Journal Press India^®

We are pleased to bring to our readers another insightful issue of MUDRA: Journal of Finance and Accounting that include papers dealing with conventionally important aspects of accounting and finance as well as those papers that relate these issues to contemporary developments such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
            The paper by Mahesh Bendigeri and R L Hyderabad examines the effectiveness of audit committee attributes on the firm performance of CNX Nifty listed firms in India. Measuring firm performance with ‘return on assets’ and Tobin Q, the authors conclude that in the Indian context not all the audit committee attributes have a significant impact on firm performance. Rajveer S. Rawlin and Savitha Rani Ramachandran examine the drivers of profitability of public sector banks in India. Employing various micro and macro determinants over the period from 2008-2020, they conclude that asset quality has proven to be the most important driver of public sector bank profitability in India.
            A topical paper on ‘An Empirical analysis of the Indian sectoral indices in response to Covid-19 Pandemic’ by Sharmistha Ghosh employs non-parametric test to find out whether the pandemic had an impact on the stock market or the sectors of the economy. It also aims to find out the sensitivity of the different sectors to the market with such pandemic affecting the world. The results of the analysis show that there is no significant difference in the market index returns and the sectoral indices returns between the pre-Covid and post-Covid outbreak period. Another paper that examines the impact of turbulent times during the pandemic is by Tarini Bakshi who analyses systematic risk and performance through changing market volatility and sectors. The paper specifically focuses on beta as a measure of risk and follows the monthly and quarterly values across a period of nearly three years, including turbulent trading periods during the pandemic. The paper by Parul Mittal on ‘A Study on Capital Structure Puzzle and Directions for Future’ assesses the financial output effect of capital structure variables. The results of the analysis show that the effect on corporate financial output of the asset structure, liquidity and inflation rates in India is mediated by firm leverage.
            This issue of MUDRA has two review papers. The first one by Rajiv Kumar Goel and Harmanpreet Kaur provides a comprehensive and quantifiable review of research on market efficiency, price discovery and volatility in commodity futures and its progression to establish a research gap in prevailing literature. The analysis highlights most impactful authors, prominent journals and most productive countries based on various parameters like total publications, total citations or h-index.  The second review paper is by Anusha Goel who reviews research studies for the JAM trinity, i.e. performance of Jan Dhan Yojana scheme and factors impacting ownership/usage of accounts, role and risk assessment of Aadhaar Card, and pros and cons in the adoption of mobile banking.
         There is one case study in this issue on the financial performance of Urban Local Bodies with a special reference to the state of West Bengal by Tarit Kanti Sen and Manas Chakraborti. Five different financial aspects are considered to measure the comparative financial performance.
           We are happy to inform our readers that we have been receiving very encouraging feedback from our authors as well as reviewers regarding the continuously improving quality of papers and this has motivated us even more to work tirelessly in the direction of taking the journal to new heights.

Prof. Muralidhar A. Lokhande
Dr. Pavnesh Kumar
         Editors