therefore, government has to take steps to encourage private and foreign investments as well as promote IT service providers and business environment related economic policies to improve competitiveness of Indian food sector. This work would help managers to develop efficient ICT applications for an effective sustainable growth of SMEs in their respective food supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The banking sector in India is making a concerted effort to increase the degree of financial inclusion in the system. Even the global trends have shown that in order to achieve inclusive development and growth, the expansion of financial services to all sections of society is of utmost importance. As a whole, financial inclusion in the rural as well as financially backward pockets of cities is a win-win opportunity for everybody involved - the banks/NBFC's intermediaries, and the left-out urban population. In India Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is one of the successful financial inclusion program by the Government of India which is providing social and financial security to the deprived section of the population. The paper attempts to study the financial inclusion program in Jharkhand with special reference to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) highlighting its key areas and strategies beneficial for sustainable growth of financial position of people in Jharkhand. The study reveals that the success of PMJDY scheme depends on the effective regulatory system and regular monitoring of the successful implementation of the program. The study also highlights that it can do more for the poor than formal financial inclusion programs did in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, firm performance must be measured not only on traditional metrics but also on those that reflect the changing imperatives and new metric knowledge. Thus, the focus of managers, investors, and researchers is shifting from rubrics like sales and profitability to growth as a more appropriate measure of firm performance. We aim to highlight the effects that growth of a firm can have on the level of its systematic risk. Using a sample of 203 firms across nine industries taken from the Indian manufacturing sector for a period of 17 years (1998-2014), we develop and test a panel vector autoregressive (VAR) model to analyze the causal relationship between growth aspects and systematic risk of firms. Results depict that a growth option available to firms increase their level of systematic risk and the risk decreases when firms start chasing this growth by increasing their assets in place. Sustainable growth rate, which depicts the growth potential of firms, plays an important role in reducing the level of systematic risk. The findings of this chapter are relevant to managers who think that growth is always beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banking sector plays most significant role in the economic development of any nation. Without a sound and effective banking system, no country can think about a healthy economy. To prevent the pessimistic shocks, preserve financial solidity and sustainable growth, it is important to point out the determinants influencing the profitability of the banks. This study aims at identifying the determinants responsible in driving the profitability of the public sector banks. Furthermore, an effort is made to inspect the impact of these identified variables on the profitability of the public sector banks in India. The study covers the entire public sector banks excluding Bharatiya Mahila Bank operating in India for the period from 2013-2014 to 2016-2017. The study considers return on assets as proxy for the measurement of public sector banks' profitability. Multiple regression analysis has been applied to analyze the data. Results reveal that among all the determinants, advances to total assets (TA) ratio, non-performing asset ratio, profit per employee, spread ratio, and TA have significant impact on the profitability of governmental banks in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Small and medium industries are of key importance to the Indian economy. These industries are more concentrated in manufacturing sector compared to service sector. India's manufacturing SME Sector is well equipped to raise and the fundamental drivers are in the right place. Continuous empowerment of SMEs will enable them to attain high and sustainable growth in the long run. The main purpose behind conducting the study is to study the HRM practices in manufacturing sector units. The study has been undertaken among small and medium organization of various manufacturing sector units with reference to Navi Mumbai. A sample comprises of 25 small and 25 medium organizations has been chosen from manufacturing sector units of Navi Mumbai. The selected method for sampling in this research is Random sampling method. Questionnaire is the tool used for collecting data for the research. The data was analyzed by using SPSS. Chi-square test has been applied to draw the results of the study. It is found that the Human Resource practices in small and medium scale organizations are different. It is also found there is impact of Human Resource Practices on performance level of the employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper attempts to explore the pattern of industrial growth in India since 1980. Both the descriptive and panel regression analysis are done for estimating the results. To ascertain the impact of the 1991 economic reforms in determining the structure of industrial growth, comparative analyses of the pre- (1980–81 to 1991–92) and post-reform periods (1992–93 to 2005–06) were also done. The overall results show that the Indian manufacturing industries are dominated by the capital-intensive low technology industries. This indicates that in the industrial sector, the higher proportion of low technology industries prevails. Further, using the Gini coefficients, the actual pattern of Indian industrial growth is determined. The study also failed to find a direct relationship between economic reforms and structural transformations within the sector. Moreover, the historical and empirical evidence points towards the investment in indigenous R&D as an important factor in determining growth and sustainability. But, for the process of technological accumulation, the role of government seems important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A partial convergence of the Indian and Chinese growth models is likely. Judging from China's experience, sustaining India's impressive economic performance of recent years will require a significant further opening of its economy (externally and internally), higher savings and investments, especially in physical infrastructure and social services, and stronger labor absorption in the modern sectors. The base of India's current economic boom — software, IT-related services and high-end manufacturing — is narrow compared to China's. Poor performance in agriculture is responsible for still significant poverty in many parts of rural India. Bilateral India—China ties, including trade and investment, are increasing rapidly and could help to bring about the structural economic changes India needs. Through its exports to China, India is becoming linked to global supply chains centered on China. The notion that India—China relations are, or are bound to become, fundamentally antagonistic, held by many in the USA, is mistaken and potentially dangerous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]