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The framers of the Indian Constitution have tried to establish a federal system in which there is less of contradictions and more of coordination between the Union and the states. Accordingly, there is a clear division of powers between the States and the Centre in the Constitution. This arrangement has been in operation for more than seventy years. The changing sociopolitical and economic conditions have affected these relations at different phases including the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. The Indian federal structure was put to test during this period. However, during this pandemic period, both conflict and coordination in the Indian federal system have been noticed. In the initial phase of the pandemic, there was a clear conflict between the Centre and the states as the states were almost ignored in policy decisions and their implementation. Unilateral and all-of-a-sudden nationwide lockdown was imposed by the Centre during the first wave of the pandemic, but later on, a more reciprocal relationship evolved regarding the supply of essential medical inputs, advisories, medicines and medical equipments, issues related to migrant workers, etc. The Supreme Court of India had to intervene with stringent observations to regulate these relations for an effective and efficient disposal of various services to counter the pandemic outbreak. Therefore, during the pandemic, in spite of conflicts and challenges, cooperation by and large, prevailed in the Indian federation. The present research article evaluates the nature of the Indian federation, Centre–State relationships, particularly to deal with problems like that of the Covid-19 pandemic along with appropriate remedial measures.

Capital structure plays a vital role in determining the mix of debt and equity in any company, value of shareholders also get maximized with the help of balanced capital structure in which financial performance plays a significant role in determining whether capital structure has an impact on company's performance or not. This paper highlighted the relation of capital structure with financial performance with the help of content analysis of latest five years starting from year 2018 to 2022 using keywords search in database with words highlighting "capital structure" and "financial performance". As many empirical studies have been conducted in this regard but very rare studies are done from the perspective of theoretical framework. With the help of this research paper, systematic literature review (content analysis) is explored between capital structure and financial performance with the help of Scopus database, showing a mixture of results, as some of the variables in some countries are positively related and vice-versa. Some companies show negative relation between capital structure and financial performance and some are representing positive relation with each other. The results of the study also highlighted that more of the studies in capital structure are done in developed countries as compared to developing countries.

Electricity theft has become a matter of trouble for both customers and electricity distribution companies. Due to electricity theft, distribution companies are facing lots of T&D losses every year. Despite of several technical measures adopted, there is no significant reduction in losses due to electricity theft. This fact diverts the attention towards non-technical measures which include formulation and enforcement of stringent rules and regulations. As the policies need to be enforced on electricity customers, therefore, policies should be designed in accordance with the customers' attitude towards electricity theft. Therefore, this work has analyzed their attitude towards role of certain socio-economic factors which strongly impact the practice of electricity theft. This study has surveyed the electricity customers of two distribution companies, UHBVN and DHBVN in State Haryana. The findings of this work may help the electricity distribution companies to chalk out better and more effective plans to put check upon the practice of electricity theft in the society.

Although intentional use of fires to transform land has decreased globally (1, 2), particularly among highly capitalized countries through regulatory and market-oriented approaches and moral suasion, regulatory strategies have been less effective in southern and eastern Asia (see table S21). Some densely populated agricultural regions in China and India buck the global trend, showing increases in agricultural fires (2). This is particularly true in northwestern India, where rice residue burning makes a substantial contribution to air pollution and short-lived climate pollutants (3, 4). Regulations are in place to reduce agricultural fires, but burning continues because of uncertainty regarding policy implementation and regarding access and returns to alternative technologies. With the field burning season soon upon us, we synthesize emerging evidence on alternatives to burning, clarify the business case for alternative practices, identify remaining uncertainties, and discuss approaches to increase their widespread adoption. Often, there are difficult trade-offs between environmental improvement and profitable economic opportunities. The case of crop residue management in northwestern India does not appear to fit this pattern and provides lessons that may be useful elsewhere. Some of the least healthy air in the world is in India (5), where polluted air is the second-highest health risk factor (6). Seasonal smog imposes enormous costs, such as major transportation disruptions and the closure of 4000 schools in Delhi in November 2017 (7). The risks peak during October and November with the burning of rice crop residues in agricultural areas (8, 9). During this period, crop residue burning contributes to major particulate pollution in Delhi and northern India (9–11). Eighty percent of agriculture in northwestern India's Indo-Gangetic plains is based on a rice-wheat cropping system (∼4.1 million ha). Concerns over groundwater withdrawals have led to a planting cycle that allows the rice crop to benefit from monsoon rains. This cycle creates a short period (∼10 to 20 days) to harvest rice, manage rice crop residue, and plant wheat. Many of the 2.5 million farmers in northwestern India prepare for wheat planting by burning an estimated 23 million metric tons of rice residue in their fields (12). India's national government recognizes both the air pollution risks and the crucial role of crop residue burning. Despite federal and state regulations since 2014 and related advisories and bans, directives against burning have been only partially enforced. The reluctance to enforce existing policies arises, in part, from the belief that profitable alternatives to burning crop residue do not exist. Any alternative to crop residue burning must be feasible, affordable, and capable of scaling to adoption by thousands of farmers. Burning could be avoided by changing the overall cropping system (e.g., growing different crops) or by adopting different rice-wheat management practices. The focus to date has been on these latter options, which we include in the scope of this study. After mechanical harvesting of rice, farmers in northwestern India have different options for sowing wheat. All options include some combination of rice residue treatments (mulching by cutting and on-field distribution, baling and removal from the field, incorporation by tilling into the field, and on-field burning), land preparation (no additional preparation, rotavate, disc and tine harrow, and plank), and seeding of wheat (using Happy Seeders, conventional seeders, other zero-till seeders, and rotaseeders). Not all combinations of these options are regularly used in northwestern India, and we focus on 10 combinations that are commonly practiced or are viewed as potentially scalable (fig. S1). The majority of farmers currently choose to burn rice straw, plow fields, and sow wheat using conventional seeders. Given variation in practices, we evaluate the public and private costs and benefits and potential scalability of 10 alternative farming options, three of which result in residue burning.