No abstract

The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether women directors impact the risk and return of Indian banks. This study employs panel data models for a sample of 29 Indian banks that form part of the National Stock Exchange 500 index for the period 2009–2016. This paper concludes that women directors influence the accounting returns (measured through Return on Assets) of Indian banks. However, it was found that women directors did not affect the risks (measured through Equity Beta and gross NPA to Total Assets) of the sample banks. This paper contributes to the literature and practitioners in several ways. To the best of the knowledge of the authors, no study has examined the impact of women directors on the risk and return of banks operating in India. Hence, the findings of this article have substantial implications both to academia and practitioners.

Purpose The issue of transaction cost (TC) has always been the concern of both researchers and policymakers in microfinance. This paper aims to measure the TC of borrowers across various microfinance business models in India. Design/methodology/approach To identify sources of the TC of the clients in the entire process of borrowing loan, the technique of process mapping has been used in this study. Using the data collected from randomly selected 700 clients under different microfinance models, the study has computed the different components of clients’ TC. Findings The results show that although SHG-Bank linkage model has more robust organizational design, its sluggish operational modalities has resulted in a higher client TC as compared to that in MFI lending model. The indirect TC (in terms of clients’ opportunity cost of time) occupies major share in clients’ TC, and strategies are required by MFIs/banks to reduce it substantially by using the appropriate technology. Research limitations/implications The client TC can become one of the important factor to evaluate efficiency of the different models of microfinance. Policymakers can use the findings to reduce the clients’ TC by benchmarking best practices across all the microfinance business models. Originality/value The research paper offers an insight into different components of clients’ TC across different models of microfinance. So far, not much research has been carried out on the subject in Indian context.

A series 305 extracts from 61 traditional medicinal plants (belonging to 33 different families) used in treating skin diseases in Hyderabad Karnataka region were subjected to antidermatophytic screening against Trichophyton rubrum (MTCC 1344). Pet ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extracts of each plant were tested for their antifungal activity using agar well diffusion method at sample concentration of 5 & 2.5 mg/ml. The results indicated that out of 61 plants, 18 exhibited very effective antidermatophytic activity in methanolic extracts, effective activity observed in 13 plants in different extracts, whereas 26 plants showed moderate activity, 04 plants showed weak activity. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of 18 very effective plants were determined. On the basis of the results obtained, the crude extracts of Allium sativam Linn. Zingiber officinale exhibited significant antidermatophytic activity (T. rubrum) and properties that support folkloric use in the treatment of skin diseases as broad-spectrum antimycotic agents. This probably explains the use of these plants by the indigenous people against dermatological infections.