Trends in Financial Intermediation by the Banking System in Kerala

The study documents the long-term trends in financial intermediation by the principal player in Kerala’s credit system i.e., banking. The process of financial intermediation by the banking system, involving mobilization of deposits from savers and disbursal of credit to investors, is considered to be crucial in the process of economic development. The objective of the study is to explore the interrelationship between financial intermediation and economic growth in Kerala. In order to pursue this objective, the study examine, the trends in intermediation by the banking system in Kerala over a long period, the trend and pattern of bank deposits and credit in the State and Kerala’s economic growth, the trend in the growth and performance of financial intermediaries like the All India Financial Institutions, the links between banking and economic variables, and the difference in the growth trends of banking and economic variables between Kerala and India and the probable reasons for the difference

Structure of marketing channels of selected manufacturing industries in Kerala

The study evolved from the basic premise that the existing distribution structure is not adequate or adaptive to meet the needs of the expanding manufacturing sector and the emerging mass market. The hypothised causes of the problem are the following: marketing channels are not used for strategy differentiation by manufacturers: there are too many intermediaries in the channels; the distributive institutions are not adaptive; and there is very little control over the flow of products through the channels. These assumptions about the causes of the problem have been translated into specific hypotheses and tested with data. Empirical analysis, while supporting some of these hypotheses, challenges certain widely held notions. The ensuing summary presents the important findings, in the sequence in which they are discussed in the study.

Fishery Commodity Chain Trap vis-à-vis Global Quality Standards: An Analysis of the Kerala Marine Fishery

The article examines the commodity chain trap of marine fishery in Kerala, at both material and value terms, and its ramifications in the globalised fishery chains. The marketing chains both material and value, are very complex in nature since they involve many types of markets and large number of intermediaries and participants. The article also scrutinizes the sensitivity of consumers’ and country’s responses in terms of dietary and hygienic standards relating to seafood trade. In addition, it discusses the devastating effect about the recent stipulations like the US Bio- Terrorism Act and Shrimp anti-dumping duty on the Kerala fishery products