Hydroelectricity is one of the most important sources of renewable power, making it an integral part of emissionless power generation plan for many developing economies, including India. But hydropower firms based on rain-fed rivers in Indian plains and plateaus are highly monsoon-dependent for their generation. The primary objective of this study is to explore the intensity of the risk of fluctuating monsoon rain and securitization of that risk through financial instruments for Indian hydroelectricity sector. The paper analyzes the applicability and efficiency of a designed monsoon derivative in mitigating the monsoon risk of a representative hydroelectricity firm, namely, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). The study suggests the use of a weather option contract based on the accumulated monsoon rainfall of the river basin in mitigating the risk. The parameters of such an instrument are estimated and a pricing mechanism is suggested through fitting parametric distribution to the rain data and using a Gaussian copula to capture the interdependencies of rainfall in various locations of the catchment area of the river basin during the monsoon season. The study reveals that the firm can successfully hedge the rainfall risk through financial derivatives and attain a superior position vis-a-vis risk-return.

The concept of Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD), which originated in Physics, refers to the phenomenon of variety of interactions between two or more systems and how they affect each other. This study applies the concept to four important Indian sectoral indices, namely, Banking, Automobile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) and Domestic Institutional Investors (DII), to understand their interactions in the economy. Using data from FY2010 to FY2019 as a research sample, the CCD of the above-mentioned sectoral indices is measured. The result shows that in recent years, the coupling between the automobile and the banking industry is at a higher level due to several factors including foreign investments. This suggests that policymakers should concentrate more on foreign investments for the development of the economy. The coupling coordination between DII and automobile sector has been very strong for the past three years, which may help the authorities to formulate more effective policies.

The study examines the impact of bank-specific and macroeconomic factors on the profitability of Indian scheduled commercial banks. The analysis is based on the panel data of 71 scheduled commercial banks in India for a period of 15 years. Traditionally, banking performance is measured by return on assets, and factors such as bank size, operating efficiency, credit risk, Non-Performing Assets (NPA), Ratio of Interest Income (RII), cost of funds, capital ratio, deposit ratio, ratio of priority sector lending, liquidity and asset management are used as bank-specific factors. GDP, inflation, interest rate, demonetization and financial crisis are used as macroeconomic factors. Linear regression model is used with pooled, fixed and random effect methods. The results show that bank-specific factors such as operating efficiency, NPA and RII have a statistically negative impact on ROA, while asset management has a favorable influence. In terms of the effect of macroeconomic determinants, the results show that GDP, interest rate, demonetization and financial crisis have a negative effect, while inflation is coefficiently negative but has an insignificant impact on ROA.

Sugata Marjit was born on December 4, 1959, to Smt Chitra (Mukherjee) Marjit and Sri Ram Kimar in Maldah, West Bengal. Owing to frequent transfers of his father, this young boy had to pass through seven schools and yet finished schooling securing a position right below the top 10 in the state of West Bengal.

Believing that economics is "a good choice both for competitive exams and pursuing higher studies", young Marjit joined Presidency College, Kolkata-a century-old institution that has groomed many well-known Indian scientists and economists-for doing BA (Honors) in economics. Enjoying the intellectual frisson emanated from his interactions with the brightest students and the galaxy of great professors, he secured first class third position along with a national scholarship for postgraduate studies.