This paper finds out the impact of a board diversity in terms of nationality and gender diversity on sustainability of bank performance and risk in Indian Banking and Financial Industry over the period of 2011 – 2015. Our results show that the presence of foreign directors is found to lead into a worse firm performance, but no significant relationship is found for the existence of women directors on bank performance. The nationality and gender diversity are found to have positive and significant impact to the bank risk. By looking at this, the regulation in India should pay more attention to the inclusion of foreign and women directors in their board as the improvement of corporate governance in emerging markets. Some contributions are made in this paper, which are first, this study gives new perspective in India as emerging market especially in financial industry, while most of the studies are conducted in U.S. and Europe. Most of the studies in India regarding the impact of board diversity to bank performance are conducted in all sectors, not specifically on the banking and financial industry and there is not any research which is conducted to find the impact on bank risk. However, some limitations are found. First, limited sample as it only covers 22 banks and financial industries due to lack of data on board diversities. Second, only 2 diversities are examined, while there are more diversities could be observed, such as age, education, experience.
Agricultural extension services being provided predominantly by public agencies in the developing world have contributed to quantum jumps in food production in countries like India. However, these services have failed to eliminate persistent structural poverty among a significant proportion of the farmer households. Part I of the paper summarizes generic problems that have so far persisted in the provision of agricultural extension services in various developing countries (including India) as given in the published literature. It then brings out various elements of the reform processes that are being recommended and implemented in developing country programmes by various donor agencies, like the World bank, FAO, GTZ, etc.
Part II of the paper carries out in brief SWOT analyses of the Indian silk industry. It also highlights the organization and functions of the various infrastructure of the central and state government agencies providing extension services for the sericulture industry. It then critically examines as to how this infrastructure and services are geared to mitigate the weaknesses and threats and exploit the strengths and the opportunities of the sector. Based on this the framework of extension services reforms outlined in Part I of the paper is applied to formulate recommendations on the reorganization of this infrastructure for its better cost-efficiency and effectiveness.