The recession in India and the UK peaked in 2017 due to the implications of new policy initiatives. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 intensified the crisis, causing a drastic decline in aggregate demand and output. India and the UK have resorted to monetary and fiscal stimulus packages to face the economic crisis. This study investigated the inflation–unemployment dynamics during the recession and COVID-19 times in India and the UK. Using a generalized additive model (GAM), the results of this study revealed that the recession had given way to stagflation in India. In contrast, in the UK, it has led to a more severe recession in the short-run. During the downturn, policy initiatives aggravate the recession and eventually turn to stagflation in India due to inflation caused by the weak supply side. However, in the UK, the policy initiatives during this downturn pushed the economy into a deeper recession due to reduced demand. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a similar recessionary impact on both economies. A time horizon based recovery plan is suggested to help the economies recover from stagflation and even deeper recession. This framework could enable policymakers to choose the right path of recovery within the shortest possible time.

Background/Purpose: The effectiveness of a Business School depends on the extra role behaviours or Organ-isational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) of its committed academics. The social exchange theory postulates that employees tend to display OCB when they know how their organisation would treat them. As B-School academics’ inclination towards OCB is less understood, this study examines the interaction between Procedural Justice (PJ), Perceived Organisational Support (POS) and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) among B-School academics. Methods: A survey was carried out to collect data from B-School academics, 378 responses were collected from B-Schools from the state of Kerala, India. Data validity and reliability analyses, and direct and indirect effects of research variables were tested using Partial Least Square (PLS) path modelling. Results: The results indicate PJ positively influences POS as well as dimensions of the OCB for B-School academics. Contrary to previous OCB studies, this study finds that POS do not significantly relate to Courtesy. The findings also show that POS fully mediates PJ’s relationship with Altruism, Conscientiousness and Civic Virtues of B-School academics. Conclusion: This research explains the dynamics of PJ and POS towards OCB in a B-School setting. The academic setting of this study provides more insight into the relationships and provides insights into enhancing the organisational citizenship behaviour of academics in enhancing educational outcomes. Further, it also adds to existing understanding of organisational behaviour theory.

In a dynamic global environment of increased economic interdependence, nations are more than ever seeking to remove barriers to trade, despite growing trends of protectionism. In this context, India and the EU-27 have initiated talks for the establishment of a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in an attempt to bring their economies together. However, after 16 rounds of negotiations, the failure to conclude this agreement has raised questions regarding the benefits of the agreement to India. This study attempts to examine the current trade scenario and the effects of the proposed regional trade agreement by estimating a structural gravity model. This study employs the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimator for analysing the trade-creation and trade-diversion effects of the BTIA to overcome the shortcomings of ordinary least square (OLS) estimators. For the empirical analysis, the merchandise export data from the Gravity database has been taken for a period of 19 years from 2001 to 2019. The results indicate that the BTIA could lead to trade creation and trade diversion, highlighting the need for a re-evaluation of India’s trade policy. JEL Classification: F10, F13, F14, F15, O24

BACKGROUND: The selection of students at academic institutions has been a challenging affair given multiple criteria that need to be considered by the institution. Additionally, multiple evaluators and decision makers are involved in the student selection process, rendering it inconsistent. The complexity and subjectiveness in such decisions making requires new and innovative approach in order to be more systematic and transparent. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents an innovative methodology for student selection for admission into an Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Drawing on the success of using these methods in other fields, this study applies the technique and principles on student selection process. METHOD: Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is used in determining the weights of the criteria by the decision makers which avoids the vagueness and inconsistencies in decision making process and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method ranks finds out the best alternative solution for student selection by calculating the relative closeness from the positive ideal solution. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: This research finds using the hybrid method is effective in student selection for IHL and makes the process efficient and bias-free. This method can be applied to various fields and uses where multi-criteria decision making is involved.