Impact of Macroeconomic Factors on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): Evidence from ASEAN Countries

The main objective of this research is to examine the impact of various macroeconomic factors on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries. The selected macro-economic factors are gross domestic product (GDP), foreign exchange rate and inflation rate and these are independent variables of the study. FDI is determining through the amount of inflow during the study period and it is treated as a dependent variable. For the analysis the study undertakes the trend & growth analysis and applied Panel data analysis for 10 ASEAN countries over the period of five years from 2009 to 2013.The study conducted Pooled OLS model and random effect model. To identify the individual specific effect correlated with independent variable of the study applied fixed effect model. Finally the study applied Hausman test to find out the suitable model among the random effect and time effect. The result of the study stated that the trend and growth of FDI inflow is positive and progressive. The macro economic factors of GDP and inflation are significant and impact on FDI inflow, foreign exchange rate is not significant and there is no impact on FDI inflow. Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment, macroeconomic factors, ASEAN countries, Gross domestic product (GDP), foreign exchange rate and inflation rat

A study on Relationship between firm size and profitability: Selected Private sector Banks in India

The study is to identify the relationship between firm size and profitability of selected private sector banks in India. This study is classified as quantitative research followed with a descriptive research design. The Reserve Bank of India’s publication of annual trend and progress of banking in India in June 2018, indicates that the total number of private sector banks in India is 21. The study selected the first five banks based on the hierarchy of the value of its total assets. The study is based on secondary data and it has been collected from the annual reports of the respective banks. The period of study is five years from 2015 to 2019. Firm size such as bank size is measured through the natural log of the book value of deposits, assets, and advances (independent variables) and the profitability is measured through the natural log of the book value of the net profit of the bank (dependent variable). The data analysis includes descriptive statistics, correlation matrix, and linear regression. On the basis of the analysis, the study found that there is a significant relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable. Further, there is a positive correlation and statistically significant between these variables. Keywords : Bank size, deposits, assets, advances, net profi

Bank performance in the perception of Islamic financing receivables (IFR) and its components

Bank Muscat (BM) is a prominent contributor in financial services in Oman, which focuses on corporate, personal, Islamic, global, and investment banking activities. BM provides loans and advances to their customers in two different categories viz., loans and advances (conventional) and Islamic financing receivables (IFR). As per the BM’s statement of financial position, IFR includes three types of credits to their customers are housing finance, corporate finance, and consumer finance. The objectives of the study are to identify the growth percentage, compound annual growth rate (CAGR), trend and growth of IFR and its components of BM, during the study period (2013 to 2018). The study is based on secondary data, it has been collected from annual reports of BM. The overall result of the study indicates that the growth percentage of IFR and its components are positive throughout the study period and CAGR for IFR, housing finance, consumer finance, and corporate finance are 31.79%, 19.37%, 32.08%, and 52.32% respectively. The growth rate for all four items indicates a positive value. For the entire period of the study, the actual value of IFR and its components has reached the trend value. Overall, the performance of BM is satisfactory in respect of IFR and its components

EFFICIENT HARDWARE PRIMITIVES FOR SECURING LIGHTWEIGHT SYSTEMS

In the era of IoT and ubiquitous computing, the collection and communication of sensitive data is increasingly being handled by lightweight Integrated Circuits. Efficient hardware implementations of crytographic primitives for resource constrained applications have become critical, especially block ciphers which perform fundamental operations such as encryption, decryption, and even hashing. We study the efficiency of block ciphers under different implementation styles. For low latency applications that use unrolled block cipher implementations, we design a glitch filter to reduce energy consumption. For lightweight applications, we design a novel architecture for the widely used AES cipher. The design eliminates inefficiencies in data movement and clock activity, thereby significantly improving energy efficiency over state-of-the-art architectures. Apart from efficiency, vulnerability to implementation attacks are a concern, which we mitigate by our randomization capable lightweight AES architecture. We fabricate our designs in a commercial 16nm FinFET technology and present measured testchip data on energy consumption and side channel resistance. Finally, we address the problem of supply chain security by using image processing techniques to extract fingerprints from surface texture of plastic IC packages for IC authentication and counterfeit prevention. Collectively these works present efficient and cost effective solutions to secure lightweight systems

Case Study: Liquidity analysis through Financial Ratios

This case study, "Liquidity Analysis of Sherwin-Williams Company," is about a top-ranked paint company around the globe. The analysis is based on data extracted from the company's annual report for the year 2021. This study covers the details of Brand Finance (BF) and its ranking activities. Additionally, it provides sufficient information about liquidity ratios and their classification. This case study helps to analyse the liquidity performance of Sherwin-Williams Company through financial ratio analysis. This case study helps students and the reader community understand the liquidity position of the case company. Furthermore, the methodology allows them to perform similar analyses on other businesses. The case is developed to attain certain objectives: to understand the financial ratios for measuring the liquidity of the company, to analyse and interpret the liquidity position of the company, and to conclude the liquidity position of the company based on the financial ratios

A study on usage status of electronic payment system (EPS): before, during and after COVID 19 pandemic lockdown period in India

COVID-19 pandemic enforces the world to move the electronic payment system. Due to nationwide lockdown in India for the period of 68 days in four phases starting from 25 March and ends on 18 May 2020, most of the payments are through electronic payment system (EPS). For purchases of goods and services through a physical store, where the shops used point of sale (POS) terminals for processing the card payment or a virtual sales point such as a computer, mobile or electronic devices applied electronic payment system. EPS comprises various methods but the present study mainly focuses on card services such as debit and credit cards. It is a quantitative study that classifies the study period into three sectors are before, during, and after the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown period in India. The objective of the research is to study the usage status of debit and credit cards for POS, it includes both numbers of transactions and amount of transactions. Usage status is measured through growth percentage. The study depends on secondary data were collected from RBI publications specifically from Bank wise ATM/POS/Card statistics. Based on data analysis the study concluded that the growth percentage of both debit and credit card usage for POS has been decreased from before the lockdown period to during the lockdown period. After the lockdown period, the status of usage increased in all banks. Overall, the decrease in the growth percentage of usage of cards is between 50% and 70% from before the lockdown period during the lockdown period. At the same time, the growth percentage of card usage has been increased in both number and amount of transactions from during the lockdown period to after the lockdown period is between 55% and 154

Dichloridobis(1-ethyl-2,6-dimethyl­pyridinium-4-olate-κO)zinc(II)

In the title compound, [ZnCl2(C9H13NO)2], the ZnII ion is coordinated by two Cl− anions and two O atoms of two zwitterionic organic ligands in a distorted tetra­hedral arrangement. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked into sheets parallel to the bc plane by C—H⋯Cl and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and weak π–π inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance = 3.669 (1) Å]

Dibromidobis(1-ethyl-2,6-dimethyl­pyridinium-4-olate-κO)zinc(II)

In the bioactive title compound, [ZnBr2(C9H13NO)2], the ZnII atom is coordinated in a distorted tetra­hedral arrangement by two Br− anions and the O atoms of two zwitterionic organic ligands. The pyridinium rings are almost planar [maximum deviations = 0.004 (4) and 0.003 (4) Å]. The ethyl groups are approximately perpendicular to the corresponding pyridinium ring planes [N—C—C—C = 88.8 (4)° in each ligand]. The packing of the mol­ecules is controlled by π–π inter­actions, with centroid–centroid distances of 3.625 (3) and 3.711 (2) Å, forming chains approximately parallel to (102). The crystal studied was non-merohedrally twinned (twin relationship between the domains 1 0 0, 0 1 0, −0.4672 −0.1864 −1 and batch scale factor of 7.39%)

Studies on Antioxidant and Anti-obesity Activity of Salvia hispanica (Chia) Seeds Extracts

Obesity is a condition in which large amount of fat is stored in adipose tissue. Obesity is the greatest risk for many diseases like coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes millions associated with insulin resistance, arthritis disorder, hypertension and cancers. Currently, the available drugs for obesity have been associated with number of side effects when compared with allopathic drugs. Salvia hispanica was one of the member of Lamiaceae family, collected to study the antiobesity activity. Extraction of Salvia hispanica using different solvents was done and tested for the presence of phytochemical constituents and the antimicrobial activity was monitored to evaluate the zone of inhibition. Further, antioxidant potential activity such as DPPH, FRAP and H2O2 assay was studied. Percentage of inhibition of Salvia hispanica was calculated and was observed as in capturing the free radicals present in the body. The surface and cross-sectional morphology Salvia hispanica extract nanoparticles was examined by using SEM. High ALA content make chia a perfect as it is associated with lower incidence of Cardiovascular diseases. This metabolic syndrome is mediated by inflammatory pathways. Hence, the in vitro activity of anti-inflammatory assay was performed by inhibition of albumin denaturation and anti-obesity activity was performed by lipase inhibition assay. Thus the result indicates that the seed extracts of Salvia hispanica possess antiobesity activity. Keywords: Salvia hispanica, anti-obesity, cholesterol, Antioxidant, lipase inhibitio

Combustion and deposit formation behavior on the fireside surfaces of a pulverized fuel boiler fired with a blend of coal and petroleum coke

The thermochemistry of the combustion of a blend of coal and 5% petroleum coke was analyzed. Thermodynamic modeling and microscopic techniques were used to study the behavior of the inorganic constituents upon combustion of the blend of coal and petroleum coke. The chemical composition and phase constitution of the combustion products, as well as the deposits at several temperatures corresponding to those at the various parts of the boiler, were deduced by free-energy minimization. These results were compared with actual results obtained from a commercial pulverized fuel boiler fired with coal and petroleum coke blend. The deposits on the fireside surfaces of the boiler tubes in the various parts (water walls, platen superheater, final superheater, economizer, and electrostatic precipitator) of the commercial pulverized fuel boiler fired with coal and 5% petroleum coke were characterized by particle size analysis, chemical analysis, x-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The combustion gas composition was measured using a portable on-line gas analyzer for N 2 , O 2 , CO 2 , H 2 O, CO, NO, and SO 2 . The thermodynamically predicted compositions and phase constitutions for the gas phase as well as the condensed phases are in good agreement with the experimental results