Setting up of Bad Bank – A New Era Begins

During Covid 19 pandemic, Public Sector Banks (PSBs) experience the high and increasing level of gross non performing assets. This is as high as 14 per cent which is matter of concern to all stakeholders. Consequently, these banks to witness high provisioning, low capital base and dismal credit growth. To arrest the trends in stressed assets, existing recovery channels including Insolvency Bankruptcy Code have not produced the desired results. Hence, the Government has recently taken a bold decision to set up a Bad Bank and provide the sovereign guarantee to security receipts issued by the Bad Bank upon purchase of stressed assets from PSBs. The Bad Bank aims at buying stressed assets, restructure them successfully and, thereafter, to sell the same to investors which would facilitate the PSBs to clean their balance sheet and strengthen the capital base. While there is enough business potential for the Bad Bank in the near future, its success will depend on purchase price of assets transferred, expertise in management of distressed assets, business model and presence of a conducive environment to operate. It is hoped that, during the post pandemic, the Bad Bank would prove to be the best option for revival of stressed assets and enable PSBs to lend optimally for productive purposes. Towards this end, before the Bad Bank starts functioning, there is a dire need to create awareness of the same by understanding its background, organization structure, business model and emerging challenges.

Measuring Dependence in a Set of Asset Returns

An index measuring the degree of dependence in a set of asset returns is defined as the ratio of an equivalent number of independent assets to the number of assets. The equivalence is based on either attaining the same optimized value enhancement or spread reduction. The value enhancement is the difference in value of a value maximizing portfolio and the maximum value delivered by the components. The spread reduction is the percentage reduction attained by a spread minimizing portfolio relative to the smallest spread for the components. Asset values or bid and ask prices of portfolios, are modeled by conservative valuation operators from the theory of two price economies. The dependence indices fall with the number of assets in the portfolio and they are explained by a measure of concentration applied to normalized eigenvalues of the correlation matrix along with the average level of correlation, the level of the (Rudin and Morgan, 2006) portfolio diversification index and the number of assets in the portfolio. A time series of the indices constructed on the basis of the S&P 500 index and the nine sector ETF's reveals a collapse during the financial crisis with no recovery until 2016, with a peak in February 2020 and a COVID crash in March of 2020. Furthermore, factor dependence benefits are richer than those found in equity indices. Dependence benefits across global indices are not as strong as dependence benefits across an equal number of domestic assets, but they rise substantially for longer horizons of up to three years.

Introduction

Worldwide, the construction sector is one of the principal consumers of natural resources and presents a significant carbon footprint related to the production and transportation of construction materials, e.g., cement, and aggregates. Due to COVID-19, the construction industry has been negatively impacted considering the lockdown and restrictions by various governments, most of the projects were halted since most of the construction could not get the raw materials in time. Naturally, the aggregate market is affected on a short-term basis, but the market is recovering especially in Asia–Pacific after the relaxation of lockdown in many countries and the global outlook to 2030 indicates that the aggregates production will be driven by three key factors, namely, increase in global population (reaching 8.5billion by 2030), continued economic development and increase in global urbanisation (reaching 60% by 2030). Accordingly, it is estimated that global aggregates production will increase to some 60billion tonnes by 2030. According to O'Brien (2019), the strongest growth will be in Asia, particularly in India, with lower but positive growth in Africa and Latin America. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In Search of Sustainability and Financial Returns: The Case of ESG Energy Funds

The world is facing several challenges, and the problem of sustainable development is one of the most important. It is worth considering that European countries are playing a significant role as pioneers in building a sustainable world, such as those promises made by signing the Paris Agreement and European Taxonomy. To achieve ambitious targets within sustainable development, a huge amount of capital is necessary, while financial and capital market participants are expected to demonstrate a high level of engagement in the domain of sustainability. Facing growing interest and demand, a relatively new product—the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investment fund—was introduced. Scientific literature is providing some controversial views regarding the overall evaluation of this product. Therefore, additional research providing different angles would contribute to a better understanding. This study examines European ESG funds in the energy sector, from the perspective of news flows and investors. It is worth noting that the authors use the word "European” to refer to members of the European Union (EU). The paper consists of the following parts. In the introduction, the current state of this issue is discussed. The following section offers a literature review and a news flow analysis that contributes to a deeper understanding of these issues. A description of the methodology applied for the data analysis follows this, and the final section presents the research results and conclusions. The authors apply statistical analysis and the Carhart model to determine the differences in the performance of the ESG and conventional funds and use their own tool for text analysis to examine the relevance of the topic of ESG to attract client interest. The authors claim that the performance of the European ESG equity funds do not show a statistically significant difference from the non-ESG equity funds in the majority of the periods examined. The application of the adjusted Carhart model demonstrates that the factor of sustainability has a non-significant and negative effect on the fund performance. Finally, the authors highlight the urgent necessity for the unified usage of keywords and terminology, such as "ESG”, "sustainability”, etc., to ensure comparison and attribution possibilities.

Antecedents and consequences of blockchain adoption in supply chains: a systematic literature review

PurposeDespite the availability of several published reviews on the adoption of blockchain (BC) in supply chain (SC), at present, the literature lacks a comprehensive review incorporating the antecedents and consequences of BC adoption. Moreover, the complex adoption of BC in SC, explained with the mediating and moderating relationships, is not fully consolidated. Thus, the aim of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) on BC technology adoption (BCTA) in SC by integrating its antecedents and consequences.Design/methodology/approachKeyword searches were performed in multiple databases resulting 382 articles for evaluation and verification. After careful screening with respect to the purpose of the study and systematic processing of the retrieved articles, a total of 211 peer-reviewed articles were included in this study for review.FindingsVarious technological, organisational, individual, social, environmental, operational and economic factors were found as the antecedents of BCTA in SC. In addition, numerous applications of BC Technology (BCT) were identified, including asset management, identity management, transaction management, data management and operations management. Finally, the consequences of BCTA were categorised as operational, risk management, economic and sustainability outcomes.Practical implicationsThis study can assist relevant decision-makers in managing the factors influencing BCTA and the potential uses of the technology to enhance SC performance.Originality/value By integrating the antecedents, applications and consequences of BCTA in SC, including the mediators and moderators, an integrated framework was developed that can potentially assist researchers to develop theoretical models. Further, the results of this SLR provide future directions for studying BCTA in supply chain management (SCM).

Tennessee Section of ITE-Meaningful Meetings, Meet-Ups, and More!

The Tennessee Section of ITE (TSITE) has strong local Section meetings, which were allowed and encouraged in 2022 as conditions improved from the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person meetings resumed in each of the larger cities: Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Johnson City. Technical sessions at meetings included applications of cutting-edge transportation elements and offered professional development hours (PDHs) for participants. TSITE was able to host all four of its quarterly Section meetings in person. The quarterly meetings rotate across the state and are typically full-day events. They begin in the morning with technical presentations and lunch is provided, followed by the business meeting, additional technical sessions, and/or a technical tour. In 2022, the Summer and Fall Section meetings were 3-day events. In 2022, the quarterly meetings were hosted and well-attended. The Winter Meeting in Cookeville TN at Tennessee Tech University in February had 71 participants. Meeting presentations included "MDOT Traffic Signal Asset Management & Preventative Maintenance," "Campus Like Emergence Evaluation Modeling," "Evaluating factors associated with Abandoned and Disabled Vehicle Incidents in Tennessee," and "MAQ award for deploying an NDOT Traffic Management Center and other emerging projects."

How has COVID-19 affected the performance of green investment funds?

This paper adopts quantile regressions to scrutinize the dynamics of green investment funds in relation to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We use data on three of the largest green investment funds (BNP PARIBAS Funds Climate Impact, Nordea Global Climate & Environment, and AMUNDI Funds Global Ecology ESG), whose proceeds finance environmental-focused projects. We consider explicitly how different types of COVID-19 measures impact on these green assets. We show evidence that economic support due to COVID-19 has a positive effect on the green assets. The effect is especially strong when the returns are negative. We further report that strigency owing to the pandemic is also positively associated with green investment funds, but again, for negative returns. On the other hand, the effect of confirmed deaths is not as strong shows up mainly at lower quantiles. A similar results applies to infectious disease equity market volatility. We account for the broader macroeconomic environment and subject our models to a battery of sub-sample robustness checks. Our research offers interesting insights in terms of investment and portfolio diversification, that can be applied to the analysis of asset management and policy making.

Research on The Index System of Laboratory Assets Digitization

Under the influence of the fifth industrial revolution and the outbreak of COVID-19, the digital transformation of enterprises has entered a new stage of rapid development. Digital transformation has become the trend of enterprise operation in the digital economy era. In this context, enterprise laboratory asset operation has also become an important aspect of enterprise digital operation. It is urgent to build a set of enterprise laboratory asset digital evaluation system to assist the implementation of enterprise digital strategy. Based on the characteristics of laboratory assets and the closed-loop theory of asset operation management, this paper analyzes and studies the laboratory asset management, establishes a targeted evaluation index system of digital asset management, focuses on the composition of the digital operation system of laboratory assets, and constructs a management index evaluation system of assets, efficiency, cost and other dimensions, so as to create a real-time, comprehensive and comprehensive evaluation system The closed-loop and full cycle digital management ecological environment realizes the effective integration of laboratory resource fragmentation information and the complete embodiment of digitization, provides service support for continuously improving asset management performance, and provides support for further improving enterprise economic efficiency and operation level. © 2022 SPIE.

Lessons learned during Covid-19 from engineering asset management of dams

Public and private owners of critical infrastructures all over the world are taking high-quality standards to face the consequences of pandemics, particularly critical infrastructure such as dams that needs more attention to maintain and operate during coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemics. In this study, critical strategies have been identified through literature review and with the support of experts' opinions. The rough Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory and interpretive structural modelling methods were integrated to determine the most important strategies that were identified by literature review and experts' opinions. Moreover, the methodology was used to find the relationships, cause and effect between the critical strategies. Interviews were completed with professional managers and experts in the field of dam operation and maintenance to help in finding the influence degree between these critical strategies. Among 11 initial strategies, six critical strategies were selected for this study from the experts' points of view. By applying Matriced Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement analysis, driving and dependence powers were also determined and classified for these strategies. The outcomes indicate that the strategy of reviewing emergency action plans and planning for how routine and unplanned work will be implemented during pandemic staffing restrictions is the most driving among these strategies in dam asset management in Canada during pandemics. © 2021 ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.

Research on The Index System of Laboratory Assets Digitization

Under the influence of the fifth industrial revolution and the outbreak of COVID-19, the digital transformation of enterprises has entered a new stage of rapid development. Digital transformation has become the trend of enterprise operation in the digital economy era. In this context, enterprise laboratory asset operation has also become an important aspect of enterprise digital operation. It is urgent to build a set of enterprise laboratory asset digital evaluation system to assist the implementation of enterprise digital strategy. Based on the characteristics of laboratory assets and the closed-loop theory of asset operation management, this paper analyzes and studies the laboratory asset management, establishes a targeted evaluation index system of digital asset management, focuses on the composition of the digital operation system of laboratory assets, and constructs a management index evaluation system of assets, efficiency, cost and other dimensions, so as to create a real-time, comprehensive and comprehensive evaluation system The closed-loop and full cycle digital management ecological environment realizes the effective integration of laboratory resource fragmentation information and the complete embodiment of digitization, provides service support for continuously improving asset management performance, and provides support for further improving enterprise economic efficiency and operation level. © 2022 SPIE.

Sovereign public sector property fund: Building a conceptual framework

The public sector is the largest UK landowner and space occupier with local authorities owning and managing the majority of the real estate assets to meet services to the community. As central funding of these services reduce and the knowledge economy is changing the way we live, local governments are looking at more efficient and effective ways of managing their real estate operations and creating investment value to bridge the gap between funding shortfalls and the demand for public services. Several local authorities are now investing in commercial properties as a way to generate long term stable income streams although current practices are highlighting narrow portfolio diversification, management challenges, fee leakage and limited awareness of the knowledge economy on future real estate returns. This research paper examines the issues and provides a conceptual framework for a Sovereign Public Sector Property Fund which can create local level opportunities alongside a stable long term income stream. This can be achieved through a pooling of prime local government real estate assets to offer portfolio diversification with quality management, good governance, local authority appointed steering committee members and exposure to opportunities to benefit from aspects of the knowledge economy. Supported by central government, individual real estate assets in a Sovereign Public Sector Property Fund can provide a local destination with placemaking potential in the post COVID-19 era. Strengthening the connection between people and place, the real estate in the fund can be the catalyst for local employment opportunities and support surrounding communities. This exploratory study covers an important part of the UK economy and offers a valuable insight into creating a new real estate investment vehicle which can elevate the often underutilised prime local authority real estate assets.

A conceptual framework for an agile asset performance management process

Purpose>Disturbances in terms of major crises such as pandemics, fluctuations in demand and oil price, energy consumption and supply chain can significantly impair the maintenance programs effectiveness and efficiency. Hence, there is an urgent need for an agile asset performance management (AAPM) framework.Design/methodology/approach>This paper's main objective is to design a comprehensive framework for an AAPM system that sustains the desired asset performance by reacting efficiently, quickly and intelligently to the changes in the operating context parameters and asset health conditions. Such a framework is adaptive to changes in scenarios and aims to systematise the decision support process, considering different objectives.Findings>The development of the proposed framework has led to identifying an innovative way of seamless integration between crucial reliability and asset management tools. Also, the methodology implementation is expected to promote the practical use of its reliability tools and enable asset stakeholders to break silo working for clear communication around asset performance.Originality/value>The implementation of the AAPM framework follows a new approach developed during this research and coined by the authors as the “8S approach.”

A multi-criteria-based analytical study of the impact of COVID-19 on ELSS fund performance

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of select equity linked savings scheme (ELSS) funds in India for two different time periods namely June 2019 (before COVID-19) and June 2021 (after COVID-19) using risk, return and market perception based criteria. We use a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework of level based weight assessment (LBWA) and measurement of alternatives and ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS). We test the group harmony using Kendall's concordance coefficient. We find that the result is validated and shows stability in the sensitivity analysis. To the best of our knowledge, the present work is the first of its kind that assesses the impact of COVID-19 on asset management companies (AMC) of ELSS funds from multiple perspectives. We observe that AMCs are unable to maintain their performance and ranks which suggests a highly competitive and fragmented nature of India's growing ELSS funds.

The Impact of Asset Management Efficiency on the Financial Leverage and Return on Investment in Small Production Enterprises in View of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Case Study: The Jordanian Ministry of Social Development - Zarqa Governorate

The study aimed to determine the impact of the asset management efficiency of small production enterprises on financial leverage and the return on investment in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Jordanian Ministry of Social Development - Zarqa Governorate was selected as a case study. The descriptive-analytical approach was used to achieve the study objectives. The data related to the study variables were collected from the statements of Social Development Directorates in Zarqa Governorate, as these directorates are the case study of the study population represented by 40 directorates of the Ministry of Social Development in Jordan. The study concluded that there is a statistically significant negative impact of the asset management efficiency on the financial leverage in small production enterprises in the Ministry of Social Development - Zarqa Governorate. Also, there is a statistically significant positive impact of the asset management efficiency on the return on investment in small production enterprises in the Ministry of Social Development in Zarqa Governorate. The study recommended providing training courses for these enterprises’ ownership to empower them to face economic crises, especially in view of global economic crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and increase the ability to reduce financial leverage and raise the return on investment for these enterprises. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

BASIC CYBER DEFENCE EDUCATION FOR EVERYONE

Basic cyber defence has become a mandatory requirement nowadays, for almost everyone. Gone are the days when only computer science nerds and IT specialists where required to know and take care of the security aspects of electronic devices. Especially after the savage war unleashed by the Russian aggressors onto Ukraine, the whole world realized how important is the safety of our online environment. Only after both the Kremlin led aggressors and the civilized world attacked and counter-attacked within the online battlefield, especially and mostly based on different DDoS attack flavors, most people understood how important cyber defence is today. In an era where virtually everything is run/managed/supervised or at least aided by computers linked to the mother-network, the Internet, we rely on the technology being present, available, and working in all aspects of our lives.

Artificial intelligence-based human-centric decision support framework: an application to predictive maintenance in asset management under pandemic environments.

Pandemic events, particularly the current Covid-19 disease, compel organisations to re-formulate their day-to-day operations for achieving various business goals such as cost reduction. Unfortunately, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) making up more than 95% of all businesses is the hardest hit sector. This has urged SMEs to rethink their operations to survive through pandemic events. One key area is the use of new technologies pertaining to digital transformation for optimizing pandemic preparedness and minimizing business disruptions. This is especially true from the perspective of digitizing asset management methodologies in the era of Industry 4.0 under pandemic environments. Incidentally, human-centric approaches have become increasingly important in predictive maintenance through the exploitation of digital tools, especially when the workforce is increasingly interacting with new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things devices for condition monitoring in equipment maintenance services. In this research, we propose an AI-based human-centric decision support framework for predictive maintenance in asset management, which can facilitate prompt and informed decision-making under pandemic environments. For predictive maintenance of complex systems, an enhanced trust-based ensemble model is introduced to undertake imbalanced data issues. A human-in-the-loop mechanism is incorporated to exploit the tacit knowledge elucidated from subject matter experts for providing decision support. Evaluations with both benchmark and real-world databases demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework for addressing imbalanced data issues in predictive maintenance tasks. In the real-world case study, an accuracy rate of 82% is achieved, which indicates the potential of the proposed framework in assisting business sustainability pertaining to asset predictive maintenance under pandemic environments.

Sustainable Assessment in Supply Chain and Infrastructure Management

Assessing sustainability in supply chain and infrastructure management is important for any organization in the competitive business environment or public domain. Public buildings such as higher education institutions are responsible for a substantial portion of energy consumption and anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Roukouni et al. (contribution twelve) developed truck platooning and multi-sided digital platforms games for barge transportation, both improving the sustainability of hinterland transportation. Besides these studies, Özdemir et al. (contribution thirteen) assessed the efficiency of the operations strategy matrix in the healthcare system amid COVID-19.

Field development and asset management

This chapter focuses on the multidisciplinary field development of unconventional shale reservoirs. The chapter begins with the geologic and petrophysical background of shale reservoirs. Next, it covers the history of shale exploration and development trials and events that started with the decline of production from the conventional reservoirs in the mid-1970s and eventually led to the shale gas revolution in the early 2000s. The modern shale gas revolution is chronologically summarized into four main phases from 2003 to the Covid-19 pandemic. The following section compares the asset management and field development of shale plays to conventional reservoirs. The production from shale reservoirs differs from conventional reservoirs primarily due to extremely low permeability and other petrophysical characteristics. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are required to increase the contact area and produce hydrocarbons from ultra-tight pores of shale reservoirs in commercial quantities. Finally, the chapter focuses on reserve reporting and reserve-based lending in shale reservoirs. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Collaboration is the key to innovation

Collaboration is defined as the act of working with someone to produce or create something. When it comes to the water industry, Technology Approval Groups (TAG) are innovation forums that can be found around the world. They were first launched in the United Kingdom in 2005 TAG accelerates the market update of "step-change" technologies by engaging the industry during the pre-commercial stages of development and by leveraging the power of collective leading end-users to collaborate around shared interests and priorities. TAG is a low-risk option for utilities looking to collect information not commonly found at conferences or other public forums. Even though such groups are not new, the concept is new to most New England utilities. The U.S. program comprises more than 75 utilities and is growing exponentially. The author's experience with these forums provides a unique perspective to the region's needs and the key drivers for those needs. Adaptation is the new normal since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. New England utilities are focused on asset management, distribution and collection system maintenance, stormwater, and reservoir management. This paper will describe how the TAG model rooted in collaboration can assist utilities along with water and wastewater professionals throughout the region to think outside the box and learn about qualified solutions becoming available with each passing day. © 2021 New England Water Environment Association. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Optimizing Village Owned Business Entities, Village Assets Management, And Village Government Managerial Performance on Increasing Village Original Income

Purpose: The purpose of this study is effectiveness of village-owned enterprise optimization, village wealth management, and village government performance management on the early increase in village income in Badung Regency. Methodology: This survey was conducted in seven villages in Badung Regency. This study used purposive sampling, by determining the sample with certain criteria, namely the village selected as the sample is a village that has a village-owned business entity and its operational activities are still active. The sample size of this survey was 61 respondents, that is, staff directly involved in the management of households in the village. This study used multiple regression. Findings: Based on the results of the analysis and testing conducted, optimization of the management performance of Village Owned Enterprises (BUMDesa), Village Asset Management and Village Government will have a positive effect on the increase in the village's original income of Badung Regency. Originality/Value: This study aims to determine by testing empirically the effect of optimizing village owned business entites, village assets management, and village government managerial, performance on increasing village original income.