Dhana Lakshmi is currently pursuing MBA in Finance from Icfai Business School (IBS), Hyderabad. She did her research work on “Nuances of Credit Rating” under Acuité Rating and Research, as an intern. She can be reached at dhanua257@gmail.com

Srihari Adari is currently serving as Head, Rating Operations for the southern region at Acuité Ratings and Research Limited. His diverse experience in the finance domain includes his stints in credit rating, banking, corporate finance and business development. Srihari is an experienced Chartered Accountant and started his corporate journey with Kesoram Industries Limited as a Management Accountant and eventually worked with banks like ING Vysya and ICICI at managerial level. Then he worked at CRISIL Limited for about seven years as a Manager first and as an Associate Director. Srihari has also headed the Finance Department at GM level at Prasad Seeds Private Limited. He has wide knowledge and understanding about several industries which has helped him manage teams with more than 25 members. He can be reached at srihari.adari@gmail.com

Credit rating or, more precisely, Bank Loan Rating (BLR) used to be a mere banker’s requirement for large borrowers. However, its importance has grown over the years. Credit rating is relevant today not only from a corporate borrower’s point of view; it also holds much significance for a nation in terms of Sovereign Rating from Global Rating Agencies. The current article explains in detail the fundamentals of credit rating, its benefits, rating assignment methodology, credit rating process, rating scales used, what the ratings mean, and issues relating to credit rating agencies and solutions.

Manohar V Dansingani is a Corporate Trainer; a Reviewer for Palgrave Communications; Former Founder-President, Pune Chapter of Institute of Management Accountants IMA (USA); a Question Writer for IMA; Gold-Level Leader; and Faculty and Mentor at IMA Leadership Academy. He has also facilitated two online course-packs as Premium Educator on The Harvard Business Publishing Education website. He has authored 7 books; his online courses on Udemy have students from 34 countries and are available in 12 languages; and his YouTube Playlist, Funda-Mentally Simple, has free educational videos. His webinars, articles and presentations are included in the IFAC Global Knowledge Gateway, ICMAI Knowledge Bank, and IMA Academic Forum. He can be reached at mdansingani@gmail.com


On September 7, 2004, Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada with wind speeds of 125 mph (200 kmph). It wreaked havoc with the infrastructure, economy and lives. This tiny island in the Caribbean region, also called “Spice Isle”, (population 100,000), was devastated with 90% of homes destroyed and total losses estimated at over 200% of GDP (GDP US$1 bn). Traditional insurance does not always have an answer to such calamities. By July 2005, insurance companies had settled over 5,000 claims and paid out over US$154 mn. This seems rather inadequate, does it not? Enter Parametric or Index-based insurance. It seeks to fill in the gaps left over by traditional insurance. It is imperative to understand at the very outset that parametric insurance is complementary to and not a substitute for traditional insurance.

Nethala Sudha Gowtham is a student pursuing Masters in Business Administration from IBS, Hyderabad. He holds a BBA degree from Aditya College of Engineering and Technology, Surampalem, affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada. He worked in a consulting company as an associate for two years. He can be reached at gowthamsudha07@gmail.com Anita C Raman is the Consulting Editor of Treasury Management (IUP) and has been working in the Department of Finance and Accounting at IBS Hyderabad (Under IFHE- A Deemed to-be University u/s 3 of The UGC Act 1956) for more than two decades. She is an MBA (JNTU), CTM (ACTM) and NET-UGC and has around 20 years of teaching and research experience. She has four books and many articles to her credit in the areas of Financial Markets, Treasury Management and Risk Management. She can be reached at anitac@ibsindia.org

Treaties are binding agreements between nations governed by international law. Investment, trade and tax treaties have a positive or negative effect on the economic growth of participating nations. The article discusses the concept of treaties index and the methodology used in index sequence construction using key performance indicators, and its acceptance in financial markets.