Journal Press India^®

This issue contains 8 articles in all. One of them is a review paper. The rest are research articles. They are on varied subjects of current interests in the Indian Economy. The subjects span women’s issues, education and unemployment. These are certainly the currently debated issues. The last article is a review paper on Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG).

The lead article is on “Empowerment of Indian Women: An Inter-State Comparative Analysis with Special Reference to West Bengal”, by Archita Nayak and Kanti Paul. The paper is an inter-state study that analyses women empowerment. It is based on data obtained from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5). For each of the indicators and indices, the top five and bottom five states/UTs have been mentioned. Indian states/UTs have been ranked on the basis of the values of the selected indicators and the indices introduced.

“Creating an Education Index to Assess Gaps in Education Outcomes in Aspirational Districts” by Aakash Mehrotra and Ritika Gupta, is based on a set of special Indices developed for assessing challenges faced by aspirational districts and blocks in India. Utilizing data from the Department of School Education and Literacy (2021-22) the research introduces the Student Progress and Facility Index (SPFI).

A Study on Indian Stock Market by Gangadhara B. and Bheemana Gouda studies Investment Horizon and Portfolio Performance, examines the portfolio performance across various investment horizons. By analysing data from four major indices from National Stock Exchange over a twenty-year period from 2004 to 2023. It explores how different time horizons affect return, risk, and the return-to-risk ratio of a portfolio.

“Exploring Asymmetric Volatility Spillovers among Major Bombay Stock Exchange Indices”, by Satish Kumar and Devinder Sharma examines the return and volatility characteristics of selected indices from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), specifically focusing on the Greenex, Energy, Utility, and Healthcare indices. Employing Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) family of models, the research identifies significant volatility clustering, persistence, and leverage effects among the indices.

A technical paper by Debasish Mondal and Rajib Dolai emphasizes the “Necessity of Incorporating Break-in-trend in Aggregate Time Series Data: Evidence from Agricultural GDP in India.” This paper examines the importance of break analysis in time series data for obtaining the best-fitted curve, using agricultural GDP data in India as a case study.

“Income, Assets and Employment Generation through MGNREGA in Shillai Block of Himachal Pradesh,” by Tek Singh and Ranjana Kumari shows that the income earned from the MGNREGA shows highest by marginal holdings farmers (4.77per cent) followed by small and medium size of holdings farmers (3.92 and 1.73 per cent). Finally, the review paper: “Mapping ESG Trends: A Bibliometric Study on Environmental, Social and Governance” by Poonam and Sandeep Aggarwal, shows how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations have gained escalating attention across both domestic and international establishments.

Happy reading.

Prof. K. V. Bhanu Murthy
Editor-in-chief