East Calcutta Girl's College

We propose a novel empirical framework, featuring a triangular causality model, that integrates digital, financial and real-sector linkages in India through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Grounded in the finance-led growth tradition and extending the bank-level digital-liquidity literature to a macro-transmission setting, we introduce and test the liquidity acceleration hypothesis, which posits that digital payment infrastructure may accelerate the transmission of capital-market liquidity to real economic activity. Using monthly data from August 2018 to August 2025, we employ a complementary suite of unit-root tests, the ARDL bounds-testing procedure for cointegration, and the Toda and Yamamoto (1995, Journal of Econometrics, 66, 225-250) augmented Granger causality test, supported by impulse response and forecast error variance decomposition analyses. The results reveal a stable long-run equilibrium among the three sectors and an asymmetric causal architecture in which the stock market acts as the exogenous driver, UPI appears to serve as a real-time conduit and industrial output responds strongly to the stock market and more tentatively to UPI. Financial-market innovations account for a progressively larger share of variance in digital and real activity over the forecast horizon, while remaining almost entirely self-determined. Together, these findings provide initial empirical evidence consistent with the liquidity acceleration hypothesis in the Indian context, positioning UPI not merely as a payments mechanism but also as a potential transmission channel through which financial liquidity appears to reach the real economy, with meaningful implications for India's evolving digital-financial integration.

The article is based on a qualitative study of 60 women entrepreneurs belonging to the urban middle class in Kolkata, undertaken to explore how their demographic characteristics, social values and agency shape their entrepreneurship initiatives. It examines the relative importance of different factors behind the motivations and challenges of middle-class women engaged in business. The findings suggest that the educated middle-class women entrepreneurs are motivated predominantly by aspirations for self-actualisation, but their initiatives are impeded by institutional inadequacies. Although explicit gendered social barriers are relatively less in their case, there exists an undercurrent of gender stereotyping that exaggerates the institutional barriers. It is suggested that policy measures for entrepreneurial development of educated middle-class women should be distinctly different from those designed for low-skilled, poor women with lower levels of education.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a catastrophic phenomenon in aquatic ecosystems globally, occurring in freshwater bodies and sometimes in marine and brackish waters, due to large numbers of cyanobacteria and microalgae, including dinoflagellates. HABs are dangerous and may be fatal to humans and animals due to toxicity and anoxic conditions. They also cause paralytic shellfish poisoning and kill fish in water bodies. Major factors include eutrophication, rising temperatures, stagnant water, and increased sunlight. Promising paths for early intervention are enabled by efficient monitoring and detection techniques, such as molecular biotechnology, artificial intelligence-driven predictive models, and satellite remote sensing. The negative consequences of HABs can be mitigated through sustainable management techniques such as bioremediation, nutrient load reductions, and regulatory measures. Public awareness and community involvement also play a critical role in preventing and mitigating HAB incidents by encouraging ethical farming methods, reducing waste discharge, and bolstering conservation initiatives. In this mini-review, the major causes and mitigation strategies for HABs have been outlined. In addition, modern strategies, policies, and the current status have been discussed.

Water quality plays a crucial role in safeguarding public health and ensuring the availability of water resources. This research assesses the water quality within the Ranibundh CD Block, situated on the western edge of the Khatra Subdivision in the Bankura district of India. The research utilises Water Quality Index (WQI) using various physico-chemical parameters, such as pH, Total Iron (Fe), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Magnesium (Mg), Fluoride, Turbidity, and Total Hardness (TH). Water samples were collected from field sources and the West Bengal Public Health Engineering Department (WBPHED) throughout the pre-monsoon season of 2020, with 65 stations sampled across the study area. A total of 28 significant sites exhibiting the highest physicochemical values were chosen for a comprehensive assessment aimed at evaluating the overall status of water quality. The evaluation process involved classifying the water quality as either safe or unsafe through the application of the traditional weighted arithmetic index and the multi-attribute VIKOR methods. The VIKOR method was adopted as an alternative strategy for analysing water quality. To achieve the study’s primary objective of water quality-based spatial prioritisation, the Voronoi approach was employed, allowing for the delineation of areas influenced by each sample site about contaminants. The final spatial prioritization was based on Gram Panchayat-wise occurrences of safe water status. The results of this study aim to assist planners, managers, and specialists in formulating effective management strategies to ensure a sustainable supply of safe drinking water, thereby enhancing long-term community health and water security.

With the evolving education pattern leading to expanding responsibilities of teaching professionals, it is necessary to strike a balance between their personal and work obligations to achieve better performance. The study attempts to identify the important socio-demographic, institution-related and work-related factors impacting the work life balance (WLB) of teaching professionals and determine the nature and direction of such impact. Data was collected through online questionnaires from 163 faculty members engaged in schools, colleges and universities in Kolkata. Bivariate analysis and ordinal logistic regression results indicate that among socio demographic variables, marital status is an important determinant of WLB. On the other hand, work intrusiveness represented by work load, work flexibility and work communication beyond working hours are the crucial factors.