The priority sector lending is mainly intended to ensure that the assistance from the banking system to those sectors of the economy which has not received adequate support of institutional finance. The attainment of the socio economic priorities of the government like growth of agriculture, promotion of small entrepreneurs and development of backward area etc is the major responsibility of commercial banks. Since seventies, Reserve Bank of India and government of India have stipulated guidelines for priority sector lending by banks. The same was revised on April 30, 2007 and overall priority sector lending target was fixed at 40 per cent for domestic banks and 32 per cent for foreign banks. However, the banks are not able to reach the prescribed target of lending to priority sector. The small entrepreneurs and farmers are continued to be both credit and demand constraints. Thus, it can be observed that the demand for funds for priority sector viz., small entrepreneurs and agricultural sector is enormous. With this backdrop, the present treatise is an attempt to diagnose the various lacunas of priority sector lending by commercial banks in the area under consideration in the context of national scenario.

The present research paper aims to determine customers' satisfaction with services offered by rural banks in India. The study has considered a total of 400 customers directly associated with the banks, i.e., at least having one account with the banks using the purposive sampling method. The respondents’ opinion on the selected variables indicating satisfaction/dissatisfaction level was measured on a Likert scale. The data have been analyzed through statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, correlations analysis, and regression analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study indicates that there are interrelationships between the factors, namely intangible infrastructure, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy, and also validates the variables exhibited a linear relationship relating the constructs to each other. The research also reveals that tangible infrastructure, reliability, and empathy are significant predictors of customers’ satisfaction, at the same time, assurance and responsiveness are not appropriate predictors of customers’ satisfaction levels.

The number of Internet users in the world has been mounted over the years. By the end of 2011, more than one-third of the population was online, i.e., 2.3 billion people, and this growth has provided the impetus and the opportunities for global and regional e-commerce. However, all countries are not likely to benefit equally from the virtuous circle of Internet diffusion created by globalization and multiple revolutions in information and communication technologies. The e-commerce can reduce the economic disparity between the developing and developed countries. Despite the promises made by various international organizations, the developing countries are encountering difficulties in realizing the benefits of e-commerce. It is argued that many factors are still confound and challenging the adoption of e-commerce. In order to derive the benefits of e-commerce, region specific /country specific diagnosis of the associated factors and barriers leading to the problem is an immense necessity. Keeping in view the various initiatives undertaken by the Syrian government viz., E-Signature Legislation Project, Intellectual Property Protection Project and the National Programme for Promoting Information Technology Initiatives etc.; and considering the multifaceted issues relating to e-commerce in Syria viz., formation of contracts, cyber contracts, validity of e-transactions, dichotomy of offer and invitation to treat, mutual mistake, identity of parties etc, a study on e-commerce adoption in Syria is fascinating academic focus. Hence, the paper is an attempt to detect the main barriers to e-commerce in Syria.

The origin of the regional rural banks (RRBs) can be traced to the need for stronger institutional arrangements for providing rural credit. The inception of RRBs can be seen as a unique experiment as well as an experience in improving the efficacy of rural credit delivery mechanism in India. In the wake of the introduction of financial sector reforms, the feasibility of RRBs emerged as the most crucial factor in deciding the desired role due to their limited business flexibility with hardly any scope of diversification, smaller size of loans with higher exposure to risk-prone advances and professional inefficiency in financial deployment. In order to strengthen RRBs and to improve their performance, various initiatives have been taken by the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The article, therefore, is a synopsis on the evaluation of performance of RRBs in India with respect to deposit mobilization, credit channelization, credit–deposit (C/D) ratio, deployment of credit to various occupations, etc.

The study aimed to examine the impact of corporate governance attributes on sustainability reporting in the context of 435 non-financial companies from the top 500 BSE-listed companies based on market capitalization. The study is based on secondary data collected from the published sustainability, governance, and annual reports for a period of 6 years, that is, from 2015 to 2020. We have employed a content analysis technique to measure CSP using binary coding, that is, 0 (for non-disclosure) and 1 (for disclosure of item) based on the GRI reporting framework. Using panel data regression, we found that the corporate governance attribute plays a very significant role in influencing the sustainability disclosure of Indian firms.