The Critical Minimum Effort for Energy Poverty Challenge in India

The Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011 shows the extent of deprivations of rural India. Around 73.4 % of families are residing in rural India, where over 77 million households depend on kerosene for lighting; 1 million use wood and as many as 1.2 million households in India remain completely in the dark. Improvement in - Access, Availability, Adequacy, and Quality of energy can contribute to poverty reduction from various aspects. From a policy-making perspective increasing access to modern energy services require, first, the integration of energy access into national development strategies, and then strong and sustainable financial, institutional, and technology frameworks must be set up. The restatement of the theory of critical minimum effort is to make a plan for the effort that needs to break the environment of inertia of energy poverty. This paper discusses the minimum effort necessary to achieve a steady secular supply of basic energy requirements for people in need. It is alarming fact that today billions of people lack access to the most basic energy services, electricity, and clean cooking facilities, and, worse, this situation is set to change very little over the next 20 years. This paper explains how to set the needed change in the orientation and execution for the service delivery mechanism of energy. Aims: The restatement of the theory of critical minimum effort as a plan to achieve a steady secular supply of basic energy requirements for people in need. Study Design: Descriptive analysis. Place and Duration of Study: Macro-level analysis on India based on Socio-Economic and caste census of 2011. Methodology: Review-driven theoretical analysis. Conclusion: Restates those large-scale actions are needed to take people out of the vicious circle of energy poverty.

Women Entrepreneurships’ Development in Imo State, Nigeria, Challenges and Prospects

Empirical studies have found that developing countries are mostly affected by the whims of gender discrimination particularly against the women in their quest to be involveld in entrepreneurship activities and other economic ventures. Hence , the need to study Women Entrepreneurships’ Development in Imo State, Nigeria; Challenges and Prospects. Four hundred and fifty (450) women entrepreneurs from Imo State Nigeria were randomly selected from the list of registered women entrepreneurs in the three geopolitical zones of Imo State. A likert scale responses on questionnaire and rating scales were used to obtain the required data for the study. It deployed descriptive statistics and regression analysis for hypotheses testing. Findings reveal that, challenges (CHA) exerted significant negative influence on the women entrepreneurship development (WED) in Imo State, Nigeria. On the other hand, prospects (PRO) is a positive and significant function of WED. Results also reveal that, discriminatory laws and regulations (DLR) (with mean rank of 5.21) happens to be the highest challenge to women entrepreneurship in Imo State. While innovation (INNO) (with mean rank of 7.49) represents the highest Prospects for women entrepreneurship in Imo State. The study concluded that, the strength in the identified prospects will help curtail the gender biases in favour of the women. In all, dismantling of the discriminatory laws and regulations against women will produce the ultimate objective of economic growth and development. Consequently, the future of women entrepreneurship in Imo State, lies in those identified prospects. It recommended that government deliberate support programmes targeting the female folk will aid women entrepreneurship development. Thus, the more increase in participation by females in entrepreneurial activity will provide the required trajectory for development.

Between Instagrammable Attraction and Selfie Tourist: Characteristic and Behavior

Aims: This study aims to identify and analyze the characteristics of instagrammable attractions and selfie tourist behavior. Methodology: The method used in this research is descriptive quantitative. The survey was conducted by adopting a non-probability sampling technique involving 104 respondents. The distribution of questionnaires and observations were carried out for two weeks at the Lembang Floating Market. Results: The study found that most tourist attractions can be categorized as instagrammable attractions. While selfie tourists strongly consider the availability of unique and current attractions, for the purpose of documenting and sharing their experiences through photos or videos on their Instagram accounts. Therefore, this study concludes that instagrammable attraction has a positive and significant effect on attracting selfie tourists. Especially because the characteristics of instagrammable attractions that "perfectly impress" are able to attract selfie tourists who have travel motives and behavior to seek existence and recognition on social media, especially Instagram. Implication/Applications: The results of this study are able to provide comprehensive information related to selfie tourist behavior that is beneficial for stakeholders, especially travel agents and tourist destination managers. The Originality of the Study: The limitation of this research is the data collection method which is dominated by surveys. Therefore, further research is expected to conduct an in-depth study related to the reasons tourists are interested in selfie tourism.

Do Quality Standards Affect the Growth of the Fisheries Sector in Cameroon?

This article aim’s to assess the effect of quality standards on the growth of the fisheries sector in Cameroon. Cobb-Douglas function, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation method and the stationary test (Augmented Dicky Fuller and Phillip Perron tests) were employed. In the light of the results obtained, we noted that in the short term, the quality standards are negatively and significantly correlated with the growth of the fisheries sector in Cameroon, but in the long term, we observed a positive correlation. Indeed, a 10% strengthening of quality standards is accompanied by a decrease in the growth of the Cameroonian fisheries sector of about 8.61%. Faced with the demanding nature of quality standards and with a view to making the fisheries sector efficient and attractive in the long term, we recommend that the public authorities implement a national strategy based on effective and relevant management of human and financial resources, aimed at supporting fisher folk on one hand, and on the other hand, improving the quality of institutions.

Asuu Strike and the Nigerian Governments: Implications on Students and Society in a Changing World

The impasse between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the governments in Nigeria (state and federal) manifested in a repeated ASUU strikes, having implications on students and society in the contemporary changing world. Hence the study examines the adverse impacts of the strikes on university students and the society that embodies the stakeholders. The study discovered that the strikes are orchestrated largely by the union quest to protect its members’ welfare and swift greeting of any perceived unfriendly steps by the government with strike actions while the government fell short in funding and entrenching a right legal milieu for negotiation and regulation of ASUU. With the secondary sourced data from journals, newspapers, journals, books and the internet while underpinning the research with the social contract theory, the study concludes that the public university students are exposed and tempted to indulge in social vices, have a sense of being disadvantaged unlike their private colleagues, and the society developmental agenda is threatened because of the poor quality of graduates produced from the Ivory Tower. It recommends that government and ASUU should renegotiate their agreements while the former should also ramp up the budgetary funding allocation to the University amongst others.

Revealing Readiness and Obstacles for Implementation of Financial Accounting Standards Msmes in Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the readiness and constraints of MSMEs in Indonesia in preparing financial reports in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards MSMES. This study uses a sample data of 271 MSME respondents throughout Indonesia. The sampling technique of this study was accidental sampling by calculating the number of samples using a sample size calculator on www.raosoft.com with consideration of a margin of error of 5%, a level of confidence of 90% and an expected response of 95 %. This study uses descriptive qualitative and quantitative analysis by providing interpretation of data obtained from questions in interviews and questionnaires. The results of an analysis showed that 217 respondents or 80% of respondents had no knowledge of Financial Accounting Standards MSMEs. This shows that SMEs in Indonesia are not ready to implement Financial Accounting Standards MSMEs.

Establishing an Autonomous Village through Bumdes (Village-Owned Enterprise) to Enhance Local Economic Activity

Rural development has become major focus in Indonesia’s development plan. Especially in term of village development which aimed to build self-reliance, to increase socio-economic capacity, and to empower the community. One of the government’s missions is to develop rural areas by optimizing the economic potential of a village to increase its productivity and the diversity of existing businesses. Furthermore, to improve the availability of infrastructure and facilities, to support the rural economy institutions, to support the production effectivity and marketing strategy in order to improve the economic growth. This study aims to explore the role of BUMDES in Jongbiru Village, Kediri Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia in order to optimise the local economic potential. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach which conducted in Jongbiru Village, Gampengrejo, Kediri Regency. The data collection used in-depth interviews with key informants, documentation, and observations on the research subjects. The key informants included in this research such as the chief of village, BUMDES Manager, and business actors in Jongbiru Village. Moreover, this research used source triangulation to make sure all data collected is valid and reliable. The findings show that intervention is needed to create a BUMDES that plays more effective roles on supporting village development. Moreover, community participation (i.e.: small medium enterprises owner) is crucial to develop the welfare of local. Further, last but not least, measurable and feasible planning are needed to support a village to be resilient and autonomous.

An Analysis of Reported Crime against Women and Girls in Eastern India

Crimes against women and girls have been increasing in recent years as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau. It becomes a serious social evil worldwide. The study has been tried to find out the trend of crimes against women for the period of the last ten years (2010-2019) in the states of eastern India i.e. Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal. The study has been based on secondary data from the National Crime Records Bureau, Govt of India. The data have been extracted and analyzed to get the status of crimes in particular categories. The crime records of Bihar show an increasing rate of women assault cases. Jharkhand data shows that indecent representation of women has increased in recent years. In West Bengal Cruelty by husband is the most reported crime in West Bengal and it is also observed that rape cases were decreased in West Bengal continuously in the last ten years. It has been found that Orissa and Bihar are significantly high in crimes like women assault on the internet, an insult to the modesty of women, kidnapping and rape comparing other states of study. Cruelty by husbands and cases under the immoral traffic act had significantly higher in West Bengal compared to other states under study. The Dowry death and kidnapping and abduction are significantly high in Bihar. The different levels of crimes against women in different states not only indicates the status of women in the society and the law and order situations of that state but also it is a reflection of the socio-psychological aspects. Proper implementation of laws along with awareness of related issues, along with continuous monitoring can play a crucial role to minimize the overall crime scenario.

Does Financial Deepening Cause Liquidity Problems for Banks? Evidence from Nigeria

Attempt to facilitate economic growth makes the Central Banks to formulate monetary policies that seek to deepen the provision of financial resources to target sectors. Since Banks are the main channels through which monetary policies are executed, we attempted to examine whether financial deepening cause liquidity problem among Nigerian banks in this study. We employed time series analytical techniques to analyze selected financial deepening indicators and data for banking system liquidity between 1981 and 2019. The financial deepening variables used include of broad money to the gross domestic product (GDP) ratio; credit to private sector to the GDP ratio; ratio of commercial banks liabilities to the GDP; financial sector contribution to the GDP and ratio of market capitalization to the GDP. On the other hand, the liquidity of the banking system is proxy by its loan/deposit ratio for the period under study. We estimated the statistical properties of the variables examined and conducted some pre-estimation tests (stationarity and co-integration) to ascertain choice estimation techniques. We used a vector error correction mechanism to investigate long and short-run effects of financial deepening on Nigerian banking system liquidity. Both the long run vector autoregressive (VAR) and the short run and vector error correction (VEC) models results showed that there is a positive but statistically insignificant relationship between banking system liquidity and financial deepening variables. In addition, the results of the Granger causality between the dependent and independent variables revealed that there exists no causal relationship between the liquidity of the banking system and financial deepening. These findings imply that financial deepening did not impair banks’ liquidity position in Nigeria during the years under review. The study concluded that financial deepening does not cause liquidity problem for banks in Nigeria; rather, if well managed, can have positive effect on it. In the light of this, the study recommends that banks should re-strategize in the implementation of financial deepening policies that are liquidity friendly and that the Central Bank of Nigeria, should formulate policies that will not only focus on credit and loan beneficiaries, but also on the banks.

How Does FinTech Affect Consumer Non-cash Payment Satisfaction? The Moderating Role of Financial Knowledge

As the merger of innovations from developing financial services for the twenty-first century, FinTech has brought payment methods into a new and electronic era, and non-cash payment is gradually becoming the mainstream for transaction activities. This study empirically investigates the effects of FinTech on consumer non-cash payment satisfaction, and the moderating role of financial knowledge is examined as well. Utilizing the data from the China Household Finance Survey in 2017, the results indicate that the use of FinTech can significantly promote consumer satisfaction towards non-cash payment. The mechanism analysis specific to the moderating role also shows that financial knowledge positively contributes to the impacts of FinTech on consumer non-cash payment satisfaction. The findings of this study imply that financial service providers are recommended to promote their facilities to meet consumers’ increasing demand for financial services. Besides, consumers should also take the initiative to improve their financial knowledge to better integrate non-cash payment into life and enjoy the satisfaction brought by FinTech.