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This study investigates the determinants and extent of adoption of TCFD reporting frameworks by the listed corporate entities of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Using content analysis on annual reports of 31 TCFD supporting ASX listed corporate entities, this study quantifies the extent of climate related risk disclosure by counting both, the number of words and pages. The investigation of the study found only 34 of over 2000 ASX listed corporate entities supported the framework till December 2020. The findings of the study claim that the intention of the reporting entities- integrated reporting with annual report and separate reporting as sustainability report, plays significant roles in adopting and disclosing TCFD reporting frameworks. More specifically, 70% of the supporting companies follow separate reporting strategy and disclose significantly more climate related financial risks than their counterparts.

Keywords: TCFD, Climate change, ASX, Integrated, Separate, Reporting

Globally childhood malnutrition manifesting as stunting, wasting, underweight and overweight is the biggest cause of disease burden and millions of deaths of children under five years. India is home to more than one-third of the world's malnourished children despite being one of the first countries in the world to implement a strong and universal immunisation programme. Empirical evidence suggests a strong positive effect of maternal education on the health of children. This paper analyses the effect of maternal education on the nutritional status of children in India using the 2015-16 fourth round National Family Health Survey (NFHS-IV) data and applying the multinomial logistic regression method. The estimated odds ratios show that maternal education significantly reduces the risks of the child being stunted or wasted or underweight or all of these. A woman, with at least primary education gives better care and health to her child and helps reduce the risk of the child being malnourished. Months of breastfeeding, child's birth weight, mother's age, and place of delivery are the other determinants of the nutritional status of children in India.

Keywords: Mother's education, empowerment, intra-household allocation, child health, malnutrition, multinomial logit estimation.

The objective of this paper is to examine the tail-risk dependence networks in the US commodity sectors: agriculture, livestock, energy, industrial and precious metals before and during COVID-19. Applying penalised quantile regression models extended with the dummy variable for the COVID-19 period in daily commodity returns and in the time horizon 3/1/2012 to 31/5/2022, CoVaR estimations are provided. The main empirical results are that (i) COVID has affected the tail-risk connectedness between commodities in the case of their extreme good events (ii) energy sector has remained a risk receiver in the risk-network of commodities independently of their conditions (welfare, burst) and (iii) the risk transmission linkages between commodity sectors are mostly positive. As a result, all commodity markets counterparts (farmers, investors, policymakers, governments) should not ignore pandemic uncertainties, as well that shocks in the other commodities sectors can control the booms and bursts of the energy sector. Finally, commodity markets seem to attract more speculators than hedgers. To the best of author(s) knowledge this is the first research paper that examines formally potential difference in the pattern of the tail risk dependence of the 5 US commodity sectors with respect to COVID’s existence and defines new connectedness measures for the detection of the tailrisk net transmitters and receivers of the US commodity sectors’ network.

Keywords: Commodity sectors, Tail- risk network, COVID-19

JEL Classification: C5, D8, Q02

Indian consumption pattern is diversifying towards high value agricultural products in search of a nutritious and healthier diet. The study analyses the trends of changing Indian food baskets in terms of social (nutrition), economic (affordability of a healthy diet) and environmental (global warming potential) sustainability. In terms of nutrition, the study finds that against a recommended calorie intake of 2503 kcal, the highest monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) section of urban and rural population is consuming 3143 and 3184 kcal respectively. The lower MPCE section consumes only 65% of what is recommended as a healthy diet by LANCET. A comparison of the Indian diets with the LANCET recommended diet finds the environmental impact of the latter to be 1.3 times that of the actual intakes by Indians. The cost of the LANCET diet is 1.6 and 1.2 times the cost of the actual intake and recommended diets in India respectively. While the Indian diet is environmentally more sustainable, a nutritious diet of the global standard is beyond reach of the poor. Concerted efforts are required for facilitating an affordable, accessible and sustainable diet.

Keywords: Affordability, Consumption pattern, Environment, High value agricultural products, Nutrition, Sustainability.

India being located in the low latitude region of the globe is extremely vulnerable to climate change due to its tropical climate, monsoon-based rainfall, long coast line, high dependence on agriculture and preponderance of small holders. Manifestations of climate change in India are steady increase in temperature, rise in rainfall variability, water stress, inundation of coastal areas, and increase in frequency and intensity of weather extremes such as drought, flood, cyclone and storm surge. This has enhanced agricultural risk and endangers rural livelihood and food security. Insurance is an ex-ante adaptation measure and a risk transfer mechanism. In the context of climate change, the vulnerable rural community needs more of insurance at lower premium, whereas the insurance company has a tendency to increase premium and limit insurance for its financial viability. This paper analyses the efficacy of major crop insurance schemes implemented in India in addressing the enhanced agricultural risk. The paper concludes that crop insurance product needs to be designed in such a manner that it not only acts as a risk transfer tool but also a potent device to reduce risk and crop loss by inducing desirable proactive and reactive responses in insurance users.

Keywords: Climate change, Agricultural risk, Crop insurance, India

The objective of the paper is to identify the factors that affect the physical provision of public goods by the state governments and measure their impact. The empirical analysis is based on political and socio-economic panel data from the 14 major states of India during 1967-68 to 2000-01. The analysis indicates that variation in the provision of public goods can be explained by the proximity of a scheduled state legislative assembly election, the effective number of parties, and the caste heterogeneity of the population. It is observed that the proximity of a scheduled election lowers the provision of public goods that require large investments and more time to deliver physically and vice-versa. Effective numbers of parties raise zilla parishad road length and lower urban road length, wells, etc. Moreover, caste heterogeneity raises per capita net electricity generated but lowers net area irrigated. Keywords: Public goods, Infrastructures, Government investment analysis, Government policy, and Irrigation.

JEL Classification: H41, H54, R42, R48, and Q15.

The micro-enterprise sector is an economic engine that creates employment opportunities in developed, developing, and underdeveloped countries. It has a different range of manufacturing products and services and lower capital than large industries. In India, MSMED Act, 2006, reveals the investment level is higher in the micro manufacturing sector than in the microservice sector. According to the ministry of MSME, the microenterprise industry accounts for 97 per cent of the total employment in the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise sectors. In the case of the employment level of micro-enterprises,

which sector creates more work, whether the manufacturing or service sectors? The present study attempted to compare the investment and employment generation level between registered micro manufacturing and service enterprises and examine association between investment and employment level in registered micro manufacturing and service enterprise

sector in North Karnataka. The researcher collected secondary data from the District Industries Centres (DIC) in five districts of North Karnataka. 385 samples out of 10,270 micro enterprises listed given by DICs selected by Slovin’s formula have been categorised using the stratified random sampling method. The researcher used a non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test and Spearman’s rank correlation to analyse the data. The researcher found that there is a significant difference in investment as well as employment generation level between manufacturing and service micro-enterprises. There is a positive and significant association between investment and employment level in the micro manufacturing enterprise sector but a negative and not significant association between investment as well as employment level in the microservice enterprise sector.

Keywords: Micro enterprises, Manufacturing, Service sector, Employment, Investment, Karnataka.

Immigrants have become an integral component of socio-economic development, and play a diverse set of roles, preserving a range of influences on the economy of their origin. International migration, usually network-driven is a natural consequence of capitalist market formation in the developing world penetrating peripheral regions.

Every year 2.5 million (25 lakh) Indians migrate overseas, which is the highest annual number of migrants in the world. Indians represent the second largest U.S. immigrant group, after Mexicans and ahead of Chinese and Filipinos. The 2.7 million Indianimmigrants residing in the United States as of 2021 made up 6 per cent of the total foreignborn population, and their numbers continue to expand. USA ranks second on the list with so many growth opportunities accessible for Indians in the spheres of technology and biological sciences.

Based on secondary sources of data, the present research assesses the trend, major flow of immigrants and their contribution to the development of Indian economy, which concludes that with the help of remittances, immigration can contribute positively to the developmental activity of a country, including employment, economic growth, poverty reduction, social empowerment, and technological progress.

Keywords: Migration, Diaspora, Remittance, Economic development.

The apparel sector plays a vital role in the Sri Lankan economy as the largest net foreign exchange earner, and employment generator. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry’s production and exporting activities came under severe stress due to supply and demand shocks. This research aims at assessing the impact of COVID-19 on apparel exports by employing a standard Gravity equation framework on data related to 20 major destinations of Sri Lanka’s apparel exports. Data was extracted from a number of national and international data sources such as the Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka and World Integrated Trade Solution. The findings indicated the triple effects of COVID-19 pandemic on apparel exports. First, the overall impact of the pandemic on the apparel industry was substantial. Second, the severity of the pandemic in the destination country had a significantly negative impact on apparel exports. However, the severity of the pandemic in Sri Lanka had no impact indicating the industry was resilient to the pandemic. In other words, the demand-side impact was greater than the supply side impact. Finally, in terms of apparel product categories women apparel exports declined drastically compared to other apparel and textile exports. With respect to other standard variables in the gravity model, partner country market size and level of development, movement in real exchange rate, economic performance of the exporting country and trade openness influence significant to apparel exports in Sri Lanka, was taken into account.

Keywords: COVID– 19, Apparel Exports, Gravity Model, Sri Lanka

JEL classification: I18, F14, C13

Women’s empowerment and gender equality have become prominent issues in global development discourse and practice. The equal share of opportunities in different professions has led professionals such as development agencies, donors, corporations and non-governmental organisations to view women as crucial actors in solving poverty and a host of other social and economic problems, and not just victims of poverty. Women’s empowerment is not only a concerned with increasing wealth and income but is also related to the idea of how women use their time. In this respect, they lag behind in some aspects of life, one of which is time poverty. Time poverty means having less time than others because of personal commitments or unpaid housework. Extensive literature in this field was studied to analyse the term ‘time poverty’ broadly.

Keywords: Gender, Unpaid Work, Time Poverty