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This study aims to determine the factors that influence payment Fintech application adoption intention among low-income groups in India.

This study used an expanded technology acceptance model (TAM; covering perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, perceived risk and financial literacy), which was tested using 310 low-income respondents in Northern India. The PLS-SEM approach was used to analyse the data.

The results indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence and financial literacy all has a direct positive relationship with the intention to use Fintech. Furthermore, financial literacy was found to be the moderator in moderating the relationship between social influence and intention to use the Fintech app.

This study ameliorates existing research and deepens the authors’ understanding of users’ intentions to use Fintech among low-income groups. The findings of the study help both policymakers and academicians in designing effective strategies for promoting Fintech usage.

This study examines the factors that determine Fintech application adoption, particularly among low-income individuals. The TAM framework was expanded to include perceived risk and financial literacy as two of the factors influencing Fintech adoption. Furthermore, the moderating role of financial literacy on intention to use Fintech app was considered in this study in the context of a developing country such as India.

The chapter discusses how adolescents are moving beyond the dichotomy of biological and linguistic socialization, forming interpretive meanings at home through the reading of literature in their mother tongue, Bengali. Involving cultural relevance and non-vulnerability, the chapter conceptualizes “leisure activities” and “leisure pursuits” of reading practice of the IXth and Xth graders from both Bengali and English medium schools in Kolkata. The discussion from the theoretical construction mentions the further conceptualization of reading habits and language choice. This is where adolescents derive their agency. Adolescents from the Indian and especially from the Bengali perspective have a path of colonial discourse. From historical standpoint, the change in Bengali language and its grammar structure has influenced the acceptance of Bengali literature among adolescents in varying degrees through generations. Using mixed methods and content analysis, the chapter focuses on young teenagers’ narration on the way they maneuver curriculum and literature in their respective homes. Authors, for example, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Satyajit Ray, and Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, form the Bengali identity construction in the present time. Rabindranath Tagore’s, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s works are always prevalent in the Bengali language syllabus. These are considered the foundational modern literary figures of pre-independent India. These are taught from a nationalist and gender discourse perspective. The adolescents in this chapter also read those at a minimum level at home and attempt to juggle the difficult vocabulary involved. The simple language of post-independent literature is much sought after by teenagers compared to pre-independent literature. Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Kakababu series, Satyajit Ray’s Feluda and Professor Shanku series, and Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s Chander Pahar stand out among the adolescents from both English and Bengali medium unanimously in this chapter.

A “state-driven” approach suggests that colonists use census categories to rule. However, a “society-driven” approach suggests that this state-driven perspective confers too much power upon states. A third approach views census-taking and official categorization as a product of state–society interaction that depends upon: (a) the population's lay categories, (b) information intellectuals' ability to take up and transform these lay categories, and (c) the balance of power between social and state actors. We evaluate the above positions by analyzing official records, key texts, travelogues, and statistical memoirs from three key periods in India: Indus Valley civilization through classical Gupta rule (ca. 3300 BCE–700 CE), the “medieval” period (ca. 700–1700 CE), and East India Company (EIC) rule (1757–1857 CE), using historical narrative. We show that information gathering early in the first period was society driven; however, over time, a strong interactive pattern emerged. Scribes (information intellectuals) increased their social status and power (thus, shifting the balance of power) by drawing on caste categories (lay categories) and incorporating them into official information gathering. This intensification of interactive information gathering allowed the Mughals, the EIC, and finally British direct rule officials to collect large quantities of information. Our evidence thus suggests that the intensification of state–society interactions over time laid the groundwork for the success of the direct rule British censuses. It also suggests that any transformative effect of these censuses lay in this interactive pattern, not in the strength of the British colonial state.

This paper aims to identify the dimensions of the political empowerment of Indian women and assess the factors responsible for the lacunas that hold women back in their potential.

The research was based on primary data collected through a personal interview method from a sample of 68 women managers working in five different sectors of the Indian economy, namely; IT, education, telecom, banking, and hospitality sector. Further, data on the five factors from a sample of 423 women employees from the above-mentioned sectors have been collected and analyzed using a multiple regression model with control variables (marital status and generation gap).

The major factors churned out that are needed for the political empowerment of women are namely, information or awareness, family support or family environment, legal environment, political environment, and personal ambitions or internal motivation.

The present study has presented new insight into the field of women and politics by providing a case study into the dimensions of political empowerment among Indian women. The pilot model developed in this study can be initiated and replicated across the land on being successful.

Women’s economic empowerment through entrepreneurship is increasingly being recognised as significant to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, women entrepreneurship in developing countries is characterised by an overrepresentation in the informal economy and exposure to high levels of gender disparities. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether formalisation of women’s entrepreneurial activities in the informal economy supports SDGs through ensuring empowerment and equality.

The research adopts a qualitative research design to explore the empowerment outcomes of the formalisation of women’s entrepreneurial activities in the informal economy of Kathmandu, Nepal. Data were collected through interviews with 30 women entrepreneurs engaged in a mix of formal and informal entrepreneurial activities.

By using Mayoux’s (1998) framework of empowerment at the individual, household and community level, the findings show the variation in empowerment outcomes as a result of women’s diverse motivations for engaging in entrepreneurship. Whilst informal entrepreneurial activities improve women’s confidence and life aspirations, they have limited potential in lifting women out of poverty and enable them to significantly challenge gender relations in the society. Formalization does further empower women at the household and community level but this is primarily the case of younger and more educated women.

The research contributes to the debates on entrepreneurship as “emancipation” and more specifically, on whether formalization contributes to the SDGs by furthering gender equality and empowerment. Formalization policies need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of women entrepreneurs.