Vol. 63, No. 2, June 2018

The research study was conducted in Kalaburagi district of Karnataka during the year 2014-15 by using ex-post-facto research design. The total sample of 120 was derived from three taluks of a district by using random sampling method. It is concluded from the present study that, transplanting method of pigeon pea cultivation practices is well known among the respondents. It is seen that education, farming experience, land holding, annual income, risk orientation, scientific orientation, extension participation and sources of information showed positive and highly significant relationship at one per cent level, Whereas, innovativeness and mass media utilization showed positive and significant relationship at five per cent level. One variable i.e., age showed non-significant relationship with knowledge level of transplanting pigeon pea farmers. Farming experience showed positive and highly significant relationship at one per cent level, whereas, education, land holding, annual income, innovativeness, risk orientation, scientific orientation, extension participation, mass media utilization and sources of information showed positive and significant relationship at five per cent level. One variable i.e., age showed non-significant relationship with adoption level of transplanting pigeon pea farmers.

The present study analyses the total yield gap in paddy crop in to three different gaps viz. yield gap-I, yield gap-II and total yield gap. The study based on primary as well as secondary data was carried out in three districts of plain zone namely Rajnandgoan, Mahasamund and Dhamtari districts. At the second and third stage of sampling, two blocks and two villages were selected from each district and each block, respectively to constitute a total of 6 blocks and 12 villages. Primary data were collected from a sample of 240 paddy farmers (20 from each village) through personal interview method and secondary data were collected from respective districts of K.V.K in crop year 2016-17. Most of the sample farmers were growing Rajeshwari (IGKV R -1) variety of paddy crop. Yield gap analysis shows that 13.22 per cent yield gap was estimated between potential and potential farm yield where as yield gap between potential farm yield and actual yield was estimated overall 20.00 per cent. Index of realized potential farm yield was observed 71.78 per cent on marginal farms to 89.44 per cent on large farms with an overall average of 80.00 per cent. It may be inferred from the study that the use of important variable has to be carefully extended by the paddy farmers to minimize the yield gap. Besides, the input supply of quality inputs viz. seeds, farm yard manure, irrigation and plant protection measures on different categories of farms may help to reduce the yield gap of the crop on the one hand and raise the income of the cultivators on the other.

The study to examine the post harvest losses and marketing pattern of chick pea has been done in Jaspur district of Northern hills of Chhattisgarh state. The study was undertaken by taking 60 sample farms during the year 2016-17. Formal survey method was used to collect required information from sample area. The objectives were achieved by using exponential function, regression and perception analyses. The overall post harvest loses at farm level was estimated to be 6.06 kg/quintal and 38.21 kg/hectare and maximum losses found during drying (36.93 %) followed by storage (35.61%) and harvesting of chick pea (09.81%) to the total losses. Total post-harvest losses at farms level was found to be the maximum in large farms being 7.02 kg. The marketable surplus in chick pea at marginal, small, medium, large and overall farms were 1.81, 2.62, 4.43, 18.27 and 4.17 quintal per farm constituting 67.79, 70.37, 73.46, 77.87 and 71.41 per cent to their total production respectively. The overall quantity of chick pea sold by producer was 2.07 (49.65%), 1.19 (28.47%) and 0.91 (21.88%) direct to consumer, village trader and wholesaler respectively. In post harvest losses unavailability of capital (80%) ranks first among all constraints and in marketing of chick pea lack of cheap transportation facility (95%) was the major constraint. It is suggested that there is a need to smoothening the process of farmer credit by financial agencies in the study area for minimizing post harvest losses. Also availability of cheap transportation facility will help to strengthen the marketing channel of the study area.

Irrigation is a critical component in the agricultural production as rainfall is inadequate, uncertain and uneven in an agrarian state like Odisha. The intensity of irrigation is an important determinant of the cropping pattern and agricultural productivity. The present paper studies the impact of irrigation on agricultural productivity in Odisha. The 30 districts of the state are grouped on the basis of their irrigation intensity and agricultural productivity. For the purpose Kendall’s Ranking Coefficient method and Skewed distribution are used. It is found that the district of Puri tops the list with an irrigation intensity of 80.79 followed by Bhadrak district with 71.91. The Balasore district is at the third position (66.85) while the district of Bolangir has lowest intensity value i.e 20.64. Similarly, considering the agricultural productivity, it is observed that Kendrapada district is at the top with coefficient value of 25.14 followed by Boudh and Sambalpur with coefficient of (19.42) each. The relationship between irrigation intensity and agricultural productivity establishes that irrigation plays a vital role in enhancing the productivity. Sincere involvement of government, policy makers, planners, farmers and NGOs can achieve the goal of self sufficiency in agricultural production through promotion of irrigation.

Floriculture in Nagaland has taken a big leap in the state’s economy helping the growers, who for the love of flowers can now meet their daily expenditures and other needs through this venture. The demand of fresh cut flowers has brought a huge impact in the Floriculture sector providing income as well as employment especially among the home makers and unemployed youths. The present study being undertaken during the agricultural year 2014-2015 in Dimapur and Kohima districts of Nagaland for the assessment of production and marketing of cut flowers as the study comprises of 75 numbers of sample respondents by following a multi-stage stratified simple random sampling method based on the flower growers. The sample population was categorized under alstroemeria, lilium, anthurium, gerbera and orchid group of growers. The average family size were 5.56, out of which 100.00 per cent were literate, as the worker constitutes 46.66 per cent of total population, the overall total cost of cut flower growers were ` 46,600.00/- per acre, as the gross income were ` 2,32,520.00/- per acre, the net return were ` 1, 82,782.00/- per acre and overall benefit-cost ratio were 4.97: 1. There were three (3) marketing channels are identified for the marketing of cut flowers in both the districts, as the Producer’s share in consumer’s rupees were found highest on channel-I, regarding impact has enhanced by ` 1,20,131.80/- per acre to their annual income, while ` 23,101.52/- was increase in their annual expenditure on food items as well as on their annual savings, also an attempt has been made to study the constraints faced by the cut flower growers during the production viz; requirement of more care was foremost followed by lack of timely availability of planting materials, while the marketing constraints include the lack of knowledge on post harvest techniques as the foremost followed by lack of storage facilities and it was least on lack of transportation facilities etc;

The present study was conducted in Mokokchung and Peren Districts of Nagaland. A sample of 160 respondents (out of the total, 80 were beneficiaries and 80 were non-beneficiaries of ATMA programme) were selected from both the districts from blocks and further from 8 villages based on proportionate simple random sampling method. The study shows an impact on crops, livestock as well as other selected enterprises on production and productivity of the beneficiaries of ATMA programme it may be concluded that it is due to the adoption of good varieties / species and management skill developed by them in the study area with especial reference to selected field crops, cereals, pulses, oil seeds, vegetables, animal husbandry, fishery and plantation crops by the adoption of production techniques and available technology adopted in the study area, further to access the impact on income level z-test being adopted, which justified the study to have an positive impact on the different selected enterprises.

Women entrepreneurship has been recognized as an important factor of economic development. Women entrepreneurs can originate new jobs for themselves and others. However, they still represent a minority of all entrepreneurs. Women is an essential part of key economic activities and for nation development. Women entrepreneurs often face gender-based barriers to starting and growing their businesses, like discriminatory property, matrimonial and inheritance laws and or cultural practices, lack of access to formal finance mechanisms, limited mobility and access to information and networks, etc. Women’s entrepreneurship can make a particularly strong contribution to the economic well-being of the family and communities, poverty reduction and women’s empowerment, thus contributing to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Thus, governments across the world as well as various developmental organizations are actively undertaking promotion of women entrepreneurs through various schemes, incentives and promotional measures.

The paper presents the costs and returns, economic and financial feasibility of fig cultivation in North Eastern region of Karnataka, India. Data collected from 60 fig cultivators by adopting multistage sampling design were analyzed using tabular analysis, economic and financial feasibility measures like Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Benifit Cost (BC) ratio and Pay Back Period (PBP). The results revealed that, per acre total establishment cost was ` 1,23,626.73 of which, ` 55,607.30 (44.98%) were variable cost and ` 68,019.40 (55.02%) were fixed cost. Further, the analysis of investment in fig orchard suggests that, the investment made in fig cultivation in the study area was economically viable with BCR greater than unity (3.01), positive NPV (` 749986.40) and IIR higher than prevailing rate of interest (12.00%). The payback period (3.44 years), was also desirable considering the total economic life of fig orchard. There is higher initial investment in fig orchards, therefore there is a need to provide financial assistance through enhanced scale of finance to the fig cultivators by institutional agencies to enhance the income of the farmers.

Microfinance as a financial tool has also seen ups and downs. During 2011, market commentators predicted the end of India’s microfinance market but as on 31 March 2014, there were more than 74.30 lakh savings-linked SHGs, covering over 9.7 crore poor households. The total savings of these SHGs with banks amounted to ` 9897.42 crore. The number of credit-linked SHGs under the programme was 41.97 lakh. In 2011, the government of the state of Andhra Pradesh was seeking to prohibit the microloans business. After the crisis, RBI has handled the sector very vigilantly, carefully and very thoughtfully. The National Bank continued to provide 100 per cent refinance assistance to banks for financing SHGs. The SHG–Bank Linkage Programme (SHG–BLP) has expanded substantially since it was first launched on a pilot scale in 1992. The geographical spread of the movement has also been quite impressive from an essentially Andhra Pradesh – Karnataka phenomenon in the beginning now spreading to even the most remote corners of India. This paper tries to address impact of microfinance on women self help group members in comparison with non-beneficiaries of the microfinance schemes. Study found that the impact of microfinance on rural women economic condition is positive and microfinance is reforming their life.

The present investigation was conducted to make critical examination of change, variation and growth of milk production of goat in various agro-climactic zones during period of study (1998-2012). Goat milk production in Rajasthan increased to 1656 thousand tonnes (current year) from 726.33 thousand tonnes (base year) showed 127.99 per cent change with a variation of 31.87 per cent during the study period (1998-2012). The production of goat milk increased with 6.43 per cent per annum of growth rate significantly with a magnitude of 67.79 thousand tonnes per year. The maximum growth and magnitude of goat milk production increased significantly in Arid Western Plain (8.97 per cent) and growth rate of goat milk production was found highly significant in Arid Western Plains.

Role of women employment is a vital indicator of development showing the proportion of the working population in Indian economy. In spite of high economic growth and significant upsurge in gender equality there is gender gap in economic participation in India. This research paper shows an analysis of women’s participation in agricultural employment with special reference to Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in India. Although the female population is higher in U.P. but female work participation is higher in Uttarakhand. The growth of female work participation almost remains constant. The level and nature of female labour force during the study period is not so good.

A sound infrastructural facility is the key to the overall socio-economic development of a state. Infrastructure facilities are the wheels of development without which the economy cannot function properly. This paper studies the level of physical and social infrastructural disparities in Kohima and Longleng districts using seven indicators such as education, health, banking, postal service, water supply, surface road cover and electricity. The data’s were than analyzed using Principal Components Analysis. The results shows that disparities in infrastructure facilities between rural and urban areas is high. The finding shows that 87.5 per cent of the urban areas are developed and moderately developed whereas, only 12.5 per cent of the rural areas are in developed and moderately developed. The paper concludes by suggesting that suitable policies for developing the backward areas.

The study was conducted to know the knowledge and Adoption level of transplanting method of pigeon pea cultivation practices in Kalaburagi district of North Eastern Karnataka, during the year 2014-15. The total sample of 120 was derived from three each taluks of a district using random sampling method. The study revealed that the maximum (47.50%) respondents had medium level of overall knowledge about transplanting method of pigeon pea cultivation. Whereas nursery management practices majority (100.00%) of the respondents had high level of knowledge regarding BSMR-736 Variety. With respect to main field management practices, majority of the farmers had high level knowledge regarding transplanting time June (81.67%). The overall adoption level of respondents about transplanting method of pigeon pea cultivation had medium level of adoption (45.00%). Whereas nursery management practices majority (70.83%) of the respondents had fully adopted BSMR-736 Variety. With respect to main field management practices, majority of the farmers had fully adopted five tonne/acre FYM application (61.66%).

The present study attempts to find out the relationship between real wage rate and labour productivity as well as the wage share and labour’s terms of trade in the manufacturing sector in India at both aggregated and disaggregated levels, during the post reform years. The empirical analysis reveals that in the organized manufacturing industry the declining wage share neutralizes the effect of increasing labour productivity resulting in stagnant wage rate growth. This absence of a link between productivity and real wage may be largely due to lower bargaining power and structural problems, including high unemployment, low wages, growing contractualisation of labour force and the large share of the informal sector in the Indian manufacturing sector. To bring back the economy to a stable growth path, efficient policy efforts on the part of the government are necessary to link productivity with real wage growth.

Adoption of new technology and sustainable utilization of resources can help cashewnut growers in minimizing the cost of production. New paradigm and challenges are needed for cashewnut growers of Meghalaya in solving the problem like recurrent price fluctuation, high inputs costs, marketing, storage and transportation cost, non-availability of adequate storage facilities, post harvest losses and lack of competitive marketing system. Cashewnut production plays a pivot role in fostering and sustaining the tempo of rural development in the study area. Meghalaya has become very popular in organic farming which gives very good returns from the Garo Hills region as well as export market. As the low input intensity of agriculture in Meghalaya and makes cashewnut ideally suited for organic produce is expected to boost up in near future due to the steps initiated under National Horticulture Mission for doubling the farm incomes. The study signifies and confirms the economics of cashewnut production for sustainable resource management, enhanced income generations and enlarged employment opportunities on a long term prospective.

Demonetization refers to an economic policy where certain currency units cease to be recognized as a form of legal tender. The Indian government had demonetized bank notes on three times 1946, 1978 and October-2016. In order to evaluate the impact of demonetization on digital payments, data was collected from May-2016 to October-2017 from NPCI web portal. Exploratory data analysis indicated debit card users increased by 414 percent followed by NEFT by 155 and RTGS by 122 percent. The mobile transaction was seen to have highest CAGR of 3.40 percent. A similar trend followed in case of the value of transactions i.e., the highest growth was in a debit card with 205 percent followed by mobile and NEFT by 193 and 178 percent respectively. Overall, the study concluded that there was a significant effect of demonetization on digital payments.

The study examines the impact of pre-monsoon rainfall deviation on maize yield in Manipur. Secondary data on rainfall was extracted from high resolution 0.50×0.50 daily gridded data obtained from India Meteorological Department for the period of twenty-eight years (1980-2007). The annual yield of maize was regressed on time trend and rainfall (January, February, March, April, May). Different regression models were worked out using different explanatory variables and functional form and the log-lin model turns out to be the best model based on logistic (sign and coefficients), statistical (p-value) and econometric (value of R-square) criteria. The regression model shows that time trend has positive and significant (1% level of significance) impact on yield of maize and March rainfall deviation has negative and significant (5% level of significance) impact on yield of maize. This is because, in Manipur, the tasseling and silking stage (critical stage of maize) falls during March. Hence, 1 per cent increase in March deviation leads to 5.6 unit decrease in yield of maize. The study recommended planting of drought-tolerant maize variety in the study area.

Potato is an important cash crop of Himachal Pradesh. Although, potato production in the state is very less, it fetches higher price than potato from plain areas due to its off seasonality. The study of potato marketing in hilly region is necessary to find out the share of profit made by farmers and other intermediaries in the marketing channel. Therefore, current study was attempted to find out marketing cost, margins, price spread and marketing efficiency of potato produced in Shimla hills. The interview schedule was used to collect primary data from 40 potato growers from Shimla and wholesalers as well as retailers from Chandigarh market. The collected data were analyzed by using suitable tools of statistics and economic measures. The findings indicated that majority of potato was sold to wholesalers at Chandigarh market through commission agent. The marketed surplus of potato was nearly 80 per cent of total produce and 15 per cent was retained by farmers for seed purpose. The average cost of marketing of 1 quintal of potato was found to be one fourth of consumer price. More than half of total marketing cost was borne by the farmer. The producers share in consumer rupees was found to be 66 per cent. The marketing efficiency was estimated to be 1.95 by Acharya and Agrawal method. Higher transportation cost and shortage of labour for post-harvest operation were major constraints. In order to reduce marketing cost borne by farmers, cooperative marketing should be initiated in Shimla hills. Farmers need to be grouped as Farmer Producer Society (FPOs) to increase their share in consumer rupees.

The present study studies the environmental and health effects of chemical pesticide use and quantified by using the Environmental impact quotient method (Kovach 1992). In order to compare the Environmental impact quotient (EIQ) a study was made on Bt and conventional cotton farmers in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. The study revealed that bollworm incidence was highly reduced in Bt cotton cultivation especially in fruiting stage of American bollworm and Pink bollworm. The quantity and frequency of pesticide application was also reduced in Bt cotton cultivation especially the quantity with a proportion of 93.61 per cent. The expenditure for the pesticides was high in conventional cotton as compared to Bt cotton by 77.19 per cent. The perception of farmers towards economic, environmental and social aspects favoured Bt cotton. The total environmental impact for conventional cotton with EIQ field rating was 157.76. The total environmental impact for Bt cotton with EIQ field rating was 16.23. Total environmental impact for pesticides in Bt cotton was low by 89.52 per cent as compared to conventional cotton due to the reduction of pesticides used for controlling Bollworm in Bt cotton. Hence farmers have to be educated about the ill effects of over use of plant protection chemicals in conventional cotton and to adopt the Bt farming technology to reduce the effect of pesticides on environment and ecosystem by conducting awareness programmes and crop seminars by the Agriculture Department.

The cotton industry has witnessed many technological breakthroughs as well as policy changes. Setbacks such as disease and pest infestation and erratic rainfall patterns continuously confront cotton cultivation. These continuous changes and confrontations invariably affect the trend, growth and stability of the economic performances of cotton. Hence, based on secondary data from 1966-67 to 2013-14, the study assessed the trends, growth and instability in area, production and yield of cotton in Haryana using semi-log linear function, compounded annual growth rate and Cuddy Della Valle Index. The study revealed a positive significant (P<0.01) trends with low annual growth rates of area of harvest (2.00%), production (3.99%) and yield (1.66%). Instability was high and also inclined at an annual rate of 30.96% in area, 25.76% in production and 28.04% productivity in the same order. The study, therefore, recommended the development and spread of innovations at an affordable price to farmers. Effective disease and pest control measures should be developed to check the perennial pest infestation of cotton in the state.

The upcoming modern retail store for fruits and vegetables have a very pronounced impact on its market and have led to the emergence of new supply chains all across the country. The present study was undertaken in Hisar and Karnal district of Haryana to compare the marketing efficiency of fruits and vegetables supply chain. For the present study a sample size of 200 respondents and two supply chains for fruits and vegetables were chosen purposefully. The findings of the study revealed that the modern supply chain (MSC) for fruits and vegetables was more efficient than the traditional supply chain (TSC) for both the fruits and vegetables. The percentage of physical losses at traditional supply chain was found to be 20.6 per cent while in the modern supply chain it was only 6.66 per cent. The index of marketing efficiency was found to be 1.06 in MSC of vegetables as against the 0.77 in TSC, whereas for fruits the marketing efficiency index was found to be 2.49 in MSC as compared to 1.99 in TSC. The share of the producer in consumer’s rupee was found to be 52 and 43 per cent in MSC and TSC respectively for vegetables. However, producers share in consumer’s rupee was found to be 70 and 66 per cent in MSC and TSC of fruits. The major factors contributing to the efficiency of MSC were found to be a short length of the supply chain, packaging and less physical loss in the MSC.

This research attempts to uncover the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in Bangladesh adopting co-integration and causality analysis using time series data spanning from 1972 to 2011. It takes under consideration the variables Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Electricity Consumption (EC) and Carbon dioxide emission (CO2) to fulfill the research objective. Adopting Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) tests of unit root, it is observed that the first differences of all the three variables are stationary which indicates that the variables are co-integrated of order 1. The trace test and maximum Eigen value of Johansen co-integration test confirm that all the variables are co-integrated with one co-integrating vector. Besides, using Impulse Response Functions (IFRs) of Vector Auto-regression (VAR), the possible forecasting for the relationship of the variables has been performed. The empirical result based on Granger F-test reveals existence of unidirectional causality running from Electricity Consumption (EC) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Electricity Consumption (EC) to Carbon dioxide emission (CO2) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to Carbon dioxide emission (CO2) without having any reverse causation. Thus, it implies that Electricity Consumption (EC) affects both Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Carbon dioxide emission (CO2) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) drives only Carbon dioxide emission (CO2) in short run without feedback in the long run.

In this paper, an attempt has been made to measure the empowerment of women in terms of sustained increase in income earning capacity accompanied by a freedom of choice in families which have come across out-migration of male members. This measure of empowerment of women is mainly based on three indicators, viz. restrictions placed on them, their decision-making powers and their mobility. This study shows that out-migration of male members has not generated any significant impact on the empowerment of women members of those families. The most general factors which increase mobility of women, the decision-making power and relatively less social restrictions placed on them are age, their education, marital duration, residential status and occupation.

Lemon production is a profitable enterprise as it improves the economic life of the farmers. The study was conducted in three villages of Lungchong Maiphei block in Ukhrul district of Manipur. Samples of 90 respondents were selected randomly by using Proportionate Random Sampling method. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of area is positive for all the districts. The highest growth rate at 38.85% was recorded in Tamenglong followed by Senapati (23.68%) and Ukhrul (18.12%). Total cost of cultivation for lemon was ` 98301.31/ha. The total net farm income was ` 206886.67/ha. Net present value and payback period were found to be ` 61816.36 and 7.5 respectively. The Benefit Cost ratio (BCR) over total cost was equal to 1.23 indicating lemon production was economically viable.

The paper presents a conceptual framework on vulnerability to climate change. Vulnerability is a multi-dimensional process and is calculated by identifying the indicators of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Among the components of vulnerability, exposure followed by sensitivity has the highest contribution but they cannot be controlled directly as the climatic factors that influence vulnerability like temperature, rainfall and natural disasters were beyond the immediate control of policy makers. The only option to reduce vulnerability is to increase adaptive capacity. Hence, policy makers should make arrangement for increasing adaptive capacity so as to reduce vulnerability.

This paper deals with seasonal migration of labour in the high altitude Leh town. Ladakh region has emerged as an attractive spot for investment due to tourism, strategic importance and cultural diversity which subsequently generated employment in the informal sector and seasonal jobs. Low population density but high labour demand in this region has led to the labour in-migration from within the state, other developing Indian states (like Bihar, UP, Odisha, Jharkhand etc.) of India as well as from Nepal. Due to extreme climate, access barrier and high transport cost, labourers are compelled to move there in the ‘summer’ only, where there are comparatively higher income opportunities. This paper aims to understand the migrant labour dynamics, their negotiations and the policy and actions gaps towards beneficial of the labour rights. This study was conducted with the mixed method approach of social research with the data collection techniques of participant observation, focused group discussion, in-depth interview and collection of secondary data from various government offices. Findings reveal the precarious conditions of the seasonal labours in their workplace and staying, violations of labour rights, lack of organisation, local bias towards them.

US wine sales approached $60 billion in 2016, of which, an estimated $39.8 billion was generated from domestic wine sales and the remainder from imports. On average, 120 million Americans, age 21 and older, drink wine, which is approximately 36% of total population (330 million). Wine consumer demographic characteristics play a significant role in the wine consumption decisions. Results from a logit regression show that the following groups more likely to buy local wine than their counterparts for example: New York residents; consumers between 45 and 64 years of age old; males; those with annual household incomes between $76,000 and $200,000; participants with a bachelor’s degree or higher; those who drink wine once a week or two to three times a week; those who purchase wine to consume during different occasions; those who purchase wine for everyday purposes to be consumed in their home; those who purchase wine to be added to their collections or to be consumed at a later time are more likely to buy local wine; those who often drink wine with food, when at a social gathering with family and friends, or at the end of the day to relax, are more likely to purchase local wine. The assessment of consumers’ willingness to buy locally produced wine will help producers, wholesalers, and retailers target likely buyers based on segments.

The MSME plays a vital role in providing large employment opportunities at comparatively lower capital than large scale industries. It also helps in industrialization of rural and backward areas and assuring more equitable distribution of national income and wealth. However this sector is continuously facing many challenges and the biggest bottleneck to this sector is the weak institutional financial support. Therefore, in order to provide more institutional finance to the sector, “funding the unfunded” and promote entrepreneurship and self employment in the country government need a specialized financial institution. Thus, Government has created MUDRA. The main objectives of MUDRA are to create an inclusive, sustainable and value based entrepreneurial culture for achieving economic success and financial security and more income and employment opportunities which are the preconditions for inclusive growth. Through establishment of MUDRA, this sector can be used an important tool to achieve financial inclusion and inclusive growth. MUDRA provides refinance support to banks and MFIs for lending to micro units having loan requirements up to ` 10 lakh.

This paper attempts to examine the change in the occupational distribution of workforce and access to land with special reference to marginalized groups in the post-independence period considering a case study of Gudiwada village of Nalgonda district in Telangana state. From our analysis of the data on land distribution among the households shows that, huge inequality exists among the social groups. In the village SCs and STs are deprived from having the land. Over the period land has been transformed from the others to OBCs but not to the SCs and STs. There is small increase in the land holding situation of SCs over the 40 years and there is no change in the STs land holdings situation. There exists a clear discrimination in accessing the land. Over the 1830 acres of the village land, only 28 acres of land on the name of the female in the 2016-17. Gender discrimination is visible both in landholdings and in wage. Only in case of MGNREGA female labour are getting more or less equal wage along with male labour. Within the households gender equality in terms of decision making is observed among the SC and ST households. It is also found that the gap between marginal farmers and agricultural laborers and rich farmers in terms of monthly per capita consumption is wide. Hence, special measures like strict implementation of land reforms, redistributing surplus land, waste lands among marginalized agricultural laborers and marginal farmers required to be taken up on priority while implementing the programmes, which improve their economic asset base and skills particularly education as it enables them to shift to non-farming employment.

The present study indicated that in 1997-98, the numbers of demonstrations, area covered, average percentage of yield increase over the local check variety and numbers of farmers adopting the new variety except the already existing FLD partner farmers reached a point of high. However, the B: C ratio was highest in 1995-96. From then the performances of the demonstrations on black gram took a downhill trend till 2010-11. This situation prevailed mainly due to presence of improved high yielding local variety lowering the average increase of yield of the demonstrated variety over the local variety, increased cost of cultivation and stagnant market prices mainly due to absence of local dal milling units. From 2013-14 and especially after the launch of the cluster FLD programme, the performances are being brightened up. This achievement has been possible mainly due to choice of the high yielding improved varieties like WBU – 108 and WBU – 109 which are less than 10 years old after its official release, disseminating the pulse production technology through an integrated approach involving improved seeds, micro-nutrients and Rhizobium inoculations and integrated plant protection technologies and establishment of mini-dal processing units throughout the district with central sector assistance and enhanced minimum support price as announced by Government of India.

Agriculture is highly dependent on rainfall. Any irregularities impact the production and farm income of the rural households. Hence it is important to estimate the impact of rainfall on farm income in order to understand the extent of dependence and responsiveness of agriculture income on climate parameters. Analysis of the time series data on rainfall for the period 1901 to 2015 of Chitradurga district exposed the existence of breaks in the series. Auto-regressive error correction model revealed a significant influence of rainfall received on agricultural GDP of Chitradurga district of central dry zone.

There is a debate about the role of Foreign Direct Investment (specially from Developed nations to developing nations) for raising economic growth of the host nation. Some researchers’ support that FDI raises the economic growth of the host country since it brings sophisticated technology, efficient management, raises employment opportunities and fills the gap between domestic savings and investment. Other researchers think that no entrepreneur wants to sacrifice their self interest for interest of a foreign nation. Hence, whatever the positive outcome for FDI inflow put forwarded by MNCs or developed nations ultimately these FDI sucks the main juice of a less developed nations and try to keep a control on the central government of that poor nations. Empirical finding also shows the impacts of FDI on economic growth is not unique. The outcome depends on many factors of the receiving nations. Under these circumstances this paper tries to investigate this FDI inflow, Export and economic growth nexus in the economy of India by applying a newly developed econometric tools ARDL Bound Cointegration Approach.

Cumin is the dried, white fruit with greyish brown colour of a small slender annual herb. The surface of the fruit has 5 primary ridges, alternatively has 4 less distinct secondary ridges bearing numerous short hairs. The flowers are white or rose-colored in small umbels. By and large there has been considerable expansion in area and production of cumin in Gujarat, Rajasthan and whole India. Considering the productivity of cumin except Gujarat remaining state Rajasthan and whole India registered the negative growth rate. Moreover, in states and whole India different factors are influencing productivity of cumin; by and large nitrogen is the major factor to significantly effect on the cumin productivity. Also forecasting has been done using comparing ARIMA and GARCH model for year 2020. Globally seeing the cumin seed demand this forecasting can be used policy implications and future trend of production and productivity of cumin in India and major states. This helps shows that cumin production reached 375 and 562 ‘000 tonnes in year 2020 for Gujarat and whole India respectively.

A dynamic model of forestry has been developed for the dryland areas of West Bengal. Harvest of both timber and non-timber forest products are considered and it has been assumed that a part of harvest of non-timber forest products is a function of harvest of timber products. Sensitivity analysis has been done by perturbating various parameters like change in the proportion of timber harvest obtained as non-timber forest products, change in the intrinsic growth rate of forest stock and also change in the discount rate. The model shows that the stakeholders associated with forestry in our study area are very much concerned about sustainability of forests due to lack of alternative livelihood opportunities. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the paper shows that an increase in the proportion of timber harvest obtained as non-timber forest products reduces the optimal harvest of timber and also reduces the welfare of foresters.

A two-year field trial was conducted from 2012-13 and 2013-14 at Horticulture Complex, Maharajpur, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur (M.P.). Application 520: 160: 450 NPK g plant-1 and Vermicompost (25 kg) + Oil cake (2.5 kg) + Azotobacter + VAM + TV + PSB (100g each) registered higher concentration of N (2.59 and 2.78%), K (62.90 and 77.82 mg kg-1), Zn (27.33 and 230.03mg kg-1), Cu (9.53 and 10.51 mg kg-1), Fe (196.93 and 213.10 mg kg-1) and Mn (88.57 and 98.03 mg kg-1) was in leaves of shoot bearing malformed panicle than healthy once. Whereas, higher concentration of P (0.37 and 0.34%) was in leaves of shoots bearing healthy panicle. Similarly, higher dry accumulation was with malformed panicles over healthy one. The minimum severity and intensity (1.8m2 and 9.42%) of malformed panicle was noted when plant nourished with 100% RDF of chemical fertilizer (415: 130: 360 NPK g plant-1) or (2.2m2 and 12.15%) organic sources of nutrient (Vermicompost (25 kg) + Oil cake (2.5 kg) + Azotobacter + VAM + TV + PSB (100g each) or its combination registered (1.2m2 and 5.56%).

With the advent of higher level of trading in commodities, investors’ focus has moved towards commodity market in recent years. Efficiency of the markets is the main area of concern for market players and always considered a valuable addition to the body of knowledge on investment management. Among all the commodities traded in Indian commodity market, bullions and base metals have emerged as a bigger area of interest for the investors. Industrial usage of these commodities with their participation in individual’s investor portfolio as an investment avenue, increases their relative importance among other commodities. This paper examines the weak-form of Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) for both the segments. The period of study is 8 years, commencing from 2009, daily spot prices of commodities have been used to test the market efficiency in weak form. The weak form efficiency is thoroughly scrutinized with the help of graphs, runs test, augmented dicker fully and variance ratio test. The results of all the tests deployed in the study are consistent with each other and confirms the weak-form inefficient behavior of bullions and base metals.

The present study seeks to review the current status of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and financial inclusion in India. For the sustainable development of the Indian economy, the Government of India launches Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on 28th August 2014. Financial inclusion is an innovative idea which empowers the alternative techniques to encourage the banking traditions and acts as an enabler in reducing the poverty. A total of 18.28 crores accounts have been opened in rural areas by public sector bank, Regional Rural Bank (RRB) and private sector bank by 7th Feb 2018. Thus, 31.07 crores accounts have been opened in rural and urban areas. An amount of ` 74534.79 crores was in accounts which were opened under PMJDY. Household coverage was 100% in the district wise account opening report of Haryana state, while household coverage found 100 per cent in North Zone of India except J&K (99.71%). We can say that PMJDY scheme is playing a significant role in creating a universal platform for financial services for every citizen of India.