Financial integration of South Asia: an exploratory study.

YesThis study examines extent of financial cooperation in the South Asia region. This region although heterogeneous in terms of size, political ideologies and level of development yet shares similar historical and cultural closeness, poverty and low level of human development. Further, we also examined the likely factors influencing financial integration in the region. Overall, the results show that among the economic and political factors trade, income levels and political stability are the most important factors in influencing South Asian financial cooperation. The results also strongly support the view that countries more open and integrated through trade are more integrated financially

Accessing Specialist Services via Telemedicine in India

India is a huge country with a population of diverse social and cultural backgrounds. The majority of its population lives in rural areas. The burden of disease continues to be high in the country with life expectancy at around 68 years, much lower compared to countries in the East Asian region and other advanced economies. As per International Standards, MMR at 130 per 100,000 live births and IMR at 37 per 1,000 live births are high. The public healthcare system in rural areas in India is not only inadequate in terms of population coverage, but is also underutilized due to poor quality of healthcare services. Further, chronic absenteeism of healthcare staff and grossly lacking availability of specialists makes the situation worse. Majority of the population of specialists/doctors live in cities and small towns. Telemedicine can be an ideal solution in such situations. Telemedicine makes use of telecommunication technologies which can enable patients in rural areas to get consulted and spoken to by specialists remotely. It can act as a tool to bridge the wide gap in the access to quality healthcare specialist services between the rural and urban areas. In India, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the pioneer in the field of telemedicine. The other key players are the Department of Information Technology (DIT) under Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of External Affairs and the state governments. Some of the premier medical institutions and corporate hospitals are also actively involved in the telemedicine activities in India. The present paper gives a detailed account of the telemedicine technology, its importance and various areas of application. The telemedicine initiatives in Indian context are presented in detail. Further, research and development in the field of telemedicine in India is discussed. A brief account of key challenges related to implementation of telemedicine in India are also highlighted

INTERNATIONAL FREIGHT TRANSPORT MULTIMODAL DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF BANGLADESH

An efficient transport system is essential for an efficient supply chain to facilitate international trade. To utilise all cheaper resources, such as labour in Bangladesh, companies receive supplies from one coxintry (e.g. in Hong Kong), produce the products in another country, and sell them in other countries (e.g. European countries). Thus the production and consumption has turned into a global activity with transport filling the gaps among them. To perform the transport function a carrier may require the use of more than one mode, the so-called multimodal transport. Multimodal transport, an integrated systems approach, can be defined as the most cost- and time-effective way of moving goods from shipper to consignee by at least two different modes of transport under a single contract. The system has been operating for more than three decades in developed countries, but in developing countries the transport system is still operating in a conventional fragmented way where modal integration has not been achieved. In particular the inland part of the international transport haul has appeared as a barrier to establishing an integrated multimodal transport system. In general, the transport systems in developing countries have failed to contribute to effective international supply chain. Little research has been conducted in this field in developing countries, including Bangladesh. The present research attempts to fill this gap through a triangulation technique; an in-depth literature review of international freight transport of developing countries particularly Bangladesh and developed countries; two rounds of Delphi study among a Bangladeshi panel; and a quantitative study based on a survey. The research hypothesises that Uhe extent to which a fragmented freight transport system can be transformed into an integrated multimodal transport system depends on the present state of the country'. The validity of the hypothesis was established through triangulation. The research also found that there has been a significant freight transport multimodal development in Bangladesh but it has not been perceived by the stakeholders

Sanguinity and aspiration toward South Asian Regional integration: a case study of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) Agreement

The expansion of regional economic cooperation was one of the major developments in the world political economy after the Second World War. Factors that thrust countries closer were both economic and political but economic factors prevailed; the classic example was the EU and ASEAN where economic dimension have brought long time foes in the same dais. The present international economic situation characterized by stagnant growth, recessionary conditions, and protectionist tendencies in the developed countries has seriously underpinned the economic growth in developing countries. The worsening terms of trade, acute balance of payment crisis and debt burden on developing countries have further crippled the potential economic growth of these countries. Therefore current world economic conditions call for a greater economic cooperation among the developing countries. Around 330 agreements are notified in World Trade Organization (WTO). Apart from Mongolia, all WTO members are involved in one or more regional trade agreements. Unsuccessful WTO talks in Cancun increased a world-wide trend towards regional cooperation and integration, such as EU, NAFTA, CAFTA, MERCOSUR, ASEAN, SAARC etc. The latest report by the World Bank, entitled Global Economic Prospects: Managing the Next Wave of Globalization predicts that in the next 25 years the growth in the global economy will be powered by the developing countries, whose share in global output will increase from about one-fifth of the global economy to nearly one-third. It means that some of the key drivers in the global economy will be China and some of the countries from South Asia. There are today six developing countries which have populations greater than 100 million and GDP of more than $100 billion. By 2030, there will be 10 countries that would have reached the twin 100s threshold, and four of them will be from the vicinity of South Asia. In addition to India and China, who have already reached that level, Pakistan and Bangladesh are also likely to be part of this dynamic group. Increased participation in global trade was an important determinant of economic growth of the catch-up economies. This is one reason why South Asia has lagged and has not been a catch-up economy. Could the decision of the 2004 SAARC summit change South Asia’s economic structure and move towards economic union? Can South Asia become a major player in the global economic and trading system? The following report aims to come across the answer of the above issue regarding SAFTA.REGIONALISM: BUILDING BLOCK OR STUMBLING BLOCK?; WTO PROVISIONS FOR PTAS/RTAS; Trade Facilitation; South Asian position:

Behavior of e-HRM adoption: empirical evidence form organizations in developing context

Based on Theory of planned behavior (TPB) and diffusion of innovation theory (DIT), present study developed and empirically tested the integrated model of organizational e-HRM adoption. The model consists of four contextual variables such as innovation, individual, organizational and environmental. Data were collected from 212 firms in Sri Lanka by means self-administered questionnaire. Structural model was tested using Partial Least Square. Results indicate that innovation characteristics (relative advantage and compatibility), environmental characteristics (competition), organizational characteristics (top management support) significantly explain the organizational e-HRM adoption intention. Further, financial resource and top management support significantly determine the extent of operational e-HRM adoption. Moreover, IT expertise is significantly explained the extent of relational and transformational e-HRM adoption

CMFRI Newsletter No.151 October - December 2016

Crossing the last quarter of 2016, it is encouraging to note that several milestones have been crossed successfully and we are moving closer towards the targets set in our research activities. The breakthrough in seed production of orange grouper, an important food fish, the successful captive broodstock development and larval rearing of a marine ornamental serranid are critical first steps in building robust technologies for their culture in controlled conditions in the future

Trade Facilitation beyond the Multilateral Trade Negotiations: Regional Practices, Customs Valuation and Other Emerging Issues

Trade facilitation, Doha round of negotiations

What is citizen journalism? A critical analysis from the perspective of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation.

With the rise of internet literacy across the world, men and women on the street are increasingly participating in the news media more than ever before. Early speculations about the influence of citizen journalism imbued the practice with an almost messianic ability to save both journalism and democracy. Whilst these suggestions were influenced by a small amount of data analysis, mainly from Western countries, they were encouraging and demonstrated the potential of citizen journalism in representing the voice of ordinary people. This thesis suggests that citizen journalism is not only promoting the perspective of ordinary citizens, but is also supplementing the coverage of the mainstream media, building relationships, shaping the public sphere, and fulfilling the critical role of a watchdog. Analysing data from a sample of twenty-four different English language citizen journalism sites, this thesis examines the phenomenon of citizen journalism, focusing on the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation. Employing a mixed methods approach, quantitative and qualitative analyses were undertaken of the data set. The results show that citizen journalism sites in the larger and more developed SAARC countries provide more coverage of news than those in the smaller and underdeveloped countries. Political news is given the highest priority by the majority of the sites whilst news about war and terrorism is given the least. The analysis has also discovered that the sites function as a bridge, bringing people living in different parts of the world together and enabling them to engage in political discourse and the sharing of knowledge and experience. Moreover, citizen journalism is helping people to educate themselves about the culture and political systems of their new countries while also forming their own community online. This was particularly the case with the sites that were owned and operated by the diaspora people living in the West. In addition, with a few exceptions, the majority of the sites make substantial use of supplementary materials to enhance news articles, encouraging readers to participate in interactive news activities, such as posting comments. The study has also found that citizen journalists come from a wide range of backgrounds, from politicians acting as citizen journalists to students aspiring to generate revenues through commercial advertising on the Internet. However, they differ from each other in terms of their news values and news presentation ” some of the sites offer more political news than others whilst others behave more like the mainstream media, providing a wide range of news articles. On the other hand, a few of the sites are less active and provide fewer news articles than others. The study has also found that citizen journalists from the SAARC countries include works of fiction as part of their news output, thus offering the slightly different definition of citizen journalism from that in the West