Journal Press India^®

This issue of FOCUS brings in considerable diversity in terms of the range of issues being addressed including monetary integration, trade policy issues and the role of Artificial Intelligence in people management in multinational enterprises.

A number of papers in this issue deal with different dimensions of trade policy. The paper by Soumasree Tewari and Rajeev Jain conduct a constant market share analysis to decompose changes in India’s share in global services exports. Their analysis reveals that growth in services exports has been constrained by export market concentration, lack of product augmentation and concentrated export basket. Given the vast potential for India’s services sector to capture the global market, the authors recommend greater diversification of export basket to include non-software sectors as well as greater market diversification of software exports. In the light of rising protectionist trends globally, Umar Kathjoo and Asif Fazili, in their paper, review India’s trade policy and suggest the adoption of a balanced trade policy that will aid in maintaining the regional balance of power and a multi-polarization order in the international arena.

The Review Paper in this issue deals with global agricultural trade. Ankit Rathee and Kuldip Singh Chhikara conduct a bibliometric analysis that gives a comprehensive overview of global agricultural trade literature that aligns with sustainable goals. Their paper maps the intellectual landscape of global agricultural trade, examining publication trends, influential authors, institutions, and countries and their analysis reveals a research gap from 1998-2007, impacting agricultural and related sectors. The paper on ‘An analysis of India-Uzbekistan trade prospects’ by Navjot Kaur observes that Uzbekistan is a  resource rich, strategically located country that provides a wide range of trade and investment opportunities for India. The author suggests that pharmaceuticals, textile, automotive industry, information technology, infrastructure, education and tourism are the main areas where the two countries can collaborate successfully. On a similar note, Vandana Jain and Shivani Dabas, examine the evolving trade between India and USA. Employing import intensity and export intensity indices, the authors conclude that while the two countries possess strong trade relations with each other, a prospective Free Trade Agreement between two nations can be instrumental in enhancing the trade volumes between the two countries.

Apart from trade related dimensions, this issue also includes papers that touch upon other dimensions of international business. The paper on ‘Monetary integration in South Asia: Possibilities and challenges’ by Vishal Sarin and Fulwinder Pal Singh undertakes structural VAR analysis to assess the suitability of a common currency in South Asia. The empirical results show that the countries in the region face different structural shocks and hence the region is not an optimum currency area. This offers interesting insight indicating that monetary integration in South Asia shall not be construed as one having a common currency.

Navneet Gera and Swati Rohatgi analyse the export competitiveness of India in the ‘gems and jewellery’ sector. Employing Revealed Comparative Advantage, Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage and Trade Intensity Index, the authors observe that India needs to strategically respond to the challenges of lightweight jewellery and lab-grown diamonds, dependency on imports, and better trade policies to compete globally.

An interesting paper by Pankaj Kumar examines the potential effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on human resources and people management for multinational enterprises (MNEs). Since AI-driven solutions are changing how MNEs recruit, train, motivate, and retain their global workforce, this paper examines the benefits and drawbacks of the same.

With an interesting amalgam of papers dealing with different aspects of international business, we hope our readers find this issue of FOCUS insightful. Wishing all our authors, reviewers and readers a Happy and Prosperous 2024!

Prof. (Dr.) Niti Bhasin
Editor-in-chief