Background: The purpose of the study is to understand the role of cash flow sensitivity to investment as a measure of financial constraints among listed Indian manufacturing firms. It also analyses the role of tangibility in alleviating financial constraints. Further, the role of other financial factors in investment decisions is explored. Methods: The study is conducted using the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator on dynamic panel data for the period of (2009-2015) on 768 listed manufacturing firms. Results: The analysis finds that cash flow sensitivity is a valid measure of financial constraints in the Indian manufacturing sector. Results according to splitting criteria found that investment decisions of standalone firms are more sensitive to cash flow than group affiliated firms. Further, splitting the firms according to market capitalization and tangible net worth reveals a higher degree of cash flow sensitivity by firms with lower market capitalization and asset tangibility. The results for the effects of tangibility of assets on easing financial constraint were found significant only in the case of firms with low tangible net worth and medium market capitalization. Conclusions: The study confirms cash flow sensitivity to investment as a valid measure of financial constraints. It will confirm pooling of internal funds by financially constrained firms to accept profitable investment opportunities in future. Further, it also reports that asset tangibility eases the financial constraints faced by firms.

The purpose of the study is to explore dividend behaviour of Indian manufacturing and service sector firms and to investigate similarities/differences between the same. First, the analysis is conducted using pooled, fixed and random effects OLS regression for panel data on 452 manufacturing and service sector firms for the period of 2007–2015. Further, dynamic panel data analysis has been used to deal with the heteroscedasticity and endogeneity issues among the variables for the study to capture asymptotic efficient estimates. The result refutes significant differences in terms of firm-level factors that determines dividend policy. However, manufacturing sector is significantly efficient in declaring dividends (59.63 per cent) in comparison to service sector (34.33 per cent). Further analysis suggests that firm size and cash holdings have significant positive relationship to dividend paid, whereas age and net working capital are negatively significant for dividend declarations in the service sector. However, the analysis of manufacturing sector suggests that profitability and firm size and profitability are positively significant, while net working capital is negatively significant for dividend decisions.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirical evidence of drift from social goals (mission drift) among Indian microfinance institutions (MFI). Design/methodology/approach The study used multiple proxies, namely, loan size, operating efficiency and equity as dependent variables to avoid the complexities in interpreting mission drift solely through loan size. The study uses data from 211 Indian MFI for the period of 1985–2014. The dynamic panel data estimation method of Arellano and Bond (1991) is used for the analysis to avoid endogeneity issues in the data estimation. Findings The study finds that efficiency and change in average loan balance are characterized by higher lending rates and higher profitability to firms. Higher lending rates imply poverty premium which means that poor pay more for the same services than their rich counterparts. Equity results in movement toward safer borrowers and a consequent mission drift. Research limitations/implications The study uses self-reported data from organizations provided through Microfinance Information Exchange. Social implications Access to credit to the poor is an important poverty alleviation goal and present study will contribute toward policy formation in institutional provision of credit and banking services to the poor. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, present study is the first to use alternative proxies in the form of operating efficiency and equity to explore relationships between the variables that can help to better understand the phenomenon of mission drift.

Sustainable agriculture demands the use of our natural resources to enhance production and productivity without depleting the natural base along with a vision to preserve them for our future generation. The effect of modern agriculture driven by agrochemicals has raised serious concern about the health and wellbeing of our environment and humans as well. The growth of the population and shrinking resources has created the need for searching new technology and resources to balance between feeding and preserving the environment. Researchers are nowadays more focussed towards trying and testing new products to reduce our dependency on agrochemicals. Among the various alternatives, Seaweed has drawn the attention of many researchers due to its unique properties and abundant availability. They are nowadays used to increase the yield by enhancing the nutrient uptake by the plant. This can reduce excessive fertilizer application for yield enhancement. Seaweed extracts are also showing effective response against various pest and diseases. This property can also play a very important role in reducing our dependency on harmful chemicals for pest control.

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