Journal of Social Welfare and Management

Traditional banks are changing their internal policies and processes, while becoming capable of solving customer problem digitally. Digital transformation that has upended industries from retail and media to transport and business to business commerce is now sweeping the financial services industry. Banks that learn to adopt new technologies adapt their products and processes and become more adept at delivering tailored solutions to their customers will succeed. Mobile banking and digital payments service providers such as FreeCharge, Ola money, Oxigen, and Paytm. Globally, the digital transformation of banking services allows an expansion of access by leveraging digital channels and customer information, and a reconfiguration of a product and process value chains to offer new products and serve customers more efficiently. While the final structure of a digitally transformed financial services sector could take different forms, the degree to which banks continue to play a role will depend on a combination of initial conditions and adaptability.

 Gamification is the application of game elements to the non game contexts. Present world is the world of competition. Only those who can attract the customer can capture the market and survive. But it is hard to engage, motivate and inspire customers. Gamification techniques are applied by the organizations to digitally engage and motivate the customers and to create brand loyalty. Financial institutions are also exposed to a high level of competition in the present scenario. They struggle to bring out new varieties of products as the limited nature of their offering compared to the other industries. As a remedial measure, financial institutions are turning into Gamification techniques. The main purpose of this study is to explores different Gamification techniques adopted by financial institutions and to understand how technology helps in creating financial awareness and customer empowerment. Gamification techniques are intended to leverage people’s natural desire for socializing, learning, mastery, competition, achievement, status, self expression, or simply their responses to the framing of a situation as a game or play. The Gamification strategies use rewards for players who accomplish desired task or competition to engage players. Types of rewards include: points, achievement badges or levels, the filing of progress bar, leadership boards, or providing the user with a virtual currency. Another approach of Gamification is to make the existing tasks feel more like games. In case of investing the asset managers have shifted their path through Gamification to approach millennial since they are very closer to the technology. Gamification can create stickiness among millennial, whose financial behaviors are affected by the memories of financial crisis. Better education can also improve investment decision, and financial education can be effectively imparted through Gamification. Even though investing real money is not at all a game, Gamification can release stress and impart fun into it, which in turn helps to retain the customers.

 This paper identified and understanding of crypto currencies including bit coin and the block chain technology. Crypto currency is an encrypted, decentralized digital currency transferred between peer to peer networks and confirmed in a public ledger via process known as Mining. The public ledger is called Block chain and every process along the way is secured by cryptography. Crypto currencies require strong,secure mining algorithm. Crypto currency transactions are sent between peers using software called crypto currency wallet. These allowing users to reach secure, robust consensus for each transaction. Crpto currency roughly equalent to Paypal or Debitcard. Bit coin is the first and most popular cryptocurrency, developed in 2009 by name of Satoshi Nakamoto. A poorly peer to peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another. Main features of these currencies are payments can be made without the involvements of banks, and other banking charges. A digital signature provides part of the solution and to prevent double spending problem. One can use this technology for many transactions in devices, like mobile phones and tablets etc.

 Indomitable spirit of Women entrepreneurs has made a milestone in the modern world which changed the startup landscape of India with their grit, determination and strength of purpose. They created a new India, which is bold, willing to take risks and learn from their mistakes. Many women in India with little or no background in their chosen entrepreneurship endeavor have not only managed to overcome knowledge and industry understanding barriers but also showed India how to do business. Digital marketing refers to advertising delivered through modern digital channels such as search engines, websites, social media, email and mobile apps. In short, digital marketing includes all the marketing efforts which are based on an electronic device or the internet. Business leverage digital channels helps to connect with current and prospective customers around the globe. The magic of digital marketing needs no prelude nor does the reality of legit businesses that are being born out of the digitalization. Being a women entrepreneur and finding success in today’s competitive world is a huge challenge. What works and what doesn’t is determined by the right combination of form and relevance according to the customer expectation and experience. In the modern landscape, digitalization allows you to reach almost anyone, no matter what industry or sector your business belongs to. The digital marketing services for women which makes complex now online and mobile advertising had made very simple easy and convenient. The study highlights how women entrepreneurs poster themselves through digital marketing in the era of modern world.

 Interest in Employee Engagement has increased considerably over the last decade among academicians and practioners. It is viewed as a critical contributor to the organisation success and the engaged employees are seen to be the strategic partner of this success. But it is challenging task for the organisations to engage these existing workforces. Unlike the other sectors, the turnover rate of the employees and the number of unengaged employees is comparatively high in banking sector due to which high prominence is given to employee engagement in this sector. However, employee engagement has rarely been studied in the banking sector and little is known about its drivers too. The study throws light on the key driver’s Training and Development, Co-Worker Relationship, Perceived Organisational Support and Reward and Recognition of employee engagement and to know the impact of these drivers on employee engagement. The paper also tries to suggest some employee engagement strategies that can be successfully implemented in the banking sector in order to enhance the engagement level of the employees. The study is based on the primary data collected from 284 employees working in banking sector. Questionnaire contained items to measure the different drivers of Employee Engagement. WarpPLS was employed to measure the strength of the relationship between different drivers and Employee Engagement. The average age group of the respondents was 31 to 40 and 60 percent were male. Participants have an average of 5 years of work experience. Results indicate that co-worker relationship is the most prominent driver that influences employee engagement in an organisation, followed by Reward and Recognition. Findings of the study are discussed, together with limitations and suggestions for future research.

The improvement in the perceptions of service quality and customer satisfaction has been an important strategic proposition for banks attempting to succeed and survive in the highly competitive banking environment in India. As a result, service marketing literature has witnessed an increasing number of research studies on service quality. However, bank managers perusing the extant literature find conflicting results as to which variable is directly related to the bottom line of the banks. This gap in the literature calls for a new wave of research on the subject. It is in this context the present study examines the effects of service quality on behavioural responses in banks in India. The study is designed as exploratory one based on primary data. The results of the study reveal that: (1) perceptions of high service quality are positively related to positive word-of-mouth communications; and (2) perceptions of high service quality are negatively related to switching propensity. This research has practical implications. When the customers of bank perceive high levels service quality they show positive behavioural responses. Positive behavioural responses lower customer defections. Lowering customer defections would increase bank’s profit and market share.

 The topic of environmental sustainability is capturing increased attention among the corporate world. Green management initiatives have become an important factor in forward-thinking businesses all around the world. In the present scenario, corporates have become more aware about the emerging importance of integrating environmental preservance and Human Resource Management. Regardless of the significance to managers, employees, clients and different stake holders, there are not many research works that consider the role of human resource management systems in organizations endeavouring to accomplish environmental sustainability, that is, Green Human Resource Management Practices. The idea of Green HRM depends up on the initiatives attempted with the target of securing the earth and to spare out the compelling force of nature from the common and man-made fiascos in future. Green HRM tries to handle the Human Resource practices which are environment friendly and advance the economical utilization of resources in the organization. The motivation behind the thought of becoming environmentally friendly is to utilize the things and strategies that would not contrarily affect the earth and environment through contamination or exhausting characteristics. Additionally, it results into diminished costs, high proficiency, and better regulation of workforce. This thusly, help business organizations to chop down employee carbon footsteps by the methods of video-conferencing, sharing of vehicles, tele-communication, documenting electronically, virtual meetings, reusing materials, online training, and so on. The nurturing results of Green HRM can bring down operational expenses and to give power to industry individuals to end up increasingly aware of their business and communal responsibilities in a better way. Likewise, Green initiatives inside HRM frames some portion of more extensive projects of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). This paper deals with the concept of Green HRM, benefits and various Green HR initiatives and practices which leads to Green HRM at workplace.

 One of the very fundamental assumptions in all economic analysis is that man behaves rationally and this enables him to make prudent business models. However, when it comes to decision making, paradoxically, it has been observed that entrepreneurs are very heuristic and much biased in their entrepreneurial decisions. This paper explores the available literature to identify the general behavioural biases among individual entrepreneurs; it further examines the biases that creep into the entrepreneur's mind set during their capital investment decisions.

 Banking is different from traditional banking, as green banking focus on promoting environment friendly banking Green. Green banking is also known as ethical banking. This paper attempts to analyze the usage of green banking services among customers above the age of 60. This paper explains that most of senior citizens in India consuming the green banking services for collecting their income from their accounts. Most of them face the problem of lack of awareness about green banking services.

 New technologies are introduced and improved very fast in all fields day by day. Now more technological advancement is taken place in the field of filing of income tax. Today tax payers can file their income tax return through online. Electronic filing is the process of submitting income tax return through internet. It helps to reduce cost, time and tension. This present study examine that the exiting users are satisfied with the e- filing facilities. The objectives of the study are to study the satisfaction level of individual tax payers towards e filing of income tax return and to study the challenges faced by the individual tax payers while e- filing income tax return. Most of the existing users are satisfied with e-filing facilities. But most of them are not fully aware about the procedures of e-filing. Therefore sufficient steps should be taken foe creating awareness among the tax payers regarding the procedure of filing the income tax return electronically. Technological readiness is also related to acceptance of efiling. So attention should be given in this direction also.

 Health care industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The business world is watching this booming industry. Directly we can’t see the competition in this field but business wise things are little crowded. Yoga studios are mainly dependent on the yoga mentors. Now a days, the world is facing a general problem that is information explosion which means an explosion of knowledge. The digital media brings the entire world to the individual. So, this distant learning helps the instructors to study various teaching methods. For this study, I have chosen Thrissur district to see the influence of digital media in the growth of Yoga professionals. A sample of 60 Yoga instructors are taken for the study to see how far the digital media has helped them to develop their subject knowledge.

 In the competitive business environment, the role of an entrepreneur’s competencies are highly critical factor for the success of the business. The importance of entrepreneurial competencies have been increased during the past few decades due to the strategic role played by the human factor particularly the entrepreneur. Women Entrepreneurs have grown in large number across the globe over the last decade and increasingly the entrepreneurial potentials of women have changed the rural economies in many parts of the world. Some recent researches indicate that several women are becoming entrepreneurs, especially the middle class women, due to the pull of the traditional values and push of the changing values. In this context a study is in evitable to study the competencies present in the successful women entrepreneurs. This will help to mould the future entrepreneurs.

 The Indian health insurance sector is one of the fast growing segments of Indian health care system. There were lots of health insurance products available to cover the needs of mass organized community and at the same time there were no single system to cover the health care needs of the mass unorganized community in India. In order to overcome this issue the Government of India has introduced a new scheme called Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in the year 2008 with the objective of providing financial protection against catastrophic health costs by reducing out of pocket expenditure for hospitalization. The scheme also provides better accessing to quality health care for below poverty line households and other vulnerable groups in the unorganized sector. In this context the present study has been conducted to know how far the new scheme could penetrates the health care system of Kerala.

 The practice of creating fake version of branded products is known ascounterfeiting practices. A lion’s share of the branded products and services are facing a huge challenge from their counterfeited versions worldwide. Counterfeit products have emerged as one of the biggest challenge faced by business concerns which curtails the economic, social and financial development of business units. The present study focuses on non-deceptive counterfeiting. The study highlighted the attitude of the customers towards counterfeit Information and Communication Technologyproducts in Ernakulam district, Kerala State. ICT counterfeiting takes the customers’ trust and confidence in established brands as a prey and poses dangers to their health, safety and privacy. Attitude towards counterfeit products or ATCP has been measured with the factors of Price and Status Appeal on the basis of gender, age and education. Ernakulam district, a small geographical location has only focused to show the intensity of the global threat of counterfeiting practices. The other factors which influence the buying behavior of the customers towards the counterfeit versions of the genuine brands can be taken along with an expanded geographical area and a higher sample size as a gap to be filled by further research works.

 Banks are significant in the economic life of a country. A well developed financial system is essential for economic growth. A sound banking system stimulates the growth of an economy. Banking industry is highly competitive. So it is critical for banks to improve the customer base for attaining sustainable banking business development. That will increase the performance of banks and maintain the competitive position in the market. There are certain key processes, practices, strategies and technologies that can help banks to retain competitive edge. Banks are focusing on to become more customer oriented. Banks are trying to differentiate their bank by using various brand building strategies. Building Brand Resonance is the ultimate aim of every brand. It has emerged as processes and strategies that have become vital for the businesses in the banks. The present research tries to identify the competitive edge of the banks for the sustainable banking business development. The study focuses on identify the factors influencing in imperative components of Brand Resonance in banking business development. It comprises of brand salience, brand performance, brand judgement and brand feeling. It also helps to understand the implications of brand relationship in banking business. This study is based on primary data with a sample of 160 respondents. The area of study covers the customers in Thrissur district, Kerala. Analysis of data has done with the help of statistical tools such as factor analysis, correlation, regression and percentage analysis. The paper identified the determinants influencing Brand Resonance in the banking business.

 Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in the development of a nation by increasing job opportunities and improving the standard of living. Development of Entrepreneurship in a country or region depends upon the attitude and Perception about it among the public. Perception of entrepreneurship as a career will be influenced by their attitude towards the entrepreneur, entrepreneurial activity and their entrepreneurial traits. New generation hav ing the spirit and drive towards entrepreneurship make society and economy entrepreneurial. Positive perception towards entrepreneurship through development of entrepreneurial traits and rectifying the perceived barriers can reward the society with better growth and development. An attempt has been made in this study to assess the level of perception among the Arts and Science College Students of Thrissur District towards Entrepreneurship. The study also aims to find whether there is any difference in perception with regard to gender, Family background and Discipline.

In this study researcher is trying to identify the influence of gambling in sales promotion strategies adopted by business houses in Kerala. People may not be aware about the influence of gambling in such products. Any event with the presence of consideration, chance and prize comes under the purview of gambling. In that sense some of the sales promotion strategies is having these three elements in it. Prize Contest, Sweepstakes, and Coupon based selling can be considered as gambling based sales promotion tools. Participation in these sales promotion tools can be considered as Involuntary Gambling. And participation in these activities may cause some changes in consumption pattern and saving habits of people. Here we are analyzing the influence of these tools on consumer buying behaviour.

Today’s youth are so trendy and stylish that the apparel industry are always flooded with mass advertising on changing trends and bringing to everyone’s doorstep the cross national brands through all possible medias. Fashion has become the most vital part in determining everyone’s personality and confidence building strategy. This change in the apparel industry has brought in large scale competition and growth opportunities for the branded manufacturers too. Branded clothing was considered unapproachable for the major population because of its pricing policies and limited availability. But that era has changed. We can find a handful of branded showrooms in and around our immediate town. The mass reachability of branded shops has provided them more opportunities to attract their customers. Promotional schemes, value added services, unique patterns and designs have all made the youth especially crazy about their products. To explore more possible opportunities to penetrate the market, their focus in giving promotional offers has increased from just seasonal offers to every month offers. This study intends to understand the behaviour of youngsters towards the branded clothing to examine which factors induce them to purchase more especially during the various promotional offers. Questionnaire method is used to collect data from 126 samples which consist of people from 20-35 age group. Principal component analysis and descriptive statistics is used in analysing data. Questionnaire was put to reliability and validity tests. The result shows their tendency towards brand switching for accessing more promotional offers for high level of satisfaction both at physical and psychological level. This gives a major hint to the apparels retail sector to focus more on such promotional strategies to retain their customers as they have no interest in becoming brand loyal but in getting maximum benefits at a reasonable cost without compromising quality or style.

Most of the people in India believe that the TV ads are trustable and it shows all the details about a product or a service. Advertisements play a very important role in marketing a product or a service. The marketers and the Ad making agencies make TV ads in such a way that exaggerated content is portrayed to the public which induces the public to indulge into the ads and which in turn makes the public to buy the product. The point is that women are portrayed in TV ads and it has worsen in the recent years. Here in this study the researchers have made an attempt to know how the women are portrayed and how does the public see the ads. There are women in the society who are not happy the way some of the ads are telecasted, especially ads of Perfumes for men, soaps etc. They argue that these types of ads discriminate women or the dignity of the women is degraded.

 Insurance is a contract, represented by a policy, in which an individual or entity receives financial protection or reimbursement against losses from an insurance company. The company pools client’s risk to makes payments more affordable for the insured. Advertisements are the index of our society. In the case of Insurance, advertisements have a direct impact on the profit of the company, because it is through the advertisements, general public gets information about the new policies and products of insurance. At the same time, salesmanship is also an essential tool in marketing the products of an insurance company. Because salesmanship helps the insurance companies to persuade and assist a prospective customer to buy their product. This paper makes an attempt to study and compare the effect of both personnel selling and advertisement in selling life insurance products.

In this era of globalisation, it is the need of every organisation to keep its consumers in fold as well as to keep their environment safe. This research provides a brief review of youth's perception and attitude towards green marketing as an aspiring entrepreneurs. In current business scenario, environmental issues has become a challenge for the organisations, where by they are forced to produce eco-friendly products. Green marketing or eco- friendly products has become very popular to make our home - earth a green and safe. These green products are constantly working towards improving their green products. In recent years consumers has also changed their buying behaviour as they too are vulnerable to these environmental disasters. Therefore eco-friendly products or green marketing are getting wide acceptance as they are biodegradable materials will be more sought after. Thus, this paper identifies that the youth in today's world has the awareness and attitude towards green marketing. As the entrepreneur development club members or so called aspiring entrepreneurs, what is their perception towards green marketing concept and to analyse their attitude can give a conclusion that, what our home place- earth will be look like and to live in the future.

The last decade has seen tremendous growth in use of internet and mobile phone in India. Increasing use of internet, mobile penetration and government initiative such as Digital India are acting as catalyst which leads to exponential growth in use of digital payment. Start-upis a newly emerging business ventures with innovative ideas. Paytm is one of the emerging Indian e-wallet company. Paytm was founded in august 2010 by Vijay Shekar Sharma. The mobile wallet adoption has grown significantly in the last couple of years with the rise in users for smartphones and mobile internet with better data connection. Paytm has emerged as one of the leading competitors in e-wallet market. The study focus on various challenges faced by the paytm and to study the impact of paytm in the society. The data is collected from secondary sources. Difficulty in adoption of change, unacceptness due to fail of security breach and fraud, competition from debit card and credit card, trade mark infringement case filed by PayPal, transactional issues, and performance issues these are the major challenges faced by the paytm.

Access to banking and financial services by all sections of the society will ensure inclusive growth. Financial inclusion is an essential component in reducing poverty and achieving inclusive economic growth. Financial inclusion is considered as a catalyst for sustainable inclusive growth. This paper is directed towards making a comparative appraisal of financial inclusion in India. This paper looks in to a cross-country comparison of financial inclusion indicators of India and selected countries and found that India does not compare very favorably with regard to some financial inclusion indicators. This paper also examines the regional financial inclusion situation in India. The CRISIL Inclusix point out that there is an overall improvement in the financial inclusion among the states of India. There are state wise variations in financial inclusion within the country. All India Inclusix score has improved from 35.4 in 2009 to 58 in 2016 out of 100, it also reveal that a large part of India’s population still do not have access to formal financial services. Indian policymakers must take efficient ways and means to ensure greater financial inclusion by providing access of financial services to the financially excluded segments of society.

The world is moving towards a “cashless” existence. If we think, is it actually true, just ask in our mind when we have used cash from our pocket for the last time? Most people don’t even carry enough change to pay a toll or parking meter anymore. Almost everything that has to do with our money has been moved online. It is probably a good idea to believe that this is the way of the present, and not the future anymore. But this can be difficult for people who don’t fully understand what exactly the digital currencies, crypto currencies and fiat currencies are. Crypto currency is a subset of digital currency. It is a specific type of digital currency whose unique angle and appeal is privacy, decentralization, security and encryption. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin etc. are some of the examples for the leading crypto currencies. Block chain is the platform which brings crypto currencies into play. The block chain is the technology that serves as a distributed ledger that forms the network or ‘chain of blocks’. This network creates the means for transacting, and enables transferring of values and information. This article try to contemplate the rising trend of crypto currencies in a country like India and its future prospects. It also try to analyse the size of the Bitcoin market, the biggest of the crypto currencies and the growth in its market capitalisation.

Commodities including metals and spices are preferred forms of investment in India particularly during post reform period. The prices of commodities are subject to wild market fluctuations due to the presence of wide range of forces ranging from national to global. Writing derivatives against these assets is superior tool to leverage risks from such imperfections at the market places. In this parlance, this study aims to analyze and compare price performance, market volatility and hedging efficiency of spices and metals futures in India. A secondary data based study was conducted by taking daily closing prices from both future and spot markets of four metals and three spices for a period of five years from 2013 to 2018. The study examines the hedging efficiency of the metals and spices market by formulating GARCH model. The study shows some level of divergence in the price volatility across commodity markets. However, the study could not find much difference in hedging efficiencies of metals and spices future markets in India.

In the past decade, there has been a dramatic change in the way consumer have altered their way of shopping. The advent of the internet, accompanied by the growth of related technologies, has created a significant impact on the lives of people around the world. Online shopping offers the customer a wide range of products and services wherein the consumer is able to compare the price quoted by different suppliers and choose the best deal from it. Internet marketing is theoretically different from other marketing channels and internet promotes a one to one communication between the seller and the final user with round the clock customer service. The increasing purchasing power of customers in Kerala is set to bring online shopping boom in Kerala. Almost all big retailers are now electronically present on the World Wide Web. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the consumer satisfaction and perception about online shopping among the people in Kerala. Samples of 150 online customers are taken for the study. The study reveals that there is tremendous scope for online companies to grow in the near future. They have to focus on the areas such as quality in delivery services, privacy in transaction, ease of payment etc.

The purpose of this article is to understand Green Marketing Myopia and the various principles that can be followed by organisations to tackle Green Marketing Myopia.Green marketing is considered as the marketing of products and services which are safe to the environment. When organisations focus on green requirements of products and fail to understand the requirements of the customer, it leads to Green Marketing Myopia. As a result of Green marketing myopia, consumers lose faith towards the company’s products. Consumer Value Positioning, Calibration of Consumer knowledge, and Credibility of Product Claims are the 3 important principles that organisations have taken in order to tackle Green Marketing Myopia. Credibility in communication and delivery of consumer desired value have to be practiced by companies to attain product dematerialisation and more sustainable service which shall help to avoid Green Marketing Myopia.

Today e-commerce is an emerging model refers to the use of an electronic medium to carry out commercial transactions. Electronic commerce has also led to the development of electric market places where suppliers and potential customers are brought together to conduct mutually beneficial trade. Amazon.com.in has been recognized as one of the most successful companies to exist in the field of E-commerce. When Amazon first launched as a website they only sold books. The Founder Jeff Bezos had a vision for the company’s explosive and e-commerce domination. Without a strategic E-commerce marketing plans a business website will fall in among the thousands of other companies selling similar products for similar prices. This paper will evaluate Marketing strategy adopted by Amazons to stand apart from the competition. This study includes information from secondary data. So as to conclude that Amazon has so far perform based on their marketing mix strategy at every essential way and has they continue as that it will increase their territory of scale.

 Economic progress has often been explained in terms of capital formation. Capital formation an increase in the stock of real capital requires a very sound savings and investment .A nations labour force plays an important role in capital formation and building a strong economic system. Unorganised workers are those who have not been able to pursue their common interests due to constraints like casual nature of employment, invariably absence of definite employer-employee relationship, ignorance, illiteracy, etc. They contribute significantly to employment generation and national income in developing economies, such as India. The unorganized sector in India accounted for 93% of total employment and contributed 57% to the total net domestic product (NDP). In order to study the capital formation trend of this mass numbered unorganised labours, we have selected Thrissur corporation market area which is witnessed by the existence of a large number of unorganised labours as our study area. We conduct the study on 180 unorganised labours who is engaged with street vending to study their saving –investment pattern. We approach them with a pre-tested questionnaire and go through participatory research appraisal method and analyse the data with simple mathematical tools. The study proves that 46 percentages of total labour force is from the age group of 20 to 50 which we considered as the active age group that could be actively contribute towards economic activity of a nation. But we found that their earnings are very low and most of them are below subsistence level. They are highly indebted with some cut throat money lenders and NBFI’s. They are even unaware about savings, investment and we found that there is only a limited level of capital formation is occurring from this massive sector.

 The Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) is an innovative strategic planning tool used in business across the world to explore untapped markets. Even though businesses have changed a lot after the introduction of this strategy, it still stays relevant in the current business scenario. BOS is the creation of new playing fields and which necessitates opening up entirely new markets as oppugning to the Red Ocean where the existing market conditions are such that companies must chase either differentiation or low-cost strategies The Blue Ocean is unique from the traditional strategies because the objective of BOS is not to succeed in a competition but making the competition itself irrelevant, creating an uncontested market space. The crux of this strategy is ‘Value Innovation’. A Blue Ocean is created when a company creates value concurrently for both the customer and the company. The Value Innovation is the alignment of utility, price and cost positions. Through various tools and methods, this strategy is applied to business to gradually turn non-customers into customers. This strategy, helps in understanding the commercial viability of new ideas and refining it. This paper studies the meaning of blue ocean strategy, provides an example and analyses the effects of using it.

Brand image is always considered as an important key factor in brand marketing. Brand positioning on consumers help to earn profit in a long run. So the company should concentrate on market and product positioning so as to attract the consumers and to withstand with its competitors. They should always try to hold on to existing brand and bring some new products and market services under same brand. The present study makes an attempt to analyse the importance of brand image among rural consumers.

 Every individual aims at maximizing the flow of income from whatever source possible. The most interesting activity undertaken by an individual to fulfill this objective is to make investments. The main criteria for investment are the expected return, risk involved, and liquidity of investment and safety of the fund invested. Investor tries trial and error method for identifying the optimal portfolio for their needs. Hybrid portfolios taps into the advantages of different asset categories by using a combination of risk premium and risk free securities. The project tries to understand the importance of hybrid portfolios over other portfolios by studying different hybrid portfolio combinations used among young investors and compare them with other categories. The major aim of study is to forecast the optimal hybrid portfolio for investors in 2019 by analyzing the trends of individual securities as well as markets associated with them. It also considers the portfolio valuation indices such as Sharpe, Treynor index for evaluating consistency and check whether they will perform according to investor’s perception about them.

 Career management is one of the functions of Human Resources department in the organizations. It is in fact a joined responsibility of the organization as well as the individual. Career management helps individuals to achieve success in their careers. There are basically two approaches in career management. Career management from the organizational point of view is called organizational career management. The career management from the individual point of view is called individual career management or career self- management. In order to survive in this dynamic and highly competitive environment, it is important to have an effective and apt policy to mold its employees career constantly. Individuals now a days prefer organizations that provide better opportunities to realize their career progression plans. Well defined career management practices helps in attracting and retaining competent and skillful employees in the organization for a longer period of time.

 E-procurement system in many forms and modes are being used by business organizations in their supply chain nowadays. This is said to have enhanced their competitiveness in the highly challenging market place. Kerala Feeds Ltd. (KFL) is a Govt. of Kerala undertaking in the livestock feed business with multi-locale manufacturing facilities and have a turnover of Rs.500 crores. E-procurement system was implemented and being used by KFL for more than last 5 years. This case study on e-procurement network at KFL reviews whether the system is successful in terms of its responsiveness and effectiveness. The study reveals that the system has played a significant role in the supply chain management domain of KFL by enhancing the vendor base, affirming greater transparency, speedy procedure handling, ensuring cost effective purchases and by increasing supplier satisfaction. This case also reveals that the e-procurement is not a one sided B2B activity. Magnitude of relevance of e-procurement management is very crucial in today’s highly challenging and competitive business environment as it make sure better control and ensures efficiency. Such types of electronic system, in any form or with any module can be used by the business entities based on each industry type for enhancing its value chain.

 The concept of green marketing is the more relevant today because environment is going bad day by day. It has got a particular market in today’s market. The concept of green marketing has changed the existing practices of marketing and packaging and trying ti attract more users and thereby ensuring the environmental sustainability. Green marketing intends to promote products and services which brings satisfaction to customers in relation to quality, price convenience and performance without deteriorating the environment. For this companies trying to offer green-friendliness in their products and services so as to bring the attention of the consumers in to the new marketing practices and methods. Now a day’s most of the people go green as they are more aware about the need for ecological sustainability and balanced development. Thus green marketing becomes the most important discussion area for the producers and marketers. Many companies are come forward to produce and market such products and thus to attract the whole boundaries of the market. They recognized that it is the duty of the companies to go green to extend the social responsibility towards the society and nation. The paper evaluates the present practices of green marketing in India and the causes behind the companies are adopting green marketing practices and how it affects their long term existence. Thus this paper attempts to emphasize how efficiently the companies are adopting and synthesizing the paradigm of ecological sustainability.

 An effective complaint management system is an important part of quality public-sector service. Complaints are valuable sources of information that organizations can use to improve program delivery and service. Although complaints may generate extra effort initially, they can, in the long run reduce an organization's workload. There are plenty of consumers in India who use telephone services in India but are not fully aware of the customer complaint Redressal procedure laid out by government of India cell - TRAI. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is a government body to oversee telecom regulations in India for the benefit of consumers. In order to retain customers in this highly competitive market telephone companies should have a good complaint management system. This study is making an attempt to study the effectiveness of complaint management system of Airtel, one of the leading mobile service providers in India.

 Tourism industry has become one of the important industries of kerala. Since 1990; the growth has been very impressive. The beauty of the land, along with local entrepreneurship and warmth of the people has taken Kerala tourism to the heights we see today. The study focused on measuring the determinants of Consumer Buying Behavior for the Domestic Tourists in Kerala. The main objectives are to analyze the influence of marketing mix factors on consumer buying behavior for domestic tourists in Kerala and to access the influence of the situational factors on consumer behavior for domestic tourists in Kerala. This study used both descriptive and inferential statistics. Primary data was used for collecting data by administering a structured questionnaire. Percentage averages and correlations are the tools used for analysis. It was found that there is significant relationship between marketing mix factors, situational factors and consumer buying behavior.

Rising uncertainty regarding trade agreements, increasing protectionism and volatility in global trade has forced corporations to review their existing supply chain practices. There is a need for robust, flexible supply chain management systems that can mitigate the impact of external factors on cost and quality standards. This study draws parallels between supply chain practices adopted by larger enterprises and SMEs based on publications of various researchers and identifies best practices adopted across the manufacturing sector. The parameters used for evaluating supply chain management practices are information sharing, strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship and information. This paper highlights the constructs used for evaluation of best practices among larger enterprises and SMEs.

 Shariah stocks are stocks of those companies which comply with the Shariah or Islamic law in influence of economic conditions. Both micro and macro-economic determinants have strong linkage with price behaviour in every market mechanism where the dominance of micro level factors is already established in equity research. Hence, this studyempirically examines the firm level factors which are prominent inimpacting the price behaviour of Shariah stocks in India. The study analyses the micro level determinants of stock returns, under a panel regression framework, using published data of share prices andfirm’ financials on 50 stocks which constitute the Shariah index of BSE for a period of 10 years from 2008-17. The study captures earnings and earnings growth along with the book value as significant determinants of Shariah stock returns in India.

 Customer Relationship Marketing is a business philosophy in dealing customers efficiently and effectively. Research on Customer Relationship Marketing in banking sector is relevant more when it is made on comparative basis. This paper is an outcome of a sample study on customer perception about relationship marketing strategies of three private sector commercial banks headquartered in Thrissur, namely South Indian Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank and Dhanlaxmi Bank. Responses collected from 114 customers of these selected banks are the primary data source of the study. Based on the relevant literature, the study measured five dimensions customer relationship marketing namely bonding, trust, communication, and commitment and satisfaction. The Intra bank analysis of various dimensions of CRM by using ANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference in customer perception in respect of South Indian bank. But ANOVA comparison of CRM practices did not divulge any statistically significant difference among the three banks.

 The Mutual fund industry exhibited tremendous growth over the past decade and its key role in financial markets all over the world is remarkable. The Indian mutual fund industry remains as a small player in the capital market, when compared to other countries. High precision level in the design and marketing of mutual funds has led to the growth and development of the Indian mutual fund industry. Systematic Investment Plans or SIPs have emerged as an attractive investment tool for those who opt for regular investment in mutual funds. SIPs are best alternatives for the common man to invest in equity funds to create wealth over a long period. As it is gaining momentum, the mutual fund industry has made more SIPs in its fund in 2017-18 which is 53 percent more than the total amount added in the previous year. The paper explores into the perception of investors towards investment in mutual funds through systematic investment plans. The data pertaining to the study were collected through pre-structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics followed by appropriate hypothesis testing were used for analyzing the data.

Risk, a common feature of any investment which paves way to a new financial instrument which are known as derivatives. Derivatives are those instruments, which does not have any value of its own, but derives value from an underlying asset. The underlying asset can be Commodities, gold, stock, index etc. The last two to three decades have witnessed many changes in the area of trade and commerce prior to New Economic Policy and globalisation, which has led to rapid and unpredictable variations in the assets price, interest rates and exchange rates, thus exposes the individuals, corporate world and economy to an unpredictable and multidimensional level of risks. Moreover, the element of risk in the avenues are unavoidable, rather its effect can be minimized. Here comes the role of derivatives to hedge and manage risk, an effective and less costly solution to the problem of risk. As human beings most investment decisions are irrational, there comes to analyse the bias they have while making investment which can be either cognitive on the basis of thoughts or can be emotional or affective on the basis of feelings. The researcher takes into account four cognitive biases such as, Herd behaviour, Conservatism, Availability bias and Over confidence bias to analyse the trading behaviour of individual investors.

For the past two decades the major industrialising world of emerging markets has been playing a significant role in global economic and business development. These economies are indeed abundant in resources particularly human resources, but lag much behind of developed world in terms of financial capital. Hence, they have to find overseas market as a prime source of their capital and are strategically oriented towards attracting such foreign capital. However, global investor’s pays more concern on economic and financial growth conditions prevailing their target markets. This study examines the causal relations between FDI inflows and economic growth in 17 emerging economies under a panel regression framework. The study covers a period of 14 years from 2003 to 2016 under the impression of covering distinct phases of economic cycle. The study found bilateral causality between FDI and economic growth in emerging market settings. GDP of emerging markets are significantly influenced by the FDI inflows and the observation is true with regard to all types of FDI modes. About 70 percent of economic growth in emerging markets is effected by their Greenfield FDI receipts. Hence, regulators in emerging markets should make measures to encourage FDI for their continued growth and development.

Background of the study: Kerala has always being a forerunner when it comes to promoting entrepreneurship. The latest form of entrepreneurship in business world is startups. Kerala, under the guidance of nodal agency Kerala Startup Mission is taking every step for promoting entrepreneurial culture within the state. Kerala is the first digital state in the country and also the first state to have a technology startup policy of its own. The startup development programmes within the state starts from schools and are taken forward to college levels. Even the government of Kerala has taken many steps for ensuring the growth of startup environment within the state. Despite all these attempts still there are many who are not aware about the possibilities of growth and development for startups in the state and there are startups who wind up due to lack of proper support. Objectives: The objective of this article is to provide a better knowledge regarding the startup culture in Kerala along with the steps taken by the government for promoting the startup culture. The opportunities available to startups and possible difficulties faced by them in Kerala will also be discussed. The article aims to analyse Kerala as a startup hub so as to understand the different dimensions of the startup development within the state. Methods/Contents: The study is conducted during the period of August-September 2018 and it is based on secondary data collected. The content of the article will be included in nine different heads. Results and Discussions: The article will discuss the startup culture of Kerala in detail including the startup history of Kerala, role of Kerala Startup Mission, accelerators and incubators functioning in the state, Startup landscape in Kerala, measures taken by government for the development of startups, various opportunities for startups in Kerala and possible difficulties to be faced by them. Conclusion and Recommendations: It concluded that the startup culture in Kerala is developed enough for supporting the growth of startups within the state and government also have sufficient measures to ensure the development of these startups. But still there are many issues that startups are facing within the state. Hence it is recommended that government itself has to conduct a detailed study regarding the problems faced by startups and take necessary actions to support them

  Today’s classrooms are filled with pedagogy that is “stale, bland and almost entirely stuff from the past” (Prensky 2005 p62). But today’s students are technology savvy and expect to be engaged. Educators are looking for newmethods to engage learners. So how can students be engaged and motivated to learn. The answer is simple. If we can induce an element of fun into learning process we will definitely be able to engage students, motivate them to learn, retain their attention and finally make them learn. So in this paper the author is trying to out how can we introduce the element of fun into learning. The objective of the study is to understand about the students perceptive of including fun in learning process and to understand whether the inclusion of fun element can enhance motivation helps to retain attention and engage students. The use of fun elements in learning process will definitely make it interesting and easy to learn and appealing for students. Most of the students like to be engaged and expects that inclusion of fun elements will increase the rate of their interest and engagement. Even though fun can generate interest in learning, special attention should be given how, how much, when and where these elements should be added so that the subject will not loss its identity and content. 

  Construction industry has the characteristics of both production and service industry. The construction industry is changing constantly with developments of new and novel business methods. Knowledge of these methods helps managers in identifying and understanding opportunities and threats facing the firms and developing suitable strategies. The aim of this paper is to identify the various strategies used by builders in Thrissur District. The strategies focused in this paper include marketing strategy, employee strategy, and technology strategy. The paper helps to identify the importance of marketing and its implementation in construction industry.

 A start up is a new business venture which aim to meet the emerging business demand. Generally a startup is having high chances of failure. But Start up aims to meet a marketplace need, want or problem by developing a viable business model around products, services, processes or platforms. Making and selling Chapattis, Pori and Poratta (Half cooked), is of high market demand due to low startup investment and easiness to sell the product since there is a market demand for the product. Due to the changing life style of Kerala people and growing level of disposable income, many eat from outside or buy readymade eatables. This has made the option of selling flat breads more attractive and lucrative business. This paper aims at understanding the market demand of flat breads particularly Chapatti, Poratta and Pori in Kerala state along with examining this as a profitable business option. Primary data regarding the four P’s of Indian flat bread business were collected from 291 retailers of various profiles for studying the feasibility of the concept.

 Banking sector is an important attribute of a flourishing economy. The efficiency and stability of banking sector affects the growth of economy. The non performing assets have direct impact on the profitability of the banks. It expresses the efficiency with which bank can utilize its total resources. Growth in NPA involves necessity of provisions which decreases the profit of bank and thus shareholder value. It also reflects state of health of industry and trade in economy. This paper deals with understanding the concept of NPA, its present status in public sector banks along with reasons. Recommendations are made in the end focusing that public sector banks need to effectively control their rising NPA levels in order to induce profitability in their balance sheets by appropriately analyzing the credit worthiness of borrowers, recognizing the critical accounts at early stage and using legal course of action preemptively.

Keywords: NPA; Indian Economy; Public Sector Banks; Profitability; Credit Monitoring.

 Banks play a very important role in the development of an economy. If the banking sector is not functioning well then the whole country gets affected. This is when Acts like SICA act and organisations like BIFR becomes an essential element in an economy. In banks these situations usually arise out of high Non-Performing Assets (NPA). This case study uses the Z-Score model for the analysis of 12 banks with very high NPA and low market share. According to the analysis done by us the banks are nearing sickness. According Reserve Bank of India“a sick unit is one which has reported cash-loss for the yearof its operation and in the judgment of the financing bank is likely to incur cash-loss for the current year as also in the following year.”

Keywords: Z-Score model; Non-Performing Assets (NPA); SICA act.

 In the recent past, Quality of Work Life is being used as a strategic tool to attract and retain the talent by the organizations. QWL policies are progressively becoming part of the business strategies and focus is on the potential of these policies to influence employee’s quality of working life and more importantly to help them maintain worklife balance with equal attention on performance and commitment at work. This present study aims at investigating the quality of work life of staff members working in the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Kashmir. The analysis has been done by classifying the teachers into various age, work-experience and education qualification categories.

Keywords: Quality of Work-life; Chi Square Analysis; JKEDI.

 Logistics industry in India is gaining momentum at fast pace with the evolution of infrastructure and technological innovations with the emergence of new types of top logistics companies in India. The Indian logistics industry is defined by its ability to function as an integral service to the customers in helping them ameliorate their overhead costs in the logistics sector in India. Logistics is regarded as a crucial sector of the economy to offer cost-effective solutions for shipment and transportation of goods that supports various other commercial sectors. Logistic industry in India is evolving rapidly, it is the interplay of infrastructure, technology and new types of service providers, which defines whether the logistic industry is able to help its customers reduce their costs in logistic sector and provide effective services. The recent Indian logistics sector comprises of inbound and outbound segments of the manufacturing and service supply chains. Green logisticsis a form of logistics which is calculated to be environmentally and often socially friendly in addition to economically functional. It describes all attempts to measure and minimize the ecological impact of logistics activities. This includes all activities of the forward and reverse flows of products, information and services between the point of origin and the point of consumption. It is the aim to create a sustainable company value using a balance of economic and environmental efficiency. Logistics companies in India are waking up to the global trend of offering green services to their customers and are showcasing what they do to reduce their carbon footprint. The objective of research paper is to measure holistic Supply chain Management practices among suppliers and customers of green logistics companies in Chennai city.

Keywords: Rfid Technology; Supplier(S) Relationship Management; Manufacturing Flow Management; Audit Performance of Supply Chain and Supply Chain Function.

It is a new concept of strategic management subject and compared with existing types of strategies and basic strategies have maximum benefits. The management and administration executive has followed basic strategies easily to plan and control the business activities in an organization. It focuses on core areas like target customer needs and wants, employee collaboration and stakeholders partnership. Develop a strong brand in perfect market competition, increase profit, efficiency, sustainability, and competitiveness in market, expansion of business operations in other regions and reduction of risk.

Keywords: Redesigning; Stakeholders Partnership; Employees Relationship; Brand Reputation.

 A sound and effective banking system is the backbone of an economy. ICICI Bank is India's second-largest bank with total assets of 4,062.34 billion (US$ 91 billion) at March 31, 2011 and profit after tax 51.51 billion (US$ 1,155 million) for the year ended March 31, 2011. The Bank has a network of 2,752 branches and 9,225 ATMs in India, and has a presence in 19 countries, including India. In order to compare and analyze various deposits of ICICI Bank over a period of time, percentage methods, co-efficient of variations, linear trend and compound growth rate have been used. The secondary data collected through internet, books, newspaper, journals records and brochures from 2008- 09 to 2017-18. The study examines the growth of deposits of ICICI bank in head office and branches. The objectives of the present study are: 1 To  nd out the trend and growth of deposits of ICICI bank in head of ce and branches during 2008-09 to 2017-18. 2 To study the employee engagement of ICICI bank. 3 To assess the product and services offered by ICICI bank. It is found that the trend co-efficient was found to be statistically significant for deposits of ICICI Bank in branch offices. It indicates, on an average, deposits of ICICI Bank in branches had increased by 0.1502 percent per annum. The value R2 indicates that the 85 to 81 percent variations in dependent variable explained by time variable.ICICI Bank achieved competitive advantage by enabling rapid roll out of new products, faster customer service and reduced time-to-market, to cater to the ever-growing needs of customers. Its open architecture and flexibility has enabled easy integration with multiple systems. ICICI Bank positioned itself as technology-savvy, customer-friendly bank. Thus, ICICI Bank accords utmost concern to customer satisfaction by offering innovative and need based financial products and services using state-of-the art technology. Thus it can be concluded that the perceptions and experiences of the customers on the technology deployment in ICICI Bank was in favour of up gradation of technology.

Keywords: Icici Bank; Investment Banking; Life Insurance; Venture Capital and Asset Management.

The trend of global education has been reshaping to the need of the world of labor. Many a country has refined their educational policies to suit and address the need of the country as per process of globalization in education. In Sri Lanka, as a part of these changes, technological stream was introduced as an additional stream in the advanced level classes. The objectives of the study are to find out the available of human and physical resources, to identify obstacles in implementing technological stream and to suggest measures to overcome the obstacles. A sample of 09 schools was selected by using stratified random sampling technique for this study. The data were collected mainly from the principals, the teachers teaching at Advanced Level classes, and the Advanced Level class students by using School Questionnaire, Teacher Questionnaire and Student Questionnaire. The findings of the study have revealed that there is a shortage of human resources for teaching the subjects in technology streams. Most of the teachers are graduates holding postgraduate diploma in education and there are many obstacles in implementing the technological streams in these schools.

Keywords: Educational policies; Labor.

 Employees are profoundly energetic and their morale is very if their individual objective and destinations are tuned in to hierarchical objective and goals. Morale is a principal mental idea. It is difficult to characterize. Confidence is the level of eagerness and ability with which the individuals from a gathering pull together to accomplish bunch objective. It has been characterized distinctively by various creators. Distinctive meaning of morale can be arranged into three noteworthy methodologies. Classical approach, psychological approach and social approach. Worker Morale assumes essential part in the start achievement. High Morale prompts achievement and low morale conveys to vanquish afterward. The play of Morale is no less essential for a modern endeavor. The accomplishment of disappointment of the business much depends up on the Morale of its workers.This study is designed to understand and probe employees' motivational tolerance and ensure the best talent is retained. According to the theory, high emphasis on hygiene factors will not motivate employees. Building motivators like advancement, recognition, growth which are intrinsic to the job should be built for motivating employees.

Keywords: Morale; Classical Approach; Motivation; Psychological Approach; Social Approach

  This study is to determine the extent of sickness absenteeism among the employees working in a hospital. I particularly wanted to find out the degree of impact of sickness absence on the OPD staff of a hospital. Sickness absenteeism is the major occupational health problem in developing countries where the population is engaged in hazardous sectors. Consequently, sicknesses causing a disability for a shorter time than the waiting period are often not reported to the benefit organization. The maximum period of benefit payment influences the average duration of disability computed from the benefit records, since chronic diseases exceeding the maximum benefit period escape recording as far as the excess is concerned. Lowering the standards of disability does not affect the worker's physical well-being; raising these standards has to be justified by the results of medical research. As long as these results are lacking the disability standards are likely to continue to fall 

Keywords: Sickness Absenteeism; Occupational Health Problem; Waiting Period; Hazardous Sectors; Disability Standards; Human Resource; Human Capital; Job Satisfaction