This paper investigates the impact of efficiency of countries for attracting foreign direct investment. Top 20 foreign direct investment receiving countries in 2013 were used for the study for a 20-year period from 1994 to 2013. The efficiency of countries was evaluated using non-parametric data envelopment analysis and the empirical analysis was estimated using pooled estimated generalised least square model. The results suggest that inflows of foreign direct investment have a significant positive relationship with efficiency scores of countries. Fully efficient countries, nine out of the sample

of 20 countries, have counted for 41.6 per cent of the global foreign direct investment in 2013. This indicates that multinational corporations operate in efficient countries in order to maximise the wealth of shareholders by reducing overall cost of operations through efficiencies 

Horticultural sector accounts for about 30 percent of India’s agricultural GDP and 37 percent of the total exports of agricultural commodities. This sector has immense potential to promote trade and generate gainful employment during the process of value addition. This paper focused on temporal and spatial performance of horticultural crops in India. The growth in area and production of fruit crops was 1.82 percent and 1.8 percent respectively during 1996-97 to 2000- 01 regardless of the focus through golden revolution in mid-1990s. However, the actual impact was observed during 2001-02 to 2005-06 as area and production growth was 8.92 percent and 6.43 percent, respectively. Growth in area under vegetables was negative during 1991-92 to 1995-96, which was increased to 4.13 percent in 2001-02 to 2005-06. The NHM was focused on bringing less fertile land under cultivation of plantation crops and targeting the small scale farmers in area expansion programme of flower crops. Hence, the positive shift in area under plantation and flower crops was observed in last decade shows prominence given to high value, commercial and market orientated horticultural crops. The states of Maharashtra (10.7 percent) and West Bengal (10.5 percent) shared largest area and production of horticultural crops in India. The major fruits growing areas were concentrated in southern and western India, whereas vegetables

growing states concentrated in eastern India and about 80 percent of plantation crops are grown by southern states. Thus, the area specific regionally differentiated cluster approach needed for holistic development of horticultural sector. The diversification plan of the horticulture sector needs to identify area wise or region wise potential crops. Horticultural research should concentrate on technology generation appropriate to each region keeping in view of their specific agroclimatic and socio-economic condition.

The main aim of this study is to measure the profitability of paddy crop grown in Kharif and Zaid season. To estimate the profitability, the cost of cultivation and returns has been worked out on per hectare basis for Kharif and Zaid paddy for each category of farmers and compared with the CACP concept. The study is based on the primary data collected from 100 sample farmers of tarai region of Uttarakhand. Among all the districts, Udham Singh Nagar district is selected purposively as this district has the highest production of paddy in the state. Among both the paddy crops, in general, cost of cultivation (`/ha) of Zaid paddy was higher than that of Kharif paddy. On an average, farmers in the study area experienced net profit on Kharif paddy and Zaid paddy was ` 16578.01 and ` 20043.98 per hectare, respectively. Due to availability of rain water in Kharif season, expenditure on irrigation for Kharif paddy was found to be significantly lower than the expenditure on irrigation for Zaid season paddy. It is also found that all the categories of farmers were more conscious about seed and fertilizer use in paddy. Total interest amount on fixed capital of large farmers was found to be higher than that of other categories of farmers, which reveals that farm asset position of large farmers was better than other categories of farmers in the study area. On an average, farmers of the study area had to spend ` 745.75 and ` 725.63, for producing one quintal of Kharif paddy and Zaid paddy, respectively, which was less than the average price received by the farmers for these crops. Average price received by the farmers was ` 1001.88 and ` 1006.25 per quintal for Kharif paddy and Zaid paddy, respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that cultivating paddy grown in Kharif and Zaid was profitable for the farmers in the study area. This is true not only for average sample farmer but also for all categories of farmers of the study area

During the last three decades rural development practitioners have been focusing on SHGs as an instrument for women empowerment in rural sector. SHGs of women in India have been identified as an effective strategy for the empowerment of tribal women in rural and urban areas. It is evident from many studies that women have developed abundant selfconfidence and self-esteem through SHG movement. Not only economic security but also inculcating savings habits is the major motivating factors for joining SHGs. SHG women are becoming an instrument in transforming so called unproductive human being into productive human resources. However, it has been observed that the growth of SHGs have not been uniform. More particularly, the growth of SHGs has been slow in relatively backward areas in West Bengal.

This study analyzes the performance of groundnut production in Bangladesh in the 1990s and 2000s, both at the district and national level. Production performance was measured in terms of growth and variability. Annual compound rate of growth was estimated to know the growth performance. Cuddy-Della Valle index was used to estimate variability. Analysis showed that both area and production of groundnut at the national level declined in the 1990s but production increased afterwards. In the late 2000s, groundnut production increased by 31% although area under groundnut was same as in the late 1990s. Increase in groundnut yield (by 373 kg/ha or 32%) contributed towards increase in groundnut production in the late 2000s. In the late 2000s (TE2009/10), top five groundnut producing districts (Noakhali, Dhaka, Faridpur, Kishoreganj and Pabna) accounted for 59 percent of area and 55 percent of production. In the 2000s, Bangladesh achieved high annual growth (5.0% or more) in groundnut production at the national level and in nine districts (Faridpur, Tangail, Barisal, Jessore, Kushtia, Dinajpur, Pabna, Rangpur and Chittagong H.T.). On the other hand, variability in groundnut production in the 2000s increased insignificantly at the national level while three districts (Sylhet, Mymensingh and Tangail) experienced statistically significant increase in variability in groundnut production. Increase in variability in groundnut production was mainly due to the increased variability in area under groundnut indicating that the crop was expanded to less suitable areas. The study concludes that groundnut breeders should focus more on yield increase rather than on reduction in variability in yield. Increase in yield potential through research is expected to have higher production and profit to the farmers and thereby, encourage farmers to allocate more area under groundnut cultivation. 

This paper investigates the determinants of the resource use efficiency and technical efficiency of onion production. Farm-level data were collected using a structured questionnaire administrated to 90 randomly selected onion growers in Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu. The empirical results show that, bulbs, plant protection chemicals and human labour, machine hours, and phosphorous have a positive and significant influence on onion yield. Economic efficiencies are more than one for bulb, nitrogen, phosphorous, potash, plant protection chemicals, machine hours, land size values,

farmyard manure and human labour in onion production which meant that these resources are being used at suboptimum level and there exists the possibility of increasing the yield of onion by increasing their use. The technical efficiency for the farms was estimated to be 78%, which indicates the possibility of increasing the yield of onion by adopting better technology. This study suggested that development of awareness of modern agricultural practices through demonstration, farm visits, framers meetings etc., by the government as well as removal all inputs distributional bottlenecks would ensure increased onion production in the study area. 

With an estimated water footprint of 790 billion cubic metres for food production in India in the year 2007-08 and given the high average requirement of producing one kilogram of the major staples consumed in the country, assuring the sustainability of the national water resources is a matter of concern in the country. The present research study attempts to provide an analytical estimate of the water footprint along with the average quantity of water required for the production of major cereals, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and sugarcane. The economic value of the water used in their production is estimated to serve as a pointer to the optimal use of water. A value added approach has been used to do so and water requirements for different crops have been estimated using the crop water requirement model. 

The study focused on assessing the spatial price transmission between kinnow markets pairs in Rajasthan state of India using weekly kinnow price series of 8 markets from 2010-2015. Coefficient of variance results indicates Jaipur market has lowest price volatility which is represented by 17.56 % compared to 41.10 % in Sri Ganganagar market, which has the highest. The co-integration tests result indicates Ganganagar” Alwar Ganganagar  Ajmer, Ludhiana  Jaipur, Ludhiana  Jodhpur, Ludhiana  Ajmer market pairs are not integrated in the long run. However, Ganganagar  Bikaner, Ganganagar  Delhi, Ganganagar  Jodhpur, Ganganagar  Ludhiana, Ganganagar  Jaipur and Ludhiana  Delhi are integrated in the long run. The results from the error correction model shows, there is short run unidirectional causality of Ganganagar  Bikaner and Ganganagar  Jodhpur. The lowest speed of adjustment towards long run equilibrium was from Ganganagar to Bikaner at rate of 0.2 percent. The speeds of adjustment running Ganganagar to Ludhiana and Ganganagar to Delhi markets towards long run equilibrium were 198 percent and 184 percent respectively in a period of 1 week at most. The speed of adjustment from Ganganagar to Jodhpur is 16.4 percent whereas Ganganagar to Jaipur is 10.4 %. The results shows there is no short run causality between the market pairs of Ganganagar  Alwar and Ludhiana  Jodhpur. On the other hand, the results show a unidirectional causality of some market pairs namely Ganganagar  Ajmer, Ludhiana  Jaipur and Ludhiana  Ajmer. The impulse response function shows that an unexpected shock in the prices of kinnow in Ganganagar will have a permanent lasting effect on prices of the various markets within a period of 4 weeks except Ajmer market prices.

Livestock is the integral part of the mixed-farming system that characterizes agriculture in Assam. Among all other livestock the cattle population constituted the largest group in Assam. The poultry population of the State, as revealed from the Livestock Census 2007, has registered an increase of 34.2 % over the previous census 2003. However, Per capita milk, egg and meat have been reported to very less in Assam as compared to national level and requirement as per ICMR. In Assam though livestock products are increasing year by year the demand and supply gap is still large. Besides, absence of organized marketing channels in Assam is also one of the major constraints faced by livestock sector of the state. Considering these problems and potentiality of the sector to develop in the state, GOI and GOA has been implementing lots of schemes and programmes to promote the livestock sector in Assam.

The present study was carried out to examine the changes in cropping pattern and the contribution of food grains to central pool over the years by Punjab. The study revealed that the area under wheat and paddy crops, which was 40.50 and 6.90 per cent of gross cropped area (GCA) during 1970-71, has increased to 44.65 and 35.66 per cent during 2011-12, respectively. However, the area under pulses, maize, bajra, oilseeds and sugarcane has declined by 7.18, 3.47, 9.75, 3.61 and 0.69 per cent, respectively. Thus, paddy-wheat crop rotation became predominant at the cost of maize, other cereals, oilseeds and pulses in the state. Food grain production in the state has grown from 20.00 million tonne in 1992-93 to 23.49 million tonne in 2002-03 and further increased to 27.22 million tonne in 2011-12. The share of Punjab state in food grain production has decreased over the years, and came down to 10.57 per cent in 2011-12 from 11.14 per cent in 1992-93. The study revealed that the production in food grains and cropping pattern in Punjab has almost stagnant, and there is a need for diversification of agriculture at this stage. Emphasis must be given on cultivation of water saving crops as well as the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides may be minimized to enhance the sustainable agriculture in Punjab 

The study was conducted in Ghugial village of Hoshiarpur district of Punjab during 2010-11 with an objective to examine the economic and financial efficiency of capital invested in Farms Produce Promotion Society (FAPRO). It was observed that the society earned augmented revenue with the grown in operational cost and the organization has increased rapidly. It played a proactive role in meeting the purpose of the society. Although B-C ratio has increased, current ratio was found moderate. Profit to asset ratio and profit to sales ratio were viable after few years with low capacity utilization. If the shortcomings can be met similar farmers’ organization can be imitated in other parts of the country especially for value addition of perishable products

Industrialisation after new economic reform conceded impulsive changes among people’s lives and livelihood. The rapid scale of land acquisition and displacement creating social crisis, economic crisis and environmental pollution; which is the cause of a multiplicity of diseases which people has not faced before. The rapid scale of industrial growth affecting each sectors of society and mostly tribal who are aboriginal/marginal community whose primary source of occupation is based on natural resource. The massive scale of industrial growth on tribal region smashed tribal natural resources. As a result tribal are constrained to maintaining their sustainable life. This article critically addresses the growth of industrialization and responses of people in the context of industrial impact on livelihood of scheduled tribes and various problems in Jharsuguda District of Western Odisha.

Economic analysis was carried out separately for Inboard Motors (IBM), Outboard Motors (OBM) and non- motorised gillnetters operated along Mumbai coast. The economic performance of fishing operation is affected by various factors including fluctuations in revenue, diminishing catch per unit effort, sudden increase in the cost of key inputs, catch and effort restrictions. Capital and labour will continue to enter the fishery until the economic rents are totally dissipated and profits to individual units are reduced to the levels of their opportunity costs. The economic performance also plays a crucial role in the investment decisions at micro level and is deciding factor for sustainable returns of any business. The paper analyses the economic viability of gillnet fishing operations of all the three sectors viz. Outboard Motors (OBM), Inboard Motors (IBM) and non-motorised operated along Mumbai coast were running in profit.

The potential presence of long memory (LM) properties in return and volatility of the spot price of lentil in Indore market has been investigated. Geweke and Porter-Hudak (1983) (GPH) method has been applied to test for presence of long range dependence in the volatility processes for the series. Stationarity of the series has been tested using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test and Philips-Peron (PP) unit root test. It is observed that both the log returns as well as squared log returns series are stationary at level but there is a significant presence of long memory in squared log

return series. Accordingly, AR-FIGARCH model was applied for forecasting the volatility of lentil price. To this end, window based evaluation of forecasting is carried out with the help of Mean squares prediction error (MSPE), Root MSPE (RMSPE), Mean absolute prediction error (MAPE) and Relative MAPE (RMAPE). The residuals of the fitted models were used for diagnostic checking. Out-of sample forecast of volatility has been computed for 1st June-31st July, 2015 along with the percentage deviation from the actual price. The maximum deviation has been found to be 2.55%. The R

software package has been used for data analysis. 

The prevalence of disparities in the living standard across households is the outcome of income inequality. Inequality can be defined as a deviation from equality where any individual unit is receiving less than his proportionate share of aggregate income. This state is referred to as relative deprivation, whereas absolute deprivation is equated with poverty, wherein one is not getting sufficient enough to survive. Households are not only poor; they also suffer from vast inequality in incomes, in assets and in access to essential services as well as pervasive insecurity. Theoretically and empirically, the effectiveness of self-help groups has mentioned in earlier literature, access to economic opportunities is proxies by SHG membership. Self-help groups play today a major role in poverty alleviation in rural areas. The impact of SHGs on individual members, family, community life, changes in skills, knowledge, attitudes, successful outcomes, and the development of human and social capital. With this background this research paper examines the effectiveness of women SHGs in the promotion of the development of social and human capital through micro enterprise development to work towards reducing income variations of SHG households. The results indicate that the OSHG households make

significant improvement in their incomes and less inequality in income distribution compared to NSHG households and concludes that self-help groups have impact on income distribution 

Patenting trends of a country indicates its technological competitiveness. The present study has been conducted with the objective to analyse the patenting trends amongst BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) characterized by rapidly growing economies and increasing international influence. Number of patent applications filed, patents earned and patent-population ratio of BRICS are among the factors assessed. An effort has been made to find correlation of patenting activities of BRICS on their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The data related to patents and GDP of BRICS was downloaded from WIPO’s website and analysed using MS-Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). A robust rise was noticed in number of patents earned and the GDP of China. India also showed a very good progress in the assessed factors. A direct relationship was observed between number of patents granted and GDP of BRICS on a whole. The study led to the conclusion that increase in patenting activities amongst BRICS play a pivotal role in the overall growth and development of these nations. 

Effort has been made to identify the perceived constraints of the farm scientist and their magnitude as well as relation with job satisfaction of the two State Agricultural Universities (SAU’s) of West Bengal. It reveals that most severe constrains faced by the farm scientists is financial and budgetary constraints followed by infrastructural constraints, situational constraints, communication constraints, administrative and managerial constraints and constraints related to extension activities. It has been also found that paucity of fund for research; lack of coordination among different departments and lack of promotional opportunities are the most crucial constraints that stand in the way of getting the desired level of job satisfaction among the farm scientists.

The study was conducted for the state of Assam using secondary data for the period pertaining to 2002-03 to 2012-13 with the objectives to examine the structural transformation of economic and other activities in the fishery sector of the state. It was observed that India has shared 5.68 % of total fish production and China is the major fish producing country with low annual growth. In India, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are the major fish producing states. Share of Assam in country’s fish production is marginal. The total fish production in the country was contributed mainly by area followed by productivity and area affect was found to be highly elastic. Area under pond fish and derelict water bodies was found to increase in the state. Nagaon district had the highest number of eco hatcheries in the state with marginal growth. Plan allocation for fishery sector in the state was found to decline with a decline of demand supply gap during the last decade. The fishery sector was found to more promising in contributing to state domestic product and the state needs comprehensive policy for increasing productivity and more area under ponds and derelict water bodies with higher plan allocation in the fishery sector. More Eco hatcheries should be developed in different districts with better extension service for increasing production of fish in the state.

Organic farming is one among the broad spectrum of production methods that support environment. Even though organic farming is gaining popularity in several states, its feasibility needs to be studied. The study was undertaken in Maharashtra to address this. Primary data was collected from farmers in Nashik district for the agricultural year 2012- 13.Tabular analysis, Logit regression, Garrett’s ranking and Farm business analysis were employed to analyze the data.Although the adoption was good in all categories of farms, it was more prominent in the large farms compared to small and medium farms in the study area. Further,education and livestock owned were the major factors affecting the adoption of organic farming. Although, the cost of tomato cultivation was higher, and the yield lower on organic farms than that of traditional farms, organic farming was found to be generating impressively higher returns in comparison to traditional farms. Non availability of labour, high transportation cost, lack of proper technical guidance, problem of certification and non-availability of quality bio-inputs were found to be the major constraints to adoption of organic farming.Organic farming can thus be considered as a suitable option for healthier soil, environment, enhancing quantity and quality of agricultural productivity and improving rural livelihoods. The efforts should be directed to enhance the adoption of organic farming by providing proper technical guidance and quality bio inputs at a nominal price, and to strengthen the forward linkages for stabilizing prices and enhancing the returns.