American Depositary Receipts (ADR) holdings of U.S. based emerging market funds

For a foreign"issuer,"the benefits of cross-listing in the United States are extensively documented in the literature. However it is not clear what motivates"investors"to hold American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) rather than the underlying stock of these issuers. The authors address the investors'choice to purchase local shares versus investing in ADRs. Specifically, they analyze the investment allocation decision of mutual fund managers to invest in emerging market firms that are listed in their domestic markets and have also issued ADRs in the United States. Although legal provisions (governance/investor protection) are typically assumed to affect ADRs and their underlying domestic shares equally, investors holding ADRs may have a higher level of legal protection as these securities are issued and traded in the United States. The authors'results are consistent with this"better legal protection"hypothesis as they find that funds prefer to hold ADRs rather than the underlying shares if the issuer is from a country with weak investor protection laws. Also,theoretical models of multiple trading exchanges predict that trading should tend to aggregate in the market with the lowest transaction costs. Similarly, the relative liquidity of an ADR compared to that of its underlying stock should also affect the funds'relative holding of the ADR versus the underlying stock. Consistent with this"ease of transaction"hypothesis the authors find that if an issuer is based in a country with a relatively small stock market, low level of trading volume, and high transaction costs, funds tend to hold a larger proportion of their investments in the ADR. Furthermore, funds hold a larger fraction of their investment in the ADR if the ADR trading volume is high relative to its domestic security trading volume. The results also suggest that ADR listings of local firms might not negatively affect local markets if the investment climate is good.Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Investment and Investment Climate,Drylands&Desertification,Legal Products

Overcoming the Challenges in implementing e-Governance in Rural India

To ensure the availability of e-governance to the rural masses is the need of hour for a country like India, where a majority of population lives in rural area. Use of ICT facilities plays a key role in e-governance and is becoming indispensable. Here we try to highlight the Challenges related to implementation of e-Governance in India. E-governance aims at providing information and services to the citizens. It also helps them in decision making process, to make government more accountable, transparent and effective. Effective implementations can take ICT to the Indian citizens and can help government to align their services with the changing needs of stakeholders and Indian citizens to develop the economy. Here we also consider various e-governance projects started by the Government and initiatives that should be taken by the Government for successful implementation of e-governance in rural India

Incidence of coronary artery disease before valvular replacement in isolated severe aortic stenosis patients in Western Rajasthan

Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the incidence of Coronary artery disease (CAD) and predictors of CAD in patients with severe AS in western Rajasthan population.Methods: Data from all consecutive patients with severe AS undergoing AVR at a major tertiary cardiac and vascular center in Udaipur were entered in a prospective registry beginning in 2015. Significant CAD was defined as one or more major coronary arteries having an estimated narrowing of ≥70% and left main coronary arteries having an estimated narrowing of ≥50% on coronary angiography. We excluded patients with multiple valve disease, significant aortic regurgitation, or prior CAD or valve surgery.Results: Mean age of 55 enrolled patients was 52.64±15.5 years. Diabetes mellitus and hypertension were present in 3.64% and 5.45% of patients, respectively. Moderate and severe Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was found in 16.36% and 10.91% patients, respectively. Only 5.45% patient had severe CAD and thus underwent AVR and coronary artery bypass grafting, and rest 94.55% patients underwent AVR. Mean age of patients who underwent AVR was 51.75±15.36 years and who underwent AVR and CABG was 68±11.14 years with no significant association (p=0.078). Proportion of patients requiring AVR and CABG was significantly higher in moderate (22.22%) and severe LVEF (16.67%) as compared to normal or mild (p=0.034).Conclusions: Coronary angiography before AVR will be considered in patients with multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease or in patients above 68 years of age without risk factors for cardiovascular disease. However, larger studies on heterogeneous population are required to prove our findings.

Solubility and dissolution enhancement of poorly aqueous soluble drug atorvastatin calcium using modified gum karaya as carrier: In vitro-In vivo evaluation

Solid dispersion is a unique and promising approach for improving the oral absorption and oral bioavailability of BCS class II drugs. Modified gum karaya a recently developed excipient was evaluated as a carrier for solubility and dissolution enhancement of poorly water soluble drug atorvastatin calcium. Physical mixtures along with solid dispersions of drug and polymer was  prepared using three methods kneading, solvent evaporation and solvent wetting method in 5 different ratios (1:1,1:3,1:5,1:7,1:9). Among the three methods used atorvastatin calcium solid dispersions prepared by kneading method in 1:3 ratio showed most promising results in terms of  percent yield, percent drug content, solubility of solid dispersions in phosphate buffer pH 6.8, XRD, DSC, SEM and In vitro release studies. These solid dispersions were selected to prepare tablets using Ac-di-sol as superdisintegrant (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5). Tablets were characterized for hardness, friability, disintegration time, percent drug content, drug release studies and stability studies. Tablets T5 showed highest dissolution rate and best dissolution efficiency at (DE30) and (DE120) minutes. Release data of T5 tablet was subjected to various release kinetics models to know the type and order of drug release. Order was found to be Korsemeyer–Peppas>Hixson–Crowell cube root law >zero-order >first-order >Higuchi. The similarity factor was calculated for comparison of the dissolution profile before and after stability studies. The f2 value was found to be more than 50 (~ 90.9) thereby indicating a close similarity between both the dissolution profiles. In vivo studies was conducted on healthy albino rats and formulation given by oral route showed that at the end of 14 days solid dispersion 1:3 performed better than pure atorvastatin calcium in reducing total cholesterol and TG level and increasing HDL- cholesterol levels

Pulmonary Lymphangiomyomatosis: A Rare Disease responsive to Progesterone

Lymphangiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare multisystem disorder in women of child-bearing age. We present a case of a 28 year old lady who presented with cough and breathlessness. She had been diagnosed as a case of lymphangiomyomatosis by computer tomography of chest. She showed dramatic clinical improvement with hormonal therapy