Journal Press India^®

            We are pleased to present to our readers this issue of MUDRA that is an amalgam of some very interesting, upcoming and topical issues in the areas of accounting and finance. As always, our effort has been to have a diversified basket of pertinent areas that enhance and enrich our understanding of accounting and finance.         

            The lead paper in the issue is on derivatives market in India with special focus on credit derivatives. There has been proliferation of different types of credit derivatives in several countries since the 1990s. This paper examines various forms of credit derivatives such as Credit default swap, total return swap, and credit linked note. In addition, it analyses the benefits and risks involved in credit derivatives.

              The importance of banking system in the smooth functioning of an economy can hardly be overstated. This issue has a special focus on banking with three papers devoted to the functioning and performance of different types of banks in India. One of the papers does a comparative analysis of priority sector lending by private and public sector banks. The authors find that although the prescribed target of priority sector lending has been largely achieved, an important concern that merits the attention of policymakers is the shrinking share of priority sector credit in net bank credit over a period of time by both the public and private sector banks. Another paper on banking has a focus on Regional Rural Banks, which have been players in the regional and rural banking field since 1970s, and have continuously mobilised small savings from and disbursing credit to primary livelihoods. The paper focuses on policies and practices of Regional Rural Banks in Odisha, which have seen a legacy of accumulated losses, a ballooning quantum of NPAs, and rising incidence of frauds. Since these continue to be a drag on their prospects, a holistic reform which addresses all these concerns along with infusing a vibrant work culture in RRBs is the need of the hour. The third paper on banking is a case study on Kangra Central Co-operative Bank and its financial performance. The study demonstrates that there are significant differences between different study time periods on the performance of the banks in terms of share capital, deposits, borrowing and profitability, market coverage, outstanding advances, profits, shareholder funds and management quality.

            Recent times have seen tremendous advancements in banking technology, progress in mobile banking and innovative technologies to facilitate digital payments. In this context, the payment and settlement system of a country is crucial for the successful implementation of monetary policy and maintaining the financial stability. The paper on ‘Developments in the payment system architecture of India’ examines the various types of payment systems in India along with the developments aimed at improving the efficiency of Payments system. The paper is very topical and gives a very comprehensive overview of all recent developments in the payments system such as digital wallet, AEPS, UPI, RuPay, USSD and BHIM.

            Another interesting paper is on ‘Users’ Perspective of Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in India’. There has been a paradigm shift in financial reporting after the introduction of XBRL, a language for electronic communication of business and financial data. The paper attempts to know the users’ awareness about XBRL, and on the basis of the findings, conclude that there is more understandability, reliability, and relevance of financial statements among the users along with easier comparison of XBRL reports across companies.

We hope that our readers appreciate the issue and provide us their continued encouragement and feedback to help us in including contemporary and interesting topics in the upcoming issues.

Prof. Muralidhar A. Lokhande

Dr. Jitendra Janardan Ahirrao

         Editors