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3846 items in total found

Working Papers | 2024

An Empirical Analysis of ‘Scandalous’ and ‘Obscene’ Trade Marks in India

M P Ram Mohan, Aditya Gupta and Vijay V Venkitesh

Morality-based restrictions on trademarks have gained widespread acceptance since their statutory recognition in 1875, appearing in the domestic statutory language of 163 out of 164 WTO member states. Building upon earlier conceptual work, this study empirically examines the administration of India's iteration of moral-based trademark limitations, which prohibit the registration of scandalous or obscene marks. Expanding on a prior anecdotal and purposive study, the authors create a novel dataset to analyze the implementation of the provision. The dataset examines 1.6 million trademark examination reports filed between 2018-2022. Through auto-coding, the authors identify 140 applications objected for containing scandalous or obscene matter. A systematic analysis classifies the objections into three categories - those concurrently raising relative and absolute grounds of refusal, successful circumvention of morality objections through ambiguity, and an alarming lack of objections for potentially offensive marks. The findings provide empirical evidence in the administration of morality-based proscriptions in India.

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Journal Articles | 2024

Contesting social responsibilities of business: Centring context, experience, and relationality

Premilla D'Cruz, Nolywe Delanon, Arno Kourula, Jeremy Moon, Lauren McCarthy, Laura Spence

This introduction, and the special issue on ‘Contesting social responsibilities of business: Experiences in context’ it frames, addresses the neglected question of the experience of contestation in the terrain of the social responsibilities of business. It re-conceptualises the social responsibilities of business by advancing research grounded in a relational perspective, exploring and highlighting different forms of contestation of these social responsibilities, and centring the role of context by focusing especially on contestation in overlooked geographical settings and sites of marginalisation. Contextualising contestation in this way centres silenced and/or ignored voices, generates meaningful theory, and offers an innovative critical lens on business–society relations.

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Journal Articles | 2024

Making a new beginning on farm reforms

Satish Y. Deodhar, Vijay Kelkar

Minimum support price is not tenable on the grounds of impracticality of its measurement, lack of reach, financial implications, negative externalities associated with wrong incentives, and inefficiency in its execution. Alternatively, an agricultural and food marketing council on the lines of the Goods And Services Tax Council comprising representatives of the union and state governments can be constituted. It requires creating a comprehensive mechanism of direct benefit transfer and structural adjustment programme to provide production-limiting and production-switching incentives, compensation to agricultural produce market committees for loss of revenue for some period after nationwide integration of agricultural markets, and basic income to farmers.

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Working Papers | 2024

The price of honesty: Indian firms’ response to stringent disclosure regulations

Shubhankar Mishra

Using a regulation implemented by SEBI in November 2016 as an exogeneous shock, I test whether firms with bad quality of information disclosures attempt to conceal firm-specific information when faced with a business environment marked with heightened disclosure quality requirement mandated by law for the CRAs. Specifically, the study empirically attempts to analyze whether regulation is sufficient to create a separating equilibrium, in terms of the quality of disclosures to CRAs by firms. I find a statistically significant decrease in number of security issuances and number of CRAs bad type firms engage with, as well as an increase in the number of security downgrades that they suffer in the post-regulation environment. However, the decrease in number of issues is weakened if the firm is listed, has high proportion of independent directors in its board or gets its statements audited by a Big 4 auditor, all of which signal that the firm is of a good type. These findings indicate that bad type firms strategically chose to reduce their issuances and initiate new firm-CRA relationships after the regulation to conceal their firm type, but they weren’t successful in escaping from the suffering for long.

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Working Papers | 2024

Health Shocks, Risk Aversion, and Consumption Choices: Evidence from Household Intoxicant Spending in India During COVID-19

Bharat Barik

This study delves into the nuanced relationship between heightened health awareness amid the COVID-19 pandemic with household intoxicant consumption patterns in India. The central hypothesis posits the pandemic as a transformative shock, shaping both health awareness and intoxicant consumption, guided by risk aversion. Analysis using a difference-in-differences approach underscores a substantial reduction in intoxicant expenditures for households without health insurance compared to households with health insurance during the pandemic, with specific categories like cigarettes, tobacco and liquor expenditure experiencing a drop for uninsured households. In rural areas households lacking health insurance exhibit a notable reduction in intoxicant expenditures than the rural areas. This study contributes to the understanding of economic and behavioural responses to health crises, offering valuable insights into the complex interplay between risk perception, health awareness, and consumption choices in challenging times.

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Working Papers | 2024

Global Supply Chain Vulnerabilities: Assessing Firm Risk, Environmental Commitments, and Information Channels in the wake of COVID-19

Huzaifa Shamsi

This study investigates the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on firm risk, focusing on supply chain disruptions and their spillover effects on environmental commitments. The research highlights the crucial role of information channels in mitigating these challenges. Employing a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) regression design, the findings reveal a significant increase in default probability among US-incorporated firms with heightened foreign relationships post-COVID-19, particularly those connected to Chinese supply chains. Additionally, firms with foreign relationships show a decline in environmental commitments, suggesting prioritization of survival during adversity. Notably, companies with robust information channels with industry peers exhibit resilience against supply chain disruptions.

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Journal Articles | 2023

Assessment of marketing channel choice and its impacts: The case of paddy smallholders in India

Sonalee Chauhan, Poornima Varma, Sukhpal Singh

Market access for smallholders is a key policy issue in developing economies. However, smallholders often face barriers in accessing remunerative marketing channels. Combining the theoretical framework drawn from resource-based view, social exchange, and transaction cost theory, we jointly estimate the determinants of marketing channel choice and the impact of channel choice in a joint framework. Results show that households’ resource endowments and social capital influence channel selection decision. Paddy sales through government agencies help farmers realize higher prices because of the higher government support prices and proximity to farms, whereas sales through licensed traders operating in the regulated markets (APMC) results in reduced paddy prices due to high transportation costs. Furthermore, smallholders preferring government agencies, processors, and licensed traders over village traders realize greater farm income. Reasons for such findings can be deduced to be the result of low marketable surplus for smallholders selling to village traders.

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Journal Articles | 2023

Can biofuels help achieve sustainable development goals in India? A systematic review

Prantika Das, Chandan Kumar Jha, Satyam Saxena, Ranjan Kumar Ghosh

Biofuels are expected to play a pivotal role in developing economies' transition towards net-zero emissions. However, their promotion can cause multifaceted sustainability concerns. National biofuel policies often align with the optimistic discourse surrounding biofuels but may lack comprehensive measures to simultaneously address all sustainability risks. This study conducts a systematic review to evaluate the sustainability performance of biofuels and examines their implications for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A total of 12 sustainability indicators were identified as economic, social, and environmental priorities. Biofuel linkages with 8 SDGs, 21 targets, and 22 indicators were mapped. The analysis revealed a wider coverage of sustainability impacts associated with biodiesel compared to ethanol feedstocks for India. Notably, the sustainability effects of biofuels exhibited considerable variability across different spatial scales. Irrespective of the biofuel types, negative sustainability outcomes were found to be associated with socio-economic indicators related to food security, livelihood, and income, and environmental indicators like land use. Positive sustainability effects were observed for environmental indicators like water and soil quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. The study identifies policy gaps in addressing localized adverse effects of biofuels, emphasizing the need to align biofuel strategies with SDGs for more comprehensive and sustainable biofuel development in developing countries.

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Journal Articles | 2023

What money couldn’t buy: Social protection for migrants in India’s lockdown

Karan Singhal, Ankur Sarin, Advaita Rajendra

We analyze findings from a large-scale survey of over 11,000 respondents across 64 districts in India, conducted between December 2020 and January 2021 to examine the impact of the lockdown on internal migrants in India. We find that compared to the households without migrants, households with migrants were relatively advantaged in income levels before the pandemic but faced more severe food and financial vulnerability even nine months after the first lockdown. In addition, governmental social security support was more difficult to access for households with migrants. The paper joins several scholars in arguing for greater policy attention and social protection for migrants.

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Journal Articles | 2023

Doing “Reputation” in the Indian context: An employee perspective

Avani Desai, Asha Kaul, Vidhi Chaudhri

perceptions of employees, a critical group of stakeholders, within the Indian context and examines factors that inform an understanding of reputation from an employee perspective and shares the consequences of the same. Building on existing research conducted in developed countries, the study reveals similarities and dissimilarities with existing reputation conceptualizations. Results reveal three new factors, namely stakeholder connect, customer centricity, and company ethos, which are critical to an understanding of reputation from the perspective of Indian employees. Based on factors and attributes emerging from employee perceptions, the study proposes the Loyalty, Engagement, Emotional Connect, and Commitment model, which highlights the consequences of a good reputation in the Indian context.

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