Mergers and acquisitions are strategic decisions taken for maximization of a company's growth. But the point of the matter is, how far does the empirical evidence support this notion? An examination of the existing literature suggested no conclusive evidence about the impact of M&A on corporate performance. Therefore, this article investigates the mergers in the Indian Banking industry to find out whether Indian banks have achieved performance efficiency during the post-merger period namely in the areas of profitability, liquidity, shareholders wealth and share price volatility. Basically, two methods are employed to compare pre-post merger performance, of Indian banks from 2000 to 2011. First, paired sample t-test determines the significant differences in financial performance before and after the merger activity, and second, a standard event study approach examines the announcement effect of mergers and acquisitions on share price volatility (event window of 120 days) and the efficiency of the Indian stock market.An overall assessment (accounting performance measures and stock market reaction) of mergers in Indian banking sector indicates absence of any significant impact on their financial performance. The merger in Indian banks only brings significant improvement in EPS and Market value to book value of equity. The study exposed the fact that the stock prices react significantly to merger announcements in the short period (30 days pre-and post-merger announcement) but not in long period which also indicated that Indian stock market is efficient in the long-run.

The study was carried out to see the effect of different recipe ingredients (shortening, sodium chloride, sugar, sodium bicarbonate and water) on dough and cookie properties. Dough properties were measured using mixograph and cookie fracture force was measured using Instron Universal Testing Machine. Dough and cookie properties were described using regression to fit a response surface analysis. The models computed had correlation coefficient (R 2 ) values ranging between 90.1-93.0%, regarded as appropriate. Shortening showed greatest effect on peak height of dough followed by sugar, sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride. Dough development time increased with the increase in sodium chloride and decreased with the increase in shortening level. Both sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride increased the mixing tolerance of dough. Sugar and sodium bicarbonate were observed to be the main constituents that control spread factor of cookies. Shortening improved cookie spread factor in the presence of high sugar concentration. Fracture force of cookies was observed to mainly dependent on formula water and sugar content.*Corresponding

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not a new concept; companies have always to some extent tried to acknowledge their responsibility towards the community. CSR today is seen as something more far-reaching, engaging at a much wider level with business operations and relations with communities. It is essentially about business’ contribution to sustainable development and how best to maximise that contribution. In order to study the growing impact of CSR in business organisations, the present study has been undertaken on 100 SME manufacturing units operating in the state of Punjab. The data has been analysed using descriptive statistics, Friedman’s two-way ANOVA, Kruskal–Wallis test and factor analytic approach. The study revealed that very few SMEs are consciously engaged in implementing CSR initiatives. The reason can be attributed to lack of financial resources, no support from the side of government (like incentives and schemes), no important impact on the image of the company and lack of awareness in the society. Further, ‘good relations with stakeholders’ emerged as the most important factor underlying the perception of respondent SMEs towards the impact of implementing CSR practices. The results also revealed that there is no relation between CSR activities and performance of the organisation.

This study assessed the effect of training program on teachers' knowledge of and attitude toward reproductive health education/ sexuality education (RHE/SE) in five randomly selected rural schools in rural area of Wardha district, Maharashtra, India. All the 40 teachers in the selected were recruited for the study. They (40 teachers) were all given training in RHE/SE for 1 month. Their knowledge and attitude toward RHE/SE were assessed pre-and post-training program. The results show a significant increase in percentage of those who had good knowledge in general areas of RHE/SE at post-training assessment compared with pretraining assessment [from 14.3% to 53.6%, p = 0.0001). Also, pre-post attitudinal disposition assessments show that there was an increase in percentage of those who were favorably disposed to the teaching of RHE/SE. The study suggests that RHE/SE should be included and made compulsory in all training program for all teachers in india.

Thyroid Dysfunction in a Patient with Malignant Melanoma Treated with Immune Checkpoint Blockade Background: Thyroid dysfunction is a known immune-related adverse event associated with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Clinical Case: 48 year old female, newly diagnosed with metastatic melanoma started on combination immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy with Ipilimumab and Nivolumab. Her baseline thyroid function tests were normal. 6 weeks after the first cycle, she was found to have TSH of 0.010IU/ml with FT4 3.33IU/ml. Patient was started on Prednisone for 2 weeks and beta-blocker for symptom control by oncology team and referred to endocrine clinic for further evaluation. She was diagnosed with thyroiditis. TSI and thyroid uptake scan were not checked as there was no clinical suspicion for Graves disease in the absence of ophthalmopathy and thyroid enlargement. Serial TFTs were obtained which showed improvement. However, 4 weeks later, patient developed overt hypothyroidism (TSH 11.800IU/ml, FT4 0.68IU/ml) for which therapy with levothyroxine was started. Conclusion: Our case emphasizes the importance of close monitoring of patients receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy for prompt diagnosis and management of the thyroid disorders to prevent complications such as thyroid storm or myxedema coma. Per the ASCO guidelines, Brahmer et al recommends monitoring TFTs every 4 to 6 weeks from the start of the therapy and every 2-3 weeks after the diagnosis to detect conversion of thyroiditis and hyperthyroidism to hypothyroidism. In the combination therapy, the median time to onset of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism after first treatment was 21 and 63 days and transition time from hyperthyroidism to hypothyroidism was 42 days. Reference: (1) Characterization of Thyroid Disorders in Patients Receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibition Therapy Lee et al (2) Management of Immune-Related Adverse Events in Patients Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy: American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline Julie R. Brahmer et al