Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the stock market in India is efficient in the semi-strong form. Design/methodology/approach The study uses financial and stock market data of 1,135 listed Indian companies (non-financial) during 2003–2011 collected from Capital IQ to estimate discretionary accruals (DA) using modified Jones model (1995). The study also examines using the widely used Mishkin (1983) test to whether equity market prices accruals in India. The study is conducted for profit/loss-making firms separately as well as for a hedge portfolio of firms based on the lowest to highest accruals. Findings The empirical study of DA of 1,135 listed Indian companies (non-financial) during 2003–2011 shows that the estimated average DA of the corporate sector in India comes to 1 percent of the total assets of these firms. An empirical analysis whether equity market prices DA in India finds no evidence of investors/market pricing DA. Empirical evidence also finds that the results are invariant for profit/loss-making firms as well as portfolio of firms based on the lowest to highest accruals in the Indian context. The empirical evidence shows that the Indian equity market is inefficient with regard to the incorporation of accruals in expected returns of stocks. Research limitations/implications This study builds on the previous literature on accrual pricing in the context of the USA and developed markets. The study extends the empirics to the one of the largest emerging market economy – India. This issue is important not only to investors, but also to policy makers and researchers because the mispricing of accruals could potentially lead to misallocation of capital. The study has implications for stock/firm valuations and cost of equity/capital. Originality/value This is the first study for the pricing of accruals and test of semi-strong efficiency of the Indian stock market.

This study attempts to examine the response of stock markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic on prominent stock markets of the BRICS nation and compare it with the 2008 financial crisis by employing the GARCH and EGARCH model. First, average and variance of stock returns are tested for differences before and after the pandemic, t-test and F-test were applied. Further, OLS regression was applied to study the impact of COVID-19 on the standard deviation of returns using daily data of total cases, total deaths, and returns of the indices from the date on which the first case was reported till June 2020. Second, GARCH and EGARCH models are employed to compare the impact of COVID-19 and the 2008 financial crisis on the stock market volatility by using the data of respective stock indices for the period 2005–2020. The results suggest that the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and reported death cases hurt stock markets of the five countries except for South Africa in the latter case. The findings of the GARCH and EGARCH model indicate that for India and Russia, the financial crisis of 2008 has caused more stock volatility whereas stock markets of China, Brazil, and South Africa have been more volatile during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study has practical implications for investors, portfolio managers, institutional investors, regulatory institutions, and policymakers as it provides an understanding of stock market behavior in response to a major global crisis and helps them in taking decisions considering the risk of these events.

A rigorous exploration of microbial diversity has revealed its presence on Earth, deep oceans, and vast space. The presence of microbial life in diverse environmental conditions, ranging from moderate to extreme temperature, pH, salinity, oxygen, radiations, and altitudes, has provided the necessary impetus to search for them by extending the limits of their habitats. Microbiology started as a distinct science in the mid-nineteenth century and has provided inputs for the betterment of mankind during the last 150 years. As beneficial microbes are assets and pathogens are detrimental, studying both have its own merits. Scientists are nowadays working on illustrating the microbial dynamics in Earth's subsurface, deep sea, and polar & Vipin Chandra Kalia

Manpower training and development is an important aspect of human resources management which must be embarked upon either proactively or reactively to meet any change brought about in the course of time. Training is a continuous and perennial activity. It provides employees with the knowledge and skills to perform more effectively. The study examines the opinions of trainees regarding the impact of training and development programmes on the productivity of employees in the selected banks. To evaluate the impact of training and development programmes on productivity of banking sector, multiple regression analysis was employed in both log as well as log-linear forms. Also the impact of three sets of training i.e. objectives, methods and basics on level of satisfaction of respondents with the training was also examined through employing the regression analysis in the similar manner.

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