Ever since the signs of recovery in the global economy, many predictions are being made with regard to the longevity of economic cycles; however, there is declining hope among investors in the wake of European sovereign debt crisis. It is further astonishing to note that Japan and the Eurozone are showing fresh signs of weakness by the day, and emerging markets such as China are dragging instead of driving growth. Adding to the woes, the war in the Middle East, the standoff in Ukraine, street protests in Hong Kong and the spread of Ebola to Dallas have further emerged as signs of another economic catastrophe in the vicinity. This has essentially made the entrepreneurs think of alternate strategies on a lasting basis for rescuing the national economies in times of crisis through a new mode of operations. Precisely, the argument for protecting the global trade and national economic interests amidst rising conflicts in terms of effective usage of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and several competitive measures, has assumed significance leading to a wider debate on this spectrum. The current issue makes a prominent attempt in the direction by featuring an empirical study on the subject. Also, the third-world countries like India are striving in the direction of achieving a stable balance in the economy with an open door policy for private insurance companies which have become more competitive in winning the loyalty of customers, and this phenomenon is also studied in the present issue. The expanding horizon of entrepreneurship in India permeating the rural markets through microfinance industry is considered to be an alternate mode of action in terms of rescuing the economy from recessionary trends and the issue features a study on this element as well.

There have been many studies, in recent times, on the growing interaction between Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and competition measures like patents, copyrights and trademarks which do impact the process of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and thereby the GDP of respective economies. The theoretical models invented in this regard do depict the picture of careful negotiation of terms and conditions between the nations. Georgios I Zekos discusses this point in the paper, “The Influence of Patents, Copyright, Trademarks and Competition on GDP, GDP Growth, Trade and FDI”, adding a new dimension to the perspective that protection of national economic interests is certainly dependent on the legal apparatus being evolved around the IPR regime worldwide.

The subject of customer satisfaction in the insurance sector still appears to be unexplored for various reasons which has made the private players grapple with the situation in the light of potential threat from state-owned enterprises like Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). Besides many other products and services, insurance industry has a typical characteristic called ‘people trust’ that enables its growth and survival and is certainly driven by the element of satisfaction which is explored in the paper, “Customer Satisfaction Towards Life Insurance in Punjab”, by Mandeep Kaur and Dalwinder Kaur. The study also makes it clear that the demographic variables do not impact the attitude of customers while purchasing life insurance products, and what matters to them is the company’s track record and service delivery on qualitative lines.

The story of Indian microfinance industry is, no doubt, an important one for understanding the phenomenon of women entrepreneurship that has changed the landscape of rural economy in the last two decades. Highlighting the fact that there is untapped demand for extending the frontiers of microfinance business in villages, Ritika Singh and Chandan Bhar, have documented the evolution of the industry in their paper, “The Growth of Microfinance and the Role of DSS in Reducing Its Volatility”, with statistical findings. Also, the usage of technology in terms of reducing the volatility is deeply examined here, shedding more light on the much talked about Decision Support Systems (DSS) of contemporary times. The modernization of infrastructure is, no doubt, a necessary imperative in order to effectively implement the DSS in the microfinance industry.

It is no exaggeration to say that the rise and growth of Indian industry is best reflected by the evolution of the Tata Group. And, Peter Casey’s pioneering attempt to showcase the Tata Group’s evolution as the most fascinating enterprise of modern times in the book, called The Greatest Company in the World?: The Story of Tata, certainly deserves wide applause for making it evident that India is a name to reckon within the business history of modern times. A J Sebastian sdb has reviewed the book, highlighting the Tata Group’s metamorphosis over the years.

-- Radha Mohan Chebolu
Consulting Editor