PEARL Multidisciplinary Journal

Women Entrepreneurship in Modern India Opportunities, Trends and Challenges

Modern business is witnessing robust activity and innovations in two areas – entrepreneurship and human resource management (HRM) and the two are not necessarily separate. Entrepreneurship is being redefined. With qualitative changes in development indices in general and women development in particular, newer and more challenging areas and roles for women are being explored and extended. Women entrepreneurs are being identified for their independent contributions. Development of women entrepreneurship is considered a lucrative leverage to acquire a level playing field for women, in    a male predominant society and economy.

In a country like India where some of the women are much neglected, there    are some who have soared higher. Thanks to these powerful ladies, that they have faced struggles challenges and made their way to the top list of entrepreneurs in India. This has not only helped the society economically but also has done a lot in terms of exposing the potential that a woman holds. Women as business leaders, team leaders, innovators etc. are having a multiplier effect on the process of women empowerment too. Women constitute around half of the total world population. So is in India also. In modern societies, they have come out of the four walls to participate in all sorts of activities. The global evidences buttress that women have been performing exceedingly well in different spheres of activities like academics, politics, administration, social work and so on. The focus on economic development has made women the ‘subjects’ rather than ‘objects’ of development and ‘change agents’ rather than ‘welfare recipients’. In the past rural women concentrated on traditional activities, but now due to the spread of education and favorable government policies towards self-employment and skill development, women have changed their attitude and diverted towards non-traditional activities too. (e.g. engineering, IT etc.). However, the dual role of women still remains a dilemma and a challenge. Here too many have succeeded in ‘management’ of resources including time. Entrepreneurship provides them a satisfaction and assimilates a deep sense of accomplishment to create their own individuality    in the society. This paper analyses the role and contributions of women entrepreneurs in different sectors. The objectives of this paper are (i) to evaluate the present status of women entrepreneurship and its determinants; and (ii) to identify the various problems and alternative avenues/strategies in promoting integrated women entrepreneurship in India. The study is a qualitative one and is based on secondary data.

Competitive Status of Africa’s Cocoa Products in the World Market

 To formulate efficient and articulated future cocoa policy prescriptions, and ensure the continuous contribution of the subsector to poverty reduction, income generation and growth of Africa’s agricultural sector, the present research empirically examined the global competitiveness of Africa’s cocoa export during the spanning period of 2000-2013. The used dated data were sourced from FAO and UNCTAD databases. Export trends and indices of the revealed comparative advantage, as well as Trade Mapping (TM), were examined for cocoa beans, cocoa butter, cocoa paste and cocoa powder/cake. Empirical findings showed that Africa has only revealed comparative and competitive advantages in the exportation of cocoa primary product and disadvantage in the comparative and competitive status in the exportation of its secondary cocoa products. Furthermore, Africa is among the winner group with it controlling a large chunk of the market despite the decline in the export market of cocoa during the studied period. Hence, in order to enhance Africa’s relative comparative and competitive advantages in the exportation of cocoa products and its continuing presence in the world markets, Africa should improve on the quality of its cocoa products keeping in-view the best marketing grade and standardization for cocoa products in the global market. Also, Africa should invest more in post-harvest technologies to have a breakthrough in the secondary sub-sectors of cocoa via value addition, thus increasing its global share in the market which in turn would enhance its foreign exchange earnings from the exportation of cocoa.

Kerala Deluge 2018: Ecological, Economic and Psychosocial Impacts and Management

 The great deluge in Kerala occurred in August 2018 with death toll of 483 and 10 lakh people in rescue camps affected the entire state of Kerala in Indian subcontinent had devastating impact and was the most severe disaster of the century. Although floods are generally considered as natural disasters the deluge in Kerala had significant causative factors that it could be defined as both natural and manmade. This paper is an attempt to analyse quantitatively and qualitatively the economic, psychological and social impacts of the tragic event so as to identify the criterion and indicators of precautionary measures to be adapted for future mitigation. Methodologically narrative and phenomenological approaches were adopted screening the secondary data sources from online and offline materials. The article depicted the causative factors and physical hazards that took place leading to indicators of the very nature of the mishap that club both natural and nurturing features contributed to the deluge. The analysis focused on the ecological and economic aftermath of the deadly flood leaving heavy economic burden on the affected individuals, families, properties, business activities, agriculture, environment and service sectors of government and nongovernment as well. The Psychological impact defined innovative avenues of resilience in individual, familial and social realms. It weaved a social effect through the network of dedication, hard work and coordination in rescue and relief operations spread over in the entire state of Kerala. The involvement of the 3000 fishermen with their boats in rescue operations and the coordination of the military, paramilitary, police and other forces with disaster management operations of the government and the commitment of numerous NGOs created a new saga in the history of disaster management and mitigation. The article also highlighted the role of social work professionals in the entire rescue, relief and rehabilitation activities in disaster management

Bio-indicators for Impact Assessment of Radionuclides Contamination

The activity of important radionuclides ²³²Th, ²²⁶Ra and ⁴⁰K were analysed in twelve medicinal plants collected from Mangalore and surrounding region by gamma spectrometry. The activity in the representative soil sample is also measured in order to study the transfer of radionuclides from soil to plant. In plant the average values of ²³²Th, ²²⁶Ra and ⁴⁰K activity were found to be 0.8 Bqkg^-1, 5.0 Bqkg^-1 and 37.1 Bqkg^-1 respectively. In soil the average values of ²³²Th, ²²⁶Ra and ⁴⁰K activity were found to be 54.7 Bqkg^-1, 64.2 Bqkg^-1 and 384.3 Bqkg^-1 respectively. The average values of transfer coefficient for ²³²Th, ²²⁶Ra and ⁴⁰K were found to be 0.02, 0.08 and 0.10 respectively. The ²³²Th activity was below detection level for most of the plant samples, though the activity was significant in soils associated to these plants. The significant activity of ²²⁶Ra in both plant and associated soil shows the higher root uptake of this radionuclide from soil. All the plants and associated soils showed significant ⁴⁰K activity. The plant Mamia suregia showed higher transfer coefficient for all the three radionuclides. The plant can be used as bioindicator for the future monitoring of these radionuclides. The absorbed gamma dose rates prevailing in the study area were also measured using portable scintillometer. The results of these systematic investigations are presented and discussed in this paper.

A Study on the Effectiveness of Incentive Programmes at Aditya Birla Retail Pvt. Ltd Mangaluru

 Workforce today articulates more about their needs. Employees desire the best of everything – competitive salaries, comfortable and inspirational lifestyles, job security, career enhancement options, work-life balance, and so on. Competition for talent is ever increasing and organizations need to have well-defined philosophies and strategies to help them develop innovative ways of tapping intrinsic motivation of employees by engaging their hearts and minds. While many organisations are struggling to make sufficient progress in this direction, there are organizations that have institutionalized robust practices and effective processes in different people practice areas that go a long way in positively impacting employee perception. In this regard, two types of rewards are identified, and they are intrinsic reward and extrinsic reward. Extant research showed that reward can affect job satisfaction and thereby employee performance, so this study proposes a new framework based on mediating role of job satisfaction. India’s Best Companies for Rewards and Recognition was conceptualized to recognize companies who are leading the way in the area of Rewards and Recognition for us learns from. Human resources are the most important among all the resources an organization owns. To retain efficient and experienced workforce in an organization is very crucial in overall performance of an organization. Motivated employees can help make an organization competitively more value added and profitable. The present study would be an attempt to find out the major factors that motivate employees and to show relationship among reward, recognition and motivation while working within an organization. The data were collected from employees of diverse type of organizations to gain wide representation of sectoral composition. The participation in survey was voluntary and confidentiality of responses was ensured. The statistical analysis showed that different dimensions of work motivation and satisfaction are significantly correlated and reward and recognition have great impact on motivation of the employees. Implications of the study for managers and policy makers in the context of human resource practices have been discussed. Limitations and guidelines for future research are also provided. A meta-analytic review of all adequately designed field and laboratory research on the use of incentives to motivate performance is reported. Team-directed incentives had a markedly superior effect on performance compared to individually- directed incentives.