Vol. 2 No. 1 (2019)

Entrepreneurship in Bhutan is an emerging phenomenon both in terms of research and practice. Entrepreneurship is viewed as an alternative strategy to mitigate the rising youth unemployment problems. Against this backdrop, this research examines the entrepreneurial intent of the undergraduate business students in Bhutan. Perceived support, perceived barrier, attitude towards entrepreneurship and educational programme constitute determinants to examine the variation in the students’ entrepreneurial intent. The participants of the research include the second and the final year undergraduate business students of the Royal University of Bhutan from both the business programmes of Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) (n=300). A proportionate convenience sampling was applied where 30% students from every class were chosen to participate in the research. Self-administered survey questionnaires were used to elicit information. The multiple linear regression analysis has been used to analyse the data which shows that the four predictors explain 42.9% of the variation in the entrepreneurial intent of the students. The attitude towards entrepreneurship is the significant predictor. This research is amongst the initial studies conducted on entrepreneurial intent in the Bhutanese context and brings a newer perspective in the understanding of entrepreneurial intent among the present youth.

India, in the last couple of decades, has witnessed competent growth in the financial service sector. However, several questions have often been raised for majority of impoverished population that is excluded from formal financial system. The exclusion is very high in which one of the surveys shows that 59 percent of the rural household do not have deposit account and 79 percent of the rural households are outside the purview of credit from formal sources. The degree of such vast financial exclusion raise questions towards the Financial Inclusion Policies (FIPs) of the government and demands new mechanism and interventions to address the same. The Self – Help Groups (SHGs) in the recent past have been found as an effective tool to streamline poor with formal financial system. The present study, therefore, is a micro attempt where the current scenario of Financial Inclusion (FI) and the role of SHGs on the promotion of FI in India have been studied. The secondary data from NABARD, RBI, government departments, journals and websites form the sources of the study. The percentages and Linear Growth Rate (LGR) of different financial variables have been calculated to draw proper inferences. The study at the end infers that SHGs play pivotal role in bridging the hiatus between poor and financial institutions. The SHG Bank Linkage (SBLP) programme has been effective for streamlining poor with formal financial system. Over the years, the number of savings and credit linked SHGs have been increased. With the increased number of SHGs, the volume of loan outstanding and savings bank balance have also been increased. Besides, the roadmap prepared by the RBI for providing banking outlets in unbanked villages and preparation and implementation of board approved FIPs have been found significant for FI.

Servant leadership, an exceptional form of leading and interacting with the followers in the process of endogenous and exogenous goal achievement, generally involves ‘I serve’ form rather than the commonly practiced ‘I lead’ form. Conceived in the realm of spiritual and ethical form of influencing, the theory and practice of servant leadership is still in its evolving stage. The converging and diverging interpretations, however, do not dilute the essence of servant leadership. The differing analyses further illuminate the nature of servant leadership. In dissecting the components of this unique form influencing, the key psychological processes are subjected to study in the context of the general parameters of servant leadership.

Literature on the importance of class attendance affirms the positive effect of attendance on student achievement. Royal University of Bhutan has therefore, developed attendance policies that mandate all students to attend at least 90% of the classes in each module. Consequence of the law, every semester many students are directly declared fail in the respective module(s) of attendance shortage which do not actually represent the real learning outcome of the students. Therefore, to evaluate the actual impact of attendance in terms of learning outcomes a correlation analysis is performed using Feb.-June 2015 semester data. Results indicate a statistically significant but weak positive correlation between lecture attendance and exam performance ( , suggesting the requirement to improve class deliveries and course designs. Students are also recommended to develop their personality towards class attendance and learning.

E-Marketing is often considered to be the future of marketing and the other related fields. The last two decades have been crucial for the E-marketing as the world is witnessing the biggest electronic revolution in the era of Information Technology and Computers. Today every organisation strives to mark its presence on the E-world along with the real world through different E-Sources available to it. The ever growing E-commerce is the biggest evidence of the presence of E-marketing in the modern world. This development in the field of marketing is possible because of the E-Infrastructure available in an economy which is the result ofgovernment policies and vision pertaining to the future of the respective nations. Many authors, researchers are of the opinion to develop the E-marketing practices so as to develop the economy as the E-marketing tends to target more number of customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. The present study is an attempt to analyse support platforms available for SBEs in the two neighbouring countries India and Bhutan. The study analyses the various government agencies available in these two nations and their contribution in providing the support platform towards E- marketing in SBEs. The study also compares the practices of the two nations based on the literature and tries to draw a meaningful conclusion and recommendations thereon.

Using a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed scholarly research and policy documents, this paper analyses higher education Internationalisation. Cases from India, China, and the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) are presented. Challenges of standardized quality assurance and ethical intentions of foreign institutions in developing cross-border education agreements emerge from the cases. Furthermore, the cases demonstrate the myriad potential benefits to be gained from international connectivity of universities ranging from improved teaching, learning, and research quality as well as the development and co-creation of best practices. Implications for the Royal University of Bhutan and other similar tertiary education institutions include the necessity of observing and adapting local approaches based in the experiences of other countries’ universities already well-versed and practiced in the beneficial and adverse repercussions of internationalizing and networking institutions of higher learning.