A well-developed and efficient banking sector is the fundamental requirement for smooth functioning of any economy. The present study is an attempt to examine the technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies of the Indian banks across different ownership categories for the period 2009–2012. About 7 out of the 44 banks selected lie on the efficiency frontier and form the reference set for their peers. Further, it is observed that efficiency scores do not vary much across the public sector, private sector and foreign banks. Performance of the public sector and private sector banks is almost at par with respect to technical efficiency whereas in the case of foreign banks, there lays scope for improving scale efficiency. A second stage regression analysis is carried out using Tobit regression to examine the determinants of efficiency. Non-interest income emerges the most important determinant of efficiency of banks in India.

Volatility Spillovers and Correlation Between Cryptocurrencies and Asian Equity Market

Cryptocurrencies have emerged as attractive investment options, offering the potential for portfolio diversification and serving as hedging instruments. The primary aim of the study is to explore investment opportunities and strategies of causal linkages between crypto and equity markets, focusing on the world’s largest developed markets within a group of seven countries (G-7), namely Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The causality analysis of G-7 equity markets with the crypto index (CCI30) spread over thirty digital currencies is done using the vector error correction model (VECM), Granger Causality tests, and panel data approaches. The results of VECM have shown a long-term equilibrium between the equity index and crypto index only in France. However, causal linkages have also been found in four other countries, that is, Germany, Japan, the USA and the UK, with varying levels of significance. The panel data analysis has shown that, as a group, the G-7 equity indices have a significant impact on the cryptocurrency index, suggesting promising opportunities for portfolio diversification across these economies.