Corporate Governance Compliance Practices of Indian Companies

Recent financial scandals associated to accounting and other frauds allegedly blamed to top company managers (e.g. Enron, Worldcom, Paramalt, Satyam) have brought into public light the recurring question of whether companies are managed on the best interests of shareholders and other company stakeholders such as workers, creditors and the general community. The paper studies compliance of Corporate Governance requirements by Indian Companies. A model is developed to calculate the Corporate Governance Score of companies and then it is related to company attributes like size, profitability, leverage, foreign ownership etc. No significant correlation exists between Corporate Governance and company Characterists however average compliance by Indian Companies has been satisfactory. Factor analysis of major sub-parameters of Corporate Governance Score, namely Composition of Board, Audit Committee, Number of Board Meetings and Remuneration Committee is done. Two factors namely Strength of Committee and Competency level of Board are identified as important factors. Keywords: Corporate Governance Compliance, Disclosures & Transparency, Stakeholders, Factor Analysi

Indirect tax aggressiveness and tax reforms: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

We study the incentives to engage in indirect tax aggressiveness and the implications of such actions for shareholder value. We take advantage of the recent indirect tax reforms in India to design our study as a two-stage analysis of the antecedents and consequences of tax aggressiveness. Our results suggest that the size of the product portfolio, geographical proximity of manufacturing facilities to the headquarters, and the extent of international operations are associated with the propensity to avoid indirect taxes. Further, ownership concentration, membership in business groups, and financial health of the company also affect indirect tax aggressiveness. Firms involved in tax aggressive behavior suffer shareholder value loss when their privileged position comes under risk due to tax reforms, as suggested by the stock price reaction surrounding the tax legislation. Firms endowed with sufficient liquid resources and better-connected firms appear to be able to mitigate the negative consequences suffered by their tax aggressive peers

Sentiment and Accruals Earnings Management: Does Governance and Regulatory Environment Matter?

This paper examines the implications of firm-level governance mechanisms and the regulatory environment on the relationship between investor sentiment and accrual-based earnings management. Our findings confirm the positive impact of sentiment on earnings management through accruals. Our results confirm that in the presence of a stringent regulatory environment, the likelihood of abnormal accruals following a positive sentiment environment is low. We document that a stringent regulatory environment reduces the likelihood of abnormal accruals following a positive sentiment environment. Results further confirm that improved governance characteristics like larger board, increased board independence, and stringent related party transaction norms help to monitor corporate behaviour and mitigates opportunistic earnings management activity of managers with an exogeneous effect of market sentiment. Thus, our results have important implications for regulators and policymakers for strengthening the regulatory and monitoring environment. Investors may also use earnings announcement news during an optimistic market sentiment scenario in a more informative way

Severe anemia in late pregnancy: a retrospective study at a tertiary care rural medical college in Gujarat, India

Background: Anaemia in pregnancy is the commonest medical disorder in developing countries like India. It has multifactorial etiology and is associated with increased maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. The study aimed at analyzing the socio-demographic variables and also the maternal and perinatal outcome of pregnant women admitted to labour room with severe anaemia (Hb <7 gm%) late in pregnancy.Methods: This is a retrospective observational study done at a tertiary care rural medical college in Gujarat over a 3 year period from January 2014 to December 2016.Results: Results of the study were analyzed. Out of 3963 deliveries during the study period 225 (5.6%) patients were severely anaemic. There were 177 (78.6%) unbooked patients and 169 (75.1%) were multigravidas. Majority of patients belonged to under 24 yr age group. Maternal complications were in form of preterm labour (44%), pre-eclampsia-ecclampsia (24.8%), cardiac failure (2.2%), PPH (2.2%) maternal death (0.4%). Neonatal outcome was analyzed in terms of prematurity (44%), LBW (24.8%), NICU admission (15.1%), still birth (4.4%), neonatal death (11.5%).Conclusions: Severe anaemia during pregnancy is associated with adverse maternal and perinatal outcome. It is also one of the preventable indirect cause of maternal mortality. Imparting health education to adolescent girls, regular antenatal check-ups, early diagnosis and treatment along with active participation of ASHA workers at grass-root level might help in bringing down the prevalence. A more focused approach is warranted towards pregnant women in rural and underdeveloped areas of India

“And then every time I fell back, I had my friends to help me” Exploring the role of peer relationships for adolescents in alternative care: a systematic review and grounded theory study

BACKGROUND. The positive impact of attachment relations with adults for young people in alternative care is well documented. However, more understanding of parental and peer relationships for young people in alternative care, particularly the potential role of peers in fulfilling attachment needs in this population, is needed. OBJECTIVES. Research objectives are addressed across two studies. In article one, a systematic review searched the existing quantitative evidence base to investigate the research question, how do positive peer relationships influence psychological variables related to coping and resilience in young people in alternative care? In article two, an empirical paper used a grounded theory methodological approach to explore the principle research question, how do young people in alternative care conceptualize parental and peer relationships? PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING. This research portfolio investigated adolescents living in alternative care, of any setting. The systematic review targeted literature relating to adolescents aged ten to eighteen, and the empirical paper included fourteen participants aged fourteen to eighteen, who were still in contact with a birth parent. METHODS. In article one, a systematic search of the literature for studies of psychological resilience-based variables and peer relationships led to the inclusion of ten papers. These were assessed using standardized quality criteria and a narrative synthesis of the methodology and findings are presented. In article two, semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed, to propose a grounded theory model. In line with a constant comparative approach, data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously. RESULTS. Article one highlights four key themes, (1) Perceived satisfaction with peer relationships; (2) The impact of peer group processes; (3) Positive attachments in adolescence and; (4) The role of social skills. Article two presents the five key themes of (1) Trust (2) Unresolved trauma (3) Feeling different to peers (4) A need to put others first and (5) A dismissive coping style, associated with anger and self-reliance. These are proposed to be interrelated to a non-linear process model and contextualized within a resilience framework. Conclusions. Relationships are a complex and non-linear process for this population, that is likely to impact on normative developmental processes in relation to others, including peers. Implications for clinical practice and research are highlighted across both articles. Article one emphasizes a need to investigate a positive developmental rhetoric, using standardized measures for variables of resilience and peer attachment directly. Article two presents a need to further explore the nuances of the proposed relationship process presented, in relation to both peers and services, and promotes the value of directly involving young people in this endeavour. It emphasises the importance of trauma informed practice and puts forward relationships as a starting point to interventions with this population

ASSESSING RISK INTRODUCED THROUGH A CODE CHANGE

Techniques are presented herein that shift the risk assessment focus during a software development process, away from the traditional end-of-process review (when a new feature is delivered, or an application is deployed) to earlier in the process when developers are actively at work. Such an approach allows a developer to assess the risk that a candidate software change is about to introduce prior to the developer committing that change, providing the developer with time (during the early portion of the process) to revisit the software and eliminate the identified risk. Aspects of the presented techniques leverage elements of a continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) facility, the results that are available from existing unit and end-to-end tests, and the collection and analysis of OpenTelemetry (OTEL)-based metrics, events, logs, and traces (MELT) data to deliver security insights

IDENTIFYING ENTERPRISE RISK BASED ON BUSINESS CONTEXT WITH THREAT INTELLIGENCE

Presented herein are techniques that facilitate prioritizing risk mitigation efforts for business-critical services and transactions through the incorporation of a business context into threat intelligence scoring. Under aspects of the presented techniques, traditional threat intelligence tools may be employed to evaluate the risk that is associated with an enterprise asset; the results of such an evaluation may then be augmented with an enterprise-assigned business value for the asset to derive the asset’s business risk; and such a business risk may be leveraged to prioritize risk mitigation efforts, may be combined with other business risks, etc. The above-described process may be referred to herein as Business Risk Management (BRM)