Is CSR Expenditure Relevant to the Firms in India?

The present study examines the relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure to the firms in the mandatory regime in India. The paper has its theoretical basis from the instrumental aspect of the Stakeholder theory, which assumes a positive influence of CSR over financial performance. Therefore, the study hypothesizes that the firms which fulfill the CSR expenditure requirement will exhibit higher stock returns and lower systematic risk. Since India mandated CSR in the year 2014, the data of four years (2016-2019) for the sample of 426 National Stock Exchange (NSE) listed Indian firms are taken to employ the OLS regression method. The CSR expenditure in the mandatory regime was not found to be relevant to the firms because of an insignificant positive impact of mandatory CSR expenditure on stock returns. Thus, the instrumental aspect is not supported by the findings. However, the findings indicate a decrease in the systematic risk of the firms. Only a few studies in India investigated this phenomenon in the mandatory regime. Further, the contributions of the study to the CSR literature are fairly useful from the perspective of firms, investors, policy-makers, regulators, scholars, and countries that are planning for legislating CSR

State and trends of carbon pricing 2015

Introduction Reflecting the growing momentum for carbon pricing worldwide, the 2015 edition of the State and Trends of Carbon Pricing report targets a wider audience of public and private stakeholders who are engaged in carbon pricing design and implementation. This report also provides critical input for the negotiations leading up to the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris. As in the previous editions, the report provides an up-to-date overview of existing and emerging carbon pricing instruments around the world, including national and subnational initiatives. Furthermore, it gives an overview of current corporate carbon pricing instruments. To better reflect the plethora of topics being considered in the climate dialogue, the report also analyzes competitiveness and carbon leakage, and their impact on the development of carbon pricing instruments. The task team responsible for this report intends to select new relevant topics to be explored in future editions. These topics could include, for example, the effectiveness of existing and emerging carbon pricing instruments, and how to measure it. Finally, this year’s report gives the audience a forward-looking assessment of the advantages of international cooperation in reaching stringent global mitigation targets. A review of existing modeling work provides a qualitative and quantitative assessment of cost saving potentials and the magnitude of financial flows inherent to international cooperation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to a level consistent with the 2°C climate stabilization goal

China as a Development Actor in Southeast Asia

This Evidence Report identifies and explains the central factors driving China’s policies towards Southeast Asia. It examines China’s foreign relations through the perspective of foreign policy. In this context, as the title indicates, the report gathers together and evaluates the evidence on China’s role as a development actor in this neighbouring region. The study aims to contribute to evidence-based policy deliberation, formulation and implementation. It finds that, since the accession of President Xi Jinping, Southeast Asia has gained additional importance for Chinese foreign relations as a key region in China’s new ‘neighbourhood policy’ and the twenty-first century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) initiative. China’s economic cooperation and its development assistance are said (by the Chinese government) to provide investment and logistical know-how, skills and experience to undertake infrastructure capacity building in Southeast Asia. Yet the strength of Sino-regional relations is tempered by continuing tensions. These include unresolved territorial disputes, China’s unilateral action in declaring an Air Defense Identification Zone in the South China Sea, and growing concerns over weaknesses in Chinese corporate social responsibility. This report concludes that: (1) Southeast Asia’s policy portfolio would be strengthened through enhanced multilateral and national economic diversification strategies; (2) Sino-regional development partnerships can draw upon the new post-2015 global development agenda to strengthen trilateral cooperation; and (3) civil society should be engaged as a full partner in policy determination.UK Department for International Developmen

Overcoming Language Dichotomies: Toward Effective Program Comprehension for Mobile App Development

Mobile devices and platforms have become an established target for modern software developers due to performant hardware and a large and growing user base numbering in the billions. Despite their popularity, the software development process for mobile apps comes with a set of unique, domain-specific challenges rooted in program comprehension. Many of these challenges stem from developer difficulties in reasoning about different representations of a program, a phenomenon we define as a "language dichotomy". In this paper, we reflect upon the various language dichotomies that contribute to open problems in program comprehension and development for mobile apps. Furthermore, to help guide the research community towards effective solutions for these problems, we provide a roadmap of directions for future work.Comment: Invited Keynote Paper for the 26th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC'18

Disability Design and Innovation in Low Resource Settings: Addressing Inequality through HCI

Approximately 15% of the world's population has a disability and 80% live in low resource-settings, often in situations of severe social isolation. Technology is often inaccessible or inappropriately designed, hence unable to fully respond to the needs of people with disabilities living in low resource settings. Also lack of awareness of technology contributes to limited access. This workshop will be a call to arms for researchers in HCI to engage with people with disabilities in low resourced settings to understand their needs and design technology that is both accessible and culturally appropriate. We will achieve this through sharing of research experiences, and exploration of challenges encountered when planning HCI4D studies featuring participants with disabilities. Thanks to the contributions of all attendees, we will build a roadmap to support researchers aiming to leverage post-colonial and participatory approaches for the development of accessible and empowering technology with truly global ambitions

Concentration in Health Care Markets: Chronic Problems and Better Solutions

Health care providers with market power enjoy substantially more pricing freedom than monopolists in other markets, for a reason not generally recognized: US-style health insurance. Consequently, monopolies in health care cause undesirable redistribution of wealth and inefficient allocation of resources, both of which burden consumers at levels beyond those of other monopolists. The unusual costliness of monopoly power in health care markets demands far more policy attention than it has received. For starters, the health sector needs a more aggressive antitrust policy that effectively prevents the creation of new provider market power through mergers, alliances, or government immunity. An immediate need is ensuring that the formation of accountable care organizations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which in theory might achieve efficiencies through vertical integrations, do not primarily lead to horizontal integrations that give providers additional market power. Because antitrust policy has been so inadequate for so long in the health sector, and because it remains unlikely that courts or enforcement agencies will undo past mergers that created these powerful provider monopolies, policymakers should pursue additional strategies for contesting existing monopolies. One approach is to apply antitrust rules against “tying” arrangements so that purchasers can combat providers’ profit-enhancing practice of overcharging for large bundles of services instead of trying to exploit separately any monopolies they possess in various submarkets. Another strategy is to use antitrust or regulatory rules to prohibit anticompetitive provisions, such as “antisteering” or “most-favored-nation” clauses, in provider-insurer contracts. Policymakers could also help restore price competition in monopolized markets by enabling private payers to negotiate prices for specific provider services and encouraging insurers to expand the scope of competition — via medical tourism, for example, or configuring innovative health care delivery that bypasses many of the embedded costs in the current system. Some commentators have suggested that the provider monopoly problem is severe enough to warrant consideration of a more radical alternative: regulating provider prices. By restricting how insurers can purchase health services, the PPACA might effectuate a regulatory regime that significantly limits price and nonprice competition. However, even under the PPACA room remains for creative regulatory policies that enhance competition in health care markets and encourage better uses of our increasingly scarce health care dollars

Evolving symmetries in Asian economy : India's chances and China's stakes

Simetrias Envolventes na Economia Asiática: As Possibilidades da India e as Apostas da China O crescimento económico da Índia tem sido consistente nas últimas duas décadas quando decidiu liberalizar a sua economia, reduzindo o controlo estatal sobre áreas-chave. Ainda que várias escolas de pensamento comparem com poucas dúvidas as reformas efetuadas na Índia em 1991 com as da China em 1978, a ‘crise’ forçou a um reequacionamento das estratégias de desenvolvimento. A abertura da Índia foi espoletada mais por fatores económicos do que políticos, como foi na China. Duas décadas de reformas económicas e experiências tornaram as políticas económicas da Índia mais robustas e com maior e melhor escala, mesmo se comparadas com as da China. Em termos de crescimento e de start-ups, as indústrias indianas estão agora numa velocidade de cruzeiro que é deveras impressionante. A literatura comparativa sobre as relações económicas Indo-Chinesas e os debates como ‘Pode a Índia Ultrapassar a China’ não têm suporte no atual contexto no qual a Índia apresenta políticas económicas mais maduras, onde a China procura explorar oportunidades de investimento. O crescimento económico da Índia favorece a China e quanto mais as políticas económicas de Nova Deli forem progressivamente liberalizadas e se tornarem ainda mais recetivas ao investimento externo, maiores serão os benefícios para Beijing. Neste contexto, a desaceleração do crescimento chinês e a sua política de internacionalização podem muito bem ser explicadas pelas emergentes simetrias económicas da Ásia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

China’s Footprints in Maldives: Concern for India?

China has, in the recent decades, has consolidated its interests in the South Asian region. This change in China‟s foreign policy, from a focus on the North-East and South-East Asia, hints at an attempt to sustain China‟s own peaceful rise. India, on the other hand, has emphasised on a „Look East‟ foreign policy in the recent times. Both India and China share an important diplomatic relationship with Maldives. However, China‟s growing influence in Maldives might be a serious strategicconcern to India. This article is an exploratory study of the relationship that China shares with Maldives and its implications to India

Scanning the Options for a Structural Reform of the EU Emissions Trading System. CEPS Special Report 107, 19 May 2015

This paper provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of different options to reform the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The options discussed include changes to address the rigidity of supply on the auctioning side, as well as reforms to add flexibility to free allocation. Additionally, other options that may enhance the functionality of the EU ETS are covered, drawing on examples and practices in other carbon-pricing mechanisms around the world. It is crucial to note that any reform of the EU ETS must consist of a package of options. Taken separately, the options may very well have beneficial effects, but they would also leave intact clear imperfections in the current design. Specifically where the auctioning supply mechanism and the flexibility in free allocation are concerned, we assess multiple options in each category, and present evidence for each option. Where appropriate, we suggest complementing these reform options with additional elements (presented in section 3.3). The aim of any structural reform should be to arrive at a set of options that forms a consistent and credible package. With this paper, we provide an evidence-based assessment of the various building blocks of such a reform