Subrahmanya Kumar N.

Economic growth should be supplemented by an efficient payment and settlement system. Many attempts have been made to improve the efficiency of payment and settlement system in India. Especially the effort has been in terms of promoting digital economy. But the stickiness to payments through currency notes by the people has had a moderating effect on these efforts. The policy shift of Government of India towards demonetization of higher denomination currency notes has given thrust to digital payments. The study hypothesizes that post demonetization, the payment and settlement system indicators would show moderate to high deviation from the volume and value that can be forecasted using the historical data. Using Automatic ARIMA Forecasting in EViews, the forecasted values for the indicators for a period from November 2016 to March 2018 were estimated based on the historical data of the indicators from April 2011 to October 2016. The forecasted values of the indicators are then compared with the actual values of the indicators to see if they differ significantly by using paired t-test. The study finds evidence to suggest that the policy of demonetization and resultant reduced supply of currency notes has provided impetus to the Indian public to move towards digital platforms, and the increased supply of currency notes thereafter has not led to complete reversal of this shift in this change in consumer preference. This leads to the conclusion that through effective policy shifts, consumer preferences can be altered, and the Indian economy could become a less cash economy.

Determinants of dividend policy have been a topic of debate in the academic literature for several decades, but the studies have not been able to give a concluding result on the topic. Existing literature reveals that one of the most challenging decisions, dividend payout, is affected by multiple determinants thereby impacting the value of stock, among which proficatibility, capital structure and level of cash flows are identified to be significant factors. The aim of this study is to evaluate empirically the determinants of dividend payout among the companies in the Indian auto components sector which are listed in major Indian bourses. This paper constitutes a modest attempt to explore the relationship between dividend policy (dividend pay-out ratio) of the companies and the variables representing profitability, capital structure, investments, liquidity and cash flows. The other salient feature of the study is that it examines casual relationship of financial performance, operational efficiencies and investment strategies on decision of paying the dividend. ANOVA, correlation analysis and regression analysis have been used to explore the relationship between the identified variables. The study finds that the dividend policy of the companies in the Indian auto components sector is largely influenced by the operating profit, cash from operations, proportion of cash from operations used for financing the investment activities and the proportion of equity in the capital structure of the companies. The study addresses the Indian auto components sector, which is not researched much, and suggests rejuvenation in dividend policy after accounting a derived variable of cash flow to capital expenditure, as identified relevant to the group of auto manufacturers selected for the study.