SAARC Countries Research Articles

Public policies and tax evasion: evidence from SAARC countries

In compliance with the socioeconomic theory, the study has strived to investigate the impact of economic and non-economic public policies on tax evasion using panel data of 7 SAARC countries covering the period from 1998 to 2015. The study has applied the ordinary least square with fixed effect and random effect models to analyze the data assembled. The result of the study implies that the higher the degree of economic freedoms, the lower the tax evasion. More specifically, the government policies about property rights, monetary freedom, fiscal freedom and investment freedom have a negative influence on taxpayers' choices of tax evasion while financial freedom result shows a positive effect on tax evasion. Additionally, there is a negative impact of public sector governance and religiosity on tax evasion, which implies the higher the public sector governance and the higher the religious faith amid the people, the lower the degree of tax evasion. The findings of the study are supposed to offer the governments, tax authorities, and research scholars the valuable insights into public policies for reducing the tax evasion to a significant extent.

How Financial Development Affects Economic Growth: Evidence from some SAARC Countries

According to Joseph Schumpeter (1911), services provided by financial intermediaries are essential for technical innovation and economic growth. Later, empirical work by Goldsmith (1969) and McKinnon (1973) supported that there were close ties between financial and economic development for a few countries. But numerous other economists, including Robinson (1952) believed that finance was not so important for economic growth; financial development simply follows economic growth. Despite this debate, Levine (1993), among others suggests a positive relationship between financial sector development and economic growth. Moreover, there remains further debate whether the country's financial structure exerts differential impact on economic growth. Empirical studies across the countries (Rajan and Zingales, 1999) suggest that banking sector plays a key role in some countries. In this paper, I intend to investigate whether higher levels of financial development are positively correlated with economic growth using empirical evidence from five South Asian countries namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. I have used Panel data analysis, Linear regression model, Levin-Lin-Chu unit root test, Covariance, Correlation and VIF test based on aggregate annual data from 1993 to 2016. My analysis suggests that development in banking sector has a moderately strong tie to promoting economic growth. The result implies that the policy should focus on banking sector development by enhancing its quality of credit products and offers to private sector as it is the main stimulator for growth in these five South Asian countries.

Life cycle assessment of cleanroom for micro-electro-mechanical systems fabrication with insights on sustainability

The cleanroom is used for manufacturing of high accuracy, high sensitivity, and small-sized Micro-electro-mechanical systems such as micro-sensors and micro-actuators. It is a controlled environment, in which the contaminant particles, temperature, and humidity are maintained within limits recommended by the International Standards Organization (ISO). The design, construction, and assessment of the design sustainability and energy sustainability during full production time and idle-time of a cleanroom are reported in this paper. Evaluation of design sustainability of the present cleanroom was carried out through experiments on the time taken for scavenging of contaminant particles out of the positive pressure cleanroom by the air handling units. The cleanroom designed in the present work scavenges all sizes of contaminant particles to as low a value as 2% of the prescribed ISO class within 10 min. Assessment of energy sustainability of the cleanroom was done using two metrics of net total pressure efficiency (NTPE) and total energy performance index (TEPI) through a novel adaption of their concepts to the cleanroom. With measured values of NTPE of about 35% and TEPI of 5.6 for the entire MEMS production subarea of the cleanroom consisting of twelve fan filter units, the results of the present work are in close agreement with these metrics reported for a single fan filter unit in the literature. Finally, a novel adaption of the existing life cycle assessment (LCA) methods to cleanroom resulted in an environmental sustainability score of 56.1/60. The details of the work done on the environmental sustainability of the cleanroom are also presented. With the rapid advancements in technology, the sustainability and feasibility demonstrated in the present work through the novel way of applying lifecycle assessment methods, and two energy sustainability metrics to determine the efficacy of the design of a MEMS cleanroom can prove beneficial for developing economies such as SAARC and African countries.

The potentiality of bioethanol production from corn (Zea mays L.) as a renewable source

Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the versatile crop which is used as food, feed, fodder and in recent past as a source of bio-fuel. The sub-tropical climate is very favorable for corn cultivation. Traditionally, corn was grown in South and Southeast Asia primarily as a subsistence food crop. Worldwide it is being cultivated in over 170 countries representing an area of 185 million ha with a productivity of 5.62 t ha-1 (FAO, 2017). Out of world corn production of 1037 million MT, SAARC countries comprising of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka represent 3.2 % with a productivity of 3.8 t ha-1. Among SAARC countries, the highest productivity of 6.9 t ha-1 is reported in Bangladesh. Corn can be an important renewable source for bioethanol production. This research was carried out to evaluate Bangladeshi Corn for optimum bioethanol production. A 100 g of corn flour was mixed with 300 ml distilled water was blended and sterilized. The experiment was conducted with a temperature of 30 oC, pH 6.0 and 20 % sugar concentration. For alcoholic fermentation, 200 ml yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae CCD) was added to make the total volume 500 ml. Addition of small amount of 1750 unit α-amylase enzyme to the substrate solution was found to enhance the fermentation process quicker. After 6-days of incubation time corn produces 63.57 ml of ethanol with 13.33 % (v/v) purity. The non-filtered solution produces comparatively more ethanol (63.57 ml with 13.33 % purity) than the filtered solution (53.66 ml with 10 % purity). The purity can be increased by re-distillation process.

Female Labour Force Participation Across SAARC Countries Using Dynamic Panel Model

The paper examines the trends of female labour force participation and gender disparity across groups of countries and the SAARC Nations. The objective of the paper is to examine the relationship between female labour force participation rate of the age group of 15–64 years and GDP per capita, fertility rate, survival rate and their lag effect, life expectancy and average years of schooling which includes primary, secondary and tertiary schooling over the period from 2000 to 2018. The panel data have been created by taking the time-series countrywise data from International Labour Organisation statistics (ILO modelled estimates). The study tries to analyse the effect of the log of per capita GDP, human capital stock for the female population and other variables using GMM estimates on Dynamic Panel Model setup for SAARC nations (excluding Bhutan and Maldives). This study uses the lag value of the log of GDP per capita as an instrumental variable to get an efficient estimator in a Dynamic Panel Model setting.

Bayesian Inference for C-AR Model with Spherically Symmetric Error

Present work has investigated the inferences in covariate autoregressive (C-AR) model when error term is non-Gaussian. Spherically symmetric behaviour is one of the non-Gaussian characteristic and may be seen in agricultural, economics and biological field. So, we have considered here the spherical symmetric error in C-AR model. Under Bayesian methodology, estimators of the model parameters are obtained by conditional posterior distribution. A Bayes factor is derived for testing the unit root hypothesis. A simulation study has conducted when error term follows t-distribution. In empirical study, we considered REER time series of SAARC countries to illustrate the applicability of the proposed model.

Ranking of Journals based on Citations, H-Index and RAI, RUAI, UAI: A Study Using SJR

SCImago Journal and Country Rank are being published every year with h-index, citations, self-citations of journals. There are more than 34000 journals published in the world and ranked by the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). The publications in library and information science from Asiatic and SAARC countries are listed with h-index, citations and so on. Over 54 million documents are available in the database. The top three countries are United States, China and United Kingdom. The study found that ranking varies based on different parameters.

Status of Human Trafficking as Modern Day Slavery in South Asia

Human trafficking is one of the major crimes in the world after trafficking in arms and drugs and one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises because it holds relatively low risk with high profit potential. Causes that contribute to human trafficking are commonly believed to be related to poverty, globalization and economic disparities among countries. Human trafficking is the modern equivalent to slavery. It presents a dangerous threat to the human rights and human dignity of many people each year. To understand Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery. To understand how different conflict between SAARC Countries which fuels Human Trafficking, the study has been designed. It is a qualitative descriptive analysis of secondary information. It is simply a literature review of status of human trafficking as modern day slavery in South Asia.

Revisiting Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle: Evidence from SAARC Economies

In the macroeconomic perspective, domestic saving and investment constitute two important wheels that keep the growth process moving on towards stability. But when domestic savings tend to fly away to foreign countries for excess returns, the warranted domestic investment remains unattained thereby which impair the growth trend unless the gap is bridged by the foreign investment inflows. However, excess inflows of foreign investments may deteriorate current account balances, if not appropriately absorbed. In this pretext, this article revisited the Feldstein–Horioka puzzle with the twin-deficit hypothesis for SAARC countries. The results lend to support the validity of the twin-deficit hypothesis along with a low degree of association between domestic savings and investment in the region thereby justifying the argument that international capital movements or financial integration have increased in the post-reform era. This observation has significant policy implications for the sustained growth of the SAARC nations.

Is Capital Market Integration among the SAARC Countries Feasible? An Empirical Study

This paper aims to verify the feasibility of capital market integration among the SAARC member countries by analyzing the reaction of volatility towards the changes in economic, political, and financial factors by taking five particular SAARC countries as a sample. In order to achieve this objective, Gross Domestic Product Per Capita, Political Stability Index, Stock Market Value, Corporate Information Disclosure Index, and DGEN of Bangladesh, Sensex of India, NEPSE of Nepal, KSE100 of Pakistan, and CSE All Shares of Sri Lanka from 2003 to 2018 have been considered. All the data have been found stationary at the first difference. Pedroni, Kao, and Johansen's tests indicate the existence of cointegration among the factors. Panel Vector Error Correction Model observes both long-run and short-run impacts of selected factors on the volatility, thus confirms the possibility of capital market integration among the sample countries. The study strongly recommends market integration as it will increase market competition, reduce financial services costs, small companies can enjoy equity financing, and large companies can enjoy economies of scale. Theoutcome of this study enriches the international finance literature with a special focus on the regional economic bloc.

Role of energy consumption preferences on human development: a study of SAARC region

A large number of studies evidenced the role of energy on growth and renewable energy as a cleaner input, which is the need of the hour as because of population and growth, the energy demand is on the rise in South Asia region. This study scrutinizes the quadratic effect of the non-renewable and renewable energy consumption mix and its impact on sustainable development while controlling for trade openness, development expenditures and industrialization. This study resorts to feasible generalized least squared model for the estimation of quadratic function for five SAARC countries between 1990 and 2017. The results show that the non-renewable-to-renewable energy mix ratio follows an inverted U-shaped relationship with HDI. Further renewable energy must be significantly higher than non-renewable energy in order to ensure that it is development promoting.

Barriers to effective painless labor in developing countries and the remedial measures

Childbirth has been the most controversial subject in the pain management since ages. While there are some proponents which argue that pain is pain, and it’s the physician’s responsibility to relieve it as he does for the kidney pain or even simple headache; while some argue that it is not a pathological process, and that pain associated with labor brings about a stronger and lasting bondage between mother and child. A religious argument has also been presented against it. The introduction of epidural anesthesia revitalized interest in offering pain relief in labor even for prolonged periods. In resource poor countries, it has been looked upon with guarded skepticism. The scarcity of resources and staff, coupled with lack of a nation-wide awareness campaign has been largely responsible for the low practice of this modality in SAARC countries. Apicare Journal has raised this issue at SAARC level with the association of representative bodies of the member countries. This editorial is an attempt to present some insight on the barriers to painless labor and remedial measures in our countries.
 Key words: Childbirth; Pain, labor; Pain relief; Epidural analgesia
 Citation: Ali L. Barriers to effective painless labor in developing countries and the remedial measures. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2020;24(6):__
 Received: 22 November 2020, Reviewed: 22 November 2020, Accepted: 30 November 2020

South Asian University and Educational Integration: Potentials and Outcomes for Peace Promotion between Pakistan and India

Through education conflicts, poverty, socio-economic injustice, distrust and constant threats to peace can be eradicated. Education is a powerful tool which can bring positive change, prosperity and justice. Conflict resolution and promotion of peace within the societies and with other nations of world can also bring through education .Role of educational institutions are always been considered most important and powerful to bring different cultures and nations closer. Mutual conflicted issues has created uncertainty and distrust in both countries. The wars of 1965, 1971 and recently Kargil conflict in 1999, cross border terrorism and blame game has pushed the relations into uncertain conditions of distrust. The South Asian University is window of integration where both countries students got the chance to get education under one roof. Objectives of establishing South Asian University for closer integration of SAARC countries is still a big challenge for the member nations as it can be used for the peace promotion and people to people connection. In this research paper the objectives and input of South Asian University is examine for bringing nations closer through education. The study examines the role of university to bring the students of Pakistan and India closer and for developing the atmosphere of friendship and trust in both nations. The study examines the civil society connectivity and different kinds of CBMs in both nations’ students by using the platform of university and its impacts on Pak-India relations and developing the peace in the region.

Telecommunication and Its Impact over the Economic Development of SAARC Countries

This study is aimed to investigate the relationship between telecommunication and economic development. To investigate this study considers secondary data of last 41 years time period (1975-2015). This study implements OLS regression models. GDP growth rate and GDP per capita are the proxies of economic development and for telecommunication proxies are teledensity, investment in telecommunication sector, revenue from telecom industry, revenue percentage of GDP and internet users. This study suggests that investment in telecommunication sector, revenue from telecom industry, revenue percentage of GDP have significant impact on the economic development.

India’s Neighbourhood Policy During 2014– 2019: Political Context and Policy Outcomes

After Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India in 2014, New Delhi has been striving hard to achieve for India the great power status by consolidating its dominant position in South Asia and expanding its reach in the Indian Ocean. There have been many successes when it comes to foreign policy in general. However, five years after Modi began his term by inviting leaders of all SAARC countries to his swearing-in ceremony, the expectations aroused by his government’s neighbourhood policy and the energy invested in driving it seem to have faded, leading to a shift in focus on BIMSTEC. This article looks at India’s bilateral relations with India’s neighbours and argues that the major challenges come from insufficient perception management, lack of regional connectivity, gaps in project implementation, and external environment created by China’s unprecedented foray into each of India’s neighbours. The policy planners and decision-makers need to do serious policy homework to improve the outcomes.

Impact of External Debt on Stock Market Performance and Economic Growth: Moderating Role of Capital Formation

The main objective of this study is to ascertain the effect of external debt on economic growth and stock market performance in SAARC countries that included Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India for the period spanning from 1992 to 2017. This study examines the effect of capital formation as a moderator. Using panel least square recreation analysis, we find a negative and significant association between economic growth and external debts. The inclusion of interaction tea reveals a positive moderation effect of capital formation on the relationship of external debt and economic growth. Our study suggest that the external debt is less favourable for the SAARC countries and that greater emphasis should be increased on capital formulation. Moreover, policies that enhance the national treasury base, increase exports, and make environment conducive for foreign direct investment should be introduced in SAARC countries. The governments of SAARC countries should look for the alternates of external debt for financing the fiscal deficit.

Macroeconomic Impact on the Exchange Rate of SAARC Countries

This paper is prepared with an intention to examine the impact of major macroeconomic variables which includes real interest rate, inflation rate, unemployment rate, GDP per capita, foreign direct investment inflows, export and import over the exchange rate of the countries who are the member of SAARC. To investigate extensively this research paper considers the economic data from 1971-2015 for the selected 5 members of SAARC which includes Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The findings from the OLS regression model indicates interest rate, inflation rate and unemployment rate is negatively and significantly related with exchange rate while GDP per capita and foreign direct investment net inflows have positive significant relationship with exchange rate. The results of this paper approve the null hypothesis for export and import which exhibits that import and export has no significant relationship with exchange rate.

IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT ON EXPORTS OF SELECTIVE SAARC COUNTRIES

This study focused on the relationship of environment, energy used and foreign direct investment inflows on exports of selective SAARC countries including Pakistan , Bangladesh , India , Sri Lanka and Nepal from 1980-2018. The results revealed that environment has significant positive impact on exports. Energy has also positive impact on exports except Pakistan and Nepal where results showed negative relationship. The FDI inflow in India and Sri Lanka has not significant impact on exports while other three countries has significant impact on exports of those countries. Overall environment, energy used and foreign direct investment inflows have positive impact on export while controlling the impact of inflation, GDP growth, reserves and domestic credit to private sector in SAARC countries.

Role of Agriculture in ensuring Food Security

The 2007-2008 food crises and the renewed surge in food prices in 2010-2011 have exposed deep structural problems in the global food system and the need to increase food production. The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life". Despite Nepal has no worse food and nutrition security situation among SAARC countries, there are some districts where food is always in shortage. The explicit constitutional recognition of the right to food and other related provisions in articles 36 and 42 of the new constitution will be instrumental for implementing food security programs in the country. Food security for poor people is based on sustainable food production. Many proven technologies and improved practices have the promise to boost agricultural production and ensure food security in developing countries like Nepal. Food and Nutrition security program (FANUSEP) is one of the flagship programs of Agriculture Development Strategy 2015-2035 (ADS), which is in the first phase of its implementation. It aims at improving the food and nutrition security of the most disadvantaged groups of the population.

Are SAARC countries prepared to combat COVID-19 to save young, working-age population?

The COVID-19 outbreak has expanded across the globe. Most of the countries are launching different measures to stop the transmission of this virus. However, the death toll is steadily rising. Strikingly the rate of coronavirus infection among the young-age population is the highest in SAARC countries as more than 80% population of the SAARC countries are young who constitute the working-age group. The disease transmission also occurs at a slower rate presumably due to diverse lifestyles of different ethnicities, immunity and genetic traits; but not because of the hot and humid weather despite previous assumptions. Since SAARC countries comprise 23.75% of the world population and the largest portion of these people is the young working-class, some immediate measures need to be implemented to save these valuable lives from COVID-19. Till now, there is no specific treatment or vaccine available; hence timely-taken preventive measures are the only hope that can save the people of this region. Here we have demonstrated an altered disease transmission pattern in people of SAARC countries, measures initiated by the governments, causes of failure and further actions to be taken to control disease transmission.