Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

About: Indian Institute of Management Calcutta is a education organization based out in Kolkata, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Supply chain & Context (language use). The organization has 415 authors who have published 1354 publications receiving 21725 citations. The organization is also known as: IIMC & IIM Calcutta.

An Empirical Test of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory—The Case of Indian Stock Market:

Abstract: With increasing doubt about the validity of the one-factor Capital Asset Pricing Model in pricing financial assets, development of newer models or extensions has become the order of the day. This paper applies one of these developments—the multi-factor Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) to explore the relationship between portfolio returns and selected macroeconomic variables. While the chosen model has been extensively tested in developed markets, few such attempts have been made in emerging capital markets. Thus, the purpose of this study is to test the validity of the APT model in India, which has, over the years, gained immense importance in the investors’ minds, the world over. Moreover, the surge in volatility and growth in the Indian capital markets over the past five years makes it an interesting market to study given the rising significance of the risk-return trade-off in such a market.The paper examines ten portfolios, covering 50 stocks, over a five-year period from 1 January 2003 to 1 February 200...

Leadership Values: Insights from Ashoka's Inscriptions

Abstract: An attempt has been made in this article to re-examine the inscriptions of Ashoka, an ancient Indian king, who was a great leader, well known in history, who had the courage, confidence, vision and will to provide an administration based purely on genuine human values. As evidenced in his inscriptions, 'effective leadership' depends not on preaching moral values but on practising them, and modifying life and leadership styles accordingly. Ashoka believed that the success of a true leader is directly related to the maintenance of purity in public life and harmony in domestic affairs.

Offshore Outsourcing: Counteracting Forces and Their Dynamic Effects

Abstract: Many argue that offshoring is an inexorable trend since IT skills have become a global commodity and they are vastly cheaper in other parts of the world. According to this view, most IT work would be drained from the US to overseas locations. However, opposing factors exist. The loss of jobs to offshoring has raised pressure for political action. On the supply side, as developing nations get wealthier, they become less attractive for offshoring. In short, there are multiple factors - some enhancing, others inhibiting - that interact to drive offshoring. In this paper, we use the system dynamics methodology to build a two-country simulation model of offshoring growth that captures the interaction among its major drivers. The model will help us understand the offshoring phenomenon, by identifying the main feedback effects that intensify or temper the growth in offshoring. It can also be used for policy analysis and business planning.

A social network approach to change detection in the interdependence structure of global stock markets

Abstract: A novel method is proposed to rank the stock indices from across the globe to capture changes in the dominance of an index with respect to other indices. A correlation-based network structure is formulated and centrality measures are used to track these changes. Temporal evolution of the minimum spanning tree derived from the network of 93 stock indices worldwide has been analyzed with data from Bloomberg for the 5-year period from year 2006 through 2010. Measures are suggested for identifying dominant stock indices in the global stock market. It is investigated how the stock market turbulence can be detected by measuring the relative change in the ranks of the stock indices and in the network centralization of the emergent network structure. The study reveals how inclusion of abstract non-living entities such as stock indices in the social network analysis framework can capture the latent interdependence as manifested in the stock market. The chosen period of study encompassed the behavioral change in the stock market network before and after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the USA, revealing interesting counter-intuitive findings that the turbulence following the collapse of Lehman Brothers had a structure-loosening impact on the global stock market.

Village Forums or Development Councils: People’s participation in decision-making in rural West Bengal, India

Abstract: The policy shift towards decentralisation promises important social change in rural India, providing as it does a three-tier system of local self-governments, the Panchayats: at the village level, the district level, and an intermediate level between the two, called the Block Panchayat. There is evidence of far-reaching social change in rural West Bengal, a state in eastern India, after the Left Front government came into power, particularly because of revitalisation of the three-tier Panchayat system. The initial years of Left Front rule saw the village poor enthusiastically attending Panchayat meetings and taking part in decision-making at the village council, the Gram Sabha, the general body of villagers of voting age covering 10-12 villages, and the Gram Sansad, the forum of local democracy at the ward level. However, today, relatively few people in the villages are taking part in government-sponsored initiatives. Panchayat meetings are scarcely attended and almost always exclude certain classes and members of the community. In order to combat the problem, the Government of West Bengal has recently tried to further devolve the power and responsibilities of local government and has established Gram Unnayan Samiti (GUSs) or Village Development Councils, consisting of political members from both elected and the opposition parties and certain nominated members. The GUSs are supposed to bring in more participation at the grassroots level. In this paper, we study the formal policies regarding decentralisation and people’s participation in West Bengal, and analyse the dynamics of political processes regarding decision-making at operational level after the introduction of GUS. We have analysed audio recordings of meetings of the Gram Sabhas and the dynamics of the newly formed GUSs to uncover the actual rate of people’s participation, actual meeting procedures and reasons behind people’s reluctance to participate. We argue that solutions lie in having a strong third-tier in order to address issues of lack of transparency and accountability in decision-making, and make recommendations as to how that might be achieved.