Present study made an attempt to examine the penalty of joblessness following coronavirus induced lockdown on income and remittances of inter‐state migrant labourers from Assam. The primary data for the study were collected through telephonic‐based survey of 451 labourers during May–June 2020. The results of this study showed that, on an average, labourers in the study area remained jobless for nearly 2 months and incurred income loss of INR 28,955 thereby failed to send remittances towards their families by an amount of INR 12,215 during the reference period. As per the analysis of covariance the income loss and remittances unsent amount was higher amongst the elderly labourers engaged in professions which remained non‐operational during lockdown period. Further, the additional days of joblessness increased their hardship in terms of income and remittances. With coronavirus being more than a health crisis, in short term it is necessary to minimise the loss of life, forwarding social and financial security for the families of migrant labourers and vulnerable sections for extended period of crisis, strategies for supporting agriculture and allied activities, promotion of small and medium‐size enterprises, imparting skill training for the unemployed and reverse migrant labourers, financial assistance for self‐employment may be helpful. Suitable coordination of monetary and fiscal policy would be helpful for reducing the unemployment heading from the recessionary trend of the economy in the long run.

The Self-help Group Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP) is now a major global microfinance programme in India with 8.7 million SHGs with deposit of over `195,000 million and annual loan offtake of more than `470,000 million. However, group sustainability is having a wider concern among donor agencies, practitioners, policymakers and academicians to achieve persistent benefit from SHGs in financial intermediation. The present study made an attempt to examine the status of group sustainability with the help of multidimensional sustainability index of SHGs (MDSI SHG) by combining organizational, managerial and financial indicators of 60 SHGs in Assam. It was found that 95 per cent of SHGs positioned within the range of 'high' and 'moderate' MDSI SHG status and, therefore, may maintain their function well over a long period of time. Thus, the study recommends for enlargement of the scope of semiformal financial institutions (in our study: SHGs) in rural areas of Assam only for income-generating activities with proper market linkages. There is a scope to regenerate and validate the findings using relatively large sample size with SHGs of varied socioeconomic background.

Penile involvement was seen in 19.5% of 261 patients, aged 11 to 30 years, with tinea cruris. It was more common in patients under the age of 20 years (p less than 0.05). The increased incidence is probably related to the use of langota, a semiocclusive undergarment that may favor the growth of dermatophytes.

The present study makes an attempt to analyse farm level cost inefficiency of maize farming and its determinants in different agro-climatic regions of Sikkim. The primary data for the study were collected during the third and fourth quarter of 2018 from different agro-climatic regions of Sikkim. Both data envelopment and stochastic frontier analysis were used for measurement of the farm level inefficiency across different agro-climatic regions of the study area. Based on the Cobb–Douglas cost function for maize output, the article simultaneously estimated stochastic frontier cost function and examined the effect of exogenous factors on farm level cost inefficiency. The results of this study showed that, on an average, the farmer incurred cost which was 8 per cent to 72 per cent above the minimum cost defined by the best practice frontier. Further, cost inefficiency was relatively higher among the farmers in temperate agro-climatic region. Greater cost inefficiency seems to be directly associated with remoteness of farmland from input market. The study also found that the additional years of farming experience and farming in the rented plots were useful in reducing cost inefficiency.