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The domain of international business has become increasingly diversified with hitherto unrelated areas becoming important aspects affecting international business. This interdisciplinarity with other domains has led to more vibrance in our understanding of important IB issues and FOCUS: Journal of International Business continues in its endeavour to publish papers that integrate IB with other related domains so as to bring greater value addition to our readers. In this issue of FOCUS, while some papers deal with core areas of international business such as bilateral trade, sectoral growth, and savings and investment in an economy, there are others that touch upon less explored areas impinging upon international business such as sports diplomacy and energy indices.
              In the wake of renewed emphasis by nations on manufacturing sector to maintain an economy’s growth, the paper by Dr. Sarbapriya Ray and Mr. Abhijeet Bag investigates the nature of structural changes of manufacturing sectors of selected countries including India. They observe that a turn-down or boost-up in the growth rate of manufacturing sector will pessimistically or optimistically have an effect on the growth rate of the services sector in the long-run. Based on their analysis of countries selected for study, they find that manufacturing plays a crucial role in developing economies whereas services is much more vital in developed economies.
An interesting paper by Prof. K. V. Bhanumurthy and Ms. Sakshi Gambhir on the ‘Conceptualization and measurement of Energy Index (EI) Use in the South Asian Context’ measures energy use as a composite index in the region. The authors find that growth in per capita energy use is responsible for pushing the aggregate energy use disproportionately which implies that individual behavioural patterns in energy use are responsible for growth in energy use in the region.
              In view of the popular belief of the role of savings in investment generation and in achieving high growth, Dr. Saswati Chaudhuri and Mr. Mukund Khemka, in their paper, attempt to identify the determinants of gross savings rate in selected countries. The authors show that, while for developed economies, HDI and age dependency tend to explain and determine gross savings successfully, for developing economies a firm conclusion cannot be drawn.
              An interesting dimension of international business has been captured by Prof. Nagalaxmi M. Raman and Mr. Vakul Tandon, in their paper on ‘Sports Diplomacy and Global Affairs’. This paper analyzes important questions regarding how international sporting events can act as bargaining chips to bolster relations between the countries, and how sports can be used as a tool for soft power. The authors also assert that sports can be used as a form of conflict management to unite alienated populations and countries, through shared affection, competitiveness, and games.
              Dr. Mayengbam Lalit Singh and Mr. Chingshubam Manimohon Singh, in their paper, examine whether EU’s sanctions on Russia has led to greater bilateral trade between India and Russia. Employing simulation analysis, the authors show greater trade creation and diversion for India’s export of food and manufactured items as compared to India’s import from Russia during the study period.
              This issue of Focus has two review papers. The first one is on ‘Role of Bilateral Investment Treaties in promoting FDI: A critical review of literature with special reference to developing economies’. In view of the recent proliferation of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), the authors critically review the existing studies in this area so as to understand the role of BITs in attracting FDI into developing countries. They find that while some of the early studies have shown weak impact of BITs on FDI inflows, more recent studies indicate that BITs have a strong impact on FDI inflows into developing countries. The other review paper by Mr. Tausheef Alam and Dr. Phool Chand reviews existing studies on high technology product exports to find out the key drivers of high-tech exports in advanced and emerging economies. The authors find that inward FDI and R&D expenditure are two very important factors affecting high-tech exports of both advanced and emerging economies.              
              As always, we hope to get continued patronage of our readers and authors to make consistent improvements in the quality of the journal. The editorial team thanks all the authors for stimulating discussion on interesting issues in international business. 
Wishing all our readers a happy, prosperous and joyous 2022!

Prof. Niti Bhasin
Editor