The present research paper is related with sensitive and personal financial aspects of individual income tax assessees. The need has been felt by the researcher to undertake an empirical research on the topic to identify the factors that influence the individual assessees to invest in tax-saving schemes and scope for further investment. Depending upon their risk appetite, an increase has been witnessed in number of investment avenues available for investors such as investment in Life Insurance Premium on the life of specified persons, contribution to Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Saving Certificate, Five Year Term Deposit Schemes in Post Office, Senior Citizen Saving Schemes, Repayment of Housing Loans, National Deposit Plan, Purchase of Mutual Funds, Term Deposits with Banks, Tuition Fees Paid, investment in Notified Bonds of NABARD, Employees Contribution to SPF and EPF, Notified Annuity Plan of LIC and investment in Infrastructure Company etc. These are eligible for deduction under section 80C from the Gross Total Income of the assessees. The questionnaire has been drafted on the basis of relevant literature. The particulars of investment in tax-saving schemes of the 500 sample assessees have been collected for the assessment year 2014-2015 from the individual income tax assessees. Out of 500 respondents, 367 (73.4%) were found to be valid for the purpose of conducting the present study. To ascertain the association between the identified variables and their investment in tax-saving schemes, chi-square test has been applied. It has been observed that maximum assessees have invested in Life Insurance Policy. Though the main objective of taking Life Insurance Policy is to cover the risk, it is not uncommon that the assessees turn to invest in LIC Policy to reap the tax benefit and concessions given under the Income Tax Act in India. 88.3% of the sample assessees have invested in Life Insurance Policy. After analysing the data a significant association between different identified variables (Area of Residence, Marital status and Number of dependents) and that investment in tax saving schemes except in case of Type of Family has been seen. Hence, designing new instruments along with the welfare-maximizing instruments is the relevant subject so that the tax saving behaviour of taxpayers can be changed because such instruments can help in removing the constraints on the choice of tax instruments. Keywords: Annual tax-liability, Assessee, Assessment year, Tax planning and Tax-saving schemes.

This paper deals with the problem of optimization of sales of a company involved in selling various financial products. Based on the data available from the company, identification of target category of customers for specific financial products is attempted. Genetic algorithm technique is applied for obtaining near optimal combinations of the customer category and product category which result in good sales. It is shown that Life Insurance for the average ticket size of Rs 1 to 5 lakhs should be targeted at those customers who belong to the age group 20-30 yrs and are in the salary group Rs. 25,000-45,000. Similarly, it is shown that debenture sold by the finance company under consideration is a hot seller in the age group 40-50 yrs for the persons having monthly salary in the range Rs. 45,000-60,000. Keywords: Genetic algorithm, finance company, insurance, debenture, mutual fund.

The paper has attempted to document the market behavior and the psychology of individual decision making. The study was undertaken to investigate the possibility of overreaction for selected time interval. In an attempt to study the market efficiency of NSE, it was investigated whether individuals behave in violation of Bayers' rule and such behavior affects stock prices. Based on the monthly return data of NSE, it was found that market follows contrarian investment movement and this evidence questions presence of weak form of EMH in Indian market. However, such evidence was found largely for longterm portfolio and poorly proves for medium term portfolio. For a short-term portfolio, it can be said that overreaction hypothesis is rejected. Keywords: Market, Return, Contrarian Movement

In the pre-reform era, the four major public-sector general insurers, carrying on multi-line operations, dominated the Indian general insurance sector with a market share close to 100 per cent. But with the enactment of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) Act in 1999, the public-sector general insurers began to face stiff competition from the entry of private and foreign players. Though the four major public-sector general insurers still remains to dominate the Indian non-life insurance market with a collective market share of 50.24 percent at the end of the FY 2014-15, butan abrupt rise in the number of private players has raised concerns about the solvency position of the public-sector general insurance firms from the viewpoint of safeguarding policyholders' interests. The present study investigated the solvency determinants of the four major public-sector general insurance firms in India. The study has employed the multiple linear regression analysis to establish a relationship between the solvency ratios, as dependent variable, and the firm-specific factors (i.e. Loss Ratio, Operating Expense Ratio, Market Shares, Return on Equity and Liquid Ratio) as independent variables. The study covers a period from 2008-09 to 2014-15, with an emphasis on the post-recessionary phase of developments in the country's general insurance sector. The findings showed that solvency was positively related with return on equity, market shares and liquid ratios. On the contrary, solvency was negatively related with operating expense and loss ratios. The results further emphasized the need for the public-sector general insurers to focus on operational efficiencies and liquidity position for ensuring a sound solvency position. Keywords: Solvency, General Insurance, Determinants, financial crisis, IRDAI JEL Classification: C120, G220, L250

This main objective of this paper is to study the impact electronic banking has on customer satisfaction and its relationship with the gender, age, qualification, occupation and income of the customers with special reference to ICICI bank in Kashmir. For this purpose, a questionnaire was designed comprising close ended and Likert-type of questions. The Likert-type questions have a 5 point scale (indicating 1 highly dissatisfied to 5 highly satisfied). The questionnaire was administered to about 200 respondents, of which 180 were received for analysis. The statistical techniques used for the analysis was the one way ANOVA. The data analysis discovered that there is a significant relationship of age, qualification, occupation and income of the customers with their satisfaction level. Study implied that majority of users of e-banking are the young, the educated, employed, and businessmen. The study recommends that measures should be put in place to ensure more security such as a setting up of encrypted software, frequent change of password etc. Further the banks should increase the awareness about e-banking technology, so that customers can get better service. Keywords: Customer satisfaction, Electronic banking, Kashmir

Stress has become an indispensible part of the modern life style. Every human being today is suffering from stress, although its severity may vary. Working personnel, especially in software and information communication technology sector are suffering from this phenomenon all the more. The present study is conducted to assess the severity of stress being faced by the employees working in ICT sector. For carrying out the study five units based in Pune city have been selected. From each unit a sample of 10 employees and thus a sample of total 50 employees have been selected by using convenience sampling technique. The findings of the study are revealing one. All respondents are found aware of stress; most of them are suffering from negative tress, whereas only a few feel positive tress. Types of stress facing by employees found varying from hyper stress to hypo stress to acute stress to Eustress to Distress to Chronic stress. Stressors vary from meeting targets to conflict with superiors, subordinates and staff to workload to role conflict. Coping mechanism adopted to deal with stress also vary from smoking to drinking to practicing Yoga and Meditation. Keywords: Stress, Hyper stress, Hypo stress, coping Mechanism.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between fashion clothing involvement (FCI) and the attitude towards luxury brands (ATLB), mediating role of social comparison (S_COM) and status consumption (S_CON). The study aims to expand the scope of fashion marketing research within the context of luxury clothing brand market. The paper opted for a descriptive study involving 251 respondents. Data were collected through online and offline survey methods. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the research hypotheses. The study found that status consumption performs a partial mediating role on the relationship between FCI and ATLB. Non-probability sampling technique was used to collect the data. Due to lack of representation, the findings of this study cannot be projected or generalized beyond the sample unit used. The paper includes implications for market practitioners to effectively targetfashionconscious consumers by developing marketing strategies that involves the element of attracting status consuming buyers. This paper extends the empirical model of FCI by incorporating fashion Clothing involvement as an antecedent of ATLB along with two mediators S_Com and S_Con. Keywords: Fashion clothing involvement, Attitude towards luxury brands, Social comparison, Status consumption, Luxury Clothing brands

MGNREGA has become a powerful instrument for inclusive growth in rural India through its impact on social protection, livelihood security and democratic governance. MGNREGA is the first ever law internationally that guarantees wage employment at an unprecedented scale.The Act provides a list of works that can be undertaken to generate employment related to water conservation, drought proofing, land development, and flood control and protection works. The present study analyses the difference in gender, age and educational level towards socio - economic determinants of unskilled workers of MGNREGS. Primary data were collected from 1300 beneficiaries of MGNREGS of all the villages in Villianur Panchayat of Puducherry Region using interview schedule. The ultimate sample respondents were selected using Systematic Random Sampling Technique. The study revealed that the females havethe highest mean rank in socio economic determinants like family size, wait days, monthly expenditure, distance, other expenditure, land and mobile holding of the workers under MGNREGS. The workers who belong to age group of 40-60 years have higher participation in MGNREGS than the other age categories and the workers belong to educational level others category have higher participation in MGNREGS than the other category of educational level. Keywords: CAG- Comptroller and Auditor General, MGNREGA – Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MIP - Minor Irrigation Project, MWA - Minimum Wage Act,NREGP - National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, PDS - Public Distribution System, PEO - Panchayat Executive Officer, PO - Programme Officer. JEL classification: I38, O12, R28, Z18

The quality of the service has a significant impact on any organization's market performance and subsequently, economic performance. Service Providers are under constant pressure to elaborate that their services are customer-oriented and that continuous performance improvement is being delivered. Given the financial and other resource constraints under which any organizations must manage, it is essential that the customer expectations are properly understood and measured and that, from the customers ' perspective, any gaps in service quality are identified. Measuring Service Quality becomes indispensable for any service organization to monitor and control the quality of service delivery and enjoy competitive advantage. This study aims to estimate the gaps in service quality in banking sector by applying the SERVQUAL framework. Keywords: Banking Sector, GAP Model, SERVQUAL, Perceived Value, Expected Value, Customer satisfaction

Social welfare remains the most important objective of governments of all the countries despite the economic growth. Government spends huge funds in welfare schemes each year for the benefits of public at large. The welfare schemes include poverty alleviation, improvement in sanitation, educating girl child, employment creation, eliminating social evils, providing safe drinking water etc. Despite spending huge amount of money, government is unable to achieve the required objectives. There are many reasons for the same. Lack of accountability on part of government officials, Red tapism, and corruption, lobbying of government officials are some of the reasons poses hurdle in effective implementation and achieving desirable results out of public sector spending. Moreover the social objectives are not outcome based and they are just confined to accomplish a given task. Government officials lack incentives for effective implementation of such schemes. Due to the inherent weakness in the social system, social impact bonds came into play. The first SIB was launched in UK by Social Finance Ltd. in September 2010. Since then, government of many countries including US, Canada, India, Israel, Ireland is exploring use of social impact bonds. This paper attempts to explain the conceptual framework of social impact bonds and its adoption by various countries like UK, US, India and Israel in social welfare programs for the benefits of various social groups. Key words: Pay by Results, Social Impact Bonds, Social finance, Welfare programs, Rehabilitation

Industry-Academia relationship is not like that of technology donator-acceptor, but is of interactive and collaborative nature, acknowledging and ensuring mutual beneficiary for each other's role and contributions with an eye to attaining the true purpose of such relationships, namely, bringing about research-outcome synergy. It also describes the relationship among innovative teaching, learning, imparting knowledge and also correlating such teaching and learning with industry to generate ideas and innovate better results in terms of products and processes. Indeed, industry-academia interactions are a system that requires active and collaborative participations of all the stakeholders. Here, it has been tried to examine various issues associated with academic institutions and industry collaboration with special attention to the nature of resources and potentialities of stakeholders in the context of knowledge management. In this paper, it has also been made an effort to trace out the relevant policies and strategies to introduce such collaboration to boost the economic growth. It has been explored the motivation and figure out the barriers of industry-academia interaction. It identifies potential areas where industry's participation with academia would be most effective for synergism. Selfreliance and self-sustainability of industry-academia will be depending upon the strength and feedback of industryacademia collaboration. The findings of the study propose an integrated model of several new collaborative approaches that are possible, mainly in the Indian scenario to strengthen industry-academia interface for providing further support and growth of economy and each and every stakeholders of society. Keywords: Industry-Academia, interface, knowledge economy, technology transfer, policies and strategies Economic growth, mutual beneficiary.

In today’s world, when the environment is deteriorating at an exponential rate, the concept of Green Marketing is inescapable. In the book, Green Marketing Concepts, the author provides several concepts which can be used by businesses in becoming ecologically friendly while still being profitable. This book is practical in its approach as it focuses on exactly what things are necessary for a business to become “green”. In present times, most of the consumers are savvy enough to realize that they can choose between a product that is environmentally safe and one that is not. Thus, creating an environmental niche market would lead not only to a healthier environment, but will help businesses to cash in on this concept.

E-Commerce has become global marketplace and a major revolution has taken place during the last few years in the way business is done. E-Commerce provides increased sales and profits because it reduced various expenses related to marketing, promotional material, order processing, customer care, inventory management, information storage, telecommunications etc. There are ample of books available on E-Commerce. This book introduces knowledge about E-commerce and the multiple techniques required for E-business which is strength of the book. This book also covers a lot of ground and caters to diverse individual interests also. In this book review basic of e-commerce with various business strategies and management issues, numerous applicable technology standards and variety of protocols have been highlighted. It reveals a user-friendly approach from basic understanding of e-commerce to the changes taking place in the present scenario. After reading this book thoroughly a novice user can very well understand the processing as well as requirement, different strategies, implementation, benefits, pitfalls and practices of e-commerce.