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In the times, when the entire world scenario is changing owing to the Russia-Ukraine war, then, a Bi-lateral agreement for FTA (Free Trade Area) between India and Australia is a very imperative step towards economic cooperation. This agreement (India-Australia Economic Cooperation & Trade Agreement: (ECTA) becomes even more significant when Australia is in the list of countries who are continuously imposing stringent sanctions against Russia. India has a different stand on Russia and despite if Australian government has agreed upon a Free Trade Area Agreement, it is something which is vital and has several implications. It clearly indicates that bilateral relations are going to play a very conducive role in the coming years. As Australia is also a part of QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) and is apprehensive of the expansion strategy of China and its increasing dominance in the South -China Sea, this bilateral agreement is also a tough message to Beijing. It is expected that five years down the line the trade between India and Australia will increase from 27 billion US Dollars to 50 billion US dollars.

Keywords: Free Trade Agreement, Trade, Export, Import, Market Access, Bilateral Relations.

The purpose of this empirical research is to develop a new model, namely economics service quality in self-help groups (SHGs QUAL) in India for the measurement of service quality. Data were collected by means of structured questionnaire comprising eight Sections. Section A consists of eight questions pertaining to Team Work (TW). Section B consists of eight questions pertaining to Welfare Schemes by Government (WSG). Section C consists of seven questions relating to Technological Implementation (TI). Section D consists of nine questions related to the Credit Facilities (CF). Section E consists of seven questions pertaining to Market Promotion (MP). Section F consists of nine questions pertaining to Product Quality (PQ). Section G consists of six questions pertaining to Economic Service Quality (ESQ). Section H consists of five questions pertaining to Social Development (SD). Finally, in part I 9 questions pertaining to respondent’s (SHGs Member’s) demographic profile information were given. All the items in sections A-H were presented as statements on the questionnaire, with the same rating scale used throughout, and measured on a seven-point, Likert-type. In addition to the main scale addressing individual items, respondent’s (SHGs Member’s) were asked in section H to provide an overall rating of the economic service quality, satisfaction level. For conducting an empirical study, data were collected from SHGs Members of India. The sampling procedure used for the study was stratified random sampling. The stratification has been done based on the blocks are Perambalure (Perambalure District), Jayakondam (Ariyalur District), Veralimalai (Pudhukottai District), Thogamalai (Karur District) and Manikandam (Trichy District) for the nature of region south, east, west and north while selecting the groups from each category, non-probabilistic convenience and judgmental sampling technique was used. However, within such block, the respondents were selected by stratified random sampling. The data collected were analyzed for the entire sample.The model described in this empirical research will assist self-help groups when mapping the level of economics service quality and thereby enhance the same.

Keywords: Modelling, Mediating Effects, Self Help Groups, Economics Service Quality, India and Service Quality assurance.

The study evaluated the application of triple bottom line reporting model by oil, gas and plastic production firms and the effects on infrastructural development in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria from 2011-2023. Triple bottom line reporting focuses on providing information on economic, social and environmental activities of the companies. Specifically, three objectives were formulated. Purposively, eleven (11) oil and gas and 23 plastics production companies constituted the sample size of this study between 2011 and 2023. Ex-Post facto research design and content analysis were adopted while secondary data were extracted from the annual reports and accounts of the sampled companies and were analysed using E-Views 10.0 statistical software. This study utilised descriptive statistics and inferential statistics via Pearson correlation and Panel Least Square (PLS) regression analysis. Findings from the empirical analysis showed that economic bottom line reporting has a significant and positive effect on infrastructural development (?1 = 0.139780; p-value = 0.0000); Social bottom line reporting has a significant and positive effect on infrastructural development (?2 = 0.189075; p-value = 0.0001); Environmental bottom line reporting has a significant and positive effect on infrastructural development (?3= 0.647667; p-value = 0.0000) of oil and gas and plastics production companies in Nigeria at 5% level of significance. The study concludes that the elements of triple bottom line reporting considered in this study are important variables in explaining cash flow return on investment of quoted oil and gas firms in Nigeria. It was recommended among others that corporate firms should undertake more social responsibility and environmental responsibility in order to strengthen their relationship with stakeholders and then improve corporate image and market competition.

Keywords: Economic Bottom Line Reporting, Social Bottom Line Reporting, Environmental Bottom Line Reporting and infrastructural development.

obtained using data from 10 SSA countries and over a 16-year horizon from 2008 to 2024, suggest long-term indifference of stock market development on economic growth. Economic growth being measured by the growth rate of real Gross Domestic Product per capita and the development of the stock market approximated by the size of the stock market, the turnover rate in volume and the liquidity of the stock market. The comparison of the two models allowed us to set up the Granger causality test which predictably gave us nothing concerning the direction of causality. We concluded that the SSA stock markets outside South Africa, considered homogeneous, were not yet sufficiently developed to have a positive impact on economic growth.

Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa, Stock market development, Economic growth, Panel data, causality.
JEL Codes: E 43, G17