Purpose – This paper aims to examine the association between regulatory capital and risk of Indian commercial banks and the impacts of other relevant variables on them. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a secondary data set on Indian commercial banks collected from “Capitaline Plus” corporate database and annual reports of the respective banks. Total 41 major Indian banks (21 public and 20 private sector banks) are considered in this study. Here absolute values of capital and risk are used as dependent variables along with some relevant bank specific explanatory variables in a system of a two-equation model. Based on the nature of interrelationship and identifiability of the equations, three-stage least squares (3SLS) technique is used to estimate the relationship. Findings – Risk and capital of Indian commercial banks are inversely associated. The influence of profitability on both capital and risk is significantly positive. Moreover, human capital efficiency is negatively associated with the undertaking of risk by the banks. In this respect, Indian private sector banks are found to be more efficient in utilizing human capital for reducing credit risk. Originality/value – It is the first comparative study in India examining the relationship between capital and risk of Indian public and private sector commercial banks covering both Basel I and II periods. Further, the role of human resource in managing risk is considered as a relevant variable in this study.

An attempt is made in this paper to examine the impacts of government spending on human capital on human development indicators like healthcare outcomes, education achievements and increase in national income in Namibia using time series data from 1980 to 2015. The analysis reveals a significant long-run inverse relationship of government spending on healthcare with fertility rate, infant mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate. However, no co-integration is observed between government spending on healthcare and life-expectancy or adult mortality rate. Also, the findings reveal a significant long-run positive relationship of government spending on education with literacy rate, net primary and gross tertiary enrolment rate. Whereas, no co-integration between government spending on education and gross enrolment rate at primary and secondary level is observed. The vector auto-regression analysis revealed significant impacts of expenditure on healthcare and education on the GDP growth in the long run through improved human resources. The results are thus in favour of continuation of expansionary government expenditure policy to achieve faster economic growth in Namibia. However, drastic changes should be adopted to improve basic education and primary healthcare in the country.

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used for regional transport simulations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (referred to as WRF-CO 2 ) for the East Asia region at the horizontal resolution of 27 × 27 km. The domain extends from 18°N to 51°N in latitude and 101°E to 165°E in longitude, including the islands of Japan, South Korea, North Korea and a part of China. The simulation period is limited to the year 2002. To understand the role of surface fluxes and transport, we have simulated atmospheric CO 2 using 5 different CO 2 fluxes from ocean, fossil fuel and terrestrial biospheres at various horizontal resolutions, and at hourly to monthly time intervals. The model simulations are compared with observed time series at 9 stations, which are located under different ecological and climate

Purpose The purpose of the study is to understand the relative impacts of structural characteristics of house, its locational attributes and neighbourhood characteristics on the choice of house and the rent paid by the individual tenants. The micro level study helps in understanding the issues of urban housing and help in policy formulation. Design/methodology/approach This paper tried to identify the socio-economic, locational and neighbourhood factors that influence tenant households in determining their residential choices in an urban area of North-east India. Also, the extent of impacts of those characteristics on the monthly rent for housing is analysed. The analysis is based on the primary data collected from the sample residents of Dimapur Town in Nagaland. The sample units are selected by cluster sampling technique from all the wards. Regression technique is used under hedonic pricing technique to examine the impacts of various potential factors on the rent. Findings The analysis reveals that family size, income, education of the head of family, water availability, security, convenience to access workplace, road conditions, etc. have significant positive impacts on the monthly rent. However, the impacts of some locational and neighbourhood variables vary across social and economic groups. Research limitations/implications Time series data on the growth of house price are not available, so that the authors could examine the escalation of house price and rising scarcity of houses in the selected town. Practical implications Rental housing accounts for a significant percentage of housing in many urban centres. It is particularly important for the migrants and urban poor for whom it is the only source of accommodation. Location choice depending on capability, availability, requirement and neighbourhood conditions are integral parts of selection of accommodation in a city. Hence the present study has its relevant practical implications. Social implications Housing choice in a hilly urban area like Dimapur assumes a special significance for the presence of heterogeneous ethnic, social and cultural groups with majority of Tribal inhabitants with varied requirements and lifestyle. Originality/value No study on housing choice or pricing of residential accommodation has been done in North-East India. Here along with the socio-economic characteristics of the individuals, structural characteristics of house, neighbourhood and locational characteristics are used simultaneously to find out the impact of various factors on the total prices through hedonic pricing method.

Abstract.Mesoscale model MM5 (Version 3.5) with some modifications in the cloud microphysics scheme of Schultz (1995), has been used to simulate two hailstorm events over Gangetic Plain of West Bengal, India. While the first event occurred on 12 March 2003 and the hails covered four districts of the state of West Bengal, India, the second hailstorm event struck Srinikatan (22.65 • N, 87.7 • E) on 10 April 2006 at 11:32 UT and it lasted for 2-3 min. Both these events can be simulated, if the same modifications are introduced in the cloud microphysics scheme of Schultz. However, the original scheme of Schultz cannot simulate any hail.The results of simulation were compared with the necessary products of Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) located at Kolkata (22.57 • N, 88.35 • E). Model products like reflectivity, graupel and horizontal wind are compared with the corresponding products of DWR. The pattern of hail development bears good similarity between model output and observation from DWR, if necessary modifications are introduced in the model. The model output of 24 h accumulated rain from 03:00 UT to next day 03:00 UT has also been compared with the corresponding product of the satellite TRMM.