In this study we investigates the relationship of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices and the consequences related to their disclosure on the firm's value. Our data is extracted from the final accounts of 122 firms listed on Bursa Malaysia over the period 2011 to 2019 with 1098 observations. We used three instrumental variables in this study in order to find the endogeneity of ESG performance namely, the existence of a CSR committee on the Board of directors, dispersion of forecasted earnings and finally the ownership concentration of the firm. We used three first stage regression models related to ESG disclosure and the interaction between the strength, concern, and disclosure of ESG. Besides that, we also use the second stage regression to investigate the insider effects of ESG activities and ESG disclosure. Our results are consistent with the approach that indicate that ESG strength increases firm value whereas ESG disclosure and ESG concern decreases the firm value. Most importantly, this study finds that ESG disclosures can play the role by which a firm can reduce the negative effect of weakness and improve the positive effect of strength.

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Purpose -The purpose of the paper is to determine the factors that lead to satisfaction of the customers as regards to e-banking services provided by selected banks in India. Design/methodology/approach -Survey method was used to conduct the study. Data were collected through a well structured questionnaire from a sample of 350 respondents. Findings -As a major finding of the study, six factors namely ease of use, reliability, convenient accessibility, security, low transaction cost and the time consumption emerged as factors that lead to customer satisfaction as regards e-banking services. Further, the results of multiple regression showed that out of the above mentioned six factors, three factors, namely, ease of use (i.e. user friendly web sites leading to easy technology-customer interaction), low transaction cost (i.e. saving of time, speed of service delivery, convenience and reduced paper work in monetary terms) and security (i.e. dependable safety mechanism in terms of illegal access of accounts, hacking and password protection) are found to be statistically significant at 5 percent significance level.Research limitations/implications -The study has a regional bias since the respondents belong to a single state of northern India. To have better generalisation of the results, a sample size could be made appropriately large and a wider geographical area be covered. Practical implications -Taking findings of the study into consideration, strategies could be drawn by the bankers to spread their businesses as a large chunk of the population in India is still not using banking services. Through internet, however, access could be provided to customers residing in remote areas of the country. Originality/value -The study is quite helpful for the policy makers in comprehending the attitude of banking customers towards e-banking services provided by the banks and for developing appropriate strategies for placing themselves at competitively advantageous positions.

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In this study 1155 injection drug users (IDUs) receiving targeted intervention in five cities of Punjab were surveyed; three cities (Amritsar, Taran-Taran, Batala) were in districts sharing an international border with Pakistan and the other two were Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Information on socio-demography, substance use and sexual practices were collected; blood samples were tested for biologic markers. HIV and HCV antibody (HCVAb) prevalences in injection drug users were 29 and 49%, respectively. Of the HCVAb-seroreactive IDUs, 33% had HIV as well. HIV prevalence in young IDUs (≤19 years), estimated as surrogate for HIV incidence, was high at 12% and HCVAb in this subgroup was 27%. Herpes simplex virus 2 antibody (IgG) was detected in 10% of IDUs; 2% had syphilis. Alcohol use prevalence was high and frequency of use concerning. In multivariate analyses, 'city of residence closer to international border' and '>1 year duration of injecting drugs were associated with HIV and HCVAb. Furthermore, 'irregular supply of syringes and needles' was associated with HCVAb seroreactive status of IDUs (adjusted odds ratio 1.7; 95% CI 1.3-2.3;P < 0.001), and 'any genital disease symptom within the last year' (adjusted odds ratio 2; 95% CI 1.4-2.9;P < 0.001) was associated with HIV infection. Alcohol and sexual risk reduction, strengthening of needle-syringe exchange, reducing injecting duration and clinical management of HIV, HCV and HIV/HCV co-infection appear as four core programme needs.